Some of my regular readers may know that on top of my day job, I am a freelance writer.
Applying for freelancing jobs, especially for content and article writing, is essentially the same process as any standard job hunt. You submit all of the necessary information and hope that the publication will accept your work, or at least the possibility of your work.
Like any job hunt, it is a proven fact that one will not get a response about most of the jobs that they apply for. I’ve been in the job market long enough to understand that when I apply for jobs, I will only receive a response back on a handful of them. The same goes for freelancing. At best, I may get a form letter, thanking me for my submission and advising of the potential time it will take for the publication to get back to me. At worst, I get radio silence, which I really, really dislike.
Recently, I submitted two pieces to two different publications. Both have published my work in the past. One of the publications immediately got back to me saying that they were publishing the story I submitted. The other publication initially requested changes. I did so and submitted the updated document as requested. Between both publications, I had to contact them four times before receiving confirmation there is a tentative ETA for both stories being published.
I get it, I really do. They have an editorial calendar and multiple writers whose stories they will be publishing. It’s a process to put together a daily or weekly publication.
I just wish some publishers would be more consistent when it comes to communication with their writers. I would rather a hard no right away, than wonder for weeks or months on end if a) they got my story and b) if they will actually be publishing my work.
I just wonder if it would be too much to ask for some more consistent communication between some publications and their writers.
Writergurlny 