To make a living as a writer and photographer would be awesome, as long as I could count on a certain amount of regular income. That’s the thing that makes freelancing a risky thing. You have to keep at it and hope you can make enough to get by. One month might pay off big but then you can go hungry for the next few months, at least until you get established. Writing requires time and energy but photography has the added cost of traveling and film (or in the digital case, keeping up with technology), plus time spent organizing, editing and labeling photos. For all the time and money I spend on photography and sometimes writing there is actually very little return. That’s why I have a steady day job and do the extra stuff for fun mostly.
This week, however, good news has come in threes. Yesterday I received email notice that some photographs of mine that had been selected for calendars have been published and the calendars are being couriered to me. That means the pay for those photos will be coming soon.
Then today I got a reply from a photo magazine saying that they would be very interested in using an idea I pitched to them for an article. Most of the time I send articles on spec and I have to wait sometimes as long as two years only to have the submission returned unpublished. This magazine is great for correspondence and have never failed to reply to an email inquiry by the next day. So I am pleased that it seems it will be worth it to prepare the submission and send it to Canada.
Finally, the big news. In February I sent a proposal for a column to a weekly English newspaper. I received no reply and was thinking to try another paper later on in the New Year of 2008. Today I finally got an email reply saying they were interested in my idea for the column and liked the three samples I sent them. If this goes ahead, I will be writing a short weekly column about my mountaineering experiences in Japan. I have already prepared 52 topics and have typed around 20 of the ideas. I will actually be paid for writing as opposed to being paid as a photographer or photographer/writer.
Well, I never like to count my chickens until they’ve hatched because I have received notices in the past that my work was selected and later notified that the magazine was going out of print and my photos were returned or that the book project was canceled and my photos were returned. The exciting part is that there are people who say they like my work and they want to use it. Yes, I am pleased today.
