Ooops!

I promised back in May, Gentle Reader, that I'd let you know how I got on with some of my early finding-writing-jobs ideas,and then omitted to do so (that should probably be 'so to do'.) My 3 schemes back then were:
1. submitting unsolicited articles to magazines
2. proofreading college dissertations
3. starting a personal blog

#1 unsolicited articles
Well, I wrote a blinder on the medieval history of my local town and sent it to the editor of my local rag. (I'd pitched it to them as an idea, and received no response, so decided to write the article to make life easier for them.) After two weeks, still no response, so I sent a polite email asking if they'd received it. Still no reply. I re-sent it a week later and eventually received the curt reply from the Editor, "You've sent this several times now. Please stop sending it." I replied, still politely, that a courteous "Thanks, but no thanks" would have done nicely. I know editors are busy people, but surely a standard "No Thanks" email would cost them little effort and be better PR?

So that, in my admittedly limited experience, is what you get from submitting unsolicited articles. I had, however, made a simple mistake: whilst my material was locally relevant to the paper, my style was not. My preferred writing style is humorous/surreal, and, now I come to think of it, I've never in 20 years read anything remotely humorous in my local paper. Pearls before swine? Luckily, I'm not bitter, and recycled the article on one of my paid blogs.

#2 proofreading college dissertations
Since receiving this tip for occasional writing work, I've discovered that this is actually an INDUSTRY. Foreign students, of limited academic ability, and often of limited English skills, are routinely admitted on degree and post-grad courses for the extra money they contribute to university coffers. There are websites offering to WRITE their degree assignments in return for filthy lucre. Rather than contribute to this travesty of academia, I've commented on it in another paid blog. This may sound prim of me, but I haven't sunk that low. Yet.

#3. personal blogs
I'm told there are X zillion new personal blogs started every day, and that those bloggers you hear about who have given up the day job started in 1997. So far, this blog has earnt me just $0.41 in advertising revenue, so the yacht will have to wait...