Comments on: A Freelance Writing Jobs Reminder: You Own Your Samples

By: zack kushner

zack kushner — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 00:21:06 +0000

My policy is not to write sample material. I have samples on my website for that purpose.

I’m also not certain, but saying in an email auto-response that anything emailed automatically assigns copyright is probably a bunch of hooey that wouldn’t stand up in court. Now, taking someone to court is probably not going to happen, but still.

For example, if I write here that anyone who posts after me automatically assigns me copyright to their posts, does that make it so? No. An email footer is not a contract. Not that I’d bother emailing such jerks anyway.

By: Shell

Shell — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 17:47:13 +0000

I applied for something the other day too and received an automated response with specific guidelines and an attached sample to follow. There was no attached sample and the email stated they could only get back to those who sent in their own samples of work.

By: Nish

Nish — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 16:40:16 +0000

That rings a lot of bells, Jeremy! I applied to a certain site the other day. They asked me to look up their news section and write a sample for them from a given list of topics!I did, and got an email from them that very day saying I’d been accepted as a writer, but I will need to wait a few weeks before they can get me a new contract.

The next day I was going through their news section when I came across a new article with a similar heading posted in the name of some other author.I should say, it bore too much resemblance to my sample to shrug it off as a mere coincidence!Someone somewhere had earned a good dollar or two that day!

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Mon, 17 Nov 2008 09:09:32 +0000

[...] A Freelance Writing Jobs Reminder: You Own Your Own Samples [...]

By: Aurora

Aurora — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 14:31:07 +0000

Can you imaging hiring a contractor to build you a new deck — and telling them they needed to build a piece of it for free before they would be considered for the contract. Not a chance. I believe that samples of your previous published work should be enough for any job application.

I think ‘threatening’ copyscape and so on makes for a really bad way to start a relationship. Of course people get burned by plagiarism, and unethical writers are certainly available by the dozens.

Why would you want to bring past negative experience forward and use it as a basis on which to start a new potential working relationship?

I do expect that a client will check my references, use Copyscape and similar services after receiving a submission to ensure it is original work, but having a potential client tell me “I will check your work for plagiarism” is extremely insulting.

On the other hand, when a client expresses that they are only looking for original (or first-rights) content, I’m all for it. It really suggests the same thing, but personally, I’m all about adding positive relationships and workflow to my day. A million times over, a better relationship is formed when it starts on a positive declaration as opposed to an insulting warning.

By: Kristen

Kristen — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 23:16:21 +0000

re: plagiarism
One of my former editor-in-chiefs who retired and became a freelance writer submitted plagiarized materials to me (I stumbled onto the plagiarism through fact checking). He was an editor for 30+ years and my mentor!! I was so stunned. From then on, I constantly checked writers’ work and, unfortunately have found that plagiarism is rampant. (And is seen as much from seasoned writing professionals as from first-time writers!) Whenever I hire a new writer, I automatically tell them that I check for plagiarism. If needed, I review what plagiarism is (some doctors who have written for me really didn’t understand what it was.) I feel like it gets it out there, and is over with.
So if a client mentions plagiarism, I don’t get ruffled because I have been there. And have been burned.

By: mel

mel — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 20:00:58 +0000

I agree with Laurie about plagiarism. I was the managing editor for a well-known, print encyclopedia last year. We had professional writers and professors literally copy and pasting from online sources and press releases. One went so far as to plagiarize from Wikipedia.

The compensation these writers received, was not extraordinary, in fact they receive an honorarium, but was a fair amount. I figured if you don’t like the price, you should never have agreed to the work and turn in half-a@$ content.

By: Valencia

Valencia — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 19:33:46 +0000

I don’t know if this is some new trend, but in the past couple of weeks, I’ve stumbled on maybe three or four job postings that have requested original samples, and then stated how articles would be checked using copyscape to confirm originality. I applied to one job and I’ve been communicating with the editor, so it looks promising. But in this situation, I didn’t follow directions. Rather, I included a link to a published sample and I respectfully explained the reason in my cover letter.

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 18:58:02 +0000

I’ve been seeing more and more of these – places that ask, not just for clips, but for a specially-written test piece just for them (or two pieces, or three!).

I’m pretty much steering clear of them at this point. Even if they’re not ripping you off by taking the clips and using ‘em, they’re ripping off my time.

You also see sites now that are hiring folks to do rewriting – they give you existing pieces and you rewrite ‘em to make them just different enough to avoid plagiarism charges, and for this you get $1 or $2 an article…

Now, whenever I’m asked to submit a free sample, I can’t help but wonder if it’s going to go straight over to the rewrite-mill, where some guy in Bengal will change my words around just enough that I can’t cry foul.

So yeah, avoid freebies. Life is too short.

By: Pamela

Pamela — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 14:06:23 +0000

I feel like a dinosaur. I have been a professional copywriter for twenty years and still hanging in there but I had not heard of Copyscape, so I will look it up immediately. I want to thank freelance writing gigs for providing me with several great jobs over the past fews years. The client I have been working with since June is a dream and will debut her new website in January. As far as this pet site or scam, how would a writer know if his or her article is used with compensation?

Another poster I would like to ask about is Bellezza Magazine. I submitted two articles to them months ago, sent a follow up email and recieved a response that they were still considering articles. The have a website, but does not seem to be active. Any other writers submit with similar problem?