An honest and amusing assessment of working as a freelance journalist, from US-based writer Richard Morgan, who looks at the problems of pitching, protecting your ideas and dealing with editors.

He (half-) jokes: “Freelancing means your editor will reject your pitch and then, seven months later, run the story you pitched – with the same language as your pitch – and then have it submitted for a National Magazine Award.”

But on a more serious note:

Freelancing isn’t just about finding good stories. It is also – more so? – about finding good editors. I have solid relationships with four, which, over a seven-year span, works out to encountering one good editor for every 21 months. Maybe I sound as silly and vain and vacuous as Jessica Simpson talking about her very real struggle with acne and how Pro-Activ Solution helped her, but journalism is built upon the values of truth and transparency and intellectual service and candour – of sunshine being the best disinfectant.

Full post on The Awl at this link…