Hi Suzanne:I just wanted to drop you a line for the sake of less-experienced writers to say that they should be extremely cautious when answering a help-wanted ad such as the one titled “Writers for Major Manhattan Magazine.”
Were this really a “Major Manhattan Magazine” they could just tell you their name and you’d recognize it.
I bought a lottery ticket this morning, but am I a “Major Lottery Winner”?
The reason this point is important is that whoever placed this ad . . . giving them the benefit of the doubt that they are honest . . . at the very best does not have a realistic perspective on the enterprise into which they are entering.
It’s to be presumed that they’ll have the same risible attitude towards writers. They don’t really know what they’re doing, and who knows if they even have the $25 - $100 per article to pay people for their contributions to this major magazine? If anybody does collect $25 from them, though, I can recommend a place that makes a good chopped liver sandwich on which they can spend that major bounty.
Here’s the bottom line; nobody should send samples anywhere to anybody without first knowing to whom they are being sent. The people behind this “Major Manhattan Magazine” for example could actually have some NYC travel website, which would be one among thousands, they could excerpt materials submitted and publish then online and writers would most likely never know about it still less get paid for it. The correct response to such an ad, if one is interested at all, is to say something like “Kindly let me know the name of your publication and the URL of your website if it is active at this point. Please also send me a copy of your standard contract for freelance writers. Writing samples will follow upon your response.”
If people won’t give a satisfactory answer to such an inquiry then their intention was to cheat people. It’s that simple.
Many thanks,
Scott
http://www.freelancedaily.net - Freelance Writing Jobs
