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ASJA
ASJA’s Client Connections team is pulling together the biggest Virtual Client Connections in history. Tele-Connections will feature many of the editors, agents and publishers who would have been at the NYC Client Connections. They will meet with members by phone on Monday, April 20, and Tuesday, April 21, in the afternoons. This is a professional member-only benefit with a fee of $65. Registration is happening now through 9 p.m. Eastern time, tomorrow, April 8. Register now! AND see the client list here.
ASJA
As a colleague wrote recently, “the days have become slippery.” Days and nights flow into one another and time as a whole has taken on a new dimension. So, too, have news and information. It’s hard sometimes to know what to believe, whom to trust. We thought our readers may need a way to make sense of the new regulations about our work and how we might find financial relief through some of them. (I don’t know about you, but I have several formerly responsive clients who are now a memory.) Below are a few links to help you get started. Email me with other pertinent links or updated information at brenda@brendalange.com. Thanks!
The ASJA, The Freelancers Union, and the National Writers Union have published articles about the CARES Act Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and what it means for freelancers.
A list of resources prepared by The Authors Guild may be helpful. It includes emergency funding for writers and others in the arts.
The Fund for Investigative Journalism has announced a rolling grant to “U.S.-based freelance investigative journalists working on stories on the coronavirus that break new ground and expose wrongdoing in the public or private sector.”
Authors Publish also has posted a list of emergency funds for writers.
ASJA
We want to know how ASJA members are coping with the COVID-19 crisis. Have you changed your business model? If so, how? Have you been impacted by social distancing and/or quarantines? Have your responsibilities of home and family changed? Are you dealing with more stress?
Your ideas may help your colleagues. Please share your thoughts (100 words or more) with ASJA Magazine Editor Stephanie Vozza by Friday, April 10. We're all in this together.
ASJA
It is normal in this totally abnormal time to at least sometimes feel like an emotional basket case. Every aspect of our lives feels upended from anxiety over our health and those of our loved ones to economic duress (worse than usual for freelancers!) to the limbo of not having an end date to this crisis. Join ASJA member, author and therapist, Sherry Amatenstein, to share feelings, learn strategies and essential do’s and don’ts to help you weather this crisis. Members only! Friday, April 10, 10 a.m. Eastern time. Watch your inbox for Zoom details.
In subsequent weeks, we’ll host two additional member-only webinars to offer advice on how to weather the pandemic as content writers and as journalists.
ASJA
Do you want to participate in specialized focus groups on the forums about pitching new outlets, SEO, environmental writing, book proposals, and speaking to promote your brand? Get ready! Registration for SIGs (special interest groups) opens on April 14. Remember, groups are limited to 12 participants, so don't delay signing up! For more information about this session's SIGs (and to register on April 14), head to the SIG page on the ASJA website. If you have any questions, contact Jennifer Billock.
ASJA
ASJA's Writer's Emergency Assistance Fund is a lifeline for freelance writers who are facing financial difficulties because of illness, injury or act of nature. We are already receiving a growing number of applications because of the coronavirus pandemic, and we're seeking a new member for our WEAF application review team. Are you interested in helping out?
Responsibilities include evaluating applications based on set guidelines and, with others on the team, recommending applicants for grant funding. For the time being, we expect to review applications about once a week. Please email Laura Laing with your questions and to express interest. Thank you!
ASJA
Shop on Amazon? ASJA members, family and friends now have an easy way to donate to ASJA Charitable Trust! Next time you’re ready to shop on Amazon, start your shopping session at the URL http://smile.amazon.com. Select American Society of Journalists and Authors Charitable Trust as your charity, and Amazon will donate 0.5% of the price of your eligible purchases! Ready to start shopping? Click here to default ASJACT as your charity of choice!
Publisher's Weekly and Writer Beware
In launching its "National Emergency Library," the Internet Archive (IA) has made available approximately 1.4 million scans of books in its "Open Library" program during the coronavirus pandemic. Without permission from publishers or authors, these books can be accessed by readers for free, which critics say is a copyright violation.
A recent Writer Beware post details the history of IA and its current problematic decision. It also outlines steps authors can take to remove their books from the IA library.
Adelphi University
Looking to add a more meaningful and personal dimension to your profession? Interested in a career change? Then consider developing a career as a psychotherapist!
Adelphi University’s License Qualifying Program in Psychoanalysis is specifically geared towards non-mental health professionals interested in entering the mental health field as psychoanalytic psychotherapists. Since the program is license qualifying, it allows you to add a deeper dimension of understanding of the human mind to your current career, and also gives you the opportunity to practice psychotherapy as a side job or full-time.
The program is part-time and designed for working professionals who have earned a master’s or other advanced degree in a non-mental health field. If you are interested in learning more please click here!
Folio Magazine
As the fallout from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic forces publishers to reevaluate their economic outlooks and, in many cases, restrict their budgets, freelance journalists across the country are suffering from lost commissions, reduced rates and delayed payments, often without financial safety nets of their own.
To help support this community, we’ve assembled a directory of grants and other free resources aimed at helping journalists navigate and cover the crisis.
READ MORE
The Writer
I once read an online article that caused quite a stir on the internet. It said that baking a beautiful birthday cake for someone, far from being kind, is actually an act of self-centeredness, a veiled attempt to draw attention away from the birthday celebrant and onto the baker. It suggested giving only ugly cakes as a way to avoid turning the focus on oneself.
READ MORE
Daily Hive
We’re living in a world right now with no clear future, not only in our social lives, but in our job security.
For freelance photographers, writers and graphic designers, though, living project to project is part of everyday life. If there’s one profession that is all about volatility, it’s theirs.
In times like these, perhaps there’s something to learn from a group that embraces, or some would even say feeds off the thrill of, the uncertain.
READ MORE
Writer's Digest
We’ve all experienced burnout, that fried-brain feel. It can come from many different catalysts: Being overworked and underslept. Depression. Self-doubt. Imposter syndrome. Even a run-of-the-mill straight of bad days.
Though the symptoms and consequences of burnout can be dire, in our productivity-obsessed society, we often loathe burnout more for keeping us from getting from A to B than for how it’s impacting us physically or mentally.
READ MORE
Forbes
In past recessions, freelancers, self-employed professionals and others in one-person businesses were pretty much on their own when it came to economic survival.
This time around, there is some help available for independent workers under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, which President Donald Trump signed into law. Even if cash is flowing to your business now, it’s a good idea to check out these programs, in the event clients are not able to pay you later.
READ MORE
The American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA) does not endorse any company, product, or service sold by any corporation, institution or member supporting our organization. Corporate partnerships, advertisers and sponsors are not an endorsement of a product or service and may not be represented as such, in any way. The use of the ASJA name and/or logo, or representation of such, without the written consent of ASJA, is strictly prohibited.
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