Off the Wire: News for the Canadian media freelancer Oct 30-Nov 5

Once a week, we gather stories about the media business, journalism, writing, communications, and freelancing—with a Canadian focus—and share them in Off the Wire. Who needs a water cooler?

From Canada:

• Make Your Non-Fiction Book a Reality [PWAC Toronto]
• Categories Announced for the 42nd National Magazine Awards [Magazine Awards]
• Journalism While Brown and When to Walk Away [Medium]

From The U.S. and beyond:

• 4 corporate practices that can benefit freelancers, too [The Freelancer]
• Freelancers' rights come of age as gig economy booms [Techcrunch]
• Be contract smart: 13 copyright terms to know [Freelance Writing Jobs]
• Keep your money in your pocket: Budgeting for freelancers [Freelancers Union]
• Common mistakes journalists make when submitting pitches [IJNet]
• What is lost when contracts bar freelancers from discussing pay? [CJR]
• Report: These 14 countries allow journalists to be killed with impunity [Poynter]

Recently on Story Board:

• Always be closing: How to keep marketing even when busy with projects: It’s tempting, when you have client work, to forget all about marketing and simply bury yourself in the writing. But that is a costly mistake that triggers the freelancer’s curse of feast or famine...
• CMG launches salary survey for factual TV workers: Modelled on a similar survey launched earlier this year in the U.S., the CMG’s survey invites people who work in production, post-production, and operations and administration in the factual TV industry to anonymously share details about their salaries...

Spot a story you think we should include in next week's Off the Wire? Email the link to editor@thestoryboard.ca or tweet us at @storyboard_ca.