Last week I had an editor on the verge of accepting a pitch, but she asked for a PDF of a previously published article. The article I wanted to sent her was perfect- except that it was a bad copy. I had scanned it, but I didn't want to cut it out of the magazine, as it was the only copy I had. So, it scanned badly, as the thickness of the magazine let the light in. I couldn't send that messy PDF to an editor!
Generally, this isn't a problem because most magazines seem to provide 2 courtesy copies. I can cut up one and file away the other. But when a magazine sends only one copy, I'm kind of at a loss. I have a physcial portfolio, a website with links, and a folder of PDFs on my hard drive. Here's how I use them:
- Physical portfolio: shown to local clients
- Website: hopefully browsed by potential clients, it has links to stories that make it online, but no PDFs, as I assume that would be a copyright violation against the magazine. I can't just scan my articles out of a magazine and put them online. I do ask some editors/publishers for permission, but not the bigger magazines.
- PDFs on my hard drive. These are emailed to editors. Now, I don't display these, because, as I said above, they are scans of the actual physical magazine, but I'm not even sure that scanning and emailing them is really a good practice, due to copyright issues.
A little help here? Perhaps someone who has been in magazines a lot longer than I have can clue us into some tips in portfolio management?
Allena, I work for a printer / publisher and I notice that every page that gets ‘printed’ in a magazine starts out as a finished digital image of that page, before the plates are made for the printing press.
Is there any way that you can obtain – the ‘pre-plateroom’ composition image files for the page(s) of your article? I am positive they must archive these images.
I suggest that you approach your contact person at the magazine and ask for extra copies or buy extra copies of the whole magazine and cut your article out.
Tim- I just hate to bother the editors. Sometimes I can barely get their attention as it is…. They seem so busy.
Charles, I do tend to do that if I only get on copy… Well, though, sometimes I write for regionals that are not in MY region, so they are a little harder to track down. Circulation gets confused when I call and want to buy just one copy…
If it’s a magazine that then tends to call me back, and uses me often, then I subscribe to it too, just to make sure I get extras.
This is such a bugaboo for me. So many of my favorite clips are on newsprint…newsprint is terrible for scanning and copying. Plus, so many of my clips are written in these long columns that even trying to just cut them out and put them on a scannable piece of paper…ack. Let’s just not speak of it. The people at my nearby Kinko’s may not want to ever think about it again, either.
I’ve written for a few print publications that also archive their publications online. Would it be appropriate to use that online link to my story instead of a copied PDF clip?
I am a HUGE fan of Peter Bowerman … a very successful freelance copywriter.
Here is how Peter treats copy samples on his website: http://www.writeinc.biz/WriteIncPortfolio.htm
I am in the process of building my site based on his portfolio. It’s great!
Also, I highly recommend his book, “The Well-Fed Writer”. The second updated version of this just came out in July. Packed with great information for us writers.
Hope this helps!
Best to all -
Stephen
I’m so glad you posted this question.
Before launching my website, I went around and around this whole portfolio issue. I hate to have users navigate to a PDF, so my Web developer suggested what I think is a great “pop-up” kind of new window that’s easily closed after viewing while keeping the website “up” at the same time.
Sorry for straying… back to your question, some of my editors send me PDF’s of my work as it appears in print. How nice! It saves me lots of anguish AND it gives me permission to share in the original context (no copyright infringements there). Maybe some of your editors will do the same for you?
You might also consider simply recreating the text in a new document and saving it as a jpeg or PDF. It’s not the greatest alternative, I’ll grant you, but it helps avoid scanning a bad copy or a newsprint piece. Having said that, an editor might understand that newsprint pieces just look bad in the first place when they’re scanned and not really care. It’s your work they want to see.
About copyright issues…aren’t we covered by “fair use” if we’re showing samples as work samples and citing the original publisher/source?
What about pulling the article up online (if possible) and saving the printable version into a Word doc. It doesn’t look as pretty or show the layout but the text is all there and isn’t that what editors really care about? I’ve been wondering about this exact question myself and would love to hear an editor respond to it.
Also, what do you do if the editor you wrote the story for butchered it and you want to use a clip of your original work? Is it ever acceptable to send your own Word doc that you submitted to the offending editor?
And, while we’re on the subject (sort of), is it ever acceptable to send a clip of a story that hasn’t been published yet (but will be published before the prospective editor might have a chance to steal the idea)?