Upcoming and Recent Events

My non-fiction / true crime books

Contract with the Cameron Creswell Agency

I am thrilled to have recently signed a contract with the Cameron Creswell Agency for my two true crime books. These books, one about the Tegan Lane coronial inquiry in Sydney in 2005 and the other a murder in South Australia, have been in the pipeline for a couple of years now. With the help of my agent Sophie Hamley and an old editor of mine from the Australian Financial Review, Alan Stokes, I feel I am on my way to a publishing deal.

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2009 Good Editor Award

And the winner is....

The 2009 Good Editor Award winner is Roger Fox, gardening editor, Better Homes and Gardens Magazine. Comments from freelancers about Roger include:
"I've never worked for a more professional, decent person. His values are not praised often enough."

The runners up are:
Rebecca Spicer - Empower Magazine
Susan Prior - editor of www.onlineopinion.com.au
Fiona McGill - section editor at the Sydney Morning Herald

The short list of runner ups and our winner was drawn from an excellent field of thirteen nominees. Next year the Sydney Freelance Journalists Group committee will introduce an online poll so that freelancers can both nominate and vote for their favorite editors, as well as a second award for corporate editors (publications and programs that are in-house or exist to distribute information about a company or organisation).

Thank you to Fran Molloy, Jan Forrester, Christine Fogg, Emily Chantiri and Liz Swantson for all of their work and advice in organising this award. You guys are terrific.

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Speaker Night - June 2009

'The future of Australian freelance journalism'

The Sydney Freelance Journalists Group held its second speaker evening for 2009 on 29 June at the Forresters Hotel in Surry Hills. Three fantastic speakers - Steve Ahern OAM, Claire O'Rourke and Rachel Hills - addressed the theme of 'The future of Australian freelance journalism'.

With massive numbers of recently redundant full time journalists now on the market, the future of freelance journalism is up in the air. As newspapers struggle to keep the presses going and free to air TV fights to hold onto its audience, is our media going to be consumed by cheap, fluffy celebrity 'news' or are we in the mist of a monumental shift where good journalism will survive even if the current big media businesses don't?

All three of our speakers see online as the medium that will be left standing. Both here and overseas major media players are leveraging increased confidence by mainstream audiences in the authority of online news sites into models were people pay for content rather than expecting everything to be free. Enterprising journalists are using social networks such as facebook and Twitter to both gather and disseminate news. This has lead to freelance success for journalists who promote themselves and their stories via online social networks while receiving payment for their work from traditional newspapers / magazines / tv / radio stations.

The future is both exciting and terrifying!

Bios of our 29 June speakers

Steve Ahern OAM Steve is a broadcaster, author, trainer and media commentator whose speciality is radio. He has held senior management positions at AFTRS and ABC Radio. He is also the founding editor of the radio industry website www.radioinfo.com.au . One of his books is the text book Making Radio, published by Allen & Unwin. This year he was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia for his services to radio broadcasting.

Claire O'Rourke Claire is a former Fairfax journalist and now the Lead Organiser, print and online media, for the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance. A former dabbler in life as a freelance journalist, Claire has been involved in the Alliance�s Future of Journalism Project, (www.thefutureofjournalism.org.au) which this year will conduct a number of new initiatives designed to develop journalists� skills, promote innovation and uphold the values of our craft.

Rachel Hills Rachel is a freelance writer, editor, blogger and public speaker. Her thoughts on gender, politics, media and technology have been published in the SMH, The Age, The Australian, The Monthly, The Walkley Magazine, Cleo, Girlfriend, Russh and more. Rachel is currently embarking on the long slog of her first book, on sex, social status and identity. She currently works at ninemsn, having freelanced full time from 2005 - 07. You can find her online at www.rachelhills.net or at rachelhills.tumblr.com .

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Speaker Night - March 2009

"Inspirational Freelancers" - including Linda Jaivin

The Sydney Freelance Journalists Group is holding its first speaker evening for 2009 on Tuesday March 31.
The theme is 'Inspirational Freelancers" and presents speakers from the mediums of print, radio and online.
Our speakers are:
- Author and print journalist Linda Jaivin
Linda has been a freelancer since 1986. Since then she has published articles, essays and reviews in a wide range of publications including The Monthly, Rolling Stone, Sunday Life, Vogue, Spectrum, The Australian Book Review, The Bulletin, Australian Art Collector, Overland, Meanjin, The Age, The Far Eastern Economic Review and the Los Angeles Time Book Review. Her first novel, Eat Me, was an international best seller. Her latest book, the novel A Most Immoral Woman, is out now with Fourth Estate.
-Podcaster Richard Monk
Richard has spent 30 years in radio, television and print media. In the past six years he has developed techniques in online content in three disciplines: Text, Video and Audio. He produces video pods for the Foreign Correspondents Association and the Finance industry. Other clients he freelances for include NSW Health, Fairfax Radio, RM Williams, NZ Tourism, and two German online magazines. He also lectures at the Australian Film TV and Radio School.
- Radio producer Jan Forrester
Jan spent three months in Afghanistan and Pakistan last year training local radio journalists how to report on elections and broadcast public health messages. She has worked as a radio producer in metropolitan, regional and remote Australia, for a newspaper in Bangkok, as a digital audio consultant in Singapore, been involved in using media, particulary radio, for health messages and information in Australia and overseas, and managed a large media development program for AusAID in South East Asia.
Come and hear them speak
Tuesday March 31
Hotel Clarendon, 156 Devonshire St, Surry Hills (walking distance from Central Station)
6.30 pm for a 7.00 pm start

$10 for MEAA members, $15 for non-members
Call the Alliance Membership Centre on 1300 65 65 13 or email members@alliance.org.auto RSVP and pay for your ticket (credit card payments only).
See you there!
Rachael

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December 2008 Pub Quiz

My first event as Chair of the Sydney Freelance Journalists Group

On December 4, forty freelancers gathered for the Sydney Freelance Journalists Group's first ever Christmas Pub Quiz.
Five teams - The Caramel Chocolates, The Idiotic Savants, The Moist Brown Team, The Lane Changers and The Chased or Chaste - battled over beers, lollies and sandwiches to see whose trivia knowledge was supreme.
Quiz host Julian Morrow from The Chaser asked five rounds of questions, which ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous. The crowd included author Helen O'Neill, ex-Fairfax and newly minted freelancer Keith Austin, Pam Hewitt from the Professional Editors' Association, super sub-editor John Piggott and SMH columist Lisa Pryor, who dropped in at the end of the night.
The Lane Changers proved to be a powerhouse of trivia and took the crown. Who would have thought they knew both the names of a 17th century Dutch explorer and the nut used to make pesto sauce?
Committee members Fran Molloy, Reema Rattan and Christine Fogg helped put the evening together. A big thank you to Claire O'Rourke and the MEAA for all of their support.
It was a great way to kick off my tenure as Chair of the Sydney Freelance Journalists Group.

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Corporate Citizen Magazine

First edition - out now

Corporate Citizen - Australia's Responsible Business Magazine, has just published its first issue. Starting on page 43 there are three articles written by me - one about the construction industry, one about research into ranking the environmental impact of building materials and the third about how much time people spend in their cars each day going to and from work.

A few months ago I was fortunate enough to get a call from ex AFR senior writer Julie Macken. She asked me to write for the first edition of the magazine, which she edited. Many thanks Julie, I am so happy to be part of the team you pulled together.

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I am away in May

I am overseas 18 May to 11 June....

See you when I come back. In the meantime feel free to drop me a line.

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Freelance Talk - 23 April

Make More Money From Your Work

Brave the rain to come to the Sydney Freelance Journalist Group talk about copyright tomorrow night, 6.00pm at the AB Hotel, Glebe Point Road, Glebe.

Richard Harris, NSW branch secretary of the Alliance, will speak on contracts, particularly on the Fairfax contract and the model contract that the Alliance has drawn up as a template for freelancers to use. He will also provide an update on the legal advice the union has been given about the laws preventing freelancers from 'bargaining' collectively.

Karen Pitt, general counsel at Copyright Agency Limited (CAL), will speak on a freelancer's ability to amend or negotiate contracts; to retain copyright or charge extra to give copyright to organisation; override prior contracts with new contracts to include copyright clauses and charge organisations retrospectively who have breached copyrights. She will also provide some background into the importance of secondary rights.

$10 entry for MEAA members and $20 entry for everyone else. �

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Freelance Group Meeting

Niche journalism - Sydney Freelance Journalists Group evening 19 February

The Sydney Freelance Journalists Group met on 19 February 2008 to hear leading experts explore the advantages of developing specialist rounds.

Health journalist Melissa Sweet, sports journalist Matt Cleary and travel journalist Caroline Gladstone gave very entertaining and informative talks on how they chose their particular fields, the kind of markets open to them and described a few of their most successful pitches.

Yours truly is on the Sydney Freelance Journalists Group committee and the one who organises speakers, so keep an eye out for upcoming events and let me know of any interesting speakers.

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SundayLife Magazine February 10

Where the Wild Things Are

This article about wildlife in our cities was great fun to write. It was very exciting to have readers� letters about my article published in the March 2 edition of SundayLife, including the letter of the week which read:

I enjoyed Where the Wild Things Are. In my experience Sydney and Brisbane have the most in your face city wildlife but I was fascinated to read that the worlds fourth most venomous snake, the tiger snake, likes to mix it with the South Yarra soy latte set. If as you say the snake is retiring and just wants to blend in, it should probably ditch the bold stripes (so Gold Coast) and opt for basic black � Suzanne Hemming, Ascot Vale, Vic.

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