freelance


Crafty move to fine furniture Mark Gould from London, supplements his journalism by making bespoke furniture I started as a trainee journalist with Greater London and Essex


Newspapers, having spent 18 miserable months as a money broker in the city. I did my NCTJ at Harlow College on six weeks’ block release. At the East London Advertiser, I got the health brief then went to


the medical weekly Pulse, rising to assistant editor. Later, I went freelance doing shifts on the nationals and medical journals. Years pass, technology changes, newspapers and magazines lose


circulation and out go freelance budgets. It’s dispiriting to have news editors ignore you and it seems to have got worse. Shift rates on specialist magazines have frozen in time. I’d written a piece about an East End cafe full of art deco marquetry


panels made by local craftsmen. It made me think about a change. The London College of Furniture offered a part-time foundation degree. I did the maths and realised we could pay the mortgage – my wife is a senior nurse, which helps. In the 18 months since graduation I have built up a decent


portfolio of commissioned work. The good thing about having two sets of skills is that during lean


times you can switch. I squeezed a feature into the Guardian last month, I write for a couple of websites, I’m editorial consultant on a lawyers’ magazine specialising in health matters and I shift for a few trade magazines but, if I was a kid just starting out, I would be homeless and starving. E3Made Fine Furniture: www.e3made.com


A necessity Catherine Scott from Milton Keynes has supplemented journalism with care work and tutoring I’ve been a freelance writer since 2009, focusing on


feminism, literature and social justice. I’ve written for The Telegraph, The Guardian, The Independent, The Times Literary Supplement, Prospect and others. I also do copywriting, editing and website work, and had a regular gig with The Daily Dot until they stopped using freelances earlier this year. In the face of free online content, I constantly have to fight


for decent rates and sometimes for any pay at all. Writing is so abysmally paid that I’m left needing to tutor, rent my spare room on Airbnb and do care work, supporting people with conditions such as autism and dementia. I have a level 3 diploma in health and social care, and do shifts on and off to support my writing. It’s rewarding but also badly paid. People sneer, “Oh, you


just wipe bums” or think it’s a job for people with no education – I’ve got a 2:1 from a top 10 university. Care workers deserve so much more recognition, but there


are times when I think: “I’m a published author. I shouldn’t have to be emptying catheter bags to stay afloat.” I would love to focus solely on my writing but it’s not


workable. There are good months but that’s when you pay off the credit card bills run up during the badly paid months. Would I be doing other jobs if freelance journalism were more secure? Tutoring occasionally, care work — no chance.


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PMPHOTOS


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