Freelance Writing Notes: Unbound, Jimmy Connors, empathy
Why are there so many boxes in my hallway?
Hello! How are you doing today? In this month’s collection of Freelance Writing Notes, I’m talking about Jimmy Connors, the pile of boxes in my hallway that I haven’t been able to open, and whether empathy makes art ‘left wing’. Since we’re here, let’s also get into it about the demise of my most-used app, and the craft of the close up.
I’ve been thinking about custard a lot this year. Absolutely pleased as punch with how beautiful my custard feature for WIZZ Air’s inflight magazine looks. Their designers are incredible and they nail it every single time. It was a joy to write about Birmingham, a city that’s often misunderstood and misrepresented.
When I wasn’t hopping on buses around the Midlands, I also wrote for Stylist about suffering from migraines. This week I’m all about the final details on some big projects, the next 100 pages of book edits, and filing my final Happy Freelancer column for Mslexia. This one’s about the trap of freelance perfectionism.An Obituary for Reading the Internet. Discovering Pocket in 2008 - when it was called Read It Later - very literally changed my life. So much of my work back then was digital curation, discovering new designers and artists. Honestly, this newsletter wouldn’t exist without Pocket. The best things I read have been squirrelled away in there for weeks. You can see my entire life plotted out over the years in my saved folder from recipes and holiday research to freelance jobs and writing prizes that I want to share. In a couple of weeks, Pocket is closing down.
My connection to the app is unexpectedly emotional. Mozilla’s reasoning is that the way we use the internet has changed, which is a pretty sad statement in itself. While I scrabble around for somewhere new to save my links, Anne Helen Petersen at Culture Study talks more deeply about what this means for the joy of simply reading the internet.
Why do you have so many boxes in your hallway, Sian? I finally have the rights back for my book The Pyjama Myth which was published by Unbound in 2022. I now have hundreds of copies in my hallway (in case you missed it, here’s a pretty solid explainer). Delivery was a surprise – communication has never been Unbound’s strong suit – so they’ve been piled up by the kitchen for a week. I haven’t been able to open them.
Usually I’m headstrong and fire straight into things, but not when I feel powerless. This has knocked the wind out of me. I absolutely came out of the situation far better than some Unbound authors, but it has been an awful experience. I’m sure those in charge would like for us to see this simply as an error made by people who just really love books, but that’s not what it was. We’re talking the loss of hundreds of thousands of pounds. Authors being repeatedly lied to. Contracts broken. Livelihoods – lives – damaged. This is deception on a huge scale.
There’s been so much of thisdebacleenormous industry scandal that has been out of my control, but I want to claw some of that back. I’m looking into creating an updated digital version of the book, but for now, I’m going to work out a way to sell these lovely paperback copies directly, and then use the money to create something brilliant for freelance writers.
There are always external influences that dictate how we feel about our work. While I’m mortified by my previous publisher, I am enormously proud of The Pyjama Myth – it really does help writers to become better, happier freelancers – and I still want the overwhelming feeling towards my book to be one of joy.