Off The Wire: News for the Canadian media freelancer Jan 27-Feb 2

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

From Canada:

• Free Online Seminar — Pitch Perfect [CMG Freelance]
• Jesse Brown: Saviour, Danger, Jerk? [Ryerson Review of Journalism]
• Watch Luigi Benetton and Jane Langille discussing productivity tips and techniques [EAC Toronto]

From The U.S. and beyond:

• Great Freelancers Ask For Help [Freelancers Union]
• Why Internet journalists don’t organize [Washington Post]
• Can I Quit My Full-Time Job and Freelance For My Employer? [The Freelancer]
• Are you underestimating the time you’ll spend on a project? [Freelancers Union]
• Staying Healthy as a Freelance Writer: 9 Important Self-Care Strategies [The Write Life]
• Dear clients, you get what you pay for [Freelancers Union]
• Making Money as a Freelance Writer [Publishing Artshub]
• What Is Science Journalism Worth? Part II [The Open Notebook]
• 19 Quick Ways to Grow Your Author Following on Social Media [The Write Life]
• 8 Reasons Why You Should Raise Your Rates Before January Ends [The Freelancer]
• “Sponsored” by my husband: Why it’s a problem that writers never talk about where their money comes from [Salon]

Last week on Story Board:

• The state of the unpaid internship: “Don’t devalue yourself.” That’s the number one piece of advice that Claire Seaborn offers young people looking for work these days…
• Open Cinema “connects the docs” with online technology: Want to check out what might turn into the Netflix of documentary filmmaking? Mandy Leith, the Victoria, B.C.-based founder and director of Open Cinema, has been leading the effort to assemble a combination of online technologies to help documentary filmmakers share their work…

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.