Many science reporters either don’t know how to negotiate shrewdly or are afraid doing so could lead to lost opportunities. But not reading and negotiating on contracts can carry real costs. If freelance writing is your career, then honing your negotiating skills is a key to the craft. And that means understanding what terms like kill fees, indemnity clauses, and copyrights mean and how to negotiate for better contract terms.
When reporter Taylor Quimby delved into the confusing, complicated world of Lyme disease for his documentary podcast Patient Zero, he learned a lot about what tracing a disease looked like. The goal of Quimby’s seven-part miniseries was to explore Lyme and how the medical establishment handled it, while lending sound to what has often been called a “silent disease.” Quimby spoke to Shira Feder about how he gained sources’ trust, how he employed sound effects, and how he figured out how to tell the story of a complicated medical mystery in audio form.
Tampa Bay Times reporter Lane DeGregory spent three years with a family as they waited for a medical miracle. DeGregory shares how she distilled 42 legal pads of reporting into “Lincoln’s Shot,” an eight-part series that is intimate yet comprehensive.
Five editors who are managing their publications’ coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic share the difficulties they’re facing and the lessons they’ve learned through the experience so far, their strategies for prioritizing coverage and for balancing COVID and non-COVID stories, the role freelancers are playing in their newsrooms’ COVID coverage, and the ways they’re supporting the staff reporters and freelancers they work with.
These days, Science staff editor Martin Enserink is busy editing stories about COVID-19, but two years ago he was immersed in writing a feature about a Spanish doctor’s efforts in Papua New Guinea to eradicate an infectious disease called yaws. This is a scourge many people haven’t even heard of, but for those affected, it can be devastating. Enserink didn’t know how long or emotional the journey would become.
A video interview compels the subject to step into the spotlight and centers the distinct style that shapes how they express ideas. While the opportunity to capture this voice might be an exciting moment for a science writer, it can be downright terrifying for subjects unfamiliar with being on camera. For those interested in taking the leap into video interviewing, Madison Pobis shares strategies for building a multimedia story.
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