What a lovely, honest post from Carolyn. I'm past the stage of juggling work and childcare, but the issue of 'how can I earn enough to pay for an ACTUAL holiday' really resonates with me. I've had a wonderful summer attending loads of classical music festivals around the UK and one in Estonia, but even with the travel and accommodation costs covered for two of them I haven't made a profit, or even managed to land commissions for writing about all of them. So many 'thanks but no thanks, budget won't stretch' answers from editors, even though the topics are completely relevant and no other journalists were there. But I still feel I would rather be doing this than sitting at home writing features that can be researched via a combination of Google and Zoom.
What a lovely, honest post from Carolyn. I'm past the stage of juggling work and childcare, but the issue of 'how can I earn enough to pay for an ACTUAL holiday' really resonates with me. I've had a wonderful summer attending loads of classical music festivals around the UK and one in Estonia, but even with the travel and accommodation costs covered for two of them I haven't made a profit, or even managed to land commissions for writing about all of them. So many 'thanks but no thanks, budget won't stretch' answers from editors, even though the topics are completely relevant and no other journalists were there. But I still feel I would rather be doing this than sitting at home writing features that can be researched via a combination of Google and Zoom.
Thanks Clare :-)