Taking Stock - 2008

A week more to go, but less chance of seeing more stories in print or online, except for may be two. This could be the best time to take stock.

In 2008, I was published in 11 new publications - in India and abroad and 51 stories were published (most of them in print though some of them have online versions too).

Apart from those published this year, I have written 18 more articles, submitted to different magazines in India. The topics include travel, technology and lifestyle. Additional two articles along with a series of photos were submitted for a coffee table book, scheduled to be published in March 2009.

Another three articles were not published this year , of which one was an exclusive interview with a business family (it's supposed to have given me a good exposure, if published.. for a magazine I haven't worked earlier); trade article for a U.S magazine (all of a sudden the editorial team changed and they had new ideas!) and a real estate article for a U.S magazine (the editor moved to another publication and the new sub-editor didn't want the story to be published). The good part is for these three unpublished story, I was paid the kill-fee and for one of them - an Indian magazine, they paid 75% of the agreed amount.

I stopped writing for four publications this year, including two U.S magazines, a blog (published from U.K) and a national magazine.

More than the previous years, I received 4-8 mails per week, for copywriting assignments. But, most of them didn't suit my criterias and the end result was I rejected 95% of them. And for the remaining, I'll be working on those assignments in the coming year, 2009.