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Good day, CAJ followers. This @Omar_aok, fake dean of a fake university, here for the next hour to tell you about Pandemic University Pop-up School of Writing and talk about the future of freelancing. (h/t @fatimabsyed for this opportunity and this GIF)
If ya don't already know, @PandemicSchool is an experiment I launched in April to help freelancers and authors pay a few bills while our livelihoods crumbled before our eyes. With the help of 10 writers, it launched as a suite of 14 affordable writing workshops over Zoom.
With the help of @jana_pruden @klaidlaw @DiCintio @michaellista @hadiyaroderique @sam_mccabage and other Canadian writers and journalists, it quickly grew to over 500 "students" as far as Australia, Germany, and Nepal.
People have asked many times how I got this thing off the ground so fast (13 days to be exact), so I'mma tell you its origin story and somewhere in there are my thoughts on the current climate for freelancers, newsroom diversity, and moving our community to a virtual space.
It might be riddled with product placement ads — like this: ONLY 2 MORE DAYS LEFT TO ENROL IN THE SUMMER SEMESTER!! — and seem "meandering but logical" as a reader once "complimented" my writing. https://pandemicuniversity.com/summer-full-enrollment/
Throughout the next hour, I want to hear about your experiences — good and bad — freelancing since March. Much as possible, let's keep the conversation on the business of freelancing 'cause that’s what I know best!
A bit about my situation pre-pandemic: I never fully bought the "it's so hard being a freelancer" narrative. My experience is that for as long as I've hustled (15 yrs, 8 yrs full-time) the biggest struggle has been time, not money.
In fact, I only started to cobble together a living and support my family AFTER leaving a staff editorial position to freelance. Luck and determination combined served me well, as did, I think, being the son of immigrants who normalized independence and the hustle.
My feeling was that, although digital publishing has driving pay-rates down, the internet also kicked the doors down to publish just about anywhere about anything that audience would read. Now, more than ever, Canadian journalists are international journalists.
[intermission: coffee spill]
Where was I?
Yes, the immediate fallout of the pandemic was the first time I agreed with "the cynics" about freelancing. Overnight, $4K of assignments evaporated, and the documentary tour planned for @DITD_DocFilm was cancelled.
Yes, the immediate fallout of the pandemic was the first time I agreed with "the cynics" about freelancing. Overnight, $4K of assignments evaporated, and the documentary tour planned for @DITD_DocFilm was cancelled.
That was not just my spring income but my first income for months, as I'd just finished my book manuscript and was ready to freelance again. I heard from my peers similar stories. Freelance budgets slashed, assignments canned, etc.
Maybe someone can dig up @Justin_Ling's tweet from a few days ago about how hard it was to sell stories in this climate, even for a Pro like him. That shook me.
Also got chills hearing @evaholland on the @longformpodcast talking about leaving the industry. I thought she was joking. I'm sure she is, but then: https://twitter.com/evaholland/status/1280906200125706245
{SPONSORED} @EvaHolland is teaching a class on Immersion Journalism at @PandemicSchool. Tickets are just $20 or $10 with enrolment! https://pandemicuniversity.com/immersion-reporting/
Sidebar: I've just been informed that @sam_mccabage has staged her own takeover of the company account and is dragging me in real time. https://twitter.com/PandemicSchool/status/1280915038568460290
Anyhow, timing couldn't be worse. My wife was 6 months pregnant and planning maternity leave. So, for the first time in my life, I swallowed my pride applied for a communications job. It hurt but not as much as not getting a call back. Yikes!
After doing a few Zoom-y things in self-isolation, I figured that I could quickly scrambled a few weeks income by rebooting past workshops in webinar form. Knowing colleauges who have the same in their back pocket, wouldn't it be better to package them together?
And so PANDEMIC UNIVERSITY WAS BORN.
I dipped into my savings to get a logo, build a website, and contract writers who'd also been stiffed by the pandemic fallout. My budget was modest, so we figured another way to generate income was by facilitating virtual mentorship. https://pandemicuniversity.com/one-on-ones/
One thing I learned from freelancing full-time is that you always need supplementary income from BEING a writer rather than writing. (College residencies, consulting, commentary, teaching, proofing, fact-checking, etc.) I imagined PanU would also be supplementary…I was wrong.
Not only did this experiment work but it exceeded my imagination. I was suddenly working 50+ hrs to fill orders as full/half enrolments grew to 200 and PanU took on a life of its own.
For one, people started calling it "PanU".
For one, people started calling it "PanU".
Class sizes started at 70 and grew to 130 After one anonymous donor bought and gave away an enrolment, they inspired a stream of others to do the same. Suddenly I was on the hunt for scholarship recipients. Got requests daily for access to past classes, or "Replays"…
So created a licencing agreement with instructors to make them available after the semester finishes, and paying them 50% royalties. I'm kind of amazed by how popular these are. https://pandemicuniversity.com/product-category/replays/
Also, I'd promised a "Zoom Graduation" party for enrollees, thinking it might be a couple dozen people drinking beers on webcams. Instead, @petermansbridge gave a commencement speech. https://pandemicuniversity.com/mansbridge-commence-address/
And obviously, went to work on planning a summer semester which launches Friday + continues weekly until Aug. 27. Instructors include: @1followernodad @evaholland @michaellista @HalaNAlyan @Ethan_Lou @haleymlotek @kunkeltron @ayelettsabari @chiminomatic @scissortail74 @maxfawcett
Wrapping up, I think about why this has spoken to people as well as it has.
For one, in its simplest form: people had/still have more time to write and pursue personal projects. PanU gave them a chance to improve their craft with Canada’s best writers and journalists.
For one, in its simplest form: people had/still have more time to write and pursue personal projects. PanU gave them a chance to improve their craft with Canada’s best writers and journalists.
Like, come one, you’re telling me I can take a class on narrative structure with @jana_pruden … get nearly 2 hours with her, ask her for advice, get a tip-sheet, for, like, $10 to $20?
