Tinker Ready, independent health and science writer, Boston:
What you do:
I was doing the Nature Boston blog. That’s now been archived. I teach part-time at Boston University and am getting back on track freelancing. The last piece I did was not health care but about the people who care for the roses in the public garden. I sort of fell into that.
Favorite panels:
At panels, here’s what’s been happening to me. I’ll go to a session, think I know all the stuff already and shouldn’t come back to the meeting next time. Then, towards the end, they’ll get into something new to me. Conversation churns up the new stuff.
This last freelance panel was very good. I’ve been to a lot of the freelance panels. They’ve been helpful to me. It was the discussion with the people in the audience, knowing what tools they’ve been using. How they survive the lean times. At first you’re thinking, this person is so successful. This doesn’t apply to me – I’m struggling, making $100 a piece, or $75 a post. But then you realize they’ve all been there, too. A part of me thinks they’re the winners. We’re the losers. But as it developed, I saw we were all on different points of the same continuum.
Best tips:
Things that answered my questions were discussions on conflict of interest for freelancers. Disclosure. Who can you write for, who should you not write for. To hear how different freelancers handle conflicts of interest among their clients.
Networking is one of the key things at this conference. It forced me to network, which is something I don’t do naturally.
