You’re absolutely right: submitting a trip to Trazzler is different to pitching an editor. My apologies: it was 4 am when I posted my comment, and I was not as rigorous as I should have been. I was musing more along the lines of being in limbo, than in terms of your work already being ‘out there’.

I’d like to add a couple more comments. Does submitting a trip to Trazzler prevent you from using the material elsewhere? Sure, you have lost the first rights to that exact text, but how many other places are crying out for 150 word travel snapshots anyway? Extend your snapshot in to an 800 word feature, change the wording, and–I may be wrong–you have a new piece, don’t you?

There is also the issue of exposure. While I agree that writers should not ply their craft for free, perhaps it is sometimes smart to do so, especially when first starting out, and/or as part of a longer term plan. Sites such as Trazzler (and Matador) allow writers to reach a much wider audience than they might otherwise. (A difference, of course, is that Matador pay for everything they publish.)

People write, and contribute to publications, for very different reasons. There are plenty of publishing fish in the sea for us to sample. As you so elegantly put it, “if you don’t like it, find somewhere else to play.” I fully agree.

Best wishes, Nick.

I think the concern writers have with Trazzler is this statement that you noted: “Besides, submitting the trips isn’t that much different to pitching editors at a publication (and being ignored before you are rejected, and occasionally striking gold), but they are a lot more fun to write.”

It isn’t the same as pitching to an editor. If something isn’t accepted by an editor (whether you receive acknowledgement of rejection or not), you can move on to another editor. I also have submitted a few trips to Trazzler via the contest in hopes of winning a freelance contract and I didn’t win, which is fine. I receive “rejections” all the time in the writing world. But the problem is that you can’t just submit a trip for consideration; you MUST publish it on their site, which means most writers on the site are writing for free in hopes of getting paid. I think many writers would be more open to submitting trips for consideration, then receiving a rejection without having their work published unpaid. Once these are published on Trazzler (paid or unpaid), they are published, and we can’t submit them anywhere else as anything more than reprints thereafter.

That said, I am just one person so others might not feel the same way, and that doesn’t mean I won’t try to grab a Trazzler contract again some time, but it does make me a bit concerned that my trips are out there for everyone to read. Not only have I received no compensation for them, but I’ve lost first rights on the pieces.

I would suggest to anyone concerned about Trazzler to find somewhere else to submit work. Just like anything else in life, if you don’t like it, find somewhere else to play.

Cheers,
JoAnna

I understand the criticism of the site, although I disagree with it. I think they came up with a very clever way of generating a lot of content for their site, by encouraging people to send in short trips, in the hopes of scoring a freelance writing contract.

They are very open about the way it all works. You submit a trip, and it gets published on the net. If they think your trip is any good (or perhaps more accurately, if it fits with their style), it will probably be selected to be a “Trazzler” trip – which means it goes in to their trip stream, and is seen by lots more people. No payment is involved with any of this.

The nub of it all is this: if they like your writing, you MAY be offered a paid contract to write some trips. There is no guarantee that submitting trips will win you a contract. You simply have to submit some good trips, as few or as many as you like, and hope they are noticed, and fit. A good way to get noticed is to enter the monthly competition. If you are selected as a winner, you win a contract. Even if you aren’t, the competition entry trips are read first, so you are increasing your chances of your super-cool trips being seen. Trazzler is a small team, and I think they have been somewhat overwhelmed, so all of this can take time.

I submitted some trips, which I thought were good. When two days had passed, and they weren’t already knocking on my door asking me to write for them, I forgot about the site. Then all of a sudden, they were published. So I entered a few trips in to the competition. They didn’t win, but they did score me a contract. I wrote a block of ten trips for $250, and was paid within a day of submitting them.

Since then, I’ve submitted a few more trips, which have been published quickly, but I’ve had no more offers of paid work. I’m assured I’m on the list of writers they want to work with, though I’m not quite sure what that means! Like everyone else, I’m keeping my fingers crossed for one of the elusive Community Manager positions ; )

I keep meaning to go back and submit more trips – not just because I’m hoping for more paid work, but because I genuinely admire the site. I think what they are doing is interesting, and innovative.

My only real gripe is that they are not that good at keeping in touch with their writers – I’m listed as a freelancer on their “about” page, but don’t really know what that stands for. But then again, I’m not very good at keeping in touch with my mum, and I suspect she’s more important to me than I am to Trazzler ; )

So while I sympathise with people’s frustration, I don’t think you can accuse Trazzler of anything particularly sinister. Besides, submitting the trips isn’t that much different to pitching editors at a publication (and being ignored before you are rejected, and occasionally striking gold), but they are a lot more fun to write.

Advice? Submit some good trips to the competition. Have a look at the trips written by people already listed as freelancers – a lot of it is about nailing the right style (as with any publication). Why not start with the trips on my profile?!! http://www.trazzler.com/users/nickrowlands
Good luck!

I run Trazzler so I wanted respond to you directly. Editorial/creative people run this company. We do everything we can to make Trazzler a great place for writers. So far, more than 30% of our budget has been used to pay freelance writers and editors. (By comparison, the New York Times pays out about 15%.) We will continue to pay at this rate as we grow.

Here is a list of the writers/editors we have hired so far: http://www.trazzler.com/about/team. We have more to add to the list… in total, about 75 writers and editors. The amount per freelance contract falls in a range of $250 – $7,500. More for full-time employees.

Our system rewards the best contributors with real freelance writing contracts and jobs that pay a professional rate. We could hire more writers for less money–as so many sites do–but we decided early on that we wanted to dedicate a high percentage of our budget to hiring those writers who embrace the idea of Trazzler and have a one-of-a-kind contribution to make (see #1). We have a long, long list of writers we will hire in the near future. Like any publication, it can take us several months to assign a contract.

We are one of the few Internet companies that values and pays for editorial at the rate we do. I wake up every morning thinking I’m going to work on something that will emerge as a new model for writing, and will be a home for many professional writers and creative people. So it’s bewildering to come across a comment like yours.

You wrote that we keep “dangling the promise of a contract out there.” What do you mean by that? We can address a genuine concern but you’ll have to be more specific. These are the places where we discuss jobs related to editorial.
http://blog.trazzler.com/
http://www.trazzler.com/about/contest
http://www.trazzler.com/about/jobs

Thanks,
Adam

i’ve paid to enter contests before but only if they were magazines i really wanted to support. i looked / look at it that way; if it’s a magazine / organization that seems to really need the financial support, then cool–if i don’t win then it’s kind of a donation.

that being said, there are all kinds of magazines out there that just seem like they run off of collecting hundreds (or thousands) of suckers’ entry fees.

Trazzler has been disparaged on a lot of writing sites and I’d stay away from it. Just what I’ve heard, though, so could be wrong!

And I found out about this from Nick Rowlands – not trying to steal his thunder. I think it’s a great way to possibly make some pretty good money.

just pulled that one down.