You failed to insert your byline. Don't rely on your editor to remember to insert it. Your editor may even think you don't want your name on the article. Being paid your fee is important. But also extremely important to your career is having your name on your published article. It enhances your reputation, and it gives you cuttings that you can photocopy and send to various editors to prove you are a published writer.
ALWAYS insert your byline immediately after your heading.
- Type a 15-word headline.
- Also, don't forget to put the name of the ONE publication your article is for.
- Put the EXACT word-count at the top.
A byline is simply the line that says "by Your Name". It looks like a small thing, but it is one of the few things you truly own in this trade. The fee is spent in a week. The byline lasts forever. It is the public record that you did the work, and over the years those lines pile up into the single most powerful thing a freelancer has: a body of published work with your name on it.
That is why you protect it. Spell your own name the same way every time, so that all your cuttings file neatly under one writer. Decide early what that name is, in full or shortened, and never vary it. Hunt down a copy of every piece the day it appears and keep it safe, because newspapers vanish and websites change, and a clip you did not save is a credit you can no longer prove.
Those clippings then do your selling for you. When you approach a new editor, you are no longer a stranger making a claim. You are a writer with a folder of printed proof, name and all, that other editors have trusted and paid you. Nothing opens a door faster. So never let your byline slip off a piece, and never let a published clip get away. Your name on the page is your career, building itself one line at a time.