Dinosaur has tech question for sending clips

[hiremypen]

Old creaky former English teacher and newspaper reporter here in Austin dusting off cobwebs and entering the fray again. I am trying to apply to jobs at freelancewriting.com that ask for me to forward 3 clips. My clips are either( not that recent) newspaper clips or, for example, a short story (inspirational category) which placed in a Writers Digest contest. I am picking up my pen after a ten year interlude due to family stresses so I am behind the curve about online applications.

1. Do I scan my newspaper articles and send in as attached files along with the required resume and cover letter?
2. Is sending attached files with my email okay as long as the source does not specifically state "no attachments accepted"?
3. Does it bother anyone but me when sources ask you to copy and paste into the body of the email and it destroys all the formatting?

Thank you for your input.

[pls]

Old creaky former English teacher and newspaper reporter here in Austin dusting off cobwebs and entering the fray again. I am trying to apply to jobs at freelancewriting.com that ask for me to forward 3 clips. My clips are either( not that recent) newspaper clips or, for example, a short story (inspirational category) which placed in a Writers Digest contest. I am picking up my pen after a ten year interlude due to family stresses so I am behind the curve about online applications.

1. Do I scan my newspaper articles and send in as attached files along with the required resume and cover letter?
2. Is sending attached files with my email okay as long as the source does not specifically state "no attachments accepted"?
3. Does it bother anyone but me when sources ask you to copy and paste into the body of the email and it destroys all the formatting?

Thank you for your input.

From another antediluvian English teacher and reporter in another state capital (just two states north of you): welcome!

1&2. I wouldn't attach anything to an e-mail unless the recipient has specified that attachments are accepted (because they use Macs and not Windoze machines?).
3. If you use AOL, your formatting will remain, but I've noticed that returned e-mails via other e-mail providers lose their formatting. So the easy solution is to save your scanned (into an OCR) files as text-only files, add a space between paragraphs, and then paste them into the body of the e-mail that way, and re-correct if necessary.

Good luck!

[editor-anthology]

I hate pasting sample articles into the email. They look horrible.

Sending attachments is rarely a good idea. Unless they specifically say "send attachments," I don't do it. I would recommend that you set up an online portfolio. Once you have more clips you can create a website, but for now try a simple blogger, wordpress or google pages' setup. Just a basic page where you can upload your clips. Then when an editor asks for samples, you can send them the link.