User submitting Editorial Cartoons?
October 23, 2013 6:46 AM Subscribe
My fiancee had an idea to create an editorial cartoon (liberal bent) and submit it like one does to a letter to the editor. Is this a thing? She's not really an artist (she will paint or draw like once a year), but it's about the level of local paper's cartoon. The message is topical and decent.
Do you have any ideas of places that she could get it published (at minimum, on the Internet)?
Post it to a site like Reddit if you get no response from sites with potential to pay her. It'll likely get more views than it would on any newspaper site. There are subreddits for comics, politics and other related topics.
posted by NoAccount at 7:40 AM on October 23, 2013
posted by NoAccount at 7:40 AM on October 23, 2013
xingcat has it. Call up the newspaper, ask to speak to the person who is in charge of letters to the editor, and say "I don't have a letter to the editor, but I have a drawing to the editor -- a political cartoon." Ask if he/she could look at it if you email it. The staffer will likely be charmed at the idea, as long as it doesn't really involve any work. Opening an email is not work, but receiving a package or meeting someone is work (for a journalist).
posted by Mr. Justice at 8:34 AM on October 23, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by Mr. Justice at 8:34 AM on October 23, 2013 [1 favorite]
Submit it through whatever channels your local paper uses for letters to the editor. (But unlike Mr. Justice, I seriously doubt they'll be 'charmed', especially if they already have an editorial cartoonist.)
But go ahead and submit it, in the expectation that, like any other letter to the editor, it may or may not be used. Don't expect to be paid for it: letters to the editor are never paid for. Have her name clearly written on it, not just a jumbled signature that can't be read: any anonymous letters to the editor are extremely likely to be tossed in the trash, and the same would go for this if it doesn't have a clearly identified name. And don't expect that if they do decide to use it that they'll automatically use any others she might send. When you email it, send it very high resolution, or it'll probably be unusable.
Finally: it may be topical and decent, but is it local news? The New York Times or the Washington Post will cover local, national and international news, but those are pretty well guarenteed to ignore this. A small local paper might consider publishing it, but only if it concerns local news. A local paper, for instance, would probably reject a letter if its about national news like the recent Federal government shutdown but might consider one about a local city council argument.
posted by easily confused at 11:24 AM on October 23, 2013
But go ahead and submit it, in the expectation that, like any other letter to the editor, it may or may not be used. Don't expect to be paid for it: letters to the editor are never paid for. Have her name clearly written on it, not just a jumbled signature that can't be read: any anonymous letters to the editor are extremely likely to be tossed in the trash, and the same would go for this if it doesn't have a clearly identified name. And don't expect that if they do decide to use it that they'll automatically use any others she might send. When you email it, send it very high resolution, or it'll probably be unusable.
Finally: it may be topical and decent, but is it local news? The New York Times or the Washington Post will cover local, national and international news, but those are pretty well guarenteed to ignore this. A small local paper might consider publishing it, but only if it concerns local news. A local paper, for instance, would probably reject a letter if its about national news like the recent Federal government shutdown but might consider one about a local city council argument.
posted by easily confused at 11:24 AM on October 23, 2013
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Here's another.
For your local paper, I'd contact the office via telephone (email is too easy to ignore) and ask. It could be that they don't publish cartoons except those they buy from a syndicated source, but it can't hurt to ask.
posted by xingcat at 7:04 AM on October 23, 2013 [1 favorite]