Thread by @strawburriez

Gonna do my annual thread of (some of) my work this year. It was a weird year but still managed to get a lot done considering we had Rocco home with us for six months. Anyway here goes and I’ll include $.

My story about Dontay Davis, the brother of 3 of the Hart kids, technically ran last December, but I was surprised when it ran in print on A4 in January with this gorgeous spread. I was really heartened to see how so many people connected with it. $800
washingtonpost.com/national/his-s…

In Jan/Feb, I got my book proposal in top shape and I sold my forthcoming book two weeks before lockdown! That was huge for me, and gave me some financial breathing room in this crazy year. First of 4 advance payments, a little more than $30k.

I also did several for Vox, including this one on bail reform. $750 vox.com/identities/202…

And this one on the Indian Child Welfare Act. $750 vox.com/identities/202…

And then right when the pandemic hit, I looked at how it might affect the child welfare system. $750
vox.com/identities/202…

I also did a bunch for @ImprintNews, deep-diving into the Texas child welfare system for book research. Taylor County drug tests children when they suspect parental drug use, resulting in a removal rate 4x higher than the state’s. 1 or 2/mo for $1250/mo.
imprintnews.org/child-welfare-…

I wrote a lot about residential treatment centers for foster youth, including this one for @theappeal about kids there being particularly vulnerable to Covid. $1/word
theappeal.org/children-resid…

And this one, about foster kids in Texas getting Covid at a higher rate than the rest of the state:
imprintnews.org/child-welfare-…

Culminating in this one, a partnership between @TexasObserver and @ImprintNews, about Texas’s abhorrent treatment of kids in RTCs and how this is a systemic problem, not an isolated one. $2k total.
google.com/amp/s/www.texa…

I did my first for @TexasMonthly, which was also my first film review. $750 texasmonthly.com/the-culture/di…

I have one more still to run, which is my @ReportingHealth fellowship story with @theappeal. I’ll link it when it’s live.

Finally, I looked at the shadow system of foster care, where children are removed by CPS to their relatives with no court case. Found that potentially just as many kids are in this shadow system than are in the traditional foster care system. theappeal.org/hidden-foster-…

I got $2500 from the USC child well-being fellowship plus $1/word from the Appeal for this. Total of about $5,000.

Dunno if this level of financial detail is helpful, but the WaPo story that paid $800 took me a year and a half to report and write. I took it bc I wanted Dontay to have the widest audience possible since he was basically erased from the narrative. But...

I think that story helped me land the book deal, which I wanted to share bc of #publishingpaidme and bc I am trying to figure out how to make the numbers work & know everyone else is, too.

My deal I now realize was good! But I won’t get a check next year when I do the bulk of my writing (get it on manuscript completion, including edits). So while this year was best-ever financially, next year might be really rough.