Lisa,

You've certainly posted a good overview for beginners!

One of your points highlights why I asked about file submissions as PDF: it takes the formatted material and locks it into place. It's a type of file that can be a relatively reasonable size, and is one that is less likely to pick up viruses and such (I think).

I don't plan to let freelancing take over my life as you describe. I make a nice living as a writer now, it pays my bills, provides good insurance and retirement. I'm looking at getting back into freelancing as something additional, covering favorite topics that I don't get to write about now, so am mainly looking to update my approach to editors. I haven't stopped making notes to myself about possible article ideas, and now it's time to go back and write a few of those. I have published a lot of scholarly work (read: free) over the years, but I see no need to write anything free for commercial publication. I've been writing for too long to need to do that; my foot's in the door up past my thigh! :-D

Your approach to reviews is interesting. I've gotten a lot of free books by writing reviews, but I hadn't thought about reviewing other stuff, with the exception of some of the parks in the area (part of that interest in recreation that I mentioned above).

SRS