Freelance writing has taken a quantum leap in recent years, both in terms of readership and frequency of publication. Not little has been the advent of blogging as a vehicle that gave unrestricted freedom to express oneself, liberated from the power blue pencil wielding editors. My personal foray into the world of writing for the media came about when, in 1983, I had a full length article of mine see print in The Hindu – spurred on by the ready acceptance of my piece, I started posting unsolicited material – and much to my surprise, almost all came into print, The Times of India, Canara Times, Observer, India Magazine, India Journal, Nature News, WWF Quarterly,  Coastal Times, Morning News, AM Plus,  Hindustan Times, The Deccan Herald, Tejas, Mangalore Today, The Week, The Sun, Newsletter for Birdwatchers and Metro News – together carried 140 publications over the next two decades.

A few publishers sent me checks, from a low Rs.150 to a high of Rs.5000.Then came the cyber-world and internet, I started regular writing for many sites, most on natural history and sports. In three years starting from 1999, I wrote more than 550 - 600 for the net-sites: of course, this medium did not pay or recompense. I did receive some spin-offs, free internet hours, a printer scanner, a PC camera, books, key chains, wallets and such material. By now, writing for the print medium by the laity and unschooled was getting more competitive and crowded: young professionals with degrees in mass communications had made it really tough for freelancers.

Quite unexpectedly, the print medium which always looked askance at ‘pretenders’ on the net, suddenly saw the huge financial potential in combining forces, and started picking up material from web for printing – I have seen about 15 of my un-remunerative net write ups, reappear in print as paid articles, with 6 unexpectedy appearing in referenced medical journals in UK and Canada – In the meanwhile, I authored a few  books, two of which were a compilations of articles that had been published in newspapers and two were medical textbooks.

Then out of the blue, sulekha drops ‘expressions’ and opens itself to free-to-all web-logging. Suited me fine, this medium, and when I noted I had published more than 550 blogs on the site, sulekha shifts policy, turning blogging from just a pastime to a paying proposition. For me, 2006 to date has been a jackpot year, an el dorado. In the last twelve months alone, I have received cash or rewards worth Rs.1,42,000 from writing, that is, an average of twelve  thousand or so, a month.

680 blogs on sulekha (including about 30 or so reposts), 350 articles on other sites, 175 newspaper and magazines pieces, 6 books, 145 scientific research papers and six volume 1600 page mega-monograph on Examination Malpractices for Manipal University; It has been a long, relentless uphill trudge – starting from 1982, from single-finger typed, four page write-ups on foolscap paper with carbon sheets for copy, searching for editors addresses, mailing pieces in a postal envelope and then waiting for weeks, months and in some cases even years for response, rejection or approval, to now, quarter of a century down the line.

I look back and wonder if the ten thousand pages of material in print or on-line is mirage or real. On Friendship Day, I bow my head in respectful deference to the anonymous many and known few, who have backed and back-patted me over the years, urging and egging me on. This year, poised on threshold of one million page views for my sulekha entries alone, I stand, humbled.

To the many who scoff at freelance writing and blogging, I have only this message to offer, push on regardless: brickbats and backbites are aplenty here, but persevere and push on - rewards and recognitions come, and when they do, they come in torrents.