Editor’s Note: For a freelancer, time is money. And we know your time is best spent finding jobs and filing assignments. We know there’s little time remaining to follow the body of work that grows everyday on the best practices of reporting and building a successful freelance business. And The Freelance Strategist won’t pretend to cover every useful tactic or relevant issue. But we promise to help you find those who do.

We’re busy reading the wires and scanning pages of magazines, websites and blogs and every Friday, this newsletter will share what we consider the top reads for freelancer writers interested in perfecting their craft and building their business.

Happy Friday!

When Grantland.com writer Alex Pappademas asked comic icon Stan Lee about fair pay and issues around creators’ rights,  specifically in reference to his Avengers co-creator Jack Kirby who has seen almost none of the profit from the highly popular serial and film, he answered, “… artists and the writers now are a different breed than they were, and most of them, if they create anything new, they insist that they be part owners of it. Because they know what happened to Siegel and Shuster, and to me, and to people like that. I don’t think it’s a problem anymore.” It’s as nice theory of Mr. Lee’s but most independent artists and writers of comic books who work on a freelance basis, without ownership over their creations or any of the benefits that go along with full-time work, would argue to the contrary. If only the Creator’s Bill of Rights, had been around for Lee, and for the Superman creators, they might have been much richer men.

Remember the library? OK, now, remember that shadowy, hushed room where they kept all the really cool and smelly books and they wouldn’t let you bring your pen? And remember the “theys” who oversaw that secretive place? Those are archivists, they still exist and they’re here to conduct research and report stories. The Hairpin.com’s Ask an Archivist column uncovers the truth about the white gloves, gives helpful advice on overcoming archive intimidation and sheds light on the horrors of e-records, “It’s the intellectual equivalent of herding an army of imaginary cats, or the whole world suffering from early onset Alzheimer’s.”

Writers and bloggers everywhere cringed for a few seconds when they saw this on their laptop screens, earlier in the week.  “Looking at sites without words makes the entire experience on the web a little calmer as if all the noise is gone,”  said Ji Lee, a designer at Facebook and former creative director of Google Creative Lab. Lucky for most of the people reading this newsletter, the sound came back on…

Joyce Carol Oates reveals her husband of many years never read single one of her more than 50 novels, leading a current writer to ponder the best sounding board for her work.

As if we didn’t have enough reason to be jealous of them, mostly relating to their shoe collections, fashion bloggers are now the new fashion icons, according to Huff Post Teen. (Yes, it actually exists!) They are the one percent of bloggers who actually change out of their pajama pants to go to work.

Gizmodo has a quick tip for people who never want to get caught by bit.lys that link to naughty sites again …

Lastly, R.I.P. Maurice Sendak, beloved independent writer and illustrator of children’s books.

More from the Freelance Strategist:

• How to Write a Killer Magazine Article Pitch
• Writing Mythbusters: Tactics that Don’t Really Work
• How to Make Friends with Photo Sourcing
• Editors Speak: 4 Reasons They Secretly Hate You

(Image by Sean Winters, via Flickr.)