Today I sent off the SF magazine story to the Investigative Reporters and Editors contest. This was a large effort. Answering the 12 questions took several hours and yielded five single-spaced pages.
Then I took the article down to the local copy store where the whole staff helped me copy the article, all 15 pages of it. We had to cut the spine off the magazine to get the pages to lay flat on the copier. The IRE requires that the pages be 11 X 17 inches, so huge copies in thick stacks.
Then I had to burn a CD that contained a PDF of the article and the other elements of the application.
That’s $115 to enter the contest, $106 to copy the article three times meet the other clerical requirements, and $18.77 to send it three-day delivery via FedEx. Total $239.77.
I’m feeling lucky today. I hope I’m right!