Taking the next step?

Eirebear

Ola all...i know its not friday yet but here goes anyway.

After moving to Glasgow a couple of months back i found myself in the position of having very little portfolio in relation to the city and its news, couple this with no contacts in general.
I found it quite depressing after working with a newspaper in Ireland for a while and getting to see my shots in print every week, (even if most of them were your standard "firing range" type shots) and getting payed for them too!

So, after a chance meeting with a guy involved with the Metro, a free daily paper which is basically left on busses trains and the glasgow underground, he told mmeet in touch with some photos and he would see what he could do.
I sent him the pictures of the anti racism demo last wekend (which incidently went down like a lead balloon here! ) and lo and behold i got a reply back from their picture desk today saying "thanks for the pictures, we would be more than happy to add you to our list of freelancers, just send us anything you have and well take a look over them"

Now i know thats not exactly earth shattering stuff, but its a step in the right direction for me.
What im not so sure about is where to go next.

The way i am looking at it at the moment, is using the Metro as my base for a while, sending them everything i have and keeping track of what is used and what isnt.
This way i am building up portfolio, experience and also getting my name that little bit more "out there".
Once i am satisfied with the regularity of my work getting into print, whats the next step?
Do i find the contact details for picture desks at other newspapers and submit images on spec?
Or do i send them an email in advance, with a few portfolio pictures and see if they get back to me before going and sending them images, this way negating the problem that "user generated news" is causing by making sure that picture editors know my name amongst the floods of mobile phone footage they probably recieve?

Also is it worth, at such an early stage, joining someone like the NUJ?

Any advice is more than welcome guys, i know im not the best photographer in the world...not even on this board, but i know i can do a job for anyone who needs it.
Im nowhere near giving up the day job yet....but one day....;)

elven

Just bumping this back to the front page... one less "which camera" thread... I know we have some people here that should be able to help you out on this one.

Borderfox

Always preceed with a cover email/letter, It would be worth joining the NUJ asap

Eirebear

Borderfox wrote: »

Always preceed with a cover email/letter, It would be worth joining the NUJ asap

yeah to be honest i should have joined a long time ago, i got stung badly back home, so im a little less confident going into things this time....one thing i do know now though is that once ive got that foot in the door...no one gets nothing for nothing

Other than that though, does my basic idea seem to be heading in the right direction...or am i missing anything?