Although I have been freelancing for a while and tackled a few high paying markets, I still find myself looking at the medium paying markets to chase after.
Recently, as I scanned through my market lists, a gig caught my eye. It was a travel writing gig, but then when I saw the pay it said $300.00. It suddenly threw me!
Back when I published work only occasionally, for little pay, in places no one had ever heard of, a friend ‘shared” a story assignment she was too busy to handle herself. In doing so, she introduced me to the wide publication possibilities that food-writing can open for writers.
Just over a year ago, I walked away from a well-paying marketing job to launch a freelance writing career, working primarily in the business to business sector. Within two months, my freelance income was paying the bills. In this first year of writing self-employment, I learned many things that improved my business savvy and monthly income. Here are 10 tips I wish someone had given me before I launched my freelance writing business.
How do you use WritersWeekly.com’s paying markets section? Does the magazine’s title and your knowledge (or lack of) of a particular niche determine whether or not you read the guidelines? If you’ve never lived on a ranch and don’t know any cowboys, do you bypass the guidelines for RANGE magazine? Do you dissect and ruminate over every word in Purposeful Women? Sure you do; you’re human.
We all like to write about our areas of expertise, and some of us refuse to tackle anything beyond. What’s the payoff for never leaving our comfort zone? Less challenge, fewer writing assignments, and smaller income. I know what I’m talking about because I’ve been there, done that.
There are a few steps you can take which will turn your great idea into a fantastic query letter, and, hopefully, a well-written, attention-grabbing article.
I have written for a national publication and was told by the senior editor that the pay per article was $50. I received that amount for my first article for them. I have two more deadlines to write for this magazine –two articles that I pitched.
This magazine had a listing on another website and I contacted that person, who is the deputy editor, to inquire on what they were looking for and what they paid. She emailed me back saying they pay a flat rate of $350 for the same amount of words I am supposed to write for the next two articles.
On the WritersWeekly.com Freelance Job Listings, I found a link to the CBC Radio Freelancer Forum. As a print writer, radio was a BIG stretch, but a little desperate for paying markets, I registered for the CBC forum and newsletter. In one of the newsletters was a request for “consumer” pitches requiring freelancers to test several products and tell which gave consumers the best bang for their buck. The finished pieces were only 3 or 4 minutes long and I knew that this was something I could do.
Before I had kids, I was a public school English teacher for about a decade. I spent my days teaching grammar, spelling, composition, and literature to students in grades ranging from middle school to high school. There were times that the decade felt more like a millennium, but it was who I was and what I did. When my first child was born, I hung up my pointer and whip, and became a full-time parent, only occasionally wondering about the outside world filled with other people’s children.
The phone rang this morning and I realized for perhaps the first time that I Am A Writer. It was my friend, Jen. We used to work at the same TV station.
DAY TWO – Your Master List What should writers do? With so many ideas floating around in their minds, it’s impossible to keep them all organized, right? Maybe not. Today we’ll take a major organizing leap, and create a cheat sheet of the types of information you use. The Master List, your organizing bible, drives […]
