Your Turn…How to Get Started as a Freelance Writer
December 20, 2007 by Deb
Filed under Freelance Writing
Forgive me, I’m a little tired. My family is sick and I braved the crowded stores today. Do you mind if I turn the FWJ over to you today?
When I checked my gmail this evening there were dozens of letters from writers looking to get their start. Now, I know I’ve posted about this in the past. Rather than rehash and rewrite, I thought I’d turn the floor over to you.
What is the one tip you can offer to writers looking to get their start? Where do they begin? How do they begin? Do and don’ts?
Here’s mine, you probably know it already: Research. Don’t enter into it blind. Just because you see a lot of work from home ads featuring writers doesn’t mean you know how it’s done. Research freelance writing, find out what editors look for, learn about cover letters, queries and rejection. Learn about pay rates and the different types of writing. Figure out if you want to write for the web or newspapers or magazines.
After you’ve taken a good month and read everything you possibly can, then you can get started.But do the research first.
Now it’s your turn. What is the one piece of advice you would like to offer to writers looking to get their start?
Be persistent, and don’t be afraid of rejection. It’s going to happen. A lot. A good freelancer needs to be aware of his shortcomings, and not afraid to face them, and sometimes that means hearing things about your own work that you’d rather not.
-Jeremy
Hone your skills. Don’t think of your editor as an adversary (as long as he/she is treating you in a professional manner); you both have the same goal, which is to publish a good article in his/her publication under your name, for pay (or for a good cause that you believe in, if you’re doing pro bono work).
This means that the editor’s suggestions are worth looking at and that rewriting is part of the job. I know that many freelancers specify how many rewrites they will do in their contracts, which is great if you can get the editor to agree to that language.
My first editor really helped me become a better travel writer. She took a chance on a brand-new freelancer, and that first gig gave me a lot of confidence that I badly needed.
One more tip: Get smart about business licenses and taxes. If you don’t have time, find a good CPA who works with freelancers on a regular basis.
Thanks to Phil and Lori for your thoughts on writer contracts. This is a good issue for newbies to pay attention to as well.
To Katharine Swan,
Well trying to type without an ecks AND a sed key was tough at first.
I really need to get them ficsed but I just can’t bear to be without a laptop for any length of time so, yeah I haven’t got round to it yet. :S
What I do is copy-paste in the letters whenever I need them, usually from a Word doc.
For instance, if I need a sed, I type wiard and it underlines it in red so I choose the correct word wisard (with a sed obviously) and then just copy and paste it wherever I need it.
Much easier and more convenient than having esses and eckses everywhere!!!
LOL
Sarah,
That sounds crazy, but I understand about not wanting to go without your laptop. I’ve let things go too (some of the idiot lights on my laptop aren’t working, for instance) because I can’t stand to go laptop-less for any amount of time.