By Carol Tice
I recently got a question from Tonja Alvis, an aspiring freelancer from my own neighborhood near Seattle. Tonja was thinking about submitting articles to family and religious Web sites, but felt underqualified.
“I can’t get over the fact that I should be more of an expert in this field — a family counselor or with a degree in theology — instead of simply being a writer who is great at writing about these topics.”
Great question Tonja. And I can answer it in three words:
Get over it.
It’s a popular myth that professional writers need to possess some kind of official credentials in the subject matter about which they write — that business reporters have an MBA, for instance, or that real-estate writers are all former realtors or mortgage brokers.
One of my first regular freelance gigs was writing cover features for the Los Angeles Times real estate section. I made the contact by winning an essay contest the paper held, soliciting first-person stories about remodeling your house.
When the editor asked me to do regular reporting for him after publishing my first-person essay, I was freaked. “Don’t I need to be a realtor or something for that?” I asked him.
“Oh please no!” he said. “We’ve tried to have professionals like that write for us, and it was always a disaster. Their writing is awful! Your writing is funny and sharp. Please don’t change! Write just the way you do, and learn a little bit about the industry.”
Why did my editor respond this way? Because industry professionals tend to write in dry, almost incomprehensible industry jargon-babble…while most consumer-oriented publications are trying to reach a more general audience.
As a writer with only a layperson’s understanding of your topic, you’re perfect for the job.
When it comes to writing first-person essays on topics you’ve experienced in your own life, you’re all the expert you need to be. Just work on making your writing exceptional, and you’re there.
I’ve written articles about operating a hardware store in Fairbanks, Alaska…using software tools to calculate the money insurers need to keep in reserve against losses…how financial-service startups can land venture capital money…and striking dockworkers in San Pedro, just to name a few.
Do you think I am an expert in any of these things? Have I actually been a dockworker or owned a hardware store? Nope.
I always say I may not be an expert in your topic…but give me 24 hours, and I will be.
With the Internet, information isn’t hard to find — you can always learn about any subject, and locate experts in that subject you can interview and quote. If you can bring great writing skills, you can find the experts you need for almost any assignment.
By Carol Tice
I’m mentoring a great newbie writer and editor here in the Seattle area. She has a couple of clips from some magazine work she lucked into, plus a lot of blog writing under her belt, and she was wondering if she could include them when she sends out query letters.
“My clips are from 2007 and 2008,” she wrote me in May ’09. “Do they still count as clips?”
You bet they do.
I routinely submit articles that are 5-7 years old or more, if they hit a specific topic where an editor wants me to have expertise. Just because you didn’t write something yesterday doesn’t mean your clip can’t show you know about a subject, or know how to write a complex feature story.
So dust off those clips and send ’em out!
What if your older clips aren’t available online? Get PDFs made of them and post them to your writer site.
“Are they worth it, or do they come back to haunt you?” she wrote.
There’s a solution to this problem — tailor your queries, and then you’re never really sending two identical pitches. And you’re free to pitch your brains out without sitting around worrying that you might be offending some editor who’s probably not going to bite anyway.
Don’t send the exact same query to multiple magazines or newspapers — instead, send different slants on the topic customized for each publication. Then you’ve differentiated your pitches, and you’re in the clear on sending simultaneous queries…and more likely to get acceptances, because each pitch is more targeted to that publication.
If by a miracle you got two hits from two different editors, you could just let hit #2 know you are writing something SIMILAR — but not identical already for bla publication, do they care? If you’ve done it right, they won’t.
The other approach is to simultaneously pitch the exact same idea, but to very different, noncompeting markets — say, a regional trade publication in the west, and a city magazine in the east. If their audiences don’t overlap, they’re never going to care.
Editors understand the speed at which news is moving these days, and I think most don’t expect you to sit on an idea for a month or two until they finally get a chance to read it.
This gets back to my basic premise about pros vs amateur writers. Professionals are never sitting around, wishing and wondering if they’re getting an assignment, while newbies can spend weeks and even months fantasizing, agonizing, wishing and hoping that some editor would get back to them. Waiting, and not sending more queries! To make a full-time living at this, you’ve got to be moving forward constantly like a shark, to be frank.
Literally the minute I send a query, I have moved on to other activities. I might well send 10 queries on the same topic in a day, to various markets.
So get out there and pitch, people! More pitching means more shots at landing an assignment.
But I’m seeing so many freelancers out there making grave mistakes that are costing them a chance to make good money that I am unable to contain myself. I need to say something.
And that something is: Stop selling yourself short.
There’s been a lot of chat on writer forums about writing for the content mills — Demand Studios, Helium, Associated Content, etc. Some very experienced writers were saying that things are slow now so they’ve taken to writing for these sites, which generally pay $15 an article.
And this, people, is the top way to make sure you don’t make a good living — spend hours and hours of your time writing extremely low-paying content. It doesn’t have to be for a content mill site — could be for a chop house that sets you up with some law firm’s Web site or whatever. But the pay is under $20 an article, for something that takes at least an hour to write.
Let me count the ways this destroys your money earning chances:
1) It lets prospective clients know that you’re willing to work for $15 an article.
2) It sucks up precious time you should be spending prospecting for good-paying work.
3) It demoralizes you and makes you feel bad about yourself and your writing abilities.
4) It teaches you to write junk you toss together quickly, instead of helping hone your writing chops.
A lot of new writers are lured to these sites because pretty much everyone is accepted — there’s no rejection. These sites are great for professionals in other fields who want to promote their services or their ebook or whatever. But they can be a terrible sinkhole for writers.
An hour spent prospecting could get you a client that pays $500 an article, or a copywriting client that pays $85 an hour. Just one assignment from them would make up for hours and hours of writing for the content mills.
So remember, you’re worth it! And keep looking for clients who value your expertise.
I took a free Webinar from copywriter Chris Marlow on how to combine your copywriting and Web content skills with social media knowledge to earn really good money.
She had study data that the most commonly quoted rate for this combined service package was $300 an hour. $150 an hour was the lowest price quoted!
Among the service niches she described in this arena:
* Helping companies set up profiles on social media such as FaceBook and LinkedIn
* Helping companies defend their reputation on social media sites from rude comments about their products or services
* Ghost blogging for the company or executives
* Helping companies promote their offerings and helping them devise an event schedule for making sure they are regularly appearing in social media.
For those of us who already have — or are interested in obtaining — copywriting skills, and are dabbling in social media, it doesn’t sound like too much of a leap to acquire this expertise. Personally, I’m dabbling on Twitter, in part to learn more about how social media is evolving.
Marlow teaches a class in this topic that provides lots more details, I gather…maybe something to consider for the blog-savvy who would like to start really making good money off their online skills!
Food for thought for new writers who maybe have been blogging and are interested in copywriting…or maybe have a couple copywriting samples put together and are interested in social media.
By Carol Tice
Many freelance writers tend to think in terms of eking out a living. Ooh, if I can just manage to make $20,000 a year, wouldn’t it be wonderful?
Instead of this mentality, I’d like to introduce you to an alternative universe where really motivated, efficient, excellent writers are making four or five times that. We’re making really good livings. Like, I took my family of five on an Alaska cruise a couple summers ago with what I made from just one copywriting client.
Within a couple years of going freelance in 2005, I began making more than I did as a full-time, staff reporter. Five years later, I was making twice as much as I had as a staffer.
There seems to be an assumption that freelancing means making less–that you must trade lots of income for the freedom you get. But in my experience, that’s only true if you think it is.
I encourage the writers I mentor to envision how to make a really comfortable living with their work, how to mix in some really high-paying work to enable them to also write lower-paying work they may really love, while not living on bean burritos.
Being a freelancer does NOT have to mean starving.
I think the content mills have really encouraged the poverty mindset. But if you change your mindset to an abundance mindset, there is plenty of good-paying writing work out there.
Another example: I had a large client I was billing at $85 an hour. At the end of 2007, I was encouraged by other freelance-writer friends to ask for a raise to $95. I got some resistance, but they went for it–and wow was I glad!
I later learned most of their other writers got $125 so I was still a deal…and of course shortly afterward the economy went down and it would have been impossible to ask for a raise at that point.
But believing in myself there probably meant an extra $10,000 or so I earned over the course of the next couple years, for doing the very same thing I was before–it turned out to be a busy time with lots of work. If I had a poverty mindset, I’d still be earning my old wage, working more hours to get to the same place.
Here’s the secret they don’t tell you when you start freelancing:
As a freelancer, your earning potential is unlimited.
That’s what being a freelance writer really gives you — the ability to earn as much as you’re able, rather than being trapped with a set salary in a job.
To which I say: Ha!
I say that because I never had any inside connections to get started in writing. I am a college dropout with no writing-industry connections.
How did I break into writing? One word: contests. Two contests I entered early on in my writing career really set me on my way.
The first was for the Los Angeles Weekly. It was their 10th anniversary and they held an essay contest looking for stories about the past decade in L.A. Well, I had moved back to L.A. after dropping out of college exactly a decade before, and it was like they designed the contest just for me. As I recall, they paid me $200 as one of several winning entrants.
To say that this changed my life would not be an exaggeration. I was at that time a starving songwriter, paying to four-wall dives on Hollywood Blvd. A kind of writing they pay YOU for? I was hooked.
My second contest was held by the Los Angeles Times real estate section. They were soliciting tales of do-it-yourself home improvement. Since my husband and I had been fixing up our hovel-house for years, making tons of lame mistakes along the way, once again it was a contest tailor-made for me.
Even better than winning contests and earning a few hundred dollars, each of these wins led me to long-term relationships with editors I wrote for for years afterwards. The L.A. Weekly and I didn’t hit it off so well, but the few pieces I wrote there allowed me to transition over to their rival at the time, the L.A. Reader. I wrote for them for years, including cover features (paid $300! a fortune to me at the time).
The editor of the real estate section also wanted me to write for him. I wrote section covers for him for years, until I moved away from L.A. That’s right, about 8 months into starting to dabble in freelance writing, I was writing for one of the largest newspapers in the country. Contests can really save you a lot of slogging up the food chain in writing and get your work in front of influential editors.
Three pieces of advice on how to break in:
One: Surprise! It’s contests. A search of my online-supported Writer’s Market reveals roughly 100 screenplay contests. There’s about another 100 for playwrights. Look through those and find contests you’re right for, and enter! It can open a lot of doors — sure did for me.
Two: As a former entertainment-industry legal secretary, I can tell you that many studios and agents look at unsolicited scripts. They’re always hoping to find that out-of-left-field hit from somebody new. Or they have professional readers look at them and give them a quick sense of whether they’re any good. Study the industry and find people who might give your script a look. They’re out there.
Three: Social media. There’s really never been an easier time to connect with people than right now. Search Twitter or LinkedIn for key words for your writing niche, and try to connect with some of those people online. Some will refuse, but some won’t. Join online forums for newbie screenwriters and learn from your peers.
To sum up: get out there, write, find contests, submit, network, and don’t let anybody stop you!
By Carol Tice
Recently read this tale of freelancer woe on the Web site of freelance writer Robert Felton under the title “Editorial Ethics and Respecting Respect,” about how he got ripped off by an editor. His story:
“After returning from a trip, I was talking on the phone with the editor of a magazine for which I occasionally write. We chatted about a number of ideas for his magazine, including one we both thought was interesting. I followed up with an email, to which he replied that the magazine was seriously considering the story idea we had discussed. He then asked me for more information.
I did my research and put out a HARO on the idea. I forwarded the relevant emails to him and reiterated my interest in doing the story. I heard nothing for a while. Then, yesterday, I opened the most recent issue of the magazine to find the exact same story idea written by the editor and based on the sources I had provided.
I emailed him and heard back this morning. His explanation was that another story fell through and he wrote the story quickly. He apologized and told me that since his magazine is a small niche market, I shouldn’t have any trouble reselling the idea.
What do you suggest I do?”
Why on earth did you forward all your source contacts to your editor?
That handed your editor the ability to do the story easily themselves.
You might want to provide the name of one or possibly two experts in your query letter, but keep the rest to yourself.
When I query, I might mention that I know a top expert in this field who’s a university researcher, or whatever…but I tend to not say their names. Or if I do, I certainly don’t provide their emails and phone numbers.
Here’s more bad news: This client is unethical. They should have at least TOLD you this was happening, even though you were kinda dumb to hand them your sources. You shouldn’t ever open a magazine to discover they’ve ripped off your idea.
Ethical publications pay a story-idea fee — often $50 or $100 — if they use your idea but don’t assign it to you.
If this were me, I’d move on and not work with them again. If as he said it’s a resellable idea I’d get busy reselling — and use those resales to establish new editor relationships elsewhere.
Story ideas are not copyrightable or protected in any way. Same with story headlines. So there’s no recourse when this kind of thing happens. You can only learn not to deal with that person again, look for new markets to sell the idea to, and move on.
By Carol Tice
One freelance writer recently asked me:
“How does a seasoned writer find long-term clients? I’ve been freelancing for 15 years and had a steady list of publications that I wrote for regularly. Now, most of the editors I worked with have been laid off and the publications are folding or cutting pages. I’m very visible online and have a website and blog that have attracted assignments but I’d like consistent assignments like I had before. I do network and have started new relationships with editors but I’m wondering if there are other steps that I need to take.”
Here are a few ideas:
Strategy one: You mention that most of your editors were laid off. Hey, mine too! In recent years, nearly EVERY editor I wrote for was out of a job. But I’ve continued to have steady work from many outlets through this whole downturn.
How? By following each of those laid-off editors to wherever they land next.
You don’t say anything about staying in touch with these editors who previously clearly adored you and gave you a steady stream of work. Where are they now? What are they doing? Look them up on LinkedIn and connect with them.
If they’re out of work, send them job leads! Ask what type of work they’re looking for so you can refer them. Help put them back to work, and they’ll be forever grateful. While you’re helping, they may well refer you as well.
I’ll just give you a couple of examples of how finding and staying in touch with former editors paid off for me.
One former magazine editor I worked with landed a freelance gig at a popular online business portal. They paid very little, but I signed on just to keep the relationship. That connection led to a huge opportunity to write a $6,000 article package for a major corporation a few months later, which I would have missed completely if I hadn’t stayed in touch.
I looked up another former trade-magazine editor of mine, and found he was at another publication now. They didn’t have any freelance budget, but a few months later he decided he was too busy to work for a freelance client he wrote for on the side. It was a global custom publisher creating sponsored newspaper inserts. He referred me and I got a quick $1,500 or so of easy work at $.50 a word.
Some of my editors are still out there interviewing. I’m sure when they find new gigs, I’ll get work from them again, because I’m still in touch.
In this economy, we have to stick with the people we’ve enjoyed working with — we can’t afford to lose any of our relationships.
Strategy two: You say you’re getting assignments, but they’re sporadic. What are you doing to further cement your relationship with your new editors and get them to assign you regularly?
I know it’s often hard to build relationships with new editors when you’re part of a previous regime, because we’re feeling sad that a relationship has been severed. But it can be done!
I’ve experienced this scenario with one of my magazine clients, which brought in a whole new editor lineup in the past year. I’ve had to reach out repeatedly and meet new editors. But now I’m actually writing more for them than ever. I ended up writing for five different section editors I’m working with there now, all new to me.
Show new editors you have a lot of ideas and can really help them impress their bosses with the solid work they’re overseeing. I sent one editor of mine a pitch letter with 11 ideas in it last week…that’s what I’m talking about. Be a fountain of information, and they’ll bring you back for more assignments. Whenever you turn in an assignment, don’t leave without asking when the next pitch cycle is and what types of stories they need.
If I’d just slunk off after my previous editors left, I’d be out my connection with a great publication, and would have missed the chance to meet a bunch of great new editors there.
If any of them end up leaving there, guess what I’ll be doing? That’s right — staying in touch.
Strategy three: When publications cut pages, I’ve found they often add online content. Be sure to investigate whether there are additional writing opportunities for your publications online. You may need to reach out and connect with a different editor who’s overseeing online content…but I can tell you there’s lots of articles being assigned to beef up publication Web sites and offer something exclusive for online viewers.
Strategy four: Pitch a regular column idea. Nothing creates a steady gig like being assigned a regular slot in a publication. I’ve been a regular tax columnist and also had a column about venture capital for one magazine. Neither paid a ton, but it’s steady money each month, and I find it helps make you the first person they think of when they’re assigning other stories, too.
So here’s a look under the hood at writer pay and how it’s set.
Factor one: experience. It’s true that many publications and corporations will pay more for a more experienced writer. They can tell from the quality and quantity of your clips how long you’ve been around. (If you haven’t put up a Web site where you can feature links to a substantial number of your clips to impress editors, do so immediately!)
Factor two: budget. Let’s look at print first. Magazines and newspapers have subscribers and advertisers who pay them. That gives them money to pay you (and their own salaries). If they have a lot of subscribers, advertisers are likely paying more for the right to reach them; if fewer subscribers, they have less money to pay you.
The exception to this scenario is if they have few subscribers but those subscribers represent a very desirable audience – says, CEOs of major corporations or wealthy jet-setters. In which case, their ads likely still go for plenty and they should pay good. This is why trade publications are often good-paying markets – their sub base may be fairly small, but they give advertisers a valuable opportunity to reach a very specific niche market – people who own hardware stores or do business consulting, for instance.
Online sites have various business models. Some companies who sell a product or service in the 3-D world consider their online content a marketing cost like buying ads in magazines. Depending on how big that company is or how lucrative their business is, they will have more or less money to pay you. This is why copywriters long to write for Fortune 500 companies – they have the revenue to pay well. While there are some very legitimate and good-paying all-virtual Internet companies, most are cheesy online sites that sell ads on their site and that’s the whole business model – and they tend to pay squat.
Factor three: the marketplace. Tempering these factors is the publication’s sense of going rates in the marketplace. We’re currently in a bad patch with this, as many people are out of work and apparently willing to write complex legal, insurance, tax or financial articles for $10 or $20, much less easier stuff.
An increasing number of companies are falling to this bottom-pay rung right now, because they can – there is a surplus of people willing to write for next to nothing. So it’s a harder task to find the companies that still realize that if they want to build a reputation for quality, they need to hire a pro.
Fortunately, these times will end some day, I believe, and the pool of online sweatshop workers who speak English as a first language will vanish, leaving companies to hire people at a fairer, living wage. May this day come speedily and in our time!
Despite the economy, good-paying clients are still out there. So keep looking and get paid what you deserve.
