The Freelance Writing Trenches: It's A Business

It's been a ripe old time since I've penned a post for The Freelance Writing Trenches series and, true confession, the very start of this post has been hanging out in draft form on the Blogger service since 5/29/2012. High time to dust it off and publish it already, don't you think?
 



I took a lot of great classes in college. During my four years of undergraduate work, I enjoyed course such as British Literature and Reading in French. I opt for an extremely liberal arts heavy higher education, taking "Logic" for my analytical reasoning gen ed and "Great Ideas of Science" for my science gen ed. (And yes, in that latter course we just sat around and talked about string theory and the butterfly effect.) Oh, it was all fun and games until the recession hit.

Looking back at my college transcript, my class choices hint at an individual preparing to spend her professional life steeping in academia. Except when you fast forward six years from my college days, I'm here, hanging out in a cabin in the woods, running multiple businesses. If there's one glaring hole in my college transcript, it's the utter lack of any business education whatsoever.

I run a business every single day. On the flip side, (as much as it pains me to admit it), I only use the knowledge I learned from "Theatre: Greek to Elizabethan" a handful of times a year, usually when playing Trivial Pursuit. Being brutally practical, I use next to nothing that I learned from my college course in my everyday work. What I do draw upon is what I learned as news editor for my college's student newspaper and the time I spent sticking my toe into the world of freelance writing (researching markets, writing queries, etc.) during summer breaks.

It's not my college's fault that I followed my heart when choosing courses and a major path. After all, my college time was spent pre-recession and the prevailing attitude was that even if I veered off the course of higher education, I could always translate my liberal art skills (aka writing skills) into a cushy corporate job. Freelancing really wasn't considered a viable career path yet and my English professors, who had all gone the masters, Ph.D, teach college route, didn't have much insight to offer on any non-academic career path.

Still, I wish, that at some point someone would have said, "Hey bozo, go take some business classes."  In fact, I'd argue that it's almost more important for every college graduate to enter the world with at least one business course under their belt than an analytical reasoning or science course. The days of spending your summer breaks interning at a business that will offer you a job upon graduation are rapidly disappearing. Instead, our higher education institutions need to figure out a way for college graduates to thrive without the shelter of a corporate wing. For many of us that means going into business for ourselves. Because here's a secret that it took way too long for me to figure out about the adult world: it's all a business.

Writers like to think we have too much artistic integrity to worry our little heads about horrible, bland business details, but we don't get very far if we aren't capable of churning out polished, marketable product, whether we write poems or magazine feature articles. No matter if we make beautiful pottery or write short stories or fix plumbing problems, we need to let people know that we have these skills and then we need to convince people that they should consume these products and services from us. We're always selling something, even if we don't think we are.

To be successful writers, we need to know how to market ourselves and find consistent work; we need to ask for the payment we deserve; and we must be open to editorial criticism. Most importantly, we need to stop shirking away from any internal heebie-jeebies we get when we think of running our own businesses.

Wherever you are in the writing life at the moment, this year I challenge you to start thinking of your writing as a business. After all, your writing should work for you, not the other way around.

Interested in how to transform your writing into a business? Check out the rest of the posts in the Freelance Writing Trenches series to spark some ideas.

 

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The Freelance Writing Trenches: Writers Behaving Badly

I stumbled upon a travel article about the region where I live last week. I'd been keeping my eyes out for the article, since early this spring, before we'd even opened for the season, the writer had made a special visit to my work place for the article.

Because my work place is a fairly new travel destination, we often get freelance writers in and I've learned that the way I would do things if  I was writing the article and the way other writers approach the assignment can be drastically different. On at least two occasions, there have been writers who wrote articles about the place without even bothering to talk to anyone connected with it; the articles were basically 500-800 word laundry lists of what the museum contains. An article without quotes? Boring!

But I digress . . .

So the other day, I read this article that I knew was coming out and my jaw dropped. No mention of my work place, while sources who had ferried around the author (and family) for three days, were hardly mentioned. The author confused recent wildfire incidents. I felt a twinge of disappointment, then of annoyance, and finally, anger. In writing the article, the author had broken just about every unspoken rule of the freelance writer. 

Don't want to be a writer behaving badly? Just follow these three rules:

Rule #1 - Say What You Mean, Mean What You Say:

From the get-go, the author lead sources to believe the article would be published in a very well-known national publication. While not technically untrue, the article was actually destined for the website of a specialty spin-off of the well-known national magazine. Would sources have bent so far backwards for the author if they'd known the article wouldn't even be published in print? Probably not.

As a freelance writer, you don't always know what the fate of your article will be. Once you submit your article, the article's fate is in the hands of your editor who may print the article in another issue than previously agreed upon or the article may never be published at all. If you're writing on speculation, you don't even know if your article will ever be published. But if you are gracious and kind and a good steward of your source's time, they'll be happy to talk with you for an hour or so even if you aren't sure where the article will end up.

And you owe it to your sources to be honest about what you do know about the article's fate. The only thing you achieve by making grandiose promises you can't deliver on are bad feelings. While I'm not upset that my work place didn't get a shout-out in the article (hey, I get word constraints), I did find it odd that the entire area where I live only got about three teensy, weensy paragraphs in the article which were half filled with incorrect information. I do find it rude when you accept a three-night complimentary stay at local lodging and then hardly eek out three paragraphs about that location. 

Which brings us to rule #2  . . .


Rule #2 - There's No Such Thing As a Free Lunch Vacation:

As a freelance writer, you will get free things. I just finished reading a complimentary copy of a great book that I'll blog about later this week. I have no problem with receiving free items for review purposes, especially since most reviewers have disclosure policies they use when reviewing free product.

But size does matter.

If you are a travel writer, you may accept discounts, but you should not accept free lodging, meals, tours, etc. etc. If you want to write unbiased copy for masses, you've got to pay, just like the masses do. You can absolutely can not be in debt to your source. If you're working for a large publication, they'll be reimbursing your travel expenses anyway. That's what makes the travel writing gig so sweet.

Rule #3 -You're Not That Smart . . . Fact Check:

Confusing the locations of our many, (extremely) well publicized wildfire incidents is just plain sloppy. I suspect the author didn't send a draft out to the article to sources to fact check because the author knew sources might not be too pleased by the pithy coverage offered in the article. However, a simply Google search would have quickly pointed out the author's errors.

By the way, you certainly are not obligated to send sources a draft of your article. After all, you're supposed to have gotten the facts right the first go around. But having sources look over an article for accuracy is a great way to nip mistakes in the bud and save you the shame of the publication printing a correction to your article.

Moral of the story: be straight with your sources, don't take free things, and fact check your article. If you don't, you make the rest of us writers look bad. Don't be a writer behaving badly. Don't spoil everyone else's fun.

 

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The Freelance Writing Trenches: Follow-Up guest post

 Note from Ada: Today's installment of The Freelance Writing Trenches comes from Robert Lillegard, a college classmate of mine, and one of the most successful 20-something freelance writers I know. Over the years, Robert and I have kept in touch about our freelance success and headaches and I've always admired Robert's tenacity. There's a lot we call all learn from Robert when it comes to having a successful freelance career. 

The Importance of Follow-Up
By Robert Lillegard

I’ve been freelancing for about six years, but I’ve really started taking it more seriously in the last two. I’ve sold stories to the New York Times, Midwest Living, Relish, Latina, and a couple of major trade journals. One of the biggest things that has helped me along the way is something my editor at my day job told me: the persistent get published.

The simplest way I can say it is this:

Pester editors until they get back to you. 

I’m the online editor for Duluth~Superior Magazine, and I periodically get pitches for stories, emails from potential interns, etc. There are a few things I look for in those emails. I appreciate it when people get my name right. I appreciate it when people give off the impression that they have read our magazine—they don’t have to actually have read it, but they have to sound like they have (hint: this doesn’t mean saying “as I was reading your magazine, I noticed that you could use more articles”. It’s more like “Your Sojourn section has done stories on Bayfield and Ashland, but you haven’t yet covered Ely.”) And, I appreciate it when they send me polite follow-up emails checking if I’ve had a chance to look over their query yet.

Ok, appreciate is the wrong word. Frankly, those follow-up emails are pretty annoying, because they mean more work for me. But you know what? Half the time they’re the only emails I respond to. I’ll ignore the original email but after a follow up or two I basically always respond. There are a few reasons for this (for example, following up shows me a writer can be diligent, which makes a good impression) but the main one is this: it keeps the writer at the top of my mind. I’ll eventually write back, if only to say “no”, because that person took the effort to keep working on me.

The Lesson: Follow-up is key.

So, I apply this to my own writing as well. I track every query I send out with an Excel spreadsheet that has the date, subject of the query, the publication, and the editor’s name. If that sounds like a lot of work, come on—doesn’t it take you at least an hour to write a query? Even pitching a nearly identical query to a competing publication takes at least 10 minutes just to track down the editor’s name and email. So an additional 45 seconds to update your query log is really no big deal.

But, here’s where the query log is key. Make 5 extra columns and label them First Follow-Up, Second Follow-Up, Third Follow-Up, Fourth Follow-Up, and Phone Call. Then, send out your queries and wait. When no one gets back to you after two weeks, forward the editor your original query and at the top add something along these lines:  

Dear Mr. Morton, 

Just wanted to follow up with you about my story pitch on kayaking in the buff. I think it would be a perfect fit for the Give it a Try section of Naked Sports Magazine. Is this something you’d be interested in? 
Best, Frankie Freelancer

(You wouldn’t actually say Frankie Freelancer though, you’d say your name).

Then, under the First Follow-Up column, write the date you followed up. Continue the process, varying your follow-up emails just slightly, every couple of weeks until you hear back. If you keep not hearing back, give a polite phone call a try.

 Some places won’t ever get back to you. But if your queries are good and you’re targeting the right markets, this should really improve your response rate. I had to follow up with one magazine something like eight or nine times, but now I have a monthly column with them and I get a feature basically every month, too. Plus, of course, there’s the New York Times, which I try to mention at least twice every time I write something about writing. Whether you’re pulling $50 an article or $1 a word (or both if you write really short articles), following up persistently will help you get to the next level in your writing career.

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The Freelance Writing Trenches: Network

You should be networking as a freelance writer. You really should. What with it being the era of social media and all, you really have no excuse.

You know. it's funny. As a girl who has reached her (gasp) late 20s, I've watched my Facebook feed evolve drastically over the last seven years. What started out as a random assortment of mostly amusing postings from classmates at my alma mater has now been overtaken by applications, postings from my friends' moms, and pictures of the babies of the people I haven't talked to in years. Connections that seemed so vital back in the day end up looking almost superficial after a few years and miles are between the two of you.

When I'm in a hasty mentality, I'll poo-poo Facebook as silly and unnecessary. But when I'm in a more objective mood, I can see that Facebook has allowed me to stay in touch with some very important people.

The thing is, when I originally "friended" them, oh, six or seven years ago, I knew I'd probably never them again after graduation. (And I haven't.)  I never imagined they'd be so important. But the mere fact that we've all pursued freelance writing and been able to keep in touch through the wonder of social media has made these individuals indispensable contacts.

You hear on any career building website how important it is to network. In fact, the word "network" kind of makes me glaze over. But I do think it behooves freelancers greatly, no matter where they're at with their careers, to stay in touch with fellow professionals who are following in similar footsteps.

Here's three reasons why:

Companionship:
Freelancing is lonely business. Sure, you'll get out of the house for an in-person interview every now and then, but most of your work is done through phone calls and emails. What's more, if you're a freelancer, you probably get this a lot when you explain the whole query/write for pay process: "Wow . . . that's . . . so . . . interesting. I didn't know you could do that." When you have someone you can contact who understands how you make your living (and not just in the "oh, good for you" way), you feel a little more legitimate and a lot less prone to spontaneously bursting out into a heart-wrenching version of "All By Myself." 

Competition:
If I wasn't passive aggressive, I'd call this reason "accountability" but the truth of the matter is, I like winning. (Maybe that's why Andy refuses to play cribbage with me anymore?) But when you're self-employed, there's no such thing as raises and promotions. Without any external forces pushing you to work harder, it can be easy to fall into the trap of thinking "hey, there was enough money to pay for groceries this month, who needs more than that?" But when you send off an update to one of your writer friends and they reply by telling you that they recently broke into the New York Times, you're presented with one of those "now wait a minute , , ," moments where you realize if they can do it, there's no reason why you can't either.  

Collaboration 
When you stay in touch with other freelance writers, you have an opportunity to share your experiences, yes, but also your contacts. Success in freelance writing depends to a certain extent on having an "in" with an editor. Most of that time, you're depending on a great story idea to land you a gig, but every once in a while, you'll get tipped off about a particular publication by another writer.  I've landed more than one job from a lead I got just from checking in with a fellow freelancing colleague. Classic scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. 

I don't have any specific formula to my networking, although I will say my most helpful networking has been with people who are in a similar stage of their freelance writing career as me. Still, there's value in networking with people who are just starting out (you will learn something just by answering their questions) as well as those who have reach that pinnacle of success you aim for. Many people recommend networking once a week. I find once a month is more attainable for me and enough to keep me on track with my goals.

Moral of the story: keep in touch. Shoot a writer you admire an email. Send a college classmate who's gone into a similar career a Facebook or Twitter message. You never know what doors might open as a result of your correspondence.

 

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The Freelance Writing Trenches: Consistency

Did I ever tell you that I procrastinate?

I didn't?

I'm sure I've been meaning to tell you that. I just, you know, haven't gotten around to it yet.

That's right. Not only am I "Judge-y McJudgerson," I procrastinate. All the time. (I'd say I really am more than just a lovely bundle of faults, but really, are any of us beyond just being a lovely bundle of faults? Really?)

Source: Uploaded by user via Ruth Ann on Pinterest

 

I crave organization and schedules. I want color-coded day planners. I want to know that at 7:45 each morning I will be sitting down with my breakfast to check emails and that I will start my work day promptly at 8 each morning and that at 12:30 . . .

But the truth is: I'm hot or cold. Some weeks it's like someone started a fire under my bum and I bask in the glory of my own production. Other weeks. . . . Well, other weeks I bask in the glory of Facebook and Pinterest.

Source: google.com via Eric on Pinterest

BTW, what is up with that quote? Apparently I need to figure out a way to get to a living wage out of Facebook and Pinterest . . . .

Sometimes I imagine what would happen if I was actually consistent and could take those crazy productive weeks and those not so inspiring weeks and mix them all together to create a slow but steady pace for the year's 52 weeks. I imagine projects would be completed in advance of deadlines, clutter would diminish, and my blood pressure would lower. But I've never been able to maintain a carefully regimented schedule. I'm easily distracted (ooo, shiny!) and I'm not sure I'm capable of writing without a dose of stressful adrenaline that bubbles through my veins when I flip the day planner page and find a row of little deadlines staring straight back at me.

Still, some nice things would come from having a more consistent schedule and work ethic. It would mean that when an editor sends me a deadline reminder and I email back saying I'm nearly done with those stories that I'd really meant that I was nearly done with the stories not that, I'm thinking about maybe giving the sources for the story a call this afternoon. It would mean that I wouldn't being doing phone interviews at 7 and 8 tonight because I  would have done them ahead of time. But sadly, that's just not the case.

So here's to procrastination and the production it inspires . . . eventually.

 

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The Freelance Writing Trenches: Tools and Gadgets

I like writing because it's low-tech. Technically, all you need to call yourself a writer is something to write with, something to write on, and a bit of imagination.There's something simple and elegant about needing nothing more than a pen and pad of paper to go about your daily work.

But in classic, "If you a give a mouse a cookie (then he'll want a glass of milk)" style, if you want to be a freelance writer, you'll need a few more items at your disposal beyond a notebook and pen. I know, I know. Rude.

While writers are notorious tech-phobes and pretty staunchly opposed to change  -- why else do we writers make a big fuss about self-publishing and ebooks? -- if you're want to compete in the 21st century writing markets, you're going to have to keep up with the times to a certain extent. The other day I read a freelance writing article (which I now can't find to link up) that said something along the lines of "Sure, you can not have a computer and be a freelance writer, but see how well that goes when someone says 'email that to me' and the best you can do is crumble up a piece of paper and throw it across the room." 

Here's my low-tech list of the bare necessities you'll need as a freelance writer:
(I bet you have most or all of these already.) 

• A computer, preferably a laptop, that isn't terrible prone to the "blue screen of death."
• A word processing program - Microsoft Word seems to be what most editors use.
• An internet connection - for your email, website, and social media platform
• Email - for contacting editors and submitting pieces 
• A phone - for interviews
• An invoicing system - like Quickbooks
• A decent camera - you'll greatly increase your earning potential if you can provide decent photos with your articles. I just have basic Canon point and shoot camera which works well enough for what I need it to do, but I'd like to save up for a DSLR camera to up the quality of my photos a little bit. 

If you want to get all fancy, you could get printer too. I have a printer/scanner/copier combo which I use to print out contracts, scan clips for my portfolio, and, well, make copies. And don't forget to have a good amount of office supplies laid in: pens, notebooks, printing paper, ink, Post-Its, etc.

While I'm a fan of keeping it simple, I have to admit my arsenal of freelance writing tools got a little high-tech recently when I was given a Livescribe Echo Smartpen.

What's a Smartpen? It's a pen with a built-in recording device that works with special dotted paper. At the bottom of each page of Smartpen paper is a set of controls. To record audio with the pen, you just turn the pen on and with the tip of your pen, tap the record control at the bottom of the paper. The pen records until you hit the stop control and during the recording session you can scribble notes on the paper.

After you're finished recording, you can tap any of the notes you wrote during the recording and the pen will starting playing the audio that was recorded at the exact time you wrote the note. You can load all of the recordings onto your computer and computer program even captures a digital image of the page you wrote on during the recording.   The pen is a little bulky, but that's easily overlooked since the pen is basically magic.

My dad discovered the Smartpen when he read James Fallow's review of it in The Atlantic back in 2009  and what's good enough for James Fallows is good enough for this hard-hitting rural journalist. Although I do the majority of my interviews over the phone, this little pen will be a great aid when I do in-person interviews. I simply can't take notes as quickly as people talk and as a result, the quotes I use in most of my articles are pretty heavily edited by my memory.

While to date, I've stayed true to the general gist of what a person said in my article quotations, it's been extremely difficult to do a true word for word quotation unless you've recorded the interview, which I'm pretty psyched about my new Smartpen. No need to futz around trying to find the spot like I'd have to if I'd use a tape recorder or digital recorder to capture the interview audio; with the Smartpen I can just write something like "interesting" or "important" on the page when the interviewee says something meaningful and when I'm back in my office I just tap the word I wrote on the page and bingo, the audio starts playing right to the quote I wanted to use in the article.

The pen charges by being hooked up to a computer USB port and the battery and memory should be able to hand a full day of recording. Since most of the interviews I do are only about an hour long, that's plenty of recording time for me!

A writer really needs very few tools and gadgets to success. But sometimes, something as simple as just getting a little more high-tech about that pad of paper and pen we're using can make our low-tech careers   just a little easier.

Do you have any must have writing tools?
 

 Disclosure: I was in no way compensated for my review of the Livescribe Echo Smartpen. I'm just an enthusiastic consumer excited to have found a product that makes my writing life more efficient! 

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The Freelance Writing Trenches: Business or Pleasure?

I had an epiphany early this week. As freelance job after freelance job snapped into place, I realized that if I had to, I could probably make this freelancing thing work on a full-time basis. It might not be pretty a lot of the time, but it would work . . . if it had to.

You see, at the end of last month, money was feeling a little tight. So I decided to stop letting that line on my weekly to-do list - "3 queries" - not go unchecked yet another week. I sent out three queries to publications I'd previously worked with and I got a thumbs up on all of three queries. Then, wonder of wonders, some of the articles that I'd gotten through those queries lead to more paying opportunities and suddenly I was riding a wave of freelance jobs and opportunities.

Obviously, things aren't always like this - for every lucrative writing month like this one, there'll be an equal, if not greater, dry spell when it comes to writing gigs.

That's okay.

I keep my day job to see me through those dry spells. But sometimes, it feels that I spent far too much time tangled up in the safety net that is my day job. Often I feel the day job holding me back rather than merely keeping me on my feet and I wonder what would happen if I simply left it behind me.

This week, I realized, things would probably be okay sans day job. I'm just not willing to sit around and let ends not meet. Over the last few weeks, I've proven than I can fairly easily step up my earning potential when needs be.

Which brings me to the point of this post. . . .

My writing has turned into a business. Sure, I write because, as Sylvia Plath said "there's a voice within me that will not be still." But sometimes, I think it's bills rather than artistic vision that keeps that voice within chattering away. I write to get paid. 

The farther down the freelance writing road I go, the more imperative it becomes that I get paid for my words. I hate to think I wouldn't write if I didn't get paid for it, but at this point in my life, I have limited amounts of time every day and I need to invest my time carefully for the best payout. Heck, even the blog's monetized a just enough to get it to pay for its annual domain renewal.

But as an English major, someone who raised to see writing as more of an art form than a livelihood, all this talk of monetizing feels, well, a little yucky. Shouldn't writers just be happy to be writing and creating? I truly enjoy the vast majority of freelance writing gigs I take, but there's also a thrill in knowing I'm being paid a certain word rate to research and write. Does that mean I've sold out? 

Case in point . . . . A couple years back, I started doing a bi-weekly commentary for the local radio station. (You can link to it up above "Of Woods and Words On Air".) At the time, I was just starting to seriously pursue freelance writing. I didn't have many paying gigs and I happily started writing and recording the commentary for free because it seems like good writing practice and great platform building.

But lately the commentary has become a pain in my B-U-T-T. Between writing and recording the commentary, I probably spend about 2.5 hours every two weeks on the commentary, not to mention the two-hour round trip to the studio to record it and the hassle of reserving a studio, etc. In the past year, the writing for the commentary's gone flat. I feel constantly at a loss for topics. It's easy to wonder if it's really worth it.

It seems to me I have two options with the commentary at this point, (well, three, if you consider sucking it up and continuing to record it on biweekly basis) each equally shallow:

Option 1) Ditch the commentary. Shallow because, really, I'm going to ditch an obligation because it doesn't pay me?  But, but, I'm also perceptually stuck for ideas and it seems like the writing gets worse and worse as the weeks go by.  Is it good business, even if I'm not getting paid, to stick my name on writing I'm not particularly proud of?

Option 2) Attempt to monetize the commentary. Continue to do the commentary for free for the local station, but either syndicate or find a paying market for each commentary. Shallow, obviously, since apparently the only way I find value in my writing is if I'm getting paid for it. On the other hand, getting paid for writing really  does increase the value of the writing to me, which in turn should mean that the writing in the commentaries would improve.

*sigh*

They say it always boils down to money and I suppose that's true, even for dreamy, impractical writers. But as much as I delight in my freelance writing business success, it's sad to watch writing for pleasure disappear from my life, at least for the time being.

Have you ever had a hobby turn into business? Any tips for maintaining a business while remaining artistically true to yourself?

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The Freelance Writing Trenches: On Writing "Prompt"ly

I've noticed a trend with writing "community" blogs. In general, the blogs supply readers with a writing prompt. A couple days later, the blog invites you to link up the post you wrote based on that prompt.

Now, I'm all about building community with writers, but for all the writer blogs I run across that provide writing prompt link-ups, I'm rarely tempted to spend my time actually follow the prompt. Why? Because unless the prompts fit into something I was already planning to write about, the prompts usually seem like a waste of my writing time.

I know writing prompts have many devotees. And if using a writing prompt is what you need to get your writing engine revved up, go for it. But I have my doubts about how much writing prompts really contribution to the creation of strong, confident writers. I think any writer out there dreaming of becoming a "real" writer needs to carefully examine their relationship with prompts.

As Jeff Goins wrote earlier this year on his blog: "Admittedly, prompts can be very valuable. As an exercise. But eventually, you don’t need another day at the gym. You need to sign up for the marathon and run. You need to go play a real game. You need to do something."

Hope Clark, who's never afraid of saying what she really means (bless her!) about the writing life, took her distaste of writing prompts one step further than Goins in this blog post.

"As you would imagine, prompts are used to teach children how to write stories," Clark wrote. "Children, while imaginative, have to first learn that a story has a theme, a beginning, middle and end. Prompts help them define those terms and create a story that’s molded properly. Adults, however, should be past that.

"As a freelancer, you are trying to earn a living. Ideas should be your meat and potatoes. You should be able to sit in your chair and not get up without an idea. In other words, you should be able to generate your own prompt, only you will use it to get somewhere, not just practice."

Most people have a finite amount of writing time each day. If you want to be a freelance writer, you need to spend that writing time productively. And yes by productively, I mean making money. You should be building your platform. Writing that will remain hidden forever in the depths of a notebook is not productive writing.

It sounds crass, especially since we writers are sensitive souls who love words and often write because it's the only real way we know how to process the world around us. Writing may be our art, but it's also our profession and  there's a point in any writer's life where the artistic statement stops and the paying bills begins. When we've really make it as writers, hopefully we get to create artistic statements and pay the bills.

I think writers are especially prone to thinking that they have to pass over some magical threshold before they declare themselves "writers." UWe forget that it's the act of writing that makes us writers in the first place.

Think about it: in school, did you thrive in English and composition? Have you received compliments on your writing? If  you've been writing for years, chances are you know how to write well enough to put yourself out there. Sure, it's scary and you're bound to face a fair bit rejection. Then again, if you can't take rejection, this writing gig isn't going to suit you very well. 

I don't mean to come down so harshly on writing prompts. What I'm trying to say is that we the writers are the ones who decide whether or not this is our hobby or profession.    

So, before you start in on another writing prompt, ask yourself:

• How does this help me reach my goals as a writer?
• Is this the best use of my writing time? 
• What will I do with this piece of writing once it's completed?

Chances are you have all sorts of ideas rattling around in that writer's brain of yourself. So ditch the prompts and write one of those ideas. 

Trust yourself. Write your own material. Own it. Sell it.

 

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The Freelance Writing Trenches: Write It Down

Clever, right?

Here I am, penning a freelance writing "how-to" article, and my advice to you is "write it down."

"No shit, Sherlock," says you.

But I'm not actually talking about writing articles, essays, short stories, or what have you. (But just to clarify, if you want to earn a living as a writer, you will eventually have to "write it down" at some point. Just saying.) I'm talking about writing down those hazy goals we all have for our writing, for our careers, for our lives.

Let me admit that it has not been a sterling winter at Of Woods and Words. I mean, it hasn't been a disaster. The off season certainly started off strong with plenty of freelance work and I've done my set, "must be done" work diligently and with a surprising amount of consistency. But since about December, I've been stuck in a creative rut. The novel that I worked so hard on editing two winters back and shopped around last winter has been sitting patiently in its three ring binder, wondering if I'll ever give it the rewrite attention it needs. I've spent a lot of time hovering around, scrolling through Pinterest,   waiting for the next move.

I've been frustrated with myself these last few months. I look at some of my peers' writing success and wonder why I can't drum up that much motivation. And with the ever-tight winter budget, I've felt far too much like the stereotypical penniless writer.

So on Saturday evening, I finally pulled out a pad of paper and wrote down simple, concrete goals to get me out of my slump. I wanted to start increasing web traffic, actively return to my fiction work, and increase my monthly take home by $250.00. Then underneath each goal, I wrote down specific ways I was going to achieve each goal. Write 500 words of fiction 5 times a week? That sounded do-able. Actually get three queries out the door each week? Heck, I could probably handle that too. Just by writing down the goals, I felt the stress start to fade and the control return.

I'm all about dreaming the big dream. But if you write down "become a freelance writer" on your goals list, you're going to be overwhelmed. It's too big of a goal. Instead of nibbling away at a piece of pie, you're trying to shove the entire pie, straight out of the oven, down your throat. Ouch!

So write down the big goal and write down all the little goals you'll need to meet to reach the big goal. Then write down all the things that can help you accomplish all those little goals. Don't assume your goal is ridiculous or unachievable. With a little focus, you can shake the uninspired blahs in no time. 

Source: Uploaded by user via Ada on Pinterest

Trust me. Write it down. Break it down. Plan it out. It helps.

 

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The Freelance Writing Trenches: Getting Started

I spent a lot of time in my advisor’s and other professors’ offices during my college career, never more so than during the close of my senior year. Wedged between their book-lined walls, I chatted up my professors, mulling over my next move. Grad school? An attempt to grasp an elusive and rapidly disappearing 9-5 writing job with benefits?

As obtaining my B.A. (a double major in English and Communication) grew closer and closer, I realized that after four years in the idyllic hallways of Tower Hall (a building nicknamed “Hogwarts” for its striking Gothic architecture), I was as clueless about what came after college as I had been when I hiked up the four flights of stairs to my very first college class.

Well, maybe not quite as clueless.

During my college years, in addition to working towards my degree, I’d spent three years writing for and two years as news editor of the student newspaper. I’d spent four years working for and two year editing the college’s literary and artistic journal. I’d develop my writing skills and knew I wanted a career in writing. Yet, the summer between my junior and senior year, I’d lost an opportunity for an internship with a small city newspaper because the publication became unable to fund the position. 2007 was not a great year to immerge into the world as a young woman with a love of print media and an English degree.

Of course, there was one option that would allow me to write and earn an, albeit, meager living after college. I wouldn’t have benefits, but I also wouldn’t have to go through the heartbreak of having every single writing job I applied for be defunded before they even finished the hiring process.(True story.) But I never discussed that option with my professors. It seemed too ridiculous. Who graduates from college wanting to be a freelance writer?

A friend emailed over the weekend to ask how exactly you get started as a freelance writer. I had to pause for a moment and think about how I began, because honestly, I’ve been kicking around the freelance writing thing since I was in high school.

So how do you approach dipping your toe in freelance writing? If I were to do it in a linear manner, here's what I'd recommend.

1) Get a consistent writing gig where you write for someone else. Don’t worry about getting paid for this gig. Your job here is to learn the joy of deadlines and experience some times eye roll-inducing interactions with editors. If you’ve worked on a school newspaper, helped edit a newsletter or journal, or anything of this nature, you can probably skip this step. I spent several years, both in high school and college, writing and editing for the online teen ezine kiwibox.com. Yes, kiwibox. It sounds ridiculous, but during that time I wrote literally 100+ articles and edited just as many. It was truly invaluable experience, no matter how silly it sounds now.

2) Amass your resources. I believe every would-be freelance writer should have a subscription to some writing magazine (I got Writer’s Digest), a subscription to Hope Clark’s e-newsletter Funds for Writers, and the latest version of Writer’s Market.

Got those? Good – immediately proceed to step 3. It’s just too tempting to use resources as a diversion from the actual freelance writing work.

3) Start pursuing paid gigs through queries and submissions. I started querying on an extremely fair weather basis during the summer of 2005. I got a couple nibbles, but no bites. I did however learn how to write a decent query letter. I sold my first article in 2008. Then another one in 2009. Then I got a regular writing gig. It's not a fast process, but just like driving home in the fog with one headlight, it'll get you there.

There is no (I repeat, no!) magic process you must follow to become a freelance writer. But there are two things you must do if you’re serious about making money as a writer:

• Pursue publications for paid writing possibilities.
• Write. 

Simple?

We wish!

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The Freelance Writing Trenches: Get Organized

Freelance writing isn't exactly rocket science. Honest.

No matter how daunting the query system may appear, freelance writing is simply a perpetual game of cat and mouse between you and various publications.

Boiled down, the freelance system looks like this:
1) You pitch a job.
2) You get the job. (Or you don't, in which case, return to step 1)
3) You complete and submit the job.
4) Job is accepted and publication is scheduled
5) Upon publication, you get paid.
6) Rinse and repeat.

The only teensy, weensy issue with the above system is that you're hopefully going to have multiple jobs at various stages in the above system all the time. Suddenly things aren't so linear.

That's where a freelancer organization system comes in.

Using the freelancer organization system, let's revisit the freelancing system.

1) You pitch a job. (Record in your pitch log.)
2) You get the job. (Record in your pitch log.)
3) You complete and submit the job. (Record in your submission log)
4) Job is accepted and publication is scheduled. (Create and submit invoice)
5) Upon publication, you get paid. (Record payment in submission log or using your accounting software.)

I use basic Excel spreadsheets for my pitch and submission logs*. Because I'm a nice person, here are downloadable templates of the spreadsheets I use to organize my freelance writing jobs:

Pitch Log 
Submission Log

I find these have all the columns I need but you can tweak the templates however you like. I'm not a stickler for filling in every column either - for example, if it seems irrelevant to fill in the publication's physical address, I just leave it blank.

I use the pitch log quite faithfully because it keeps me accountable and also prevents me for duplicating queries, which would be mighty embarrassing. You'll notice at the very far right column, I have a spot where you record alternative publications where you might pitch the same idea. It's always good to have a contingency plan in case your first choice market doesn't bite. If it's an idea you're sold on, pitch it until you have a nibble!

If I'm being honest, in the excitement of actually getting a job, I often fail to record the job in the submission log. Instead, the submission log is normally where I record any submissions to literary magazines. If I was going to be super organized, I would create a second sheet in the submission log devoted for pieces that are either submitted "on spec" or are submissions to literary magazines.(What's "on spec?" Click here!) That way one page would be devoted to awarded jobs and another page would be devoted to submissions of fully written pieces to publications for consideration (just a pitch with a finished product, really.) Use the submission log however you like.

When I'm ready to invoice, I use QuickBooks because I have all of my finances running through the program. However, you can create your own invoice system easily using an invoice template and your submission log. Be sure to save each unique invoice somewhere on your computer. Record both the date you submitted the invoice and the date you expect to be paid by in the submission log. Upon payment receipt, record the date in the submission log and somehow mark the invoice as paid. If payment hasn't appeared by the follow-up date, it's time to send another invoice. 




*Spreadsheets are both adapted from examples from full-time freelancer Devon Ellington.

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Blog Goals. Oh, Blog Goals.

"So what are your current goals with Of Woods and Words?" Andy asked the other day.

We were in the middle of nowhere on yet another ice fishing adventure and frankly, at the moment, I was more concerned with downing a couple of cheesy crackers in front of the crackling fire than talking writer goals.

Goals for Of Woods and Words, you say?

When I started Of Woods and Words back in October 2009, of course there was that niggling thought in the back of my mind that it would be pretty bomb if my little blog went viral. Nearly two and a half years later I'm still here, but far from being the next Pioneer Woman. (But a girl can dream, right?)

When I post that first blog post, I was pretty ignorant of all things bloggy. I had no idea that blogging was such an industry. I quickly learned that your blog's success can be measured in any number of ways:

• GFC followers
• Page views
• Facebook page likes 
• Twitter followers
• Ad revenue
• Number of comments 
• Etc. etc. 

There are many, many blog posts out there railing against the popularity contest that can be blogging. This isn't going to be another one of those posts. After all, success when it comes to blogging demands readership and the best glimpse of that readership comes in the form of statistics. I'd be lying if I said I didn't pay attention to my follower numbers. It feels good to be recognized by Minnesota Moments  as a Minnesota blogger. Recognition and growing numbers are always nice, think. 

Growth is important and will always be one of my goals with Of Woods and Words, but I'm not willing to achieve that growth by compromising the voice that's been long established on this blog. (There's a reason why you don't see giveaways here. . . maybe someday, but it seems out of character at the moment.) Quality over quantity any day.

When I started the blog, I wanted a place where I could write on a regular basis and gain some exposure as a writer. I feel I've been successful with that simple goal, but I also feel that's a goal without an expiration date. The only way to keep meeting that goal is to keep writing. So I will.

In addition to that basic founding goal, in the coming months, I'll likely be:

• Continuing to explore sponsorship options - the blog might as well earn its keep and at least pay for its annual domain registration. 
• Working to provide my wonderful group of readers with helpful and interesting content; namely, I'd like to make this blog more of a resource for aspiring freelance writers.
• Recording more mundane details about life in the woods. If the blog is nothing else, it's an excellent diary/photo album and that in and of itself makes it invaluable to me.

Maybe someday, I'll have 1000 followers. Maybe someday I'll go back through the post and publish them as a collection of essays. Maybe.

Until then, I'm glad to have you along for the ride. I don't say it enough, but thanks for stopping by.

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The Freelance Writing Trenches: Query Away

The morning started with a county-wide power outage. By the time the power was back up, it was snowing and it hasn't stopped yet. As the hours tick by, the snow's intensity grows. Currently, the far shore of the lake and even the ice house in the middle of lake have disappeared in asnowy whiteout. It seems like a good day to spend in front of the wood stove, drinking cocoa and planning next year's garden.

But as much as the wood stove beckons, after running my latest batch of receipts through QuickBooks, it appears that my time would be better spent sending some queries out. Time to up the income levels at Of Woods and Words!

Oh queries. A pain in the arse really. Yet without the query letter, where would any of us freelance writers of be?

There may be editors out there just dying to give you some work, but unless you specifically and articulately ask for that work, they're going to give the work to another writer who they already know exists. The query letter is our chance to both announce and prove ourselves. When starting out, query letters often seem like time-consuming missives sent off into the ether, but you really do need to query if you want paying gigs. The more you query, the more writing credentials you earn and with more writing credentials, the greater success you'll achieve with your query letters.

Moral of the story: just send out some query letters already!

Even though I now have a much higher rate of success with my query letters then when I started out three years ago, the truth is I don't query as much as I should. I find it easy to get overwhelmed by the process, even though I've done it many times.

Here's the basic process of how to write a query letter:

1) Research the publication you'd like to query.
2) Determine if the publication's a good fit for your writing. Be honest about this. Trying to get a square peg into a round hole really is a waste of time.
3) Come up with a brilliant article idea for the publication. Make sure this idea is fairly original and truly a fit for the publication. (You don't want to come off like Hugh Grant in Notting Hill, interviewing Julia Roberts for Horse and Hound.) You'll also need to check the archives to make sure the magazine hasn't recently published something similar.
4) Carefully outline your article idea. This means you need to use specifics - who you plan to interview, how you plan to organize the article, etc. Sell yourself as the best person to do the job by listing your credentials and highlighting anything else that might make you an especially good choice for writing this particular article. 
5) Submit - making sure you've addressed everything to the appropriate editor, have a completely error-free letter/email that make it sound like you actually know what you're talking about.

There are many, many how-to books devoted to the subject of query letters. My favorite remains Michael Perry's Handbook to Freelance Writing.






On average, a good query letter should take you at least an hour to complete. It's time consuming, which is why I like to procrastinate with them.

Happy querying!

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