I Have Questions for Freelance Writers
 

Can you recommend a book or two that explains the ins and outs of freelance writing? Are there websites that you can suggest?

I am thinking about trying my hand at freelance writing for a magazine or two.

I have tons of question about how this business works.

Why do magazines pay so little? My research today shows that one magazine I would submit articles for consideration pays $75 per page. Another mag I researched only pays $50 per article. Is this something that most people do because they love being published, or is it the money they are working towards?

I have heard more than once that a successful writer needs to learn how to sell a story/article several times. How is this done? What does it mean?

Again, I have lots questions, and brand new to this.

Thanks in advance!!!!!!

(I write, but I do not consider myself a writer. It takes me a long time and alot of effort to get things just right. Take my input with a grain of salt.)

I dont think submitting to magazines is the way to go money wise. Unless you have a business that would benefit from the publicity. Why not create a website for your articles and use adsense or something similar.

The article sits there from now on earning a small passive income. The more articles you have... You get my drift. Good luck!

You can try absolutewrite--lots of writers there. Or workplacelikehome has a folder and a link for the top 50 paying online markets. freelancewritinggigs has daily listings. I write for Demand Studios, I don't make much because I'm a slow writer, but some claim they are making $1-2,000 per month at it.

If you're interested in business writing I think Peter Bowerman's books are good: The Well-Fed Writer and Back for Seconds.

This is great info!!!! Thanks!!!!

Raybait1 - I've been pondering your idea all day long. It just might be worth looking into.

Cassie - Thanks for the info!!!!! This is super!!!

Clove, one idea is to write a regular column for a very targeted magazine. Copyright the material in your name each time. Then put them together as a book and sell that. Have a plan from the start of course.

One of my favorite dog obedience training books was done that way. It became a best-seller in the obedience world years ago. I bought the book even though I already had the articles.

Peg

I'm in the process of doing this now. I'm starting several websites, but the one most similar to what you are doing is a tutorial web site. I'm starting 4 web sites so I haven't spent much time on it yet. Plus it takes me a month or 2 to write 1 tutorial. But I'm hoping over time, as I get 10+ tutorials posted, I will start to see a return.

The hosting company just had a special of $9.95 for a year of hosting. I use this particular hosting company because they have a script for hosting Moodle, but they also have the scripts for installing the major blog software, MySQL, bulletin board, etc. So it won't cost you much if you want try it out.

The site I am working on now is Fun30DayProjects and some other people from HT are also going to be posting there. In March we are having a "Write Something" project. Write a novel, nonfiction, poetry, an article, a blog, in 30 days. Everybody is doing something different, but we are there to provide support for each other. We'd love to have you join us.

In case you're interested in ebooks:

http://www.earlytorise.com/page/2

Scroll just a bit to "The Ultimate Start-Up Guide for Digital Entrepreneurs"

If you are looking for hard copy writing, I'd suggest starting with a local paper and try your hand at reporting. This will get you known in the area and people will come out of the woodwork with ideas to write about.
Then look for trade publications that cover areas of interest to you. I've done articles on all sorts of agriculture, quarrying, construction and forestry, mainly because one company publishes trade papers on these topics, but I have also done some for other publications on those.
You will likely not get high paying assignments (or approvals from queries) right away, but after you get some articles under your belt, you'll work your way into fancier/slicker pubs in the same subject areas.
Double/triple/quadruple dipping will make life easier if you get the hang of it.
I'd find something happening in my local area, say a helicopter lumbering job, then sell to one (sometimes two) local papers that had minimal overlapping circulation areas. But I'd also sell it to an ag weekly that had a special section on forestry every month. After awhile I got so I was doing forestry for a slick trade organization, and when they'd be interested in a story, they'd get first publishing rights...after they published it, then it went to the ag paper which really had a different readership although the ag people often did logging jobs also, and finally, or even at the same time as the ag paper, I'd have it in the local papers.
So, I might make $400 on the slick forestry pub, $125 on the ag pub, and $40 on each of the local papers. This was a few year ago...maybe 7.
The trick was to constantly be on the lookout for possibilities...in my case, I was on several coop. ext. newletter lists, so could find out what events were happening...go to them to cover for local stuff, and maybe the ag paper...but I also met people there who had forestry businesses, and then could do a feature article on the business to sell to the slick paper, and then the others...
It takes constant querying to make a living, but I did it for a number of years...I am mostly retired now, but still work about one day a week for a local paper as a reporter, and occasionally do other articles for the ag paper if the topic interests me personally.
Hope this helps you with ideas.

Check out a current edition of Writers Digest - I think it is their year book. They list pretty much any publication you can think of, the submittal requirements (including the form your manuscript should be in), current editor, and addresses. Find your genre and look up which ones you are interested in. Also make sure you have read some of the current publications (of those you have chosen) so you understand their current trends.

Writer's Digest is a good start. Also, do some bylined writing for the local weekly or daily newspaper. It gives you visibility and a clip file for references. When I was in the magazine business, that's how we found every new freelancer we hired. Very, very rarely did we buy an article that was submitted "over the transom" (unsolicited) -- perhaps four a year out of more than 100 articles published. Unsolicited manuscripts also get pushed to the back of the desk, especially in these days of staff layoffs and smaller editorial holes, so they may languish for weeks or even months before anyone looks at them.

Pay varies hugely, depending on the circulation of the publication and its profitabilty. We started new-to-us writers at 50 cents a word. Our regulars got a dollar a word. But then we were a glossy monthly mag with a circulation of 100,000+, too. Fifty dollars is not unusual for the local weekly or small-circ mag.

I worked for seven years as a successful freelance writer -- meaning I consistently made more money freelancing than I had as a reporter -- and I'll likely get back into it again this year. I had the advantage of excellent contacts in several publications that consistently bought my articles because they knew I did first-class work and hit my deadlines. It helps if you have a specialty, especially if you're just getting started. When my wife was teaching elementary school, she wrote a kids cooking column for the local daily.

Most publications now require contracts. If you have any intention of reselling the article or using it in a book later, sell only "first world publication" rights. That gives the buyer the right to be the first to publish the article worldwide, but rights then revert to the writer 60 or 90 days after publication. (Contracts vary, so read them carefully, and don't hesitate to ask the editor questions.) The writer usually has to agree not to sell another version of the article within a set time -- again, usually 60 to 90 days of first publication.

Reselling: I've sold up to four different versions of the same article, tailored for specific audiences and usually spread out over a year or two. It's possible to resell an exact same article that has already been published elsewhere, but it's rare and it affects the price. And DON'T try to hide the fact that the article has been published previously. It will not endear you to editors.

Magazine schedules: Most magazines plan their editorial schedules 12, 18, even 24 or 36 months ahead of publication. This is to accommodate photography and artwork. Magazines put together each issue well in advance of the date on the cover. For example, my former employer is working on April and May issues in February, so the photography for spring-themed articles had to be shot last year. If you have an idea for a Christmas-themed article, start the selling process well in advance.

Payment: Many magazines pay on publication, and yes, that means an article written this month might not result in a check in the mail for another 12-18 months. If you find a publication that pays on acceptance, give it your best work and kiss the editor's feet at least once a year.

Hope this helps.

How do you copywrite an article?

Copyright an article?

But keep in mind:

U. S. Copyright Office

True, with one important exception. The complete product the publication creates -- words, typography, photos, art, design -- is covered by the publisher's copyright. IOW, a magazine can reprint the article as long as it's an EXACT replica of the original article as it appeared on the page. By the same token, a photograph used for a cover belongs to the photographer, but the cover in total, with words and design, belongs to the magazine as part of its copyright of the publication.

That's what I'm planning on. I've been writing my regular & sort-of regular articles for years now & one of these days (right :rolleyes:) I'm making a book out of them. And the advantage to writing a column is, especially if you have a good editor, your writing improves with time. I cringe at some of my earliest articles.

The Tightwad Gazette is another good example. I had most of the newsletters but still bought the book.

i second this suggestion. it is invaluable.

Nothing to add - but did want to say that this is fantastic information for someone starting out. Thanks!

Wow!!!!!

Thank you so much for the info. I've been thinking about some of the earlier posts, and how I could write for profit.

It means more to me than you realize. I really appreciate the info on this topic. I don't feel so lost anymore. Learning that writing can be profitable is encouraging, to say the least.

Right now, I have been working on a "how-to" article for a collector magazine. With the info you have all suggested, I am seriously looking into making that into an instruction guide, and selling it on ebay instead of submitting to a magazine. Maybe I can do both, with a rewrite of the guide in article form. I still have some hurdles to cross, so I'll see if this is a do-able project.

Again, I really appreciate the info!!!!!!

I've been a investigative reporter/photographer for close to 35 years now....writing for a local newspaper would get you a lot of experience but with the changes in media right now and the changes in the economy, I wouldn't look at that as a way of making a lot of money unless you can fill a niche they really really really need....

I've parlayed my years of experience and my interest in my homestead into writing two to three articles per month for a state-wide agricultural newspaper which also has a very active web site....but you're still not going to be able to "make a living" at it unless a whole lot of things change.

Writer's Digest books and their magazine do have a lot of hints but I've found in the past that there are a lot of folks there who are so busy talking and writing ABOUT the art of writing that they don't actually get a lot of articles SOLD...

I've got all sorts of awards through the years and all sorts of experience but you REALLY must find a niche right now because of the changes and transitions of ALL types of writing publications whether on the net or in print. best wishes!

I have a book suggestion. Try Feature & Magazine Writing: Action, Angle and Anecdotes. It has lessons and info on writing feature stories but it also has three chapters at the end that are about selling your articles.

Websites or blogs are great, easy to maintain...see mine below:

A nice way for me to make extra money. If anyone is interested in doing a link swap, pls let me know. :)

We have all been told to write articles (I first read this 35 years ago) to get your name and work in print. When you have a first novel written, publishers are supposed to take you more seriously if you have already had articles published.

You have the same article published by writing an article of interest to a certain group, send it to several magazines, but each one changed a little so it doesn't obviously look like exactly the same article to someone who reads more than one magazine, and to fit the preferences of the magazine. Publishing magazine articles also helps to create the illusion that you are an expert in something.

Thank you all so much for your continued advice. I really appreciate it.

FWIW, I don't have any grand illusions of making a living at writing. I'm just grappling with being able to make money from the things I love in life. I know it won't be much more than pocket change, if that.

More than anything, this thread has helped me channel my hopes of writing into more profitable and sustaining work. I'd much rather put together how-to articles on things I know inside and out and sell it as a self published work than to sell it to one of three magazines, and basically get nothing for it.

For that, I am deeply thankful for your thoughts.

I'm still interested in writing some articles for submission to magazines. I'm sure I'll have many more questions, so stay tuned, LOL.

Again, thank you so much!!!!!!!

This is just my take on the situation, and by no means am I an expert, but I do know business, and have written a few articles for publication. Actually one should come out next month. Another I've written just got accepted, and I've got another query in the editor's hands as we speak (keeping them going out all the time is the key to bringing in money). That aside, the idea that you would rather write what you know and sell it as a self-published compilation instead of writing for no or low paying markets is an idea that a lot of new writers have, but one that often comes back to haunt you. For example:

If you expect to get this published by an existing publishing house (yes I know you said you would self-publish), they would expect you to already be published. That way they know you are writing at a paid publishing level. Everybody wants to be a writer. They would rather take a chance on someone who already has an audience. And if you get a publishing ohouse to take on your book, at least they know how to market your book.

If you self publish, you have to do much of the marketing yourself, and unless you like doing that type of work (If you've never done it, you really don't know if you'll like it or not.), it will already be more hassle than what you feel it is worth. This doesn't even count the money that you have to put up front to self-publish. Eventually I'll probably self-publish a book (and I'm looking at a startup fee of between $3,000-4,000), but I'm building my audience (and my writing skills) each time I submit a piece. The audience may be for a 10,000 circulation magazine that pays nothing, or a 200,000 circulation magazine that pays $250-500. You're writing gets better as you go. Your income gets better as you go, and your possible book purchasing audience gets larger as you go. It's a win-win-win situation.

Just my two cents.

Here's a list of some of the websites I used when starting my Blogs.

From what I remember, this guy http://www.problogger.net/ has I think the number one blog in the world??? I can't remember the amount of hits he gets each day, but from what I remember reading it was so much that I kept his site bookmarked to take notes of what he does and how he lays out his page, etc. If the guy is pulling in that many hits he has to be doing something right.

Some other useful sites.

http://www.thewritersmanifesto.com/b...w-freelancers/


http://www.freelancewritinggigs.com/...blogging-jobs/

I've been a full-time freelance writer for 3 years now and my first published book (about urban gardening) is finished and will be published this December. I started writing by getting writing assignments online through various websites that match freelancers with those needing their services. Soon thereafter I began working as a contributing writer for several blogs which provided my first regular - albeit small - income as a freelancer.

When you are starting out you aren't going to make a lot of money and you're going to have to work incredibly hard until you hit your proverbial stride. In my case it was because of my work as a contributing blog writer that I was approached to write the book I just finished. It also led to me being interviewed for a piece in the NY Times just a few weeks ago and all of that sort of attention adds to your credibility as a writer/author. That's what publishers are looking for when it comes to books, and what magazine editors look for when it comes to articles and columns.

Best of luck to you!

Michael