This picture was taken before the first stock market crash. Although undated, it has to be from the early 1920s. The ladies in the picture are some of my relatives. Helen was fresh off the boat from Slovenia. Victoria had been born at Sandy Hook Lighthouse to native-born parents. They were both related to my maternal grandparents–Helen was my grandfather’s sister and Victoria was my grandmother’s sister.
So what does all this have to do with freelance writing? The other day I got an email asking how to get started as a freelance writer. It made me think of beginnings–something we Americans are good at. And it made me think that there really is no one single path.
The short answer is that there probably are as many ways to start out as a freelance writer as there are freelance writers. I can’t really tell you how to start, any more than Helen and Victoria in this picture knew how to start out in their life. (Neither one was a writer, though, but that’s not the point.) It’s the old story–you begin where you are.
However, I have some tips. First, decide why you want to write. If you want to write a novel, don’t bother with magazine gigs. If you’re aiming for a screenplay, don’t mess around with business or copywriting. If you want to make money as a writer, consider business, technical, or online jobs. If you want lots of bylines go for newspapers, blogs, and magazines.
I once chatted with a woman who told me it was better to have a website with no grammatical mistakes than one that got billions of hits a day. I disagree; I’d much rather have the well-traversed site than the grammatically unassailable site. But that’s perspective. So figure out what you want.
Then figure out how to get jobs. This may involve writing a novel or screenplay on spec and trying to get an agent. It may involve learning to build websites and launching them. It might be getting a business card and schmoozing business contacts.
No matter where you start, you will meet with a lot of rejection at first and you will have to do a lot of work for nothing. That’s part of the way it works. You also have to persevere. I literally got serious about wriing and pitched magazine articles for 11 months solid–almost a year–before I sold one. And once I started to sell, it happened very fast. I got published first–a newspaper offered to publish one of my articles providing I would offer it to them for nothing. I accepted. That was about 8 months into my writing and it was as discouraging as it was elating. A few months later I sold my next article (“A Yankee’s Guide to Mexican Food” for a now-defunct magazine) and a couple of days after that, I sold my second.
Read amd learn as much as you can about writing and the kind of writing you want to do.
One more thing: build a clip file. You can contribute to blogs and article websites and get your name and byline published easily today. Do that and build a targeted clip file to show off to potential clients. For instance, if you want to write about movies, visit some articles websites and submit articles on movies. When they appear, print them out and save the links. Make a file–and when you have a lot of really good stuff (stuff you’re proud to show off) use these to support your inquiries about assignments with paying magazines or books.
And don’t worry if you have lots of interests. By using online article sites (just Google free articles and see what you find–these guys don’t pay but they are always looking for good content)–you can develop clips in all sorts of fields from rose gardening to marketing psychology to headache cures to cooking.
It’s easier to start today than ever. Here’s why:
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By submitting articles to free article sources you can get published quickly and build a strong clip file. Back in the day, your clip file was built mainly from paying jobs. Slow going!
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You can pitch article ideas to magazine and newspaper editors online–no postage, no copies of clips.
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You can start contributing to blogs and develop some writing chops and persona–free.
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With the explosion in cable TV, the strength of movies, and the Internet, the world is hungry for good writing. There may be fewer outlets today for short stories than there were back when Helen and Victoria were teenagers, but there are more outlets for non-fiction and how-to than ever.
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Businesses increasingly work with freelance writers. It’s called outsourcing. It’s common and with economic instablity, many businesses actually prefer outsourcing over hiring. In other words, economic downturns can boost freelance business.
How do you get started? You won’t know how you did it until many years from now. It’s going to be some work, some disappointment, some success, and some determination. Don’t give up!
Your website looks really good. Being a blog writer myself, I really appreciate the time you took in writing this article.