How Freelance Writing Works

When I talk about freelance writing, I'm talking about making a living as a writer. I'm not talking about writing fiction or poetry. It's tough to make a living at those.

I like to break down the field of freelance writing this way... There are two major categories: journalism and everything else. Let's take a peek at how journalism works, to give you an idea of how it is possible to make a living as a freelance writer.

I find that a lot of people who read consumer magazines think the stories contained inside were written by staff writers (people employed by the magazine). This is not true at all. At a magazine, most of the staff people are editors of some sort. They may write a few of the stories, but mainly their job is to assign articles, oversee the writing, make edits for grammar and style, and work with designers to create a visually appealing presentation of the work.

The bulk of stories in any magazine are actually written by freelancers like me. The way we get assigned to write these articles is by pitching stories directly to editors. For example, let's say I have a great lead on some new research into breast cancer. I may contact an editor (figuring out exactly which editor is a whole other story) and basically say, "Your readership consists of women between the ages of 18 and 35. Here's some new research that may change the way they approach breast cancer screening. Can I write this for you?" (That's a very condensed version of a pitch.)

Then the editor comes back to me with a yes or no. If she gives me the assignment, then I get a contract that specifies the deadline, number of sources, word count and rate. I do all the work, turn in the story, and BOOM! Next thing you know my name is on the article in a glossy magazine at your friendly local supermarket.

That's how freelance writing works on the journalism side. But what about the marketing side (which is what I do)?

Freelance writing is basically a service industry. The client needs content. This could range from blog posts to marketing brochures to white papers...the list goes on. The client doesn't employ its own writers because it's cost-prohibitive to do so. Instead, the client looks for a contractor like me to handle these writing tasks for them.

If you're wondering how much potential work is available in this sphere, just look around your own hospital, clinic or facility. How many items around you have printed words on them? Someone (like me) had to write all that stuff. Seriously. Nothing writes itself.

Still skeptical? I urge you to spend one week collecting everything you encounter in your daily life that has words on it: brochures, magazines, junk mail, you-name-it. Clip web pages, blog articles, celebrity news, whatever. At the end of the week, remind yourself that someone got paid to write all that stuff. It could have been you.

But I digress...

To obtain this type of work, I have to market myself by locating potential clients and sending them a "letter of introduction" (LOI). In this email, I tell the client how I can help them or their clients (if it's an agency, for example) achieve their content marketing goals. Most of the time, these prospects yawn and delete my LOI. But sometimes they write me back and say, "Excellent timing! We need someone to write a case study, and you'd be perfect for the job. Let's talk."

My personal strategy for earning a living as a freelance writer is to form ongoing relationships with as many clients as I can handle. I currently write regularly for about 5 clients, plus I take on one-off gigs as time permits.

So that's basically how freelance writing works, at least for journalism and marketing typewriting. It's a little different for hard-science writing like regulatory writing for pharma.

Questions?

~Beth