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Oil and gas secretary Susan Gerlitz has long pondered a career in freelance writing. She found writing for her college newspaper exhilarating and loved seeing her name in print. Susan dreams of making a living writing freelance, but is afraid she won’t be able to make a living at it full time.
You may be like Susan and be frustrated with your current career. You can start taking steps towards a freelance career, but don’t quit your day job. First, you should brush up on your writing skills before taking those first, tenuous steps into the market. Night courses or distance learning is a great idea. It will help cement your plans to start writing freelance before you leave a boring but secure job.
Writing is the easy part. Building relationships in the industry is the daunting part for many people. Begin by starting slowly. Many careers have begun by writing on a part-time, volunteer basis. Perhaps your community league or association or local charity organization has a newsletter and is looking for free editorial. Write about interesting people in your neighborhood. These profiles make for very interesting reading and help establish your name in the community. Once you start a collection of stories or articles, you have a portfolio of samples to show editors who may want to see what you can do.
Get to know the editors of local papers and magazines. Determine your area of interest and pursue relationships with editors who publish that sort of work. For example, if you love sports, get to know local sports editors and introduce yourself. Give them some story ideas. They might just ask you to write one.
Read other writer’s bylines, and then send them emails telling them that you enjoyed their articles. Explain that you’re trying to break into the market - ask them out for coffee or buy them lunch. Get business cards made up with your name and contact information. Many busy freelancers will recommend other writers to editors when their work load becomes too great.
If you’re longing to write fiction, joining a writer’s group is one of the best ways to increase your circle of influence. That’s where you’ll find out who publishes fiction, either in short story or book form. There are hundreds of magazines world-wide that publish fiction pieces, which may pay more than non-fiction writing. However, it’s much harder to get published as a fiction writer.
Expanding your circle of friends, finding the right story and the right market and getting the word out. Do all these things to jump start your career, but while you’re waiting for that first big break, write. Write as much and as often as you can. The energy you build and the excitement you create within yourself will soon manifest into the career you’ve been waiting for.
A D Kerr writes for Word Wolf which is a blog about make money online and has articles published such as ways to write for the search engines.
