Marketing tips for freelance writers

Writers just starting out and hoping to publish need to do more than perfect their writing skills, including syntax, grammar and lucid use of vocabulary, learn to do excellent research and polish their prose. In fact, the business of writing, the sale of pieces of writing for profit with corresponding protection of rights is an important part of a free lance writer’s work. This piece will suggest a series of steps for the beginning writer who must acquaint him/herself with markets in order for sales to begin.

First, choose a genre or type of writing, or perhaps a couple of them, and place your focus there.Will you write fiction or non-fiction? Poetry is altogether another subject, and markets for poetry will not be dealt with here, nor will play or script-writing.

If you will write fiction, aim for short, picaresque, well-told stories with well-motivated characters and concrete details at every turn. The time for novel-writing should probably be after you have proven your skills as a writer of short fiction, although this is not true for all novelists.

If you decide to write non-fiction, you will have a broader market selection, and must of necessity choose a few subjects on which to base your early work. Later, with research and writing experience, you can dabble in more than one area with ease, but to work, say, in celebrity profiles, business writing and sports writing nay confuse the issue and triple the amount of research you must do.

But, if for example, you decide to write health and medical articles, incidentally, an up and coming area for free lancers, you can hone yourself as an expert by the volume of your work alone, and your research can also double or triple for use in more than one article. Free lancers must work fast, and efficiently, to produce even a modest income. Be logical in your choice of what to write; if you don’t have a scientific bent, don’t decide to write technology articles. If you are impatient with details, don’t bother trying to do craft how-to pieces.

Let’s assume you’ve chosen Health and Medicine to begin with, because there are a few subjects in this field you know a bit about, and even more you’re interested in. Because you once had a sports’ injury that required extensive physical therapy, you know a little about such injuries.

Start doing your research, but in the meantime, research the markets and find out where you might be able to pitch a piece on such a sports injury. With a specific market in mind, you’ll know how to slant your article, how long to make it, and whether to query the editor before it’s completely written or whether they’ll want to see a completed piece.

Where do you find out these things?

Without a hesitation, go to writing magazines like The Writer, Writer’s Digest and Byline. Obtain copies at the library or invest in them at your mega bookstore, and start poring over the market suggestions in current and back issues. You may come up with five or six magazines outside of the top ones like, say Sports; Illustrated, which you may want to save for you fame and glory days.

See if your chosen selections are looking for pieces on sports injuries, sports’ medicine or the physical therapist’s role in keeping athletes fit. Just reading these Writer’s Guidelines, or Submission Guidelines will help you decide how to slant your article. If you can’t locate some specific markets in the magazines, go online and do a search, or go directly to some e-zines which may also be looking for such pieces. E-publishing is incidentally a great way to get started. Even if you have to publish for no pay, get a few “sales” under your belt will help your resume when you query an editor and try to sell later.

There’s also a possibility that straight print magazines who want your piece won’t pay either, except in copies. As a beginner, you’re in a bind, and may have to accept that route as the best starting point, when you have no experience of sales. You decide when you’ve had enough of that routine, though, and when you’re ready to get paid or die trying. My first two short stories were freebies, but the thrill I got from seeing my work in print, and the nice comments I got from the editors of those two literary magazines was pay enough. Later I got paid small amounts, and twice had the pleasure of seeing the cover of two more magazines push my story, with illustrations and headlines—a thrill.

Finally get paid for short stories took a few years, and, incidentally, I’ve never made as much from short fiction as from noon-fiction. So if you’re eager to publish, stay with non-fiction and study the markets. Eventually, you’ll graduate to the Writer’s Annuals, a compendium of all kinds of markets for writers. Most libraries have a few of these annuals in their reference departments, and often you can take out the year-old volumes for study at home. Writer’s Market 2000, for example, is a Writer’s Digest Books selection that costs about $25.00, and offers updated market listings. There are also subject-particular references, such as Christian Writer’s Market Guide Annual, Business Writer’s Guides, and so on.

Study your Writer’s Market like a Bible. You will discover small, niche markets that don’t get 1,000 submissions a month like Sports’ Illustrated does. Aim for the small guys first; they’re hungry for you and your well-written articles. Also, don’t neglect newspapers, local and regional. A regional newspaper near my town is large enough to pay at lest a two-figure amount for my travel and food articles, while my local paper will not, even if I occasionally offer them a freebie for public relations’ sake.

Another tack for marketing is to connect yourself to a writers’ group. I found mine when I took a college evening course called Writer’s Support Group. After a helpful eight-week course, a group of us decided to continue to meet, critique each other’s work and educate one another by sharing market tips and advice. We were all pretty much beginners, but the mutual support we were able to give and receive in our group has been a godsend.

Learn your markets, focus your work, find support and educational resources, and you’re well on your way to a free-lance writing career. If you have enough determination and a modicum of skill and marketing savvy, you’ll make it.