Breaking in to the national magazine circuit can be like jumping onto a moving train. Freelancing is the ultimate job for writers attracted to working from home, making their own hours and delving into a variety of subjects. The first and, generally, the hardest question to answer is: Where to start? Many magazine editors turn to trusted writers again and again, taking their queries and assigning them stories over writers they don't know without many clips. While newer writers try to break through with well-crafted pitches, at the beginning, they're often met with rejection and some even give up before they get going.

Is there a magic number? One, two, three or even four rejections before the gates are opened? We spoke with five prolific freelance writers to find out what traits helped them meet with success. James Sturz has been freelancing for 15 years and contributes to publications including The New York Times, Travel & Leisure and Saveur. He's also a longtime mediabistro.com instructor. Allison Winn Scotch writes for magazines such as Hallmark, Glamour and Cooking Light, and just released her first novel, The Department of Lost and Found (William Morrow May 2007). Camille Noe Pagán, a former editor at Fitness, has bylines that include Allure, Marie Claire and Prevention. Jen A. Miller started out contributing to her local South Jersey publications, and in the last 18 months has broken into the national market by writing for Poets & Writers, The New York Times and Psychology Today. Ethan Todras-Whitehill got started taking Sturz's Mediabistro.com travel-writing course. He landed his first assignment with The New York Times and has become a regular contributor there, as well as Popular Science and Condé Nast Traveler.

These writers aren't subsisting on peanut butter, and have careers as advanced as denizens of any desk job. What you may hear about secretive, competitive writers doesn't apply to these writers, either. While each has his or her own individual success story, some of their common traits can light the aspiring freelancer's path. Here are their shared keys to success:

Perseverance
For even for the most successful writers, the going can be tough at the beginning. Sturz recalls a "great success rate out of the gate," immediately selling two stories to Spy magazine (now defunct) and one to Self. However, he met with several setbacks when all three stories -- completed, bought and paid for -- weren't published. Finally, after months of frustration, Sturz's first printed freelance piece ran in Us. Scotch landed her debut assignment at Brides with her first pitch. Scotch recognizes her speedy pitching success as, "flukish and freakish and not at all what anyone" should expect. Her next story didn't come for months. After Brides, "it wasn't like doors just flew open," she says. "All I did was hustle." It took months for Scotch get off the ground with several front-of-book items in Cooking Light, Shape and Men's Health. "You really need to have endurance for this career," Scotch stresses. "It's not a lot of instant gratification."

Fearlessness
Courage isn't just necessary in warfare or a public speaking engagement. Successful freelancers regularly contend with terror-inducing stresses like quitting one's day job, dealing with rejection, and pitching a major national outlet with only regional clips. Shortly after his first story was published, Sturz received two assignments and a third on spec from The New York Times, which he'd unsuccessfully been pitching for two years. The stories required he spend several months in Europe, but when requested a leave of absence from his day job as a fact checker at Vanity Fair, he was rejected. So, he quit, went to Europe and returned with articles for The New Republic, Future Sex, and The New York Times (the spec piece ultimately accepted.)

Breaking into the national glossies didn't faze Miller. "I was single for so long, I have no fear of rejection," she says. "You have to have a tough skin and get used to taking it." For all her successful pitches, Miller's racked up plenty of rejections and her philosophy is to just move on from a "no" and keep pitching. She also advises writers not to shy away from large publications, saying, "You miss 100 percent of the shots you don't take. [Editors] get back to you if they really like your idea."

Rebounding after rejection
It'll usually take several tries to submit a story the new magazine you're targeting is actually looking for. But take heart: Rejection is as much a part of the freelance life as writing is -– especially for those new to writing for a particular publication. Initially, Miller had been writing regularly for now-shuttered Pages, and had set her sights The Philadelphia Inquirer. She pitched the paper for four years, sending packages of her clips from Pages and follow-up notes until finally the editor she targeted came back with an assignment. Now, Miller's a regular contributor.

Scotch had a similar experience with Glamour. An editor there approached her, asking for any ideas Scotch thought might fit the magazine. "I have read Glamour since the dawn of time, and I knew I could tailor my voice to what they needed," Scotch says. "I pitched her and it didn't stick. I pitched her and I pitched her and I pitched her." Though none of those pieces took, when the editor moved to Prevention, she called Scotch and immediately assigned her three stories. "I later did break into Glamour," Scotch notes, her strategy of keeping the ideas coming is one worth emulating.

Business savvy
While unconventional, freelancing isn't different from working for or running any business. The sooner you learn how to successfully start, build and maintain relationships with clients, the faster you'll be pulling in a steady income. "It's crucial not to miss deadlines," Sturz says. "You want to turn in good work." Scotch attributes her ongoing relationships with her editors to being "low-maintenance." She submits ideas to them even if she's not the writer for that particular job, and fine-tunes her pitches to meet editors' exact needs so as not to waste their time. Pagan believes the hardest thing about maintaining a good editorial relationship is knowing "when to stop working for certain editors," she says. "Sometimes it's that you just don't click." Todras-Whitehill's policy is to treat every editor "as a coworker and consider yourself as part of an organization [in which] you have a role." Ultimately, he sees his job as helping editors do their jobs. "[Provide] them with good ideas that are timely and fit their section," he says. Be a reliable contributor and editors will return to you time and again.