[ Wednesday, November 28, 2001 ]

expert advice:
freelance survival strategies

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BY LYNN HARRIS

Here are just a few of the tips and tricks shared by the experts at Mediabistro's "Freelance Survival Strategies" seminar in New York on Tuesday, November 27, 2001. [A transcript will be posted on Friday, December 30.] For pointers on how to pitch your story, don't miss Lynn's classic query letter, the cold pitch that got her a cover story in Parade.

Got a killer strategy to share? Need more advice? Join the post-panel discussion, moderated by two of our panelists, Emily Nussbaum and Clive Thompson.

Advice from the writers:

Richard Baimbridge is a freelance writer specializing in entertainment, technology and adventure travel. He has written for Condé Nast Traveler, Wired, Maxim, German GQ, and Swedish Elle, and co-authored Time Out's guidebook to Prague, where he lived and worked as a journalist and vegetarian chef for two years.

• Hold a garage sale: Dust off your old ideas and articles, make them current again, then re-sell them yourself or use a syndication service.

• Moonlight: Proofread, fact-checking, and/or find other ways to get by in the biz, all while expanding your freelance contacts.

• Celebrate "Take an Editor to Lunch Week": It's a smart move to wine and dine the hand that feeds you.

• You'll always have Paris: Sell (and re-sell) internationally.

Sara Eckel has been a full-time freelance writer since 1997, and has written for Glamour, Self, Marie Claire, Fast Company, Daily News. From 1994 to 1999 she wrote a nationally syndicated opinion column for United Features Syndicate which ran in 200 daily newspapers.

• In general: beyond pitching, you need to make yourself that person they call after the story meeting with an assignment. Challenge: this means being easy to work with — without being a doormat.

• Suck it up. If I'm writing a Glamour article, I'm writing a Glamour article — not a Sara Eckel article. Ultimately, you have to be willing to ask editors "what do you want?" and then deliver it. You're doing this job (as opposed to others) for the money.

• Choose your battles. Always do a cost-benefit analysis of protesting an irritating project (i.e., the cost could be never writing for them again, over only a fluky problem). Once you're in a project, it's best to see it through no matter how homicidal you feel along the way. Next time — if there is one — articulate your needs from a place of patience and strength.

• Choose your editors. If you've pitched someone more than three times and received lots of compliments but no assignment then you should probably start pitching someone else; eventually he or she should really reward you at least with a different assignment. (Then you're free to recycle the old ideas.)

• Aim low on the masthead. When I pick the name of an assistant or associate editor off a masthead and usually get a very quick response; these are people who are still looking to build a pool of writers.

• Be nice to the assistants. Long-term strategy. Two of my best sources of income come from editors I got to know when they were faxing over my contracts just a couple of years ago.

• Know the value of a word. Get over yourself and take the $150 assignments if they take you one hour, no rewrite.

Alix Strauss has been a freelance journalist for the past five years and has written for The New York Times, Marie Claire, Mademoiselle, Maxim, the New York Post, and Time Out New York. She has taught writing, written quickie books, fact-checked, and done her share of grunt work.

• Go away. Press trips offer easy stories that can spark ideas for others - and what better time for free travel? (There are non-flying options.) Let editors know you've got the flextime.

• Write quickie books. Think "unauthorized biographies" and those insta-books by the cash register. [See below, under "Other venues, more dollars."]

• Collaborate. Many great ideas come from... brunch. Put two heads together to come up with — even write — stories and share resources.

Clive Thompson is the technology columnist for Newsday and an editor-at-large at Shift, a digital culture magazine. He has written for The New York Times Magazine, Elle, The Washington Post, Nerve.com, Fortune, and Entertainment Weekly. He is the former host of Shift TV, syndicated in Canada, Australia, and Europe, and a regular commentator for the Canadian television network CDC.

• Multiply media. Diversifying pays off. Branch into producing pieces for TV and radio, doing on-air commentary and the like (also a great place to recycle). Call producers you know and find out what they use freelancers for.

• Syndicate. Hoary freelancer rule, new steam in Internet age. Services like featurewell.com offer global reach for reselling with excellent author-friendly rates. (Plus, periodicals worldwide buy syndicated writing more often when times are tough — it's cheaper than paying for original content.) For a partial list of the syndicates to approach — both for bigwigs and startups — click here.

Advice from the editors:

Jod Kaftan is the managing editor of Time Inc. Custom Publishing. He has previously worked at New York magazine and The New York Times Magazine.

• Consider advertorial and custom publishing. It's easier to research and can often pay more.

• Be both "professional" and "yourself." Editors are often as weird as writers. Don't always be so "professional." Build a rapport with your editor based on your true personality.

Emily Nussbaum is editor-in-chief of Nerve.com. She has written for The New York Times Magazine and Book Review, The Village Voice and the late, lamented Lingua Franca. She most frequently writes about literature, sexuality, gender, and psychology.

• Send in-kind clips. Send me clips that match the style of my magazine, not so much the subject matter. Nerve.com may be about sex, but a rich and nuanced Village Voice personal essay about Mideast politics tells me more about you as a writer than a front-of-the-book New Woman service clip about dildo-purchasing.

• Respond to my edits. Could be a make-or-break in terms of working together again. May seem obvious, but it's bizarre how many writers simply ignore a query and force me to come up with a solution. If I've asked for a rephrasing, rephrase it.

• Leave stylistic rough edges in. Some publications seek slick magazine-type prose, but for places like Nerve, which are looking for personal voice, leave the rough edges in. Doesn't mean the draft shouldn't be polished, but it does mean that humor and smartness are welcome, and clichéd smoothie transitions are a problem.

• Nag me (politely). I'm juggling a lot of stuff, and I don't mind reminders (e.g., to send you a contract) at all, since something inevitably falls through the net.

• Email me. It's a lot easier to answer at my own pace, and it's overwhelming to get a lot of phone calls. I can't respond as easily in a thoughtful way.

Other venues, more dollars:

• Childrens' book series. Look on the copyright page of, for example, The Babysitters' Club for the name of the packager. It should say something like "Produced by…". Call 'em up and ask if and how they consider new writers. (Tip: If you already write for teen girl mags, hit up teen girl packagers; i.e., stay within genre, or at least start that way.)

• Freelance editing. Mine your editors not just for assignments but also as a possible resource for office temp jobs, filing in for staffers who are out on leave.

• Advertorial/corporate gigs. Look closer at publications you might ordinarily ignore, like your insurance company newsletters, the medical advertorials at your doctor's office, the Amtrak magazine, etc. Someone's gotta write that copy, and arguably, the editors would love to hear from "real" journalists experienced with tailoring to style.

• Correspondent.com. It's an online marketplace that allows journalists to propose and sell content to a global network of editors, who can also commission freelance work. From the website: "Pitch less, write more. Correspondent.com presents your articles to editors all over the world who are actively seeking copy on the subjects you submit. This global network represents the potential to break into entirely new markets. Once you are accepted as a member you can file in over one hundred categories. You set your own rates and anything sold on-site is automatically booked. The new correspondent.com website has an "automatic news role" and sits on the editors' desk alongside the newswires. As you file in news items, they are being flashed across the screens of the world's newsrooms. If you are in the right place at the right time and you wish to act as a reporter on-scene, your availability will be known all over the world, so that interested parties may contact you directly. Through correspondent.com you can propose coverage for future, plan travel, etc."

• Ghostwriting, romance novels, quickie books (e.g., unauthorized celebrity bios), etc. Ask friends who've done them. Look at book credits and websites. Consider especially Harlequin's new Red Dress Ink "chick lit" line. Here's the word from an editor there:

There are so many opportunities for young, hip, talented writers at my company. Writers can make a great living off of writing category romance. And we're always looking for new, fresh-thinking writers. Head to reddressink.com for just that line. Please tell interested, unpublished writers that they must complete the manuscript (as well as send in a short synopsis and cover letter). Published fiction writers only have to submit a cover letter, a synopsis and the first three chapters. They shouldn't send anything in until they've looked at the writer's guidelines. We throw out anything that is too long for a line, or just plain wrong, so it's important they know who they're writing for. They can send them to me via snail mail at: Julie Barrett-Editor, Harlequin Books, 300 East 42nd St., 6th floor, New York, NY 10017.

• Network. Not a news flash, but more important than ever, especially for landing gigs that, like, some of the above, might be outside your usual circles. (In other words, don't just hang out with other journalists and their editors.) One great hobnobbing source, especially for Internet/e-commerce-y things (and story ideas): get yourself on Bernardo's List. [Don't forget to sign up for mediabistro.com's community events! —Ed.]

• Finally: Hopefully, you won't need this, but in case you ever enter into a dispute over payment, here's a helpful link to New York Small Claims Court.

Lynn Harris is a freelance writer, advice columnist for Glamour, and stand-up comic. She teaches Mediabistro.com's "Comedy Writing for Journalists" course.