nikita

These are all wonderful, thank you!

Wow! That’s great to hear! I’m so glad this formula has been working for you. It feels so good to get things out there and published :). How did you find your editor?

No problem! It’s so useful! Haha, Duotrope is my opening screen (as is Submittable), so I can check it as soon as I get on my computer for the day :).

So you can just see “recent responses” from places you’ve submitted to. If you click on “Control Panel,” there will be a button called “See Recent Responses.” From there, you can filter to show recent responses for your genre (poetry/nonfiction/fiction/visual art), for places you have pending submissions at. I use it all the time to see vaguely where I am in “line.” It helps me get less anxious (or start guessing that I won’t get a response).

This is a great article! We’re taught to feel so bad about each rejection, but they’re so pivotal to us keeping on and learning more about what is and isn’t working.

Wow, thank you, Sally! That means a lot :). I try really hard to make everything I do get me to my writing dreams!

So while I was still in our program in late 2017, I signed up with Upwork and got my first gig by discounting their asking price by 20%. In hindsight, it wasn’t great because I did several gigs that paid peanuts for hours of work, but I did get articles (and even a few stories!) published in my name through them, which was great for credibility. They’re kind of known as a low-grade content mill, but if you dig, you can find good ones. I have a client who pays me $.07/word for 10, 1000-word articles a week through Upwork, which is wonderful.

I wasn’t able to land clients that let me earn a full-time wage at part-time hours until this year after listening to the woman at Creative Revolt (she has wondeful, free YouTube videos!). Once I started following her advice, and positioning myself as an authority on the niches I want to be known in, jobs really started coming in. Seriously. In March I had one client who gave me sporadic work at an OK rate, and within 6 months I now have four consistent clients that comprise all my income, plus an upcoming article in an online magazine I really admire! All with time to work on my novel a few hours a day!

It helps that I stay focused and just apply to things relevant to sex/relationships/endometriosis or the environment (my two niches!). I know the environment doesn’t fit the theme, but I care so much about it, I can’t not! I leverage my degree and other writing I’ve done to apply for gigs through Pro Blogger, and I only look for Upwork jobs that pay well and professionally. It’s interesting, but the more I’ve ~pretended~ to be a professional who should be paid well, the more people have treated me like one, even though I have major impostor syndrome, haha.

I also read articles on how to pitch, how to become a writer, and how to land clients almost weekly. When I started ramping up my business this year, I read those articles daily. I search things like “Best Freelance Writer practices 2019” or “best pitching practices 2019” or “how to land a great writing client.” Sometimes I read the same articles several times over a few months to make sure I really got everything I could from it.

So in a nutshell:

1. watch the Creative Revolt videos and do what she says (even creating a website, mine makes me look so much more credible when I pitch/apply)
2. carve out a specific niche in what you want to write articles about
3. read as many articles or watch as many videos as you can on being a freelance writer!
4. Maybe start an Upwork profile, but I’m torn about this since it can be such a content mill.
5. I don’t compromise! I make sure I always have time to work on my novel for at least an hour a day, five days a week.

I hope that all helps. I know this is long, but I just care so much and know that if I can do it, then we all can. I’ve worked so hard to create a space for me that’s finally panning out – and I can’t imagine not sharing all the info I’ve gleaned so far with my cohorts!

Absolutely! I used to agonize over them pretty heavily, especially in the early ones. They were clunky and forced, kind of like how Joe M. had mentioned with over-writing his story. This is a chance for an editor to see what I got, so I’m determined not to blow it by trying to sound overly academic or smart.
I’ve definitely gotten better at these as I practice, and I send them before I can read through them fifteen times and wreck it – and that’s absolutely what’s landed me this latest client that I’m so happy about!
Also, I wanted to see that movie very badly and somehow missed it! It looks like such a creative way to use our contemporary technology.

Sally, I generally start with a reference to something about the particular publication (either an article of theirs that’s tangentially relevant that I enjoyed, or their commitment to values that I share, something like that).
Then I dive right into a pitch that’s short and sweet. An editor recently told me it helps to anchor the pitch to a point in time; why do readers need to hear this story *now*? I cap my pitches at 4 sentences MAX, but try and keep them 2-3. A good statistic or fact that makes it relevant helps.
Finally, I include a little about why I’m the person to write it, include my rate per word, and send it off. I use this website to help inform how much my rate is.

Also, this hasn’t been foolproof! I often get radio silence. I know my ideas are good, but I think I need a little more authority (thankfully, a new freelance client I landed will change that!). But the thing that’s helped me the most is consistently reading articles on pitching, specifically articles written by editors, and making sure they’re dated for 2019. 🙂

For an idea of my numbers: I’ve pitched at least 20 articles since March and have gotten…4 clients from it. So a 20% success rate. Most of the time, I get no reply lol.