There are some people who will write for anywhere, and other who will write for a select few places. There are some people who will write for a pittance, some who want to get paid what they’re worth, and some who write for the love of it. I fall in between the ‘write anywhere’ and ‘select places’ people, and some might argue that I also fall between the ‘paid a pittance’ and ‘paid what I’m worth’ categories. I’m not going to side with either group at this point.

What I’m here to do instead is talk about the places I generally write for at the moment, because some of you out there are probably looking for tips on how to get into freelance writing. I know that when I was starting out, this kind of information was what I spend days trawling the Internet for. So here we go: my take on freelance writing from the perspective of a modern British writer.

The Pitch

When it comes to trying to get into print publications, the pitch is still the most important part of the game. It’s also the most annoying, frustrating, time-consuming and difficult part to get right. Until you get your technique down pat, it’s the single largest time sink you’ll have in the whole freelance writing profession. Put simply, you will spend more time writing pitches than you will writing, or even researching, articles.

It’s not that they take a long time to write, it’s that until you’ve got a few published articles under your belt, most editors will reject your pitch on sight. Remember that when starting out. It will save you heartache. What you’re up against (especially now, while the global recession is still in full swing and most editors are having to close ranks just to keep their publications afloat) is the same in writing as it was when I was in sales: 97% will say no to you no matter what, so develop a thick skin early on or you’ll not make it to those 3% who will say yes.

Finding Your Niche

It’s important for both print and Internet writers that you find a niche that suits you and develop it. It can seem like going after every article idea that strikes you is a good thing because it keeps your options open but let’s face it, you’ll be a small fish in an enormous pond if you do that. The best way to get anywhere in writing is to be recognised as a big player in your field. Being an expert is a great way for editors to come to you with requests for articles and if you’re playing a wide field, you’re going to have a very difficult time making that happen.

If you find a niche that suits you, you’ve just made that big pond a lot smaller. It’s easier to develop your reputation in one or two clearly defined areas than it is to even get noticed when playing the field. The niche doesn’t have to be tiny (we’re not talking about “Hey, I’m Jane Smith and I review 7mm ratchet handles!” here) but it should be possible to define yourself in one sentence.

Some niche ideas are:

• Popular science writer, specializing in astronomy;
• Ancient Egyptian art and sculpture;
• Expert in Renaissance architecture;
• Newspaper comics of the 19th century;
• and so forth

For my part, I tend to specialise in two areas when writing for pay: English Law, and popular science. I do this because my background is originally in particle & nuclear physics, and now I’m studying law. I’ll admit to wandering outside those areas when I need to earn a bit more money but my core topics are what I base the foundations of my career on. It’s working out rather well.

The Places To Work

Writing is a mainly freelance endeavour and as such, everything you do comes down to personal preference. From the point of view of a British writer, one of the most frustrating aspects of trying to make a living online is that the majority of writing sites are US-only. When I started out, I lost track of the number of sites that don’t even bother telling applicants that they only accept American writers; or only tell you on the second (very long) page of an application. Some sites are better at listing their requirements but it’s best to check each one you think might work for you.

I’ve split my work across four sites, not counting my own blogs. I would write for more but, again, that means diluting my efforts and losing focus seems like a bad idea to me. The sites I write for are therefore:

1. Suite101
2. Demand Studios
3. Bukisa
4. Triond

I’ve listed these in order of preference but, again, this is all down to personal needs so don’t take my word as evidence of anything more than what I want to get out of writing. I go with Suite101 first of all because its reputation is excellent and everyone involved with the site is incredibly professional. They also have an excellent forum that’s full of friendly people to chat to, which makes the often lonely writing process not so lonely

They require a couple of articles worth of writing samples during the application process but given that you’re wanting to be a writer, putting together short articles (which you can then use on the site, if you so wish) shouldn’t be a tall order.

Next is Demand Studios. You’ll find a lot of bad press about these guys online and I’ll be the first to admit that some of it is justified. They recently opened up to applications from the UK and Canada so they’re one of those decent sites that actually accept non-US writers and for that they should be applauded. However, there is some resentment of the new influx of ‘foreign’ writers and I do detect that in some of their editors, from time to time. My advice is therefore to develop a thick skin when dealing with these guys.

The money is good (I make between 20 and 30 pounds an hour on average when working for them and some people make far more than that) but some of the editors don’t seem to understand that how they come across on screen isn’t how they would come across if talking to you; i.e. they’re confrontational and somewhat unreasonable. Not all of them, but enough to be annoying as hell.

Bukisa is a new one for me. I’ve been using it as a place to dump articles that I’ve written for Demand Studios but decided the editors there were asking too much of me in terms of rewrites, or just being unreasonable in general. So far, I’m having trouble making much money from them but I think with time and effort, it’s somewhere that can earn its keep. Unlike Suite101 and Demand Studios, there’s no real application process and you can log in using your Facebook account so it’s somewhere to consider as a dropping off point for work you can’t use elsewhere, if nothing else.

Finally, there’s Triond. I’ve used Triond for a while and never really made much money from it but I like its style. It’s very similar to Bukisa but, I believe, it’s an older site. You write articles and their editorial team selects which of their many magazine sites to put it on, then you get paid a small amount per page view. I used to use it as a dumping ground for articles I’d written for small press newsletters once their circulation had expired but I’m considering writing new content for it to see how well SEO will work there. Again, it’s worth having an account with a site like this because if anything, you can use it as a drop point for work you can’t sell anywhere else.

In summary

If any of this sounds a little mercenary, it’s because it is. If there’s one thing that’s not said enough about freelance writing it’s that you have to be harsh sometimes. You’re working for yourself and the only person who’s going to look out for you is you. You’re going to have to be part writer, part salesperson, part one-person-marketing-team and that means making decisions you probably don’t want to, at times when you’d rather not.

Nevertheless, if writing is what you want to do for a living, there’s no better way to do it. Find your niche, find the sites (or magazines, newspapers, etc.) that you can enjoy working with and go at it. Give it all you’ve got and enjoy it.

Just remember to pop back here and tell me how you get on. I’d love to hear from you, because writing can be a lonely game if we don’t make use of the Internet to chat to one-another.

Cherie Burbach posted an interesting article over at Working Writers today in which she discussed whether to take “low paying” work.  For anyone who is interested in freelancing, I’d recommend having a read of this.  I’d also like to expand on the ideas she raised myself.

I’m all for getting the most return out of your work, whatever that work may be.  Each and every one of us has bills to pay, and we deserve to be able to pay them if we’re producing something other people want; be it building industrial grade filters in a factory (one of my summer jobs before I went to university), analysing tax returns or writing the next summer blockbuster.  If you do something others value, you deserve to get paid. No exceptions.

But how much should you be paid?  Well, that sometimes comes down to what you can negotiate, and sometimes to what the other side will pay you.  As a freelancer, we don’t often have the benefit of rocking up to a job and being told “everyone else gets X per hour, so that’s what we’ll start you on.  Turn up at 9 tomorrow for your induction”.  We usually have to either take a job on the amount being advertised, or negotiate ourselves.  In both cases, you need to know two things before you can tell whether the job is worth your time:

1. How much you need to earn per hour in order to pay your bills; and
2. How long the project is going to take you.

I’ve explained the process of determining how much you need to earn per hour in this article for Suite101 on setting attainable goals.  In essence, you need to know what your monthly bills are, so you can break that down into daily amounts. Then you adjust for how many hours per day you can work, and go from there.

Now you know what you need to earn, you can compare it with the rate you’ll get for the project, if the project has an advertised rate.  If it doesn’t, you know how low you can go in negotiations.  I’d advise starting higher than your lowest rate when negotiating because it’s easier to come down than go up.

As a rule of thumb however: don’t settle for less than you need to pay the bills.  If you need to earn $15 an hour (or whatever), get $15 an hour or move on.  There are others who can survive on less, so let them take the jobs that are low-paying.  Always remember that you’re worth what you need to survive, and probably more on top of that.