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FREELANCE TOP TEN

1. Consistently send out queries, even when you have more work than you can handle.

The work will slow down, consistency is key to ensuring you always have enough work to meet your target.

Follow up every completed assignment with a new query to that editor. 

2. Expand on your area of expertise

Think about how your area of expertise might sell to other types of magazines. If you write about education 

3. Mind your business

Send out invoices. Document expenses. Always.   

4. Cultivate Assignments

And the editors who make them. If you find an editor who consistently offers you work, hold onto him even when you’re busy. Trades are great for this.  

5. Network

With fellow writers, potential sources and both existing and potential clients.  

6. Don’t Give Away Your Rights

E-rights are a separate right and you should be paid for them. Reprinting your article in another edition of a magazine or in a sister magazine owned by the same company should earn you a separate fee. 

7. Recycle, Reuse and Resubmit

Your articles, your sources and your ideas.  

8. Don’t Write for Free

EVER.  

9. Use the Hassle Formula

Pay attention to how much work you are doing for that 45c or 60c / word. Where are you earning the most money? 

10. Don’t Abandon All the Smaller Markets Even After Sell to A Glossy

You may need them.

©Jennifer Crump

Jennifer Crump is a freelance journalist and the author of Amazing Stories: The War of 1812 and Frommer’s Toronto with Kids. She also writes historical romance and serves on the RWA board of Directors as PRO Liaison.