Two Blogs Any Frustrated Freelance Writer Should Love

by Amy Derby on September 21, 2007

I stumbled across two blogs today that I’ve got to say are pretty damn funny. If you’ve ever been screwed over by a client, you’ve got to take a look at these (if you haven’t already):

http://irreverentfreelancer.blogspot.com
and
http://writingfrump.wordpress.com

I’ve already added them to my favorites. They’re just that good.

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Is Freelance Magazine Writing for You?

by Amy Derby on September 21, 2007

Not too many years ago, freelance writers who weren’t copywriters had only a few options, the most common of which were writing for magazines or writing for newspapers. Since freelance newspaper writing isn’t usually very lucrative, a lot of freelance writers found writing for magazines to be a great way to earn a living. Many still do. Still, now that so much is online, freelance writers have a lot of choices when it comes to the writing jobs they take.

Online freelance writing jobs range from writing content articles for websites to blogging, writing for online newsletters/ezines to writing for online magazines.

As a freelance writer who makes my living primarily doing corporate writing work, I earn most of my income writing newsletters (online and off), writing articles and web content for corporate sites, blogging for corporate blogs, and writing an occasional press release. For fun, I enjoy writing creatively for literary magazines — I usually look for ones that pay, so it’s like a double-bonus for me.

Although I’ve written an article for a magazine here and there, it’s not the sort of work I enjoy. However, since many writers new to freelancing email me asking for information on freelance magazine writing, I thought I’d offer up this checklist (albeit not an all-inclusive one) about how to know whether or not writing for magazines might be something you’d enjoy doing.

Freelance magazine writing might be for you if:

  1. You have a lot of unique ideas and have the ability to pitch them successfully.
  2. You have the ability to conform your writing style/tone to that of the magazines you write for.
  3. You enjoy interviewing people.
  4. You don’t mind spending time reading back-issues of magazines to familiarize yourself with the publications you want to write for.
  5. You don’t mind waiting a month or more to hear back about whether or not you’ll be assigned the article.
  6. You don’t mind waiting a month or more to get paid.
  7. You don’t take rejection personally.

Freelance magazine writing might NOT be for you if:

  1. You need work you can do right away and get paid for promptly.
  2. You prefer to do a lot of steady work for only a few clients.
  3. You don’t like to see your work edited, sometimes edited quite a bit.
  4. You don’t like to wait.
  5. You don’t enjoy writing query letters.
  6. You don’t like making phone calls.
  7. Rejection breaks your heart.


Recommended reading for breaking into freelance magazine writing:

If you’re a new writer interested in freelance writing for magazines, one of the very best books I’ve read on freelance magazine writing is Jenna Glatzer’s Make a Real Living as a Freelance Writer. If you prefer ebooks, the best ebook I’ve read on the subject is Cheryl Wright’s Writing for Profit: Break into Magazines.

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