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Tag: writing gigs

  • Hit Send: Making the Case for Following Up as a Freelance Writer

    Hit Send: Making the Case for Following Up as a Freelance Writer

    As a freelance writer, sometimes it feels like a losing battle to get work.

    You send dozens of email pitches to prospective clients but hear nothing but crickets — or at least, that’s what often happens to me.

    Recently, though, I had a mindset shift. I’m not just a writer; I’m a business owner.

    I’m selling my services. And if you’ve ever been on a company’s email list, you probably know that they follow up with a vengeance, time after time after time. Does it work? 50% of sales happen after the fifth follow-up, so that’s a yes.

    Here’s why following up on your pitches is so important for freelance writers, and the best ways to do it with success.

    Don’t be afraid to follow up

    Too many freelance writers are afraid to follow up. They think it makes them seem pushy or annoying and they’ll never get a client from a follow-up email, so why bother?

    I used to have the same fears — that is, until I started getting clients from follow-up messages.

    Think about your inbox. It’s crowded, you’re busy and sometimes things fall through the cracks. If you delete a message without reading it (and without fully realizing what it is), would you be mad if the sender emails you again a few weeks later?

    Of course not — especially not if they’re offering something of value.

    Remember, the person on the other side of the computer is just that: a person. If you follow up after an appropriate amount of time and do it with respect and kindness, they should have no problem with your email.

    Do follow up correctly

    How long should you wait before following up on a piece of marketing? Use five business days as a bare minimum; people are busy, and they don’t have time to dig their way to the bottom of their inbox each day.

    If you’re approaching or returning from a holiday, give people even more grace. And remember, life circumstances can strike at any time, making email even less of a priority.

    There’s a little controversy about how many times to follow up with any one client. I know some writers who don’t follow up at all. I know others who keep following up for years. I fall somewhere in-between.

    I used to send two follow-up emails to each prospect — one a week after my initial point of contact via LOI (letter of introduction), and one more two to three weeks after that first follow-up.

    Eventually I realized that I was getting lots of responses to the first follow-up email, but zero responses to the second. So I decided to let prospects go after just one follow-up message. And with job applications, I rarely follow up at all.

    Experiment and figure out what works for you.

    You also may want to make sure your emails are getting opened. Use a tool such as Hubspot Sales or Streak, which is a Gmail add-on, to see if your initial email was opened. If it wasn’t, you might have the wrong email address, or your message may have landed in the recipient’s spam folder. Whatever the case, you don’t want to waste your time sending emails into a black hole.

    Finally, change your mindset about following up. You’re not just asking for work — you’re cultivating a relationship. Consider sending your point of contact an article that made you think of them or wishing them a happy holiday during the appropriate times of year.

    Craft your follow-up message carefully

    A good follow-up email has three primary components:

    • A compliment to the company
    • A reminder that you’re available
    • A timely hook to bring it all together.

    For instance:

    Subject: Congrats on ABC award!

    Hi [first name],

    Congratulations on winning ABC award for XYZ initiative. That’s pretty cool — this must be such an exciting time for you!

    I wanted to reach back out and send you an article I recently had published about [relevant topic]. With your new XYZ initiative to [do something similar], I thought you might find it interesting.

    Meanwhile, I’m looking at my calendar for the next few months and was wondering if you could use any help producing content with the holiday rush coming up? I’d love to hop on a call and discuss your needs. Are you still focusing on blogging as a big part of your content marketing strategy?

    Thanks,

    [your name]

    Yes, following up really works

    But does this method really work? Yes, absolutely!

    I keep a handwritten log of all my marketing efforts — sending LOI’s to companies, applying to jobs from job boards and pitching article ideas to magazines. My log for LOI’s (it’s very basic) has four columns: company, date sent, date of follow-up and the response.

    When I flip back through my notes, one trend stands out — often, I got a response from the company after I sent a follow-up message. Sometimes they said no, sometimes they asked for clips of my work, sometimes they said to check back in a few months. And other times, I won big.

    That’s what happened when I sent an LOI to the marketing manager of a leading digital marketing agency in my state. Over a week passed and I hadn’t heard anything, so I sent her a quick note just to make sure she’d received my message.

    She responded and said she’d been on vacation and had missed my email; she was impressed with my experience and wanted to know if I could write a blog post for the agency’s website? (I could!)

    That turned into a steady stream of work equaling $1,000 a month for the next few months.

    Thanks to that freelance position, I became very well-versed in digital marketing and gained many new clips to add to my new portfolio. In that case, following up was 100% worth it — and if you begin following up with your prospects, you could win big, too.

    Photo via Nong Mars / Shutterstock 

  • From Self-Publishing to Blogging: 7 Solid Ways to Make Money Writing

    From Self-Publishing to Blogging: 7 Solid Ways to Make Money Writing

    Jane Friedman is a writing and publishing guru.

    Yes, the guru moniker is used with too much abandon these days, but Friedman’s laudable credentials, practical books and excellent website have earned her the title in my book.

    If you get nothing else from this article other than an introduction to Jane Friedman and her work, I’ve done my job.

    That said, the inspiration for this article stems from Friedman’s most recent release, The Business of Being a Writer, a fantastic primer for any writer looking to take their writing from a personal hobby to a possible business.

    Or maybe you’d just like to earn coffee money. That’s OK too.

    In the book, Friedman presents dozens of options for your consideration as you look at what you write and how you could turn that into some form of income.

    Your art and your commerce can, in fact, commingle.

    Writer, beware

    Before we dive into the major areas of making money from your writing, I have to relay one hard truth. Friedman brings it up, and my professional experience has borne it out.

    As she writes, “Very few people can make a living solely by writing and publishing books.”

    Now, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t write and sell your books. It means that “this one pursuit should not constitute one’s entire business model.”

    And this is why you should make yourself aware of the many different ways we as writers in the 21st century can turn a buck from turning out words.

    Write your books. Sell hundreds — millions — of copies. But don’t begin your career by banking your future on that collective dream of every first-time author.

    If you want a career in writing, think wide and think long.

    As Friedman encourages us, “It remains possible to make a decent living from writing if you’re willing to pay attention to how the business works, devise a business model tailored to your goals, and adapt as needed.”

    Think wide about your writing

    If you’re at least a year or two into taking your writing seriously, you likely have a type of writing you enjoy. Maybe it’s short stories, or poetry, or freelance writing, or fiction.

    Whatever puts fire to the kindling of your writing life, keep doing that.

    By all means, leverage your writing strengths and experience. Don’t negate your gift in the pursuit of income.

    But.

    If you want to create and maintain a financial foundation for your future as a writer, you will need to think wide. In other words, you need to think beyond what you currently do as a writer. You need to continue honing your craft, but you should open your mind to the possibilities of peripheral writing and writing-related work.

    Ask yourself, “What other writing work could I do that both encourages me to write and provides compensation?”

    If nothing immediately springs to mind, let’s consider seven ways you can monetize your writing, using Business as our guide.

    Note: Business goes into further detail about each of these paths, and Friedman’s website has even more information. I’ve also listed useful articles and books to help you get started along any of these pathways.

    1. Traditional publishing

    For many authors, traditional publishing is the pinnacle achievement, the bucket-list Mt. Everest they need to climb.

    But, as Friedman writes, “Most authors will earn little, or at least nothing close to a living wage, from their books…Industry insiders estimate that 70 percent of authors do not earn out their advance.”

    Maybe don’t try to climb this mountain first.

    But if you must:

    2. Self-publishing

    Rupi Kaur. Andy Weir. E. L. James.

    You may know these names because they have all enjoyed wild success as a result of their self-published books.

    But they are the exceptions, not the rules.

    The brutal numbers of self-publishing report the real story:

    Again, write your books. Publish them yourself through Amazon self-publishing. Work on your platform and your marketing.

    Whatever you do, don’t believe the lie that anyone will “just find” your self-published book once it’s released. You cannot “just write” your book and “just hope” it will do well.

    You must apprentice yourself to the craft of writing first, to the means of self-publishing second, and to the necessity of platform and marketing third.

    Even then, you might just recoup your investment — which is a great start to your business of being a writer.

    To enjoy a sustainable living through self-publishing, you’ll need strategy and purpose, and, honestly, a good amount of luck.

    Do self-publish. Don’t only self-publish.

    Starting points:

    3. Freelance writing

    Heed Friedman’s warning when it comes to freelance writing: “It now takes considerable experience and expertise to land paying work at a traditional print publication, and I don’t recommend it as a first line of attack. New writers will do better to look to online-only publication.”

    However, pitching articles to websites is an excellent way to bolster both your experience and your expertise. In time, you might also augment your income.

    To wit: I first pitched The Write Life in late 2014 for the article that eventually became About to Respond to a Negative Review of Your Book? Read This First. I pitched my next article a few months later. I pitched a column three years later. Now readers contact me about editing because they’ve seen these articles.

    In other words, freelance writing has cross-promotional benefits to all of your other writing.

    And just think about when someone googles you: if you’ve written for dozens of known websites, you just might own the front page for your name — a definite boon for any author.

    Start here:

    4. Blogging

    Friedman writes, “It may take a very long time before you see a direct connection between your blogging and your monthly or annual income.”

    If you’re not consistently and strategically producing quality content, your blogging may not be earning the results you’re hoping for, whether that’s newsletter signups, page views, or affiliate income.

    But, if you think long and ensure there’s a method to your online madness, your blog can become a significant contributor to your bottom line.

    It’s worked for Jane Friedman, as it has for many other known entities you likely follow. After you’re introduced to their work in some way and you see how consistently they produce worthwhile content, you involuntarily begin to expect their regular content.

    In other words, you become a fan.

    And in the writing world, you need fans.

    Start here:

    5. Editing and related writing services

    As a freelance editor, I wanted to place this choice first — but I know that editors are wired differently.

    If you find yourself more engaged in your critique group when discussing what works and what doesn’t about someone else’s story, you might be a developmental editor in waiting.

    If you have a negative physical reaction to an improper your instead of you’re, you might be a copy editor.

    If you’re good at pretending to write in someone else’s voice, you might be a ghostwriter.

    All of these writing-related services are valuable and needed today, but — as seems to be the case with every point on this list — establishing yourself in any of these areas requires patience, education, and, yes, learning how to sell yourself.

    For what it’s worth, a majority of my income as a freelancer has stemmed from copyediting, developmental editing, and ghostwriting.

    Start here:

    6. Teaching

    If you have a few years of experience and the capability to form coherent sentences out loud and in public, your knowledge and insight can help other writers.

    As an introvert, I challenged myself in 2017 to increase my freelance profile by seeking speaking engagements and teaching opportunities. It was one of the best things I did for my job that year.

    Disclosure: my speaking engagements and teaching opportunities did not directly lead to increased income. But the relationships I formed with other area writers were worth far more than income. Plus, they can now refer me to people in their circles, and I can refer them.

    When you overcome your fears, you might be amazed at what kinds of doors open to you, either in the immediate future or years down the road.

    For what it’s worth: speaking and teaching seldom pay well — or at all. This is one area where I would encourage you to pursue them for the benefit of exposure.

    However, in time, as you accrue experience as a speaker or teacher, you will be able to ask for payment. Or you can channel your newfound confidence into an online class or podcast.

    Start here:

    7. Publishing career

    If you really want to go all-in and you live in or near a town or city with a publisher, literary agency, or other writing-related business, apply for a job there.

    What better way to understand the business than to be in the business.

    Jessica Strawser, the erstwhile editorial director of Writer’s Digest, comes to mind. After leaving her full-time post with the magazine after a decade, she released her first novel to critical acclaim. She’s since released two more.

    Which makes me think she probably learned a thing or two during her tenure with the magazine.

    That magazine, by the way, once employed another writer who’s now making her living from everything we’ve just discussed.

    Jane Friedman was once the publisher and editorial director of Writer’s Digest.

    I’d say she’s learned a thing or two as well — and we are all the beneficiaries.  

    This post contains affiliate links. That means if you purchase through our links, you’re supporting The Write Life — and we thank you for that!

    Photo via GaudiLab / Shutterstock
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  • How to Negotiate: The Tip No One Tells Writers

    How to Negotiate: The Tip No One Tells Writers

     

    Hi, my name is Jessie, and I’m a writer.

    I can nail thriller scenes for novels, attention-grabbing article ledes, and persuasive product descriptions.

    Yet one form of writing repeatedly eludes me: business emails.

    Especially emails that involve my nemesis… negotiating.

    Negotiation is an important skill for writers — freelancers dealing with prospective clients, novelists dealing with editors, indie writers hiring cover designers, and anyone who’s ever tried to organize a coffee date with a colleague.  

    It seems like negotiating would be easier via email than in person or over the phone, especially for us writer types. After all, you can take the time to craft every sentence and make sure your point is clear and polite, right?

    And yet it can be devilishly hard.

    Jessie’s Big Deal: a case study

    I recently went through a high-stakes negotiation with a prospect, which involved some of the biggest numbers I’ve ever quoted. In a panic over every word, I read my email drafts out loud to my husband, who works in sales.

    His verdict? My writing sucked.

    In my quest to be polite, he explained, I was weakening my position and opening the door for my prospect to walk all over my quote.

    My first email went something like this:

    Hi Prospect,

    Thanks so much for getting in touch! I’d love to talk with you more about how we might work together. It sounds like what you’re looking for is [Project]. Based on [Variable 1] and [Variable 2] I feel like [My Proposal] might be a good way to proceed. My normal rate for work like that ranges from [$ to $$]. I think I’d need to know more about [Variable 3] before I could narrow that down. I hope that sounds all right to you. If so, let’s chat.

    Cheers!

    Jessie

    “Is that nice enough?” I asked my husband, who was rolling his eyes. “Is it polite? Is it getting my point across? Am I quoting too much?”

    After going back and forth about the wording for about 10 minutes, my husband finally asked if he could just write the email for me.

    My husband’s email read, in a nutshell:

    Prospect,

    Thank you for getting in touch. Based on [Variable 1] and [Variable 2], my rate would be between [$ and $$]. Please let me know how you would like to proceed.

    Jessie

    The polite writer in me was appalled at his directness and lack of flowery ornamentation. But I had to admit, it would be much harder to walk all over my proposal in that email than my original version.

    I touched up his version with a bit of my personality, but the lesson was clear: My tendency to hedge my bets was killing the negotiating power of my emails.

    Minimize “minimizing language” for stronger emails

    To show respect, many writers tend to use language that weakens their position. They aim for deference and end up timid. It’s part politeness, part impostor syndrome — and 100-percent bad for business.

    The good news is that, like in my email above, it all comes down to a few problem phrases that you can learn to recognize and edit out. Business experts call it “minimizing language.”

    It often sounds more polite to avoid direct statements. That’s why we say things like, “I think we need to turn left at the light,” instead of simply telling the driver to turn left.

    Observe how the following deferential statements can be strengthened:

    • “It seems like 3 p.m. would be a good time to meet up for me.” —> “Let’s meet at 3 p.m.”
    • “I feel like [$$] would be a good rate for that type of work.” —> “My rate is [$$] for that type of work.”
    • “I think I’d like to see a second draft by the end of the day.” —> “Please send me a second draft by the end of the day.”

    In my original email, I used phrases like “sounds like” and “I feel like” to soften sentences that should have been direct statements. After all, it didn’t “sound like” my prospect was looking for a certain type of service; he was looking for that service.

    “Do you ‘feel like’ making this proposal, or are you going to make it?” my husband asked. “Do you ‘think’ you need to know more about [Variable 3] before you can make a more accurate quote, or do you need to know it?”

    Phrases like these introduce doubt in the mind of your reader and undermine your authority, but they’re not the only culprits.

    “Just” is another insidious phrase that undermines everything around it. Look at how its inclusion in each of these sentences makes their meaning sound so insignificant:

    • “I just have a few pages to read from my new story collection.”
    • “I just want you to know…”
    • “I’m just calling to check in on…”
    • “My new novel? Oh, it’s just a story about…”
    • “Hi, it’s just me.”

    You should also keep an eye out for reassuring tag lines: phrases that go on the end of a sentence to soften its directness and ask for reassurance. Look out for phrases like:

    • “OK?”
    • “Don’t you think?”
    • “Isn’t it?”
    • “All right?”

    When in doubt, throw out your English degree

    Tana French’s gorgeous prose and Margaret Atwood’s intricate sentence structures make for a wonderful reading experience – but in a business email, simple is better.

    Take a look at my email examples from above again. In the first email, I was hiding my basic message — “here’s my quote, give me a call” — in a whole novel’s worth of subordinate phrases. That kind of email makes it harder for the recipient to know exactly what I’m saying and what I expect in response.

    Clarity is critical whether you’re hoping the response will be “You’re hired” or “Great, I’ll meet you then!”

    Next time you’re writing a business email, swap your writer hat out for your salesperson hat and cut out the fluff.

    I just feel like you’ll probably get better results if you do, don’t you think?

    How have your negotiation skills changed as you’ve gained experience writing?