It is a dream of many freelance writers to break into large, nationally distributed magazines. These are the big name publications that many associate with a high level of prestige. After all, most will agree that writing for Sports Illustrated is much better than a website that nobody reads. So how are you going to break into these competitive markets?
Personally, I have never freelanced for any of the “big name†publications that are out there. But with that being said, I have picked up a few gigs with magazines that have a national reach. My work is not read by millions, but national exposure is always a good thing. Not only does it give you a chance to show off your work, but a couple good features could lead to projects with other like publications.
If you want to freelance for these types of magazines, consider the tips below.
1. Many of the largest magazines do not accept a lot of freelance work. Since they are popular and have a large budget, they instead employ a full-time staff to handle most of the work. But with that being said, every publication is different. Even if a magazine only uses freelance writers for 5 percent of each issue, this still gives you a chance to get involved. There have been many writers who started out freelancing, and were then offered a full-time staff or editorial position. While you may not strive for this, it shows that breaking in wherever possible is important.
2. Do not set your sights too high early on. As I mentioned above, I have done some work for large magazines, but even then, none of them would be considered extremely well known by the masses. They may have national distribution channels, but they are far from main stream. In most cases, it is these publications that are easier to break into because they more commonly use freelance writers.
3. Put together a killer query letter for each magazine that you are interested in writing for. Make sure that you never use the same generic letter for each publication. This will show that you are more or less lazy, and editors will not tolerate this.
Most people who want to freelance for nationally distributed magazines have two things in mind.
1. They want to be featured in these magazines because they are read by a lot of people, and as mentioned above, are perceived as prestigious. There is nothing wrong with this, but do not get caught up in the “ego†of the situation.
2. Of course, money is always better when writing for the bigger magazines. They have the cash to pay, and the subscription base and advertisers to back it up. There are quite a few large magazines that pay $1/word or more. Can you imagine having a couple of clients like this? Talk about a great way to make a full-time freelance writing income.
The best piece of advice that I can give is to go for the gusto. If you have experience and work samples, you might as well start sending query letters to nationally distributed magazines. Remember, the worst thing that can happen is you lose a few minutes of time, and sometimes money for postage.Â
My freelance writing rates have changed a little bit over the course of my career. This is not to say that I am always making changes, but from time to time I definitely look at what I am charging. Not only do I need to keep my freelance writing rates high enough to make good money, but at the same time they need to be stay competitive with the rest of the industry.
In my first month as a freelance writer, I completed just a couple small projects. You may not believe it, but I was writing 500 word articles for $1 to $2. As you can imagine, this was a lot of work for just about no pay. But as I have said in the past, every freelance writer needs to start somewhere.
Within a couple of months, I began to discover the markets that paid solid rates. This included web based clients, as well as regional and national magazines. As you can imagine, as I began to work for clients in these markets I was no longer earning $1 for every 500 words.
At this time, I have a set of standards that I follow when a client asks for my freelance writing rates. This helps to ensure that I quote every potential customer the same price. Do I ever make an exception to this rule? Sure do. Sometimes I will lower my price for a client if I think that they have long term potential. Additionally, when a client offers bulk work I usually tend to offer a lower rate.
Most magazines that accept freelance work have standard rates that they pay first time writers. They may also have different rates for the type of article that you are writing for them. For instance, I used to do a monthly feature article for a gaming related publication. For feature articles, they paid me at a rate of $.15/word. This usually worked out to somewhere around one 2,000 word feature for a paycheck of $300; not the best rate, but good for me at the time. After a few months of working with them, they also asked me to compose some filler pieces for them. Since these were shorter and quick to write, I was only offered $.10/word.
While you can negotiate with magazines over the pay you will receive, this is not something that you want to do as a new writer. Generally speaking, you should know the pay scale of a publication before sending a query letter. This way, if they do want to work with you, no negotiations need to take place. Of course, as you work with them more and more, you may either be offered a pay raise or ask for one on your own.
As you gain more experience and clients, you have every right to increase your freelance writing rates. But remember, this should be a natural progression. Personally, I am not going to charge $150 for a particular project today, and raise that to $300 by tomorrow.
I know that a lot of bloggers write their posts in advance, and then use the WordPress timestamp feature to their advantage. While I do this from time to time, I prefer to write each post and then make it live within an hour or so. This has never been a problem for me, but I can see how it could be an issue. I definitely think it is a good idea to always have a standby blog post that you can call on. This way, if something ever comes up you can make the post live and never miss a beat.
Here are three things to keep in mind when writing a standby blog post.
1. Make sure that your standby blog post is not time sensitive. After all, you never know when you are going to use the post. If I write about a current event and don’t post it until next month, it is safe to say that nobody is going to care.
2. If you use one standby post, write another one shortly thereafter. You do not have to rush to do this, but it is something that you should add to your to-do list. Even though you may not have to use the post for several months, you will always know where it is at when the time comes.
3. If you use WordPress, you may want to save the article to your dashboard as a draft. This makes it easy for you to sign into your account and make the post live within a matter of minutes. This is much more time efficient than having to dig up the article on your hard drive, and then paste it to the WordPress feature.
At this time, I have a few standby posts that I can call on in the future. I don’t have any plans for using these posts, but you never know when an emergency will force me into doing so.
Do any of you bloggers do the same? If so, what are some tips that you follow when composing these standby posts?
