Have you just decided that you want to write for a living? Here are some tips to help you start out.
Once someone has decided to start this wonderful journey to be a freelance writer, what do they do? Where do they start? Here are some tips for those that are thinking about becoming a writer.
Learn the Craft of Writing
No matter how much talent someone may have, there is still much to learn about writing. There are the basic mechanics of writing, like grammar and sentence structure. Writers will need to learn how to write to a particular audience. Marketing one's self is an important skill to learn also.
There are many places to get this knowledge. Searching online is an excellent place to start. There are many websites that have great information. Free online classes can be found. There are many communities and groups that can gives support and feedback.
A community college or adult education is another place to sharpen one's skills as a writer. A writer can take English composition classes to learn the rules of writing. There are creative writing classes, journalism classes, among a plethora of other classes that will help anyone become a better writer.
Taking a correspondence course from a reputable institution is a good way to sharpen one's skills. The thing that is great about these courses is that they can help anyone write for a particular niche. The Institute of Children’s Literature and the American Writers and Artists Inc. are two examples of reputable institutions that have classes about writing for many niches and markets.
Learn the Art of Marketing
Once one is confident that they are a decent writer, they need to learn how to market their self. This is true for a copywriter or a novelist. Before most potential clients or editors read writing samples they first have to read a query letter, cover letter, or website copy.
For many writing markets, the query letter or cover letter is one's first introduction. That is where they must shine. Writers have to learn to promote their self, their writing, and their ideas. A poor query letter can leave a good writer without the gig.
So what makes up a good query letter? There are many books and articles on the subject. The 2007 Writer’s Market has a great article on query letters. Doing a search on Google using “query letters” will also net some good information. If a writer plans to send out query letters, he needs to make sure they are as polished as possible.
If a writer has a website to promote their writing, they should learn how to write web copy. The internet is filled with people out there willing to teach how to write good web copy, for a price. It probably wouldn’t hurt, if one is able to find someone they trust, to invest in learning this skill, but it is not necessary to fork out their hard earned cash. Once again, Google has supplied a lot of good information when we use “writing web copy.”
Learn to Find Writing Opportunities
There are a lot of opportunities out there, but one has to know where to look. With the explosion of the internet, a new market has opened up for writers with minimal experience. The potential problem with that is finding sites that pay well. Suite101’s very own Jennifer Mattern runs a few sites that help freelance writers with tips and information on getting writing gigs. She also wrote this article on finding markets online. Check out her profile to see the different sites she works on.
To gain experience, writers may opt to write for free. Many writers are against doing anything for free, and they have that right. But there is nothing wrong with writing an article or two for the chance at a writing sample and byline. There are a lot of markets out there that will take writing for free, so writers needs to be careful that they don’t write for free too long. How long that may be is up to them.
Looking in books like the Writer’s Market is another way to find potential markets out there. Certain niches also have their guides out such as the Poet’s Market and The Christian Writer’s Guide. These are excellent resources to delve into and find publishers to submit manuscripts, cover letters, or query letters to.
Learn To Be Confident
The most important thing for a writer is to be confident with their writing. While they might know of every bad point in their article or story, they shouldn't try to point it out to someone reading it. Most people seem to be too critical of themselves. A writer may not be perfect and still have some things to learn, but that’s OK. This learning thing is a lifelong process. They just be aware of where they are at in the timeline.
When one contacts editors or potential clients, they are looking for a reason not to use the writer. There is so much competition that they have their pick of literally thousands of writers. Writers should not give those editors or potential clients any reason to not choose them. When corresponding with those interested in their writing, writers need to be confident. There is one warning though; they shouldn't promise anything they really can’t deliver.
Everyone has to start somewhere. Writers need to be confident at where they are at and there is nothing they can’t do. The world is their oyster. The pearl is theirs, even if they have to pry the shell open to get at it.
