"It Doesn't Hurt to Ask"

I’ve adopted the title of this post as my personal motto over the course of the past few weeks. This simple adage (and following through on it) has netted me considerable work throughout October and likely for the rest of the year. Who knew?!?

I’ve always been pretty persistent at approaching editors and suggesting story ideas, but obviously I’ve stepped up my efforts over these past few months. But as I’ve heard “our budgets are tight” and “we aren’t assigning anything to freelancers at the moment” and “Please send us your resume and if something becomes available we’ll contact you”, that’s just made me get creative with the types of folks I approach.

This belief has helped me to branch out. Much of my workload for October consists of assignments for new-to-me markets (including 2 trade publications)—places I hadn’t heard of six months ago, but now have me on their radar and I’m happily accepting work from them. Three of my four assignments for this month are for publications I’ve never written for before, and I’m also in discussion with a nearby college to do some work for their alumni magazine (depending on how that pans out, that might be another blog post in itself!) I do the occasional piece for the local newspaper, but am not doing as much work as I’d like, so I approached another local paper and asked if they need stringers. Yep, they do. Now I’m on three of their editors’ radar and hope to be covering events for them soon.

So I’m keeping up a steady stream of new work, besides the ongoing assignments and projects from the regular clients. All because I bit the bullet and powered through past the “Sorry, we don’t need people” and the “Sorry, we aren’t hiring freelancers right now” responses. Luckily, I have found places that need people and are looking for new writers, even if those discoveries came in some unexpected places. Nearly all of the projects I’m working on now came about through LOI’s. I’ve sent out an unusually high (for me) number of queries lately, but they haven’t landed me any assignments yet. So I’ll stick with the LOI’s for the immediate future. They’re working for me.

What about you? Have you approached an editor outside of your usual niche and received a good response? Do you have more luck with queries or LOI's?

Freelancers, Do You Ever Use a Resume?

It’s pretty common for editors to request clips from new-to-them writers. Many freelancers don’t wait to be asked—some automatically send samples along with queries and most almost always send them along with LOI’s. I’ve done the same many times. But twice in the last few months I was asked for something new for me—a resume.

I have a professional, non-writing-focused resume, but it never dawned on me to have one for freelancing. Awhile back I started a comprehensive CV where I list all of my clips, which now amounts to about 5 pages and is a little too lengthy to send to every editor that requests it (since most resumes are a page, 2 pages max.) But I update the CV as needed because it helps me to keep track of my clips and, should anyone ever want to see the beast, well, it’s right there if I need it.

I did some reading and, as usual, found mixed views on using a straightforward, traditional resume. Some freelancers use them and others rely more on their websites and samples to land work. It didn't seem like a bad idea to have one on hand, so I started from scratch and put something together for this particular editor. Instead of listing everything I’ve done from A-Z, I grouped my links by category and tried to include as many relevant clips as possible. Then a second editor requested the resume, so I just made some adjustments to what I had. I’m just wrapping up my first assignment for the second editor (still going back and forth with the first one), so I’d say it was worth it.

What about you? Do you have a freelancing resume? Has it helped to secure work? What tips or advice would you offer?

One Ship, Coming In...

If you’ve been reading this blog for awhile, you’ll remember that I’ve been pretty antsy about trying to break into A. Larger magazine markets and B. Copywriting for more corporate clients.

I’m steadily working on the larger markets thing (and have been pitching to a lot more trade mags lately), but I’m happy to say that the copywriting is starting to happen!

My writing partner and I are working on a big, BIG proposal for a corporate client that is expected to secure us several months’ worth of work and include several different kinds of projects. Talk about jumping in with both feet! As we’ve been discussing this proposal, I had a friend of a friend contact me about doing some writing for her, as well, which I hope will lead to some ongoing projects.

I feel pretty confident in the fact that these projects will lead to more work for us. In a few weeks my schedule will free up considerably, so I'll have more time to spend on marketing and reaching out to more businesses. We’re planning to attend a networking event in early December, and it’s time to work the local contacts, as well. It’s both exciting and daunting, but I’m ready!

What about you? How do you secure more work from editors and clients?

Work Aplenty!

Much as I love the freelancing life, the constant ebb and flow of work (coming my way, anyway) still makes me nervous. As I’ve said many times before, one of my biggest goals is to work with enough clients that there’s a steady stream of work coming in as much as possible.

My project list basically had tumbleweeds blowing across it these last few months. Granted, I didn’t push for work like I’ve done in the past, but once I adjusted to my schoolwork load, I started sending more queries. I’m still waiting on responses from quite a few editors.

It’s OK, though—I suddenly have plenty of assignments to keep me busy! I went from 0 to having 2 articles due by next Friday, another case study from my corporate client (after several quiet weeks!), and I connected with an editor this past week and it sounds as though there may be some opportunity for regular work with that market. (I should add that this connection came about through an LOI I sent last weekend, thank you very much!)

I do have some interesting writing-related stuff that I’m bursting to share with the wider world, but my gut tells me to wait a little while longer until things are in place a bit more.
That’s all for this week—I suddenly have a lot of work to do!

How’s your month shaping up?

How Effective Are LOI's (Letters of Introduction)?

We freelancers land work in a variety of ways. Most of us secure assignments through the old-fashioned query. A few lucky ones have established relationships with editors in which the editors come to them. A third option is to send a letter of introduction (LOI) to editors, which basically tests the waters of a publication before you send out a formal query.

An LOI is great if you aren't sure the publication even uses freelancers. There's nothing worse than wasting your efforts putting together a killer query only to have it rejected because you didn't do a little bit of extra research. An LOI can help you save face.

Personally, I've sent out a few LOI's over the years, with mixed results. I've been on a hot streak with querying lately and sent out a few LOI's for kicks, too. I send it directly to the editor if there's one listed on the website or masthead, but I've also sent them to the generic "editor@", "info@", or "mail@" addresses.

I've sent LOI's as basic as:

Dear [Editor's Name]:
I'm a freelance writer and I would be very interested in contributing to your publication/website. Do you typically work with freelancers? Could I receive a copy of your writers' guidelines?
My work has appeared in blah blah blah. I'm very interested in contributing to your publication based on my interest in [insert subject area here].
Thank you for your consideration. I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Sara Hodon

Of the 10 or so LOI's I've sent out recently, I've only gotten a response from about 2 editors. Not great odds in my eyes. But I'll keep sending them. 'Cause that's what I do.

What about you? Have you had luck with the LOI's, or do you just take your chances and go direct to the query?

On Turning Down Work

This is a bit unbelievable to me, but I’m finally at a point where I’ve had to pass on writing opportunities twice this week.

Now, I should add that at least one request was from a company I work with writing regular online content. The work is divvied out weekly, so I can always just pick up more next time or another week. I’m finding that’s the nice thing about a regular gig that includes other writers—there always seems to be someone able to pick up the slack should you need them. The other opportunity was writing a few blog posts in only a few days. I’ve accepted these tight assignments before, and though I prefer a little more time to complete them, I’ve always been able to hunker down and get them done (even with a raging sinus infection where I could barely sit up). But this time—well, I had to decline.

I passed on both of these things because I’m working on larger assignments that are much more time-consuming. One article is a rather long feature on various businesses, so I have to do quite a few interviews for the piece, then turn those interviews into workable text. I’m basically chaining myself to the PC to get as much of it done as possible. I’m also coming up on deadlines with a few other larger pieces and, well, I just felt that the regular assignments will be there next go ‘round.

However, I totally surprised myself because I rarely turn down any kind of writing opportunity that’s offered, no matter how small or what the pay might be (although I did turn down a non-paying gig a few months back). Part of me thinks that if I don’t say yes to whoever is asking, they’ll never ask me again, and I don’t want to turn down any opportunity that might lead to more work, or even something semi-regular. But this time, I just had to say no. And you know what? I feel pretty good about it!

How often do you say “no” to opportunities? How do you weigh your decision on what to accept and what to decline? If you’ve turned down work once (rates and nature of the project were great, you were just too maxed out at the time), were you approached by the same person for other opportunities?