freelance writing
 

I've been wanting to do freelance writing for some time now, and I was wondering if anybody here does it, and might have some useful tips. Obviously music would be my subject of choice, but I'm not so naive as to think I wouldn't have to write about things I find far less interesting in order to get started.

A pen-for-hire, ay? A loose tongue? A literary mercenary?

gmku's whole means of subsistence is freelance writing, and I think !@#$% does some too.

They say it involves a lot of cupping hairy balls and swallowing their "pride"

better than bending over for lawyers shilling for oil companies! :p

i don't do freelance writing-- gmku does, but business is scarce these days.

i used to write a column for a local magazine, but that was just for the glory.

;)

these fucking lawyers.

I've been a freelance writer for about ten years now...and the only advice I can really give you is to start small and know what markets you want to go for.

But yeah, Rob, you're pretty much right.

barnacle, I too have take it hard from and for these fucking lawyers man.

work is work.

I'm going to compile an anthology of my SYG posts and sell it to the highest bidder.

EASY STREET

I'm sorry but I already own the copyright to all your posts. In fact I own the copyright to everyone's posts.

Either don't do it, or do it excessively. You'll make fuck all being a part-time freelancer. I have a friend who does it, and he basically does more work than my 37-and-a-half hours a week (assuming I worked all 37 1/2 hours) for less pay. But it's worth it when you're my other friend, who works a quarter of my hours for twice my pay.

I figured as much. I only would prefer to do freelance at this moment to ensure that I am good at it. I like to write, but I don't have enough confidence in my writing yet to apply for a job and quit my current one. If I do freelance and am able to create an admirable portfolio, then I may have more confidence to go further.

do it first for free and see if you can meet deadlines and editorial standards, and then you have a portfolio and you can start charging money.

no editor is gonna hire an unproven unpracticed writer out of the blue-- much less with the economy as it is.

practice.

I used to do it.

The plus-ponts:

You get free records/DVDs/gig passes
You meet famous people
You work from home mostly

The Negatives:

Money isn't good to start with, but can be very good in the end.
An idiot sub-editor will re-write your particularly brilliant review or article into something that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.
Deadlines

The reality:

You will become very jaded, very fast.
You will end up reviewing albums you haven't actually listened to, films you haven't seen, books you haven't read and gigs you never went to, just because it's easier.

And I wouldn't expect them to. I hadn't thought of doing them for free; my greed seemed to prevent this idea from crossing my mind. If, though, it leads to greater things, I am all for it.

here's my tip: internet.

hope it helps.

I did think of making a blog for this purpose, so that I could then have it on my resume and as somewhat of a portfolio (whether or not any place would view it as a portfolio or not, I don't know).

this man speaks the truth.

i shall add to the pros and cons demonrail posted (mostly spot on).

positive:
you get to destroy whatever cd/dvd/gig passes if it doesn't tickle your fancy.

negative:
you get into screaming matches you won't win over the subject of your article.

advice: you're going to get fucked over and your article will be changed, so wh y not write about what you want?

and don't expect money, period.

now i have to go, need to review ten cds and make three feature articles...

Yes, it's how I've made a living, full-time, for the past 18 months or so. Somehow I've made it work. I was fortunate to start with a lot of connections in the area I wanted to write in (they were editors of university research magazines around the country, mainly, whom I'd gotten to know over the years through my work at Iowa). I had some lucky breaks, too. In the first year, I easily surpassed what I'd made as a full-time editor at Iowa.

So I'll say this: You can do it, but you really need those connections if you expect to work full-time. If you don't have them yet, you'll probably spend some time establishing those before you get much work.

Second, you had better have some kind of experience, a body of work, published samples, that you can show editors. Editors are very skittish about hiring unknown entities.

Third, be prepared for the isolation of working by yourself. Many people warned me about this, and I didn't think much of it at the time, but I can honestly say, after 18 months of mostly working in a room by myself, that it gets a bit lonely. I've gone back to work half-time (see below), and I can sincerely say that I enjoy being part of an office work staff again.

And a big thing--be prepared to handle the stress of not always knowing where the next job is coming from, or when the client's check will arrive, and for ups and downs in monthly salary, and that kind of thing. There's seldom any such thing as a regular paycheck in this business.

As I said, I recently had to start working for the man again, as many places, universities included, have slashed their publication budgets, and the first thing to go seems to be the freelance budget. I personally think it's a very tough time to venture out as a freelancer, and even, as my case illustrates, to continue as a freelancer. But if you're really determined, you can do it. It takes a lot of hard work, especially in the beginning when you need to establish a client base.

I am quite aware of the fact that I won't make much money doing this; at least not at first. I simply look foward to seeing something of mine in print. I think it would be an enjoyable challenge, and as I mention in my original post, I'm not ready to quit my job just yet. :)

I'm kind of lazy about reading through a thread before posting, so I won't now as well, but I'll ask, do you have any background or education in writing? Journalism? Etc?

I'm not sure if I admire you for wanting to publish without making money or if I just think you're a fool. By the way. Writing is hard work! I want to get paid for every single word.

I neither seek admiration nor feel I deserve it.

Basically what I mean is that while I would like to make money, I don't expect to at first, and just the challenge of getting published would be enjoyable. Obviously I wouldn't want to write pro bono forever, but I'd be willing to do it if I could get my name out there.

Go for it!

Something that tends to get missed during all this talk of how to break into the business is how to secure your place within it once you've been given your break. The world is full of would-be Tom Wolfes who wrote that one amazing review for a magazine and then simply disappear. The key to avoiding this is discipline. Editors get a major hard-on for writers who can deliver exactly what they want, when they want it. The best writer in the world won't last five minutes as a freelancer if they can't meet a deadline. And stick to the format. If the editor wants you to review the new Sonic Youth album in 100 words don't hand in a PhD thesis. And don't be too precious about your work. The sub-editor will change it (if only to justify his or her own job) and no editor will tolerate a prima donna. These are obvious points but I've seen lots of very good writers fall by the wayside either through a lack of discipline or being too attached to what they write.

Speaking for myself, I'm too attached to money to be precious about my work. I'll write a coloring book for an editor if that's what he wants, as long as I get my check.

pish posh! the deadline is when i turn it in.

I've done maybe three or four freelance jobs for no money, and it was a ton of work. I remember spending probably 15-20 hours working on a one-page article. (Mostly the work was on getting interviews because it turned out to be a bit touchier than I excepted.) The stress it caused soured me against the idea for quite a while, and the lack of any pay at all deadens the whole big-picture outlook quite a bit.

It will probably be harder than you think to start out, no matter how hard you think it is. I'm sure it's harder than I think it is. Just expect a lot of fucking work, and if you really want to get into it, you're going to have to handle some serious work-and-little-reward for a while.

i did a monthly column of dvd reviews (about 1200 words) for a year, and yeah it was hard and it took up time but a) i loved the movies i reviewed, b) i did it for the glory.

yep, it was nice to have someone come up to me & say they had laughed their asses off at my rants, or that they had seen the movie i recommended & had loved it, etc. i like that shit and it was a fun sport.

i'd look for a chance to do it again, but i've taken up other vices.

Quote of the day, on my Google homepage:


Maybe it is a sign? :)

As !@$#%! says, the greatest reward comes from the feedback you receive from readers rather than anything you get financially. There are definitely easier ways to make money if that's the only motivation for doing something.
The best attitude to have when writing is to do it because you want to, and look upon any financial reward as a bonus. In that sense it's exactly the same as starting a band.

Thats exactly what I was going to say. If you love art and painting, and you do it for that reason, if it is decent, or at least expressive, somewhere down the line somebody will notice and like your stuff. Maybe, you'll get a spot at the local gallery and sell a few pieces, maybe you'll get a spot at some trendy gallery in Soho,NY....who knows. I too was considering the tenets of freelance writing and came to the conclusion that I would need to have a good job full-time in order to persue writing part-time. I would probably take a journalism course, so I could learn the terminology and various swagger of the writing enviroment.

I had thought of taking classed of that sort. I have my own way of expressing myself with words, but if it doesn't sell, then I may as well just keep a diary instead. As a wise man once said:

no need to pay for classes

http://www.writersmarket.com/

http://www.writersdigest.com/

http://www.amazon.com/Renegade-Write...ref=pd_sim_b_1 << good one, this one

http://www.amazon.com/Six-Figure-Fre.../dp/0375720952

etc.

Awesome! These are much appreciated.

the biggest reward i have gotten from freelancing is meeting a really amazing musician and having the interview be like a conversation about life and music and pulling certain jobs, like arranging and doing an interview in less than 48 hours from scratch.

I agree. Interviewing musicians is about the best part of the job I've done.