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Freelance Writing for the Newbie Writer attempts to demystify the whole concept of creative freelance writing even while bringing out its pitfalls. The book highlights issues like importance of language, niche writing, querying an editor, reviewing a book, how to spot and avoid scams, plagiarism, and the requirements for publishing a book, etc.
It is essentially an introduction to the art of how to make your writing work for you, as a newbie freelancer, needing to make a living out of it. The book does not tell you how to write. Instead, it tells you what to expect and what not to expect while you freelance write.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
When computers hit the scene in India, life changed for Sreelata Menon. The Internet introduced her to a whole new way of writing and working! A Masters in History (Mumbai University), she was with the Onlooker and World Trade Magazine before teaching History to undergraduates and doing a stint in an advertising agency. Now working from home, she is a freelance writer who enjoys writing on all kinds of topics.
Reinventing herself as a Web content writer, she not only writes weekly blogs on freelance writing but also comments on current happenings for online and print publications everywhere!
CONTENTS
I - What Every Newbie Must Be Aware Of
A ‘Freelance’ Writer
What Is Freelance Writing
The Pre-requisites Needed
Is Going Freelance Worth It
The Road Map
II - What Every Newbie Must Acquire
Language And Its Importance
What Are Writing Styles
Your Writing Style
Niche Writing
III - What Every Newbie Must Know
Querying The Right Way
Plagiarism
What Are ‘Rights’
Hazards of Freelance Writing
What Is A Scam
How To Review A Book
IV - What Every Newbie Must Master
The Internet And The WWW
Puzzling Web Terminologies – Simple Definitions
Web Content
A Freelance Writer’s Tools On The Internet
Workshops And Online Courses – Are They Useful
Contests And Competitions – Do They Help
From Amateur To Professional – What Needs To Be Done
Publishing Your Book – What Is Required
V - What Every Newbie Must Do
Tips To Market Yourself
The Ten-Fold Path To Success
VI - Where Every Newbie Must Go
50 plus Useful Website Links
A 100 Market Resource Links
Outsourcing – Why Are Indian Writers Being Called Shoddy Writers
Websites That Have Helped Indian Freelance Writing
VII - What Every Newbie Must Follow
Ten Easy Steps To Freelance Writing
AN EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK
The Road Map
Today the demand for good writers is at an all-time high. Travel writers, Creative writers, Copywriters, Resume writers, Content writers, Technical writers, Essay writers, you name it, and there is a market for it. If you are slowly able to carve out a name for yourself as a good, dependable writer or by specialising in any one particular area, become an expert and get published or posted (usually without payment first!) often, you are almost there. And once you manage to sell your ideas, you are home and running.
How To Go About It
- All companies including the media have their presence on the Net, so you need to email/call up editors or constantly surf the Net and query!
- To make Search Engines (Google, Yahoo) your trusted lieutenants and use them to help you seek, search and finally write for advertised or possible opportunities.
- If they are direct websites, look for submission guidelines or send in your query. It is not a waste of time. On an average three out of every five will elicit some kind of a response that will take you forward.
- If they are general ‘writing’ sites or blogs, hit on probable ones.
- Subscribe to their newsletters. Most of them are free. It will give you a fair idea of their reliability.
- Generally avoid those that promise you the moon.
- Look for those that seem sincere. Then suss out their market database.
- But do not subscribe or pay for anything till you are sure of its bonafides.
- Also, remember to check out the various published lists of dishonest and fly-by-night operators often.
- Soon you will be able to sift the wheat from the chaff.
Take A Chance
- Once more or less sure, take a chance.
- Respond to the advertised opportunity.
- Though it is usual practice in established writing circles not to start writing till an understanding is reached, you, the newbie, can take no chances.
- So, till you have sufficient work, give them what they’ve asked for, quickly, whatever the subject, or send them something you have already written.
- Odds are that they will use it and pay you with a nice ‘Thank you for your submission’ letter or not at all, but if rejected or if you don’t hear from them ever again, which is highly likely, don’t lose heart.
- Move on. Just keep those articles as ready reckoner samples for later use.
- Stockpile them in a folder for the future, to be sent on to other editors who may seek samples of your written work.
Swallow Your Pride
- Develop a thick hide.
- Learn to take rejections in your stride.
- Despite rejections, build up relationships with editors.
- Cultivate them without rancour.
- Send them query letters or now and then gently remind them you exist!
- More often than not you may get no reply. But persist. Who knows, they might just remember to call on your services when the need arises sometime. And when they start calling, they start paying.
- Slowly but surely you will soon start finding more and more of your contributions in print/uploaded and along with it will come ‘recognition’.
- And this recognition will soon translate your output into bucks even if it is not instantly mega!
Sense Of Belonging
You could also pick up many a useful tip by becoming a member of various interesting writing communities and lists (Yahoo, Msn, Rediff) on the Net. And you will realise that you are not the only freelance writer out there ploughing a lonely furrow. It makes for a great sense of belonging and helps the creative juices no end!
Patience
But the need of the hour most certainly is patience. Disappointments and rejections notwithstanding, you need to keep your spirits up and patiently continue to write everyday, on anything! To persevere.
Never stop. Never give up. Also don’t sell yourself short. It is only a matter of time before your articles start finding a market – eventually on your terms.
And then, you the lowly work-from-home freelance writer would have arrived!
Markets
Yes, there are no guarantees that your article will find a home instantly or that all sites on the Net are legitimate, but there are many sites and publications that do accept and survive on freelance submissions.
You need to sift through them for those that are genuine and choose those that will suit your purpose.
And just as there are many sites which insist on a membership or subscription fee to check out their market database, there are also many that post interesting, paying offers – free!
In other words work the markets constantly. It pays!
Reviews about the book:
May 2009
Freelance Writing for Newbie Writers
The advent of the Internet and the popularization of the worldwide web have launched many a new career. Web requires content; and in that it requires innumerable writers and innumerable topics. But most of them look for experienced writers; it means you have to start somewhere. But where? Most of the aspiring writers have no idea how to go about it or where to start. This is where a ready reckoner on freelance writing finds its value.
I remember Sreelata Menon’s post a year or two ago on this very forum on ‘How I became a web content writer’ and how we were all impressed by her enterprise in creating a new career years after one marks an end to any career but a familial one. http://blogs.4indianwoman.com/2007/09/21/how-i-became-a-web-content-writer-by-sreelata-menonallahabad-india.aspx
This was an account of how Sreelata Menon endeavored to try her hand at writing for the web, at a late year in life; she not only succeeded but also hit it off really well. The post was an interesting and inspiring one but there were still the gaps to be filled in the information provided. After all it was just a blog.
The newbie writer who browses the web and reads such an article sets about to think, How does one really write? Where do you find the opportunities? What are the pitfalls? Does one really get paid? The doubts can all be answered from a single source now. The author of the blog has wrapped up her freelancing experiences on the web into a book for the newbie writer.
‘Freelance Writing for the Newbie Writer’.
Published by Unicorn Books, New Delhi and running into 132 pages, this book is priced at Rs.150/- and dedicated to ‘All those writers-young and old- who wish to freelance,’
Sreelata demystifies freelance writing to the newbie writer in set of chapters crisply titled ‘what a newbie must be aware of’, ‘what a newbie must know’, ‘what a newbie must acquire’ and so on…It isn’t just enough to be a creative writer or to have good language skills, says the author. Of course it counts quite a bit, but that is not the whole skill set. It all depends on how you go about finding the opportunities, how you deal with editors, and so on.
The book details all these steps in 7 chapters filled with tips on how a newbie writer can start on a freelance career with confidence. The best thing about the book is that it is based on actual experience. Sreelata found her way through the web the hard way and it is this experience that she shares. It is quite possible that you are stuck at some point that she explains on the book, and you bounce back into writing in full force after reading this.
Querying is a skill, and getting an editor to say yes is an achievement. The average writer knows how difficult this task is. There is a whole chapter devoted to very practical tips on querying. The book has another chapter offering tips on writing styles. Many of us might have been accused of using Indianisms in our writing. I had frankly thought I was writing the best possible English. But taking a few tips from this chapter I know that still have to filter out the Indianisms. This may also be one of the reasons why your queries abroad get rejected.
If, in spite of being skilled in navigating the web, you are still in doubt about some of the web terminologies, and are reluctant to ask someone on that, Sreelata helps out by throwing in a whole unit on this. She also details on the rights issue in another chapter, something we generally ignore until someone takes away our hard work and we stand helpless.
The rights issue works both ways. Many a time, we adapt someone’s work to fill in what we write, not realizing that we may be actually performing an act of plagiarism. Plagiarism is not just copying word for word. There is a beautiful example in the chapter on plagiarism; on what is and isn’t acceptable in writing when we need to take points from another work, even our own. Yes, there is something called self-plagiarism.
Information on scams and hazards, workshops and online courses, are other things that help the newbie writer. I am sure many of you must have come across websites who praise you to the skies and then ask for money for publishing your work. Sreelata points out how to recognize a scam. There is an entire chapter on how to publish as well.
Marketing oneself is something one cannot ignore these days, and this is a skill. Many a time, we lose out to people who may be comparable writers but better in self-marketing. There is nothing wrong with this concept, and contrary to what our social norms dictate, this does not amount to being pushy. Being at the right place at the right time and meeting the right people can help your writing career quite a bit. The book in review tells you how to do this too. The behavior code that a freelance writer needs to follow; especially regarding observing deadlines is the best advice one can give.
The author wraps up the book with a whole unit devoted to web links, which give you information on paying markets, helpful websites and so on. This I think is the best part of the book. There are links to on online communities, publishing and whole list of places where you can look for writing opportunities.
So much for the content part of the book. The book is compact in form, looks stylish but there are avoidable mistakes in copy, which could be corrected, in another edition. Yes, I am sure there will be other editions because this book is a capsule form of what every newbie writer seeks to know but doesn’t always get told.
http://blogs.4indianwoman.com/2009/05/16/in-book-review--sreelata-menons-freelance-writing-for-the-newbie-writer-reviewed-by-suneetha-trivandrum-india.aspx
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