Fiction to Freelance in Five Easy Steps
Romance Writers Report
By Beth Morrow

All that research you do for your books could be put to another use.

Here’s a quick quiz you’re guaranteed to pass: choose one topic you know more in-depth than anyone. Okay, maybe not everyone, but the majority of people. Got it? Good. Now think of two different aspects of that topic you could confidently teach others.

Complete that with no problems? Congratulations-you can be a writer.

A freelance writer.

What? Freelance? But I’m a fiction writer, I hear you protest. I create worlds of the future and heroes who make women cry. I’m full of witty dialogue, sparkling characters, and happy endings. I don’t do nonfiction.

Sound familiar? Since the beginning of time, the implied distinction between fiction and nonfiction has kept many a writer safely clinging to one side of the mountain without granting consideration to the other. Fiction writers love that their work fuels creative escape and fantasy; freelancers thrive on making sense of and providing information for the real world. While the chasm between the two may seem impossible to bridge, you’re doing a disservice to your writing, your readers, your career, and ultimately, yourself, if you limit yourself to only fiction or only freelance.

Venturing into freelance writing can be a scary proposition if you’ve spent your time immersed in fiction, but the hardest part is learning to write-and you’ve mastered that. If you’ve ever had an interest in the world of nonfiction, come along for the ride. From the basics of freelancing to how writing nonfiction articles are guaranteed to improve your fiction writing career, you’ll never look at a magazine the same way again.

But I Write Books…

While that may be true, have you given thought to the ways in which writing nonfiction pieces might help your writing career? From knowledge gained, to contacts made, to character insight, to the ever-popular paycheck, a reason exists for every romance writer to consider freelancing.

Before she left her regular job to become a full-time novelist, Cindi Myers (The Man Tamer) took her insight from working as a medical office manager and turned it into articles for a variety of medical trade and other magazines. “Freelancing allowed me to quit a corporate job and become a full-time writer. This made the transition to full-time novelist smoother and allowed me to see myself as a ‘real writer’ well before my fiction was selling.” On the reverse side of the coin, using the content from researching your fiction details can be easily spun into freelance articles. “Let’s say you did a ton of research for your lead character, a scuba diving instructor. Use what you learn to pitch an idea to an editor of a diving magazine after researching their needs,” suggests Holly O’Dell (Spin Control). Likewise, freelancing on a wide array of topics helped expose O’Dell to “…many ideas, careers, and experiences that I never knew existed. Every experience in life is fiction fodder.” For Dorchester author Christie Craig, research for an article on high-tech home furnishings led to a talking refrigerator, microwave, and litter box in her tentatively titled Divorced, Desperate, and Delicious. “Writing freelance is educational,” says Craig. “You never know where you might use the information.”

Expanded knowledge isn’t the only way freelancing can benefit your fiction works. “[Freelancing] can give a meta-view of what editors do and helps me understand the process better,” says Harlequin Blaze author Samantha Hunter (Untouched). Cheryl Wright, editor and owner of the Writer2Writer.com Web site and author of the upcoming The Write Resources from Central Avenue Press, believes that being able to work on deadline made her an editor favorite, and that being able to tell editors and publishers she’d been widely published helped her acceptance rate immensely. Developing a network of other publishers, editors, and agents through freelancing helped lead Holly O’Dell to publishing her own book and receiving valuable (and unsolicited) insights on publicity. Publishing articles on the same general topic as your fiction can also help build the ever crucial readership base for your fiction before, during, and after your book hits shelves. “Once you’re published in fiction,” adds Marcia James (At Her Command), “you can use your freelance writing skills towards self-promotion.”

One final consideration for adding freelancing to your writing repertoire is that the writing muse knows no boundaries with respect to words: the craft skills you pick up from freelancing can only improve your storytelling through fiction. “The content of [my freelancing] is similar to my fiction, but based more on personal profiles. This has spilled into my fiction and has improved my characterization and even plotlines,” says April Star (Tropical Warnings: A Wanderlust Mystery). Harlequin Everlasting Love author Tessa McDermid (Family Stories) uses some of the same techniques, such as involving the senses and showing the story with strong verbs and specific nouns, to strengthen both her fiction and freelance writings. Becky Barker (A Matter of Trust), has improved her fiction by learning to write a tighter nonfiction article using the most effective words. Conducting frequent interviews has given Holly O’Dell insight into writing fictional dialogue. And Christie Craig has used her experience in writing for Highway Trooper magazine to strengthen her cop heroes. “Knowledge gained freelancing opens your world. It helps widen the world in your books,” she states.

OK, I’m Interested. Where Do I Sign Up?
First thing you’ll need is that idea you came up with earlier. Don’t get too attached to it in a particular form, however: the magic of freelancing comes from taking one topic and twisting it in infinite directions to suit the need and style of the publication you’re targeting. Much like choosing your romance subgenre prior to writing a piece of fiction, you’ll want to consider the end point, the magazine or publication you want to write for, before you begin to write. “Most writers write an article then try to submit it to the appropriate magazines,” says mystery author L.C. Hayden (Why Casey Had to Die). “They get rejected and wonder why. Do it the other way: find a magazine you’d like to write for, study its style then write for it.” This sentiment is mirrored by multipublished author Shirley Jump (Pretty Bad). “Research the markets that fit best with what you already know. If you’re a mom, try parenting publications. If you’re a business person, look at business publications. If you want regular work, consider trade publications.”

Once you’ve found the publication where your envisioned article might fit, how do you target that market? That is, how do you figure out for certain your article would fit better in Dragons Weekly, not Life and Time of Dragons? Easy: a little thing called slant.

Loosely translated from freelance to fiction, slant = voice + tone + style. To discover the slant of your magazine or target publication, read several recent, back issues of it closely and take note (and notes, if necessary) of the following things:

Types of verbs (active, passive, impact)
Average length of articles
Tone (serious, light, humorous, informational, technological)
Point-of-view
Themes (often mentioned in the editor’s message or table of contents)
Audience. Who is the main reader of this magazine? Checking out the advertisements in magazines often gives good insight to the target reader.

Mission: What is the magazine’s main goal? To teach, inform, or entertain? Some of these items you’ll find in market listings, but some you’ll need to train your critical writer’s eye to locate. Best of all, the more you evaluate publications based on slant, the easier it becomes. “Even magazines targeted to the same audience vary in style,” says Hayden. Knowing the difference between styles can mean the difference between acceptance and rejection.

A Trip to the Market…
By far, the easiest part of freelancing is finding markets-freelance speak for publisher’s guidelines. New markets literally pop up daily. There are thousands of markets and market listings online, and some Web sites will even mail you free market listings each week, such as www.FundsForWriters.com, www.writersweekly.com, and www.absolutewrite.com.

While markets are a dime a dozen, don’t overlook the obvious when trying to find places to publish your nonfiction. Current magazine subscriptions (yours or borrowed from friends and family), local, and regional publications you can get free in your neighborhood, office waiting areas (ask first), the annual Writer’s Market, and even word of mouth, are all easy places to begin. If you’re published, you may want to ask your editor if they have contacts in the nonfiction publishing world. The only caveat in searching for markets is to be forewarned that finding freelance markets can become extremely addictive to the person with a creative, flexible mind. Like e-mail and solitaire, you can spend hours perusing markets and not writing, which is detrimental regardless of genre you write in.

Oh, No. Don’t Even Say Query!
I know, I know. But I promise freelance queries are much more succinct and less painful than their fictional counterparts. Besides, not only will a good, solid query sell your article to the editor, it’ll help tighten and streamline your next fiction query.

While you may have a burning desire to write the article first (writing an article without an editor’s prior approval is called “on spec”), resist the urge. Many editors read only queries, so doing your homework here will have a direct payoff in time saved.

Writing the nonfiction query essentially boils down to three parts: the article idea and how it fits into the target publication, the “about me and why I’m perfect to write this article” paragraph, and your contact information. Some editors prefer longer queries with more of the article idea embedded; some like a short, sweet query letter to get to the point. If your idea isn’t right but the editor likes your query, they may ask for other ideas. Be flexible and open-the editor knows their publication more in-depth than anyone else, so what they sense as crucial for their readers is ultimately what they want to get your article to address.

Submission: The Final Frontier
You’ve conquered the query. What are you waiting for? Submitting to nonfiction editors is, in essence, the same as submitting to fiction editors. In a nutshell:

Always check guidelines before sending a submission. Always.

Ninety-eight percent of submission requirements will be in the market listing, on the Web site or in the magazine’s fine print. If you can’t find specifics, it is perfectly acceptable to call and ask details. Never pitch over the phone unless invited to. Simply call and state that you’d like to clarify the submission guidelines before sending in your query or article.

If you break rules, break them in writing, not submitting. Most editors will trash any query or submission that does not adhere to their guidelines (e-mail queries only, snail mail submissions only, no attachments, include samples, etc.). Don’t assume because you’ve been writing or been published that you have permission to do things your way, not the editor’s way. Common, professional consideration and respect should be the cornerstone of every writer’s career.

“Being proficient in both fiction and nonfiction has meant rarely being without an assignment of some sort,” says Cheryl Wright. “Whether it’s editing, writing short stories, researching articles or something entirely different, doesn’t matter. Being busy writing and having money hit your bank account regularly is paramount to a successful writing business.”

Whether by improving your craft, keeping your name active in the reading community between books, building readership or just getting another paycheck or two, the value of freelancing to your fiction career can take your writing to the next level. Embracing the opportunities available through nonfiction writing can open a world where your words have even more power to entertain, inspire and inform-and isn’t that the ultimate dream of every writer?

Online Freelance Resources

www.fundsforwriters.com

www.writersweekly.com

www.absolutewrite.com

www.woodenhorsepub.com

www.freelancewriting.com

www.writing-world.com

Printed Freelance Resources

The Renegade Writer by Linda Formichelli and Diana Burrell
Ready, Aim, Specialize! by Kelly James-Enger
Make a Real Living as a Freelance Writer: How To Win Top Writing Assignments by Jenna Glatzer
How to Publish Your Articles: A Complete Guide to Making the Right Publication Say Yes by Shirley Jump
Get a Freelance Life by Margit Feury Ragland

——————————————————————————–

Beth Morrow is a nationally published freelance writer whose first love is writing romance fiction. In addition to blogging (almost) daily writing resources at www.fountainpeninc.blogspot.com, she shares her take on the writing life at www.writer-in-progress.blogspot.com and will be teaching an online course through Hearts Through History RWA this June for fiction writers hoping to break into freelance at www.heartsthroughhistory.com/freelance.htm. Visit her on the Web at www.bethmorrow.com.

*Would you like to use this article in your writing newsletter or on your site? Email me for reprint info.

Fiction to Freelance in Five Easy Steps
Romance Writers Report April 2007

Originally appeared in the Writer2Writer ezine: Don’t Quit Your Day Job, Use It.

Don’t Quit Your Day Job:

Use It!

Copyright Beth Morrow
- All Rights Reserved

Regardless of the stage you’re at in your writing career, you’ve no doubt heard the advice to keep your day job more than once. And unless you’re making six-figure advances, it’s a good rule of thumb to follow.

But before you start to take out your anger on your line of work because it comes between you and your writing passion, why not take a fresh look at how it can actually help grow your writing career?

Meshing your writing with your day job—or hobby, other pastimes, areas where you have specialty knowledge or an in-depth understanding—can benefit your writing career on many levels.

If you’re a beginning writer, you can add much-needed clips to your portfolio or website. You’ll get the experience of working on deadline with editorial staff and have the chance to hone your skills with the possibility of being published.

Are you established? Promote your currently published work through short, targeted articles that focus on a particular area of expertise touting your byline and bio (for example, if your latest novel is set in a particular city, you can pen an article of an aspect of that city you’ve discovered through research) or approach an editor with a column idea based on insight you think the editor might find valuable to readers of his/her publication to grow your readership and fan base for even more future sales.

Now that you’ve got an idea why you should write, let’s look at what you can write. With a little thought, there are a variety of options to pursue.

If you’re interested in starting small, see if your employer sends out a newsletter, either print or electronic. Perhaps you can conduct interviews with colleagues or clients on a monthly basis for each issue. Many editors, especially ones with small or non-existent budgets and staff, seek quality content to interest readers but have few regular writers. Other popular ideas are reviews of products pertinent to your business, books reviews on topics that apply to your area, even reviews of websites colleagues can use as resources.

Seeking something bigger? Check out trade publications and other publications that cater to business or industry related to yours. Like editors at smaller publications, trade magazines have a pressing need for timely articles, reviews and interviews within their content area and many times will look to establish a long-term relationship with writers who can offer specialty writing for their publication. Editors at trade and smaller magazines are often more willing to discuss article and column ideas with you if you have knowledge—or even a serious interest—in an area that appeals to their readers and a willingness to work with them.

At some point, every writer daydreams about submitting their resignation in the real world to spend their days alone with words. Until then, take the time to use that day job to your advantage. You never know where the next article idea might lead.

About the author:Beth Morrow is a freelance author who dreams of someday spending an entire day writing in her pyjamas. For now, she’s happy teaching middle school ESL and researching a business book with a fast-approaching deadline. Visit her online at: www.bethmorrow.com

Originally appeared in the Writer2Writer.com ezine in 2007: Need Motivation and Focus? The Art of Creating a Writer’s Mission Statement.

Ready for a quick writer’s quiz?

In one or two sentences, answer these three questions about the last piece of writing you completed (or started with the intention to complete, even if you didn’t quite get finished)

Who was the intended audience/reader of your piece?

What was the single most important point of your piece?

If the reader thought about your piece one week after reading it, what do you think their dominant impression/recollection would be?

Difficult, isn’t it?

Having a creative mind is positive in many ways: mental flexibility, the ability to think outside the box, creative types are often more optimistic and willing to take on challenges and the level of attention to detail and observation in the creative mind is far more finely tuned than the average person. On the other hand, at times, the sense of limitless possibilities throws writers for a loop when we face the issue of narrowing ourselves, our ideas and our writing—even when it’s a necessary evil.

Spending a little time, then, at the beginning of each new project to create a writer’s purpose, or mission statement, for the project you’re about to embark upon is one way to help stay motivated by focusing your imaginative mind on the initial goal you set out to accomplish. New problems and promising project ideas that seem to inevitably pop up when we’re deeply entrenched in one piece of work divert our attention and sometimes subconsciously sabotage our best efforts to remain focused on the work at hand—a curse of the creative mind. Creating a mission statement for each project can help regain—and retain—that spark of excitement that will drive us to completion of our work.

But how to create a writer’s mission statement? It isn’t as intimidating (or time-consuming) as it sounds. A successful writer’s mission statement contains only two crucial items:

What you wish/plan to accomplish with this piece of writing.

How this piece of writing will contribute to the life of the reader.

A few sample writer’s mission statements…

The mission for my cooking columns is to bring readers a new recipe with a family story each month. I want readers to remember that food is an integral component to creating positive family memories.

Mission statements should vary by project and type of writing. The mission statement you create for your short horror story obviously won’t work when you begin a nonfiction feature on types of dog treats. You can create a mission statement for each genre of writing you do: one mission statement for your nonfiction educational articles, another for your romance novels and yet another for your copywriting business. Or you can craft individual mission statements for each project as you go. The most important reason for taking a few minutes to create a mission statement is to maintain motivation and focus toward the writing goals you’ve set for yourself.

Once you’ve created the perfect mission statement, don’t hide it in the drawer along with your last unfinished story. Make copies, post them in places where they’re most likely to inspire you, both as you’re writing and when you aren’t. Use them as mantras to keep focus on your writing when you aren’t sitting down to write, and you’ll find your mind naturally settles faster when you do begin to write.

Creating a writer’s mission statement takes but a few minutes of focused thought and can pay off with increased motivation, determination and focus toward finishing your writing projects. Spend some time thinking through what you want to leave behind when the reader finishes your piece and you’ll find an added level of success to your projects. Start small, and use writer’s mission statements as guidelines for yourself and your career. If you don’t know where you’re going and why, how will you ever know you’ve arrived?

About the author: Beth Morrow has many missions in life, one of which is to write as much as her fingers can handle. Her first fiction short story, Mandi’s Lucky Day, is an upcoming release from The Wild Rose Press, and she’s currently knee-deep in research for an upcoming business book. Visit her online at: www.bethmorrow.com or her blog at: www.writer-in-progress.blogspot.com

Originally appeared in the Writer2Writer.com ezine (Writing Tips for the Webmaster at Writer2Writer.com)

With more and more real-life businesses venturing online to establish an internet presence, it makes sense for the traditional working writer to know the basics of writing for the web.

Though writing for the web may incur a few new learning curves, the actual word crafting that goes into each assignment should not. Grammar, punctuation, correct spelling, accurate research and credible sources are musts—possibly even more so—because you may not only be the content writer but the editor as well. With the fast-paced nature of the web, a few thousand people may view your article from the moment you post it to the time you can get back to correct it. Do the hard work upfront to maintain your professional edge and image at all times.

With that said, here are a few additional elements to keep in mind as you undertake writing for the web.

Brevity

Web surfers are not nearly as patient as hard copy readers (though they may certainly read in both formats) when it comes to getting to the good stuff. Tight, crisp editing and important elements at the beginning of a piece show a respect for the reader’s time. Sure, someone will spend five solid minutes reading an editorial from the New York Times or a how-to article for something they need to fix soon, but those readers go online searching specific content. If you’re not yet established and don’t yet have a following, shorter posts on multiple topics (or sub-topics within a main topic) will not only build your readership by keeping readers engaged, they’ll be more likely to invite those readers to return.

White Space and Chunks

Sounds like the name of a really bad punk band from the 1990s, but simply put, readers read internet and hard copy very differently. Print readers are used to large passages with few line breaks or white space on the page. However, writing for the web is much more than just cutting and pasting a 500-word article and posting it to the web. Lots of white space gives web writing visual appeal and a chance for the reader to digest what they’re reading. For this reason, keep your textual chunks fairly small on the web page for maximum impact. Since you’re going to be writing passages in smaller chunks, editing for tightness will become extremely important. Don’t waste your words.

Other Important Visual Elements

In addition to using white space as your friend by chunking text, there are other visual text elements that lend power and punch to your online passages. Online readers do not necessarily surf in order to lose themselves in the experience of reading like book readers do. Rather, they come to the internet for a quick hit of news, sports and information that fits in their time frame. (The exception is ebook readers, but this article is geared toward copy and content writers). They need news, they need it now, and they need it in the most simple and streamlined manner that they can get it. Give them the key facts of the article with:

–bullet points

–sub headlines

–easy-to-skim text

–regular/frequent content updates

Graphics

Any good English or Reading teacher can share with you the value of good graphics and photographs in any type of writing. Readers are drawn to photographs, and often look to pictures and graphics before reading to judge their interest level. Most readers have a general expectation of an article (online and print) after seeing the accompanying photos, and some will even use the photo to help cement the article content in their mind.

For this reason, make sure to use graphics and photos that meet specific criteria:

–relate the photo to the content in some way (if not, readers will feel cheated)

–use only clear graphics and photos. If the photo is in any way fuzzy or indiscernible (unless that is the intention of the photo), readers may turn away from the article on a subconscious level and you’ll lose their reading interest as a result

–if using photographs of people, be sure the subjects seem approachable and not cold, judgmental or angry. We react to the faces in photographs the same way we do to faces in real-life, and if your article is accompanied by an uninviting picture, chances are your copy will not have the impact you’d like it to have

Know Some SEO

You don’t need to be a Search Engine Optimizer, or SEO expert, to understand that web searches pull up pages based on the relevance of their popularity and content to the term being searched. It isn’t necessary to have a vast knowledge on SEO keywords and phrases in general, but use common sense when writing your article to match keywords directly to your content. SEO isn’t all about selling, it’s about maximizing exposure (which can lead to selling).

This list wasn’t put together in any particular order, but SEO was listed last for a reason: writing should be for people first and web searches second. If you write the best, most fabulous keyword-rich content but don’t engage or interest the reader, what’s the point?

Knowing that writing for the web differs from writing for print is half the battle in tailoring your content for readers across venues. As you did with writing when you started, practice and practice again until you’re comfortable with your work. If words come easily, consider venturing out into the world of web writing.

About the Author: Beth Morrow loves writing for web, print and any other medium that will take her. You can find recent examples of her work in and at www.DiabetesHealth.com, Camp Business Magazine and soon in the Romance Writers Report. When she isn’t writing, she’s busy keeping up her blogging addiction at her blog for writers at www.writer-in-progress.com