While the rest of this book is devoted to style, theory, structure, and mechanics, this section is more utilitarian: It deals with getting published. For the new writer, nothing is as exciting as having that first article green-lighted for publication and then eventually seeing your name on a byline. The reality, however, is that getting published is difficult, and few people enter the world of publishing at the upper echelons. Securing those first few clips requires persistence, skill, and luck. Fortunately, you can control the necessary persistence and skill.
For most writers, the brass ring of article publishing is the national consumer magazine, including publications such as Men’s Health, Wired, GQ, Pregnancy, and O, The Oprah Magazine. Many of these publications also have online counterparts that accept pitches, while some large publications, such as Slate, are online only. In fact, whereas the market for newspapers and print magazines is contracting, the market for Internet publications is growing rapidly.
For most writers, it takes years of diligent effort to secure work in such national consumer magazines. Fortunately, other types of publications provide valuable exposure and experience working with editors. Here’s a partial list:
Plenty of great resources provide excellent information about freelance writing opportunities. Arguably the most robust source from which to learn about publications and freelance writing opportunities is Writer’s Market (www.writersmarket.com). If you’re interested in consumer magazines, Mediabistro (www.mediabistro.com) provides tips on how to pitch as well as providing editorial calendars, mastheads, job listings, courses, and much more. Other helpful e-zines, newsletters, and websites include Journalism Jobs (www.journalismjobs.com), Writers Weekly (www.writersweekly.com), and Writing for DOLLARS! (www.writingfordollars.com). If you’re interested in writing for company publications, you may want to check out American Business Media (www.americanbusinessmedia.com). Finally, for an exhaustive list of publications, check out the Gale Directory of Publication and Broadcast Media at your local library.
Recently, media companies, brands, and nonprofits have been employing writers to produce “journalistic” content. One start-up that aims to commercialize this process in a novel way is Contently. At Contently, a writer submits a portfolio and is accepted to the network. Once accepted, the writer’s talents are offered to Contently’s partners, which include Mashable, Buzzfeed, and Coca-Cola. In addition to scoring freelancing gigs, members of the Contently community are provided access to online publications such as The Content Strategist and The Freelance Strategist, which offer tips for writers and information on trends.
“We basically realized that this was an opportunity to use the Internet to filter and connect people who were looking for opportunities on both sides of the equation,” says technology journalist and Contently co-founder Shane Snow. “Freelancers are a huge trend. … Brands becoming publishers is a huge trend which is reliant on freelancers. … So we built a lot of new technology to support those things.
“[On our platform], we’re trying in a way to emulate the newsroom model. … If publishers want pitches or if an editor is looking for pitches, they say so. … If they’re not looking for pitches, you can’t pitch them. …” Furthermore, Contently clients must currently select the writers whom they want to receive pitches from.
The founders of Contently have big plans, many of which are inspired by their own personal experiences. “When I’m freelancing,” says Snow, “it’s either finding work on Contently or it’s talking to editors whom I know personally. The alternative to our system is going out and networking and trying to get face time with the editors or e-mailing them like crazy until somebody finally gives you a shot. I’m hoping that our system will one day get every magazine and newspaper editor to organize their queries on Contently and people [to] submit their portfolio through Contently [where they] can organize their freelance life. That, I think, is the ideal world if we could sort of digitize that process that’s happening manually. That’s a big undertaking that’s coming together piece by piece.”
Contently hints at exciting opportunities in the future for freelance writers hoping to get published. The company itself brought in about $1 million in revenue during 2011, its first year of operation. Although less than the price per word of many print publications, the pay at Contently is decent, and it is based on rough word count, difficulty, and number of sources used. Snow estimates that a freelancer may receive $150 to $200 for a 700-word article that uses one source.
Contently, however, is still in its early stages of growth and apparently can’t support an extensive pool of freelancers. Nevertheless, other websites offer freelancers some lower-paying opportunities to get their work out to the public. Although the experienced freelancer will likely balk at the prospect of writing for such websites and publications, the newbie may want to consider these opportunities, if only to gather some clips and a bit of experience. A word of caution: Make sure you know your publication rights when putting out content for some publications and clients. You may not be entitled to republish any of the content that you submit. Here’s a short list of websites and publications that the new writer may want to consider:
In recent years, AOL has done its best to transform from a superannuated dial-up service to a contemporary web publisher; it spent nearly $600 million on The Huffington Post, TechCrunch, and Patch. Despite parent company AOL’s $300-million-dollar investment in Patch, however, in 2012 the collection of local and “hyper-local” news brought in about $35 million dollars in revenue on operating costs of $126 to $162 million. Experts have stated that the 2013 fiscal year will be crucial to Patch’s survival.
Seemingly undaunted, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong promised profitability by the end of 2013. But with rolling reductions to staff and continued difficulty as 2013 wore on, the promise of profitability seemed remote. By mid-2013, it was apparent that the death knell for Patch had probably rung.
The day before an August 9, 2013, Patch conference call, Armstrong announced that Patch was cutting the number of local news sites from nine hundred to six hundred. In a surprising turn of events, during the conference call, a seemingly frustrated Armstrong fired Abel Lenz, creative director at Patch, in front of one thousand of his co-workers. (Lenz’s wasn’t the only executive head to roll. Recently appointed Patch CEO Steve Kalin and Chief Content Officer Rachel Feddersen were fired, too—but, lucky for them, behind closed doors.)
In the days following the conference call, Patch’s financial picture became a little clearer. We learned that AOL was closing or consolidating about 150 of its nine hundred sites and looking to partner its other sites. AOL was also going to lay off as many as five hundred of its one thousand Patch employees. Sadly, some of these employees had been hired by Patch after being laid off recently by newspapers. Ultimately, Patch learned what newspapers have known for some time: It’s both costly and difficult to report the local news.
In February 2013, EveryBlock, NBC’s crack at hyper-local news, folded. A farewell posting on its blog most likely forebodes Patch’s future:
We’re sorry to report that EveryBlock has closed its doors. It’s no secret that the news industry is in the midst of a massive change. Within the world of neighborhood news, there’s an exciting pace of innovation yet increasing challenges to building a profitable business. Though EveryBlock has been able to build an engaged community over the years, we’re faced with the decision to wrap things up.
It’s never too early for the budding journalist to begin building a platform. A platform is an online presence that showcases your skills and accomplishments. It helps create a “personal brand” that convinces editors and potential employers that you’re a suitable choice to write an article or do a job.
Ted Spiker has worked hard to establish his online presence, and the result is definitely worth a look: www.tedspiker.com. “I think the smart journalist—smart writer—creates a central hub for his or her work,” says Spiker. “We’re moving into a media environment where young people especially are going to have new kinds of jobs. They’re not going to be working for a newspaper and then moving up to another newspaper and then working for their dream newspaper for thirty years. They’re going to be entrepreneurs, and they might be doing some web design for one client, writing stories for another, creating a social-media platform for another. I feel that students today need that hub to showcase their work. There should be examples of their work no matter what their specialty, a blog element to show their writing ability or visual ability—if it’s a visual blog, you want it to be clean and easy to navigate. When potential clients and employers are approaching you, you want a place to direct them that’s beyond your resume-cover-letter package. This is today’s ‘resume-cover-letter’ package: … Your cover letter is your blog because it shows your writing style. … Your resume is your bio page, and your clips are exactly that—it may be links, PDFs, slide shows, or videos. I don’t think it’s ever too early to start [creating a platform]. We encourage our students as soon as they get into our program to create an online presence. That’s your business card. … It’s moving, evolving, changing, and constantly updating. … The smart student has that right from the start. … A strong Twitter account that’s professional but [has] some personality to it is [also] a really good thing.”
Here are some vital platform components that you should consider establishing:
If you’re finding it difficult to manage all the different facets of your social-media platform, consider employing organizational tools offered by websites including HootSuite and FriendFeed.
HootSuite boosts productivity by offering a dashboard on a single interface to manage all of your social-media networks. It can also analyze your traffic on these social-media networks and schedule your outgoing messages. Although commercial clients can pay for premium service, the basic version of HootSuite is free.
Google provides services that can help beef up your platform. First, if you have access to your website or blog’s source code, you can track your website’s traffic using Google Analytics. The basic version of Google Analytics is free and should be sufficient. Second, although this tactic may get expensive, you can pay to promote your website or blog using Google Adwords. Third, if you find that you want to devote a separate phone number to your article-writing and freelance projects, consider using Google Voice. Among its many services, Google Voice offers Google users a free phone number that can be forwarded to a cell phone or landline as well as free voicemail that can be checked online.
While establishing a platform, consider whether you want to write articles or engage in projects that are general or specialized—in other words, determine whether you want to be a “generalist” or a “specialist.” There are pros and cons to being a specialist or generalist. For example, although a generalist can take on a variety of interesting projects, such projects often don’t pay as well and tend to be less challenging. The specialist, however, can take on very well-paid projects that are challenging and lead to further work opportunities such as white papers (authoritative, bureaucratic, or governmental reports and documents), conference proceedings, newsletters, and ghostwriting. Nevertheless, such projects can limit your audience and exposure. Furthermore, if you don’t have specialized training and background, it’s difficult to create a specialized portfolio. Most writers start out as generalists and, depending on their opportunities and interests, evolve into specialists.
Holly G. Miller, a veteran journalist who has written more than three thousand articles, makes an interesting argument for remaining a generalist and writing for a variety of publications. She says, “You don’t have to be a member of the audience that you’re writing for … if you’re a writer, you’re a hired pen.”
Whatever you do, make sure that your platform accurately reflects your skills and interests—don’t promise too much (or too little). In a video produced by the Society of Professional Journalists titled “Personal Branding: What Is your Personal Brand?” Lara Salahi recommends, “Especially for freelancers, the risk is always promising more than you can deliver or pretending your expertise covers too wide an area. Being consistent and coherent on- and offline is the best approach to ensure your success.”
On a final note, in some ways the initial toil to establish your own platform is comparable to the “T-shirt phase” that developing countries must face in order to become rich and economically diverse. No country starts out making computers and airplanes; rather, they start by making textiles and simple garments with the hope of eventually producing goods that carry financial cachet. The United States, Britain, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and China all went through a T-shirt phase—and so will you.