Free Advice to Aspiring Freelance Writers: Part 1
For some reason—maybe mercury is retrograde, or the impending premiere of Homeland has made people feel ambitious—I have been getting this question a lot lately:
How do I become a freelance writer?
In some capacity, I have worked as a freelance writer for the past 7 years. I started writing for magazines in college and since then I’ve been fortunate enough to write for places like Ecorazzi, Funny or Die, E! Online, The Soup, Fashion Police and Mad Atoms.
Each year I’ve been getting new gigs and I keep getting that question:
How do I become a freelance writer?
The truth is that there’s no right way to do it, but, as someone who has worked freelance, I have some tips and advice that might help!
How to Get Work
- Look for work everyday.
No one is going to hand you a job—but if that job person is out there send them my way. I check the following websites daily, and I have consistently gotten jobs this way.
ProBlogger Freelance Writing Gigs MediaBistro Craigslist
- Start a Blog
Clippings are the biggest hurdle for most people. To get a freelance gig you need clippings, but to get clippings you need a freelance gig. Sigh. What to do?!?
Start a blog. Allow yourself to write articles on what you’re interested in. I use Tumblr and you could too.
- Blindly Email Editors
To this day I email the editors of websites I like to read. If you look in the contact section on most websites, you’ll see a list of people available and ready to take your emails. You can feel free to blindly email those folks with a nice inquiry, something along the lines of…“Dear [insert name], I am emailing you today because I respect and am an avid reader of [insert website name]…”
More advice to come! Any questions so far?
