A couple of things happened today that inspired this post. First, someone posted on a forum for professional writers asking for tips on how to get started as a freelancer. This, of course, caused many pro writers to become PO’d. (Why expect professionals to spend hours giving you advice that you can find in countless books and websites?)

Second, someone e-mailed me today asking for a list I compiled of magazines that assign health articles, which I mentioned on a different forum (the list was part of a handout for Diana’s and my Canyon Ranch presentation). When I sent her the list, which included about 30 magazines with their snail mail addresses, URLs, phone numbers, and e-mail formats, she wrote back lamenting that the list didn’t include editor names. (Oh, I’m sorry that the free information that I provided was not up to your exacting standards.)

Most of the people who write to me asking for help and advice are professional and polite. I don’t mind answering a brief question or two, and the asker often writes back later to let me know how he fared using my advice (which is gratifying). Everybody wins! But based on these two situations today, I think some writers need a lesson in how to ask for advice.

1. Let the writer know that you respect her time.

A little groveling never hurt anyone. Some aspiring writers start their e-mails by saying, “I know you’re busy, but I was wondering if you had a minute to answer my question.” Others launch into a list of questions without acknowledging that they’re asking the writer to spend her otherwise billable time helping out a stranger. Guess which ones get answered?

2. Keep it short.

Try to distill your question down to just a few sentences. This is good practice for all kinds of writing, and is also more likely to generate a response than a rambling recounting of your life as a writer.

3. Be specific.

A question like “How do I write a query?” would take the writer hours to answer; after all, there are entire books on the subject. Keep your questions as specific as possible.

4. Don’t poach.

Many professional writers have writing books or e-books or offer writing e-courses. Don’t ask a bunch of questions that the writer answers in her book or course. For example, don’t write to Jenna Glatzer, author of The Street Smart Writer, asking “How can I avoid writing scams?” Don’t write to Kelly James-Enger, author of Six Figure Freelancing, to ask how to boost your writing income. Most writers hate to say “Buy my book” but — buy their books! (I’m using Jenna and Kelly as hypothetical examples here; they haven’t expressed any grievances to me about writers asking for advice, and this tip applies to all authors.)

5. Do your research.

If you post on a forum (or e-mail a writer) to ask “How do I get started?” you might as well wear a flashing sign that says, “Flame Me!” Read the forum archives, do a Google search, pick up some writing books at the bookstore or library, and read magazines like Writer’s Digest and The Writer. Lurk on forums until you have a good idea of what kinds of posts are and aren’t acceptable.

6. Remember that you get what you pay for.

When you’re asking for free advice or information, don’t get upset if the writer doesn’t spend hours pondering and answering your questions, or if the information isn’t everything you had hoped for. If your question is broad or the writer is swamped with work, she may reply with a quick list of resources for you to check out or books for you to read. Instead of pitching a hissy because the writer didn’t carefully answer each of your questions herself, appreciate the fact that she took the time to compile a list for you…then go and read the resources she recommended.

7. Say thanks.

Be sure to thank the writer for her advice; I can’t tell you how many times I’ve written long, thoughtful answers to writers’ questions and never received a thank-you. Professional writers also love to know how you fared with their advice, so do write back later to let her know. For example, I got an e-mail yesterday from a writer who said that she followed my advice and landed her first national assignment. That’s nice to hear!

8. Return the favor.

Many writers I help return the favor by alerting me of new magazines and sites they think I’d be interested in, recommending my e-course to others, or sharing editor names with me when they break into a new pub. Sharing with others generates good writer karma.

9. Pay it forward.

When you’re a famous, wealthy writer, remember the help you got from professional writers when you were starting out and “pay it forward” by helping others land their big break.

In January, I wrote a post called I Just Got an Assignment. Holy Crap! Now What?, where I walk writers through what to do once you land an assignment, from negotiating deadlines to asking for the assignment specs from the editor.

So you got the assignment, you followed all the tips in my previous blog post, you wrote the article — and now you’re wondering what to do to wrap up the assignment. Here’s my advice:

Compile the Source List

Almost every editor will expect a source list so that the fact checker can contact your sources to check their quotes — or at the very least, to send them copies of the magazine if it’s not on the newsstands. You’ll need to include for each of your sources:

Name
Mailing address
E-mail address
Phone number

In addition, you’ll need to include sourcing information for every study you mention. For example, if you quoted from a study you found on PubMed.gov, you’ll need to include the URL.

Some writers send the source list as a separate document attached to the e-mail, but I prefer to just paste mine in after the end of the article. I title the section “SOURCES,” and if the magazine is not on the newsstands, after this heading I write, “Can you please send them copies of the magazine when it’s out? Thanks!” Editors have usually been happy to do this. (If the magazine is on the newsstands, sources can buy their own copy.)

Create an Annotated File

Your editor will let you know ahead of time if she expects an annotated article. I’ve had only one or two magazine clients that wanted this. If yours does, you’ll need to either use the footnoting feature in Microsoft Word or make up your own similar system to give backup for each fact you include in the article.

I like to create my source list, including expert source contact information and URLs of studies I cite, and give each source or study a number. Then, I go through the article and tag each fact with the number that corresponds to the source or study I got it from. For example, it might look something like this:

Vitamin C has been proven to whiten teeth [1], freshen breath [2], cure athlete’s foot [1], and promote healthy sleep [3].

SOURCES (this comes at the end of the article)

[1] Study “Vitamin C’s Effects on Athlete’s Foot and Tooth Whitening,” Journal of Medical Quackery, www.pubmed.gov/78932ny3891.

[2] Dr. Ima Dentist
[contact info]

[3] Study “Vitamin C and Sleep,” Sleep Disorders Research Journal, www.sleepdisordersresearch.org/vitaminC.

Spell Check It

Don’t rely on the spell check feature in your word processing program, which doesn’t know that you accidentally typed “you’re” instead of “your.” Go over it with your own eyes. Print it out if you have to; some people tend to miss mistakes if they read their articles on-screen.

Send It In

Once you’re sure your article is perfect (well, as perfect as it can get — we all make mistakes) and you have your source list done, you can send your article to the editor. I like to both attach the article to the e-mail and paste the text into the body of the e-mail message. That way if the attachment gets garbled or doesn’t make it, the editor can still see your article.

When I send in the article, I’m always sure to thank the editor for the assignment, and I let him know that I look forward to his comments.

Send Your Invoice

I try to send in the invoice right after e-mailing the article; that way I’m sure not to forget. I don’t wait to get the revisions first as some writers do, and no editor has ever said that I sent in the invoice too soon.

I give a lot of detail on how to format an invoice in The Freelance Writer’s Guide to Getting Paid.

Keep Your Sources in the Loop

When I find out that the article is out, I e-mail my sources to let them know. If it’s on the stands, I tell them they can buy it there; if it’s a trade or custom pub that’s not on the newsstands, I let them know that I asked the editor to send them copies.

Next!

The next step is to pitch more articles to keep the paychecks rolling in. And that’s it! [lf]

1. You have the right to say no.

An editor asks you to write for exposure? “No.” A source asks to see your article before you turn it in? “No.” A friend keeps calling during your working hours because “you’re always free”? “No.” See how easy it is? You have the right to say no — and not feel guilty about it.

2. You have the right to ask for more.

If an editor approaches you with an assignment that doesn’t pay what you would need to make it work, or asks for all rights, or offers a pay-on-publication writing contract, you have the right to negotiate for something better. The first offer from an editor is not the end of the negotiation, it’s the beginning. If the pay isn’t enough, say “That seems a little low…can you offer me X?” If the contract stinks, know what you want instead (pay on acceptance? First North American Serial Rights? More pay for more rights?) and ask for it. The secret: Be ready to walk away if you can’t get what you want. If you’re not prepared to give up the assignment, you have no bargaining power.

3. You have the right to control your own time.

Sometimes, editors come to you six months after you turn in an assignment and say they need a total revise plus three new sidebars — by tomorrow. You have the right to determine whether that fits into your schedule and act accordingly. After all, you’re a businessperson. It’s not like you’re sitting by the phone for six months, schedule cleared in case your editor suddenly needs a revision done like yesterday. You have other work now, and you’ve arranged your schedule the way you need it to be in order to get your current work done. If you do have the time, try to cooperate with your editor. But if you have three deadlines this week and would have to pull an all-nighter to do the revisions, you have the right to say you can’t get the revisions done when the editor wants them. Then negotiate a better timeline for yourself.

4. You have the right to be treated fairly.

If you wrote an article on assignment and it was accepted, and then the magazine changed editorial direction and your article was killed, what’s fair — getting a kill fee or getting full pay? Full pay, of course, since you did the work according to the contract. If you pitch a detailed idea and the editor says she wants to give it to a staffer, you have the right to say no (and sell it somewhere else) or to ask for an idea fee. If a magazine leaves off your byline, you have the right to ask for a correction, and ask for a PDF file of the story with your name on it. In short: You have the right to be treated fairly and professionally. After all, you are a professional.

5. You have the right to be paid for your work.

Some writers feel they aren’t worth fair pay. They write over and over for no-pay magazines in order to amass enough clips to finally move up to the magazines that do pay fairly. But do you know how many clips you need to command pay? Zero. One of my e-course students broke into SELF magazine with a front-of-the-book piece. (That’s a $1.50/word market, people!) How many clips did she have? None. My first assignment paid $500, and I had no clips. What you need is a strong query letter, not a portfolio full of non-pay clips. You have the right to be paid for your work, just like your plumber and petsitter do (even newbie plumbers and petsitters!).

6. You have the right to look good.

When you write and fact check an article, you have the right to see it printed error-free. You don’t have the right to complain that the editor has changed your perfect prose (so don’t be a diva!) but you can expect that your sources’ names will be correct, your byline will be correct, and the facts in the article will be correct. If any of these things are incorrect, you have the right to ask for corrections. And if a magazine is notorious about messing things up, you have the right to ask to see a galley of the article before it goes to print.

7. You have the right to be paid in a timely manner.

Something scary is going on in the women’s magazine world: They’re hanging onto articles for months and months before “accepting” them, which means that you wait months and months to get paid. In other parts of the publishing world, magazines are running into budget problems and putting their freelancers last in line for payment. Remember: You are a professional. If the printer and the electric company get paid on time, you should too. Can you imagine a lawyer politely sending e-mails after six months of no pay? How about an accountant? Well, you’re a professional just like them, and you provided a service according to contract. If you fulfilled your end of the contract, then the magazine should, too. Don’t be afraid to contact the accounts payable department, send certified letters asking for overdue payment, and, finally, threaten legal action (and go through with it if you need to).

What other rights should be in the Freelance Writer’s Bill of Rights? [lf]

photo credit: mollypop

A couple weeks ago, one of my students — a talented writer with a couple national clips to her name — told me she’d taken a class where the writing instructor said beginning freelancers should write 15 articles for regional parenting magazines before pitching national parenting magazines.

I was flabbergasted when this dog of “writing advice” plopped itself on my desktop, practically begging for a rejoinder. I floundered at coming up with a thoughtful response. “That may be the silliest piece of freelance writing advice I’ve ever heard” is the best I could come up with. (BTW, my student hadn’t taken this gem to heart; she simply wanted to know what I thought.)

Let’s break the advice down. First, the premise: when you decide to become a freelance writer, there are dues to pay and you have to pay them by toiling in the Minor Leagues. There’s simply no sure path to the Majors. One of my first students had zero clips, but scored an assignment at Parenting by presenting a clever idea in a well-written pitch. You don’t need a mass of clips to do that, just some smarts with a side of confidence.  I had another student who had a few regional magazine clips score a front-page travel section story in The New York Times. Not only was he an excellent writer with terrific ideas, he may be one of the most persistent writers I know. I’m pretty sure if it took calling Arthur Sulzberger Jr. at home to get the green light on that assignment, he’d have done it, no hand-wringing involved. And I know of other writers whose first clips came from Self, Glamour, Parents, and The Village Voice.

If you’re a strong writer with great story ideas and you’re persistent and motivated, there’s no reason on earth why you should head for the Minors just because, well, that’s where new freelancers start. Will landing work with the Majors be easy? No. But it’s not easy for anyone, even if you’re a seasoned pro with hundreds of credits. Yes, it’s possible you’ll run into an editor (or two) who won’t give you an assignment because they think you don’t have the clips/chops. If that’s the worst rejection you experience in this career, consider yourself blessed. There are plenty of other editors who will take a chance on you, so don’t let this fear get in your way. If you’re a solid writer with good stories to tell, any lessons you’d learn toiling for magazines that pay .15 per word can be learned writing for magazines that pay $1.50 per word. So if you think you’ve got that perfect story for Men’s Health or Saveur, swing for it!

Next: You need to write 15 articles for [small markets] before pitching the nationals. Says who? Oprah? The Dalai Lama? God? And why 15? Is there something magical about the number 15? Does it have special powers? Will the skies part and the angels come on down from nigh? What if you write 14 or — gasp — only 10? Now I’m sure this teacher picked 15 because that seems like a comforting number of clips for a freshly minted freelancer. And yes, there are some writers who need some positive reinforcement on a small scale before they march on to the big field. But for the rest of you who have no need for hand-holding, I’d say just jump in the game.

The national editors I know and/or have worked with — The Atlantic, the Boston Globe, Cook’s Illustrated, Parenting, Family Circle — have neither the time nor the inclination to tally clips before handing out assignments. They’ll pay attention if you’ve got some interesting clips from top-rate magazines, but they’re certainly not going to say, “Hmm, only five clips from this magazine I’ve never heard of … well, maybe if she had 10 more, I’d feel more comfortable assigning to her.” Indeed I’d argue that showing off a mass of clips from smaller markets might hurt you. You might be better off pitching your great ideas confidently to national editors,  leaving off any mention of writing credits, rather than trying to sell them on the value of 15 clips from markets that can’t compare.

And my last point? My student specifically mentioned this 15-clip rule applied to regional parenting publications (RPPs). Drumroll: RPPs regularly buy reprints of articles that originally appeared in magazines like Parents, Parenting, American Baby, Baby Talk, and other national magazines. So why bother writing original articles for RPPs for pennies on the word when you might be able to sell the article to Parents or Parenting for $1-plus per word, then sell the reprint rights later to RPPs?

Here’s my advice: Approach the magazines you want to write for if you think you’ve got the right ideas for them and you’re confident you can deliver the goods. Realize that top magazines are difficult to crack, so get a lot of well-written query letters out to a variety of publications — national, local, trades, closed-circulation, newspapers, websites, and customs.  Rather than fret about your lack of clips, take that energy and research story ideas, analyze the magazines you want to write for, and work to improve your writing. Lather, rinse, and repeat. It’s really that easy.

And that difficult. — Diana Burrell

Interested in reading the rest? The e-book is only $6.95 — check it out and order it on the e-book page.

The Editor: Assigning editor at a national, large-circulation general interest magazine.

The Peeve: Writers who change the story mid-assignment.

What’s your biggest grammar/style peeve and why?

I don’t think I should have to tell a writer twice not to double-space after periods. I told a writer once, and the first time he did it I went through the copy and removed all the extra spaces; it took me a while, but it was fine. I sent him a note saying to put only one space after periods, but the next time and the time after that he did it again. Why? I don’t want to spend 10 minutes going through a story taking out the double spaces. It’s about attention to detail. I don’t know why some writers feel like they’re in an ethereal existence where it’s all about the art. It’s about the other things too.

Can you share a writer horror story?

A lot of writers we have the most problems with have the best credentials—they’re the ones who drop the national magazine names. They say, “I’ve been in Vanity Fair, Time, Newsweek, blah, blah, blah.” But they have some of the worst habits. I had one that had basically every national sports magazine title to drop, and awards that sounded incredibly impressive. The fundamental story we assigned was a profile of the fitness and nutrition regimen of an older top-name athlete. We discussed the idea thoroughly, and this athlete was not easy to get. The writer turned in what was a passable sort of mini-profile of the athlete. There were only one or two paragraphs in the whole 1,000 words that dealt with his fitness and nutritional regimen. I know a lot of assigning editors tend to do this passive-aggressive thing, but not me—I just said, “I hope you have 700 more words worth of content in your notebook on the topic we assigned.” That wasn’t the case, and it just didn’t work out.

What can a writer do to assure you’ll never hire him again?

The main thing that stops a writer from being used a second time is that the writer just didn’t get it.

We always say to read the magazine; this gives you a certain sense of the style, tone, substance, and presentation. But to really get the DNA of a magazine, you really have to write for it and go through the editorial process. I don’t expect a writer to turn in something that completely matches the tone, style, and so on exactly as we discussed the first, second, or even the third time. Still, there are some writers who just don’t get the fundamentals of the assignment. They have an idea in their head and say, “This is what the real story is about.” But we’re the gatekeepers here.

It’s okay to argue your point in the initial assignment conversation; I don’t take it personally. You can fight for your angle, but at the end of the conversation, we’re going to have an understanding, and I’ll even send an e-mail to summarize. When the story is turned in, it needs to be at least 70 percent there. I can’t look at it and say, “This is so not resembling what we discussed.”

Our magazine will take a topic everyone knows about and give it some kind of twist. So we’ll say, for example, “Find three of the weirdest Civil War reenactments.” Then the writer comes back with a first person story of what it’s like to do a Civil War reenactment. You have to think, “What is going through this writer’s head?” These assignments are not hard…they’re just thought out in a different way. I don’t know why this keeps coming up, but it happens all the time.

Do you have any other writer peeves?

Inaccuracy. If there are huge errors, you won’t be used again. You’re the first line of defense. It comes up all the time: errors of geography, spelling, names. I can forgive a couple of those because I make mistakes too, but when it’s a constant situation, you won’t be hired again. One writer did a profile of a classical musician. In addition to three inaccuracies, the writer dropped into the story the fact that the musician’s biggest influence in his early musical career was his mother. We later found out that the musician grew up poor and whenever he and his mom were home his mom would put on 10 classical records at a time. She worked two jobs to buy his musical instrument. It was the best part of the story! I added that information to the article, and the writer said, “It was just an 800 word story so I wasn’t going to ask about it.” That was his last story for us.

Another peeve: The writer busts their butt to get the assignment, then they pursue it as discussed—but they don’t push the reporting. It’s not because they don’t think about it, but because it’s only 800 words. Never insinuate to an editor that you didn’t give your best effort. Pursue your reporting to where it needs to go. I know that when Wall Street Journal reporters write those 1,500-word pieces on the front page, they gather three to four times the number of anecdotes that run. When I have a writer who thinks, “Oh, it was only 800 words,” I say, “This is a person who doesn’t bring it.” The 200-word FOBs and the 800-word inside features are essentially an audition for you to graduate to the longer features—and someday the cover stories.

If you meet writers at conventions, do you have any DOs and DON’Ts to share?

Don’t take it personally if an editor says an idea is not right for him. If you have five minutes with an editor, why are you wasting valuable time asking why your idea doesn’t work? Read the magazine and you’ll find out why. But for now, just pitch more ideas. The idea you thought was the worst may be the best one for us. Remember, you’re there to make money, not get a pat on the back.

Do you have any additional tips for writers?

You wouldn’t believe how many writers don’t include a source list in their stories. Name, phone number, and e-mail—it’s that simple. I don’t need every dissertation and peer-reviewed study ever written on the topic. And don’t tell me that a fact came from the American Heart Association website…I want the entire URL where that exact document can be found. And you still need a source name of someone at the AHA who can verify that the information on the site is still accurate.

Peeve-Less Pointers

• Follow the assignment specs. You may think that this story would be better as an essay, but if the editor asked for a Q&A with a local celeb, that’s what you should turn in. The editor has to get all the story ideas she assigns vetted by her editors, so don’t mess with the assignment specs.
• Mind the details. The magazine may use one space after periods, no serial commas, states spelled out instead of abbreviated, or numerals instead of written-out numbers. If the editor doesn’t offer you a style guide, pick up a copy of the magazine and figure out the magazine’s preferences before writing your article.
• Don’t take it personally. If an editor rejects your idea, remember that It’s Not About You. It’s about the idea—and it may not even be about that. It could be, for example, that the idea is perfect but the editor already has another writer working on it. When an editor sends you a rejection, think of it as an opportunity to send another idea—and to send your original idea elsewhere.