How to Get Started With Freelancing
Build your readership and your brand—and get paid!
If you’re an author who hasn’t added freelance writer to your skill set, it’s time to start pitching. Picking up a few freelance writing gigs can help you build your readership, expand your social media following, and get more people interested in your books.
Plus, you’ll get paid. (Yes, some sites don’t pay. Try to pitch the ones that do.)
Here’s how to get started:
Know your goals.
I’m a full-time freelance writer and editor, but you can be a part-time or occasional freelancer and still get the benefits of an expanded readership.
Think about what you hope to get out of freelancing: are you looking to publish a few articles right before a book launch? Or are you going to try to grow your audience by publishing one article a month?
Freelance writing takes time—you’ve got to pitch, write, edit, and promote your work—and it takes even more time if you’re trying to build a full-time freelance career. (If you are trying to go full-time, I suggest you check out The Write Life. They have some of the best advice and career-building tips available.)
So know your goals. You can get a lot of value out of a few well-placed freelance articles and still have time left over to write your next book.
Identify your interests and areas of expertise.
Yes, I know that you’re probably very interested in books, writing, and publishing. You might even be an expert in those areas. But you’re probably an expert in a few other areas as well: cars, cooking, music, parenting, maybe even personal finance!
Pitch the book review sites and the writing sites, because I know you want to. But you can also pitch sites that publish stories related to your other areas of expertise, and gain new readers who may also want to read your books. Whether you’re a gamer or a gardener, there are websites that are full of articles about that very subject—and are actively seeking new submissions.
Look for publications that are seeking pitches or submissions.
Scroll to the very top or the very bottom of a news site or online publication. Do you see the word “Submissions?” (Sometimes, it’s hidden under “Content.”) Websites that want your pitches will actively advertise that fact, so don’t waste your time sending pitches to sites that don’t include submission details.
Also, when you find the submission details, follow them to the letter. Editors are looking for writers who will be easy to work with, and one of the quickest ways we figure out which pitches to accept is by checking to see who paid attention to our instructions.
Pitch a story with a beginning, middle, and end.
As an editor, I get a lot of pitches that are about ideas: “I want to write about the cost of repairing your own shoes.” It’s hard to say yes to these pitches because I don’t know if the writer is going to write about shoe repair in a way that will be interesting.
I prefer pitches that tell a story. “Last year, my favorite pair of leather shoes developed a deep crack across the left toe box. I thought I would have to replace them, but then I started looking into what I’d have to do to repair them. This piece will be about the costs—and the learning curve—of DIY shoe repair, as well as my advice to other aspiring cobblers.”
Also, keep your pitches short; two paragraphs at most, followed by a brief biography and any links to previous freelance work.
Give readers a way to connect with you—and buy your book.
Online writing is all about making connections; we read online articles to pass the time or to keep up with news and information, but we also read because we connect with a topic, or a story, or a writer.
And, in many cases, we want to stay connected—so make sure your bio includes your social media handles and the title of your newest book. That way, readers who like your work can keep reading.
Nicole Dieker is a freelance writer, a senior editor at The Billfold, and a columnist at The Write Life. Her debut novel, The Biographies of Ordinary People, published in May 2017; you can follow her on Twitter @hellothefuture.
