What are my two top pieces of advice to potential freelance writers?

1.) Specialize

2.) Successful freelancer writers don’t just write for money, they run freelance writing businesses. And running a business is a lot like work. If you’re ready to make a fortune in your first year and you’re allergic to 60 hour weeks, then this profession might not be for you.

If that didn’t scare you off, here’s some of my best advice to new freelancers on how to actually get started:

The Quick and Dirty Guide to Landing Freelance Writing Jobs, Part 1

The Quick and Dirty Guide to Landing Freelance Writing Jobs, Part 2

The Quick and Dirty Guide to Landing Freelance Writing Jobs, Part 3

Here are some books and ebooks you should purchase and devour (I don’t read a ton of ebooks so this list may grow at a later date):

The Well-Fed Writer by Peter Bowerman

Web Writer’s Guide to Launching a Successful Freelance Web Writing Career by Jenn Mattern

And here are some blogs you should read religiously.

If you don’t use an RSS feed reader, start doing that today. Believe me, you’re going to need it in your career.

All Freelance Writing

Freelance Writing Jobs

Angela Booth’s Writing Blog

Freelance Switch

Freelance Folder

This blog, The Life and Times of a Freelance Writer

I also recommend following my Facebook group, “Jennifer Escalona – Writing Job Leads (Now with Wisdom!)” Maybe you’ll find a job and learn a little something in the process.

Finally, do you know why I really wrote this blog post? So that the next time somebody asks “Hey, have any freelance writing tips for me?” I have a place to send them. As a freelance writer, you’re going to be busy hustling to make a living. Every little shortcut you can make for yourself is another billable hour you can charge somewhere down the line.

Now get to work, newbie. Freelance writing careers don’t start themselves. And before I forget…

Welcome to our world!

Bash ideas with a trash can lid if you have to!

This was probably because she made submitting to magazines sound deceptively easy. Cauley writes for all kinds of publications, including The Sunday Paper, an Atlanta alt weekly where I’ve noticed her byline before. She writes all types of pieces, too, from food criticism to human interest pieces to travel guides. Her seminar reminded me of the reason why I wanted to be my own boss in the first place – control over my own work.

Cauley is also a hustler. (In a good way. Not in a Paul Newman way, or a corner of Peachtree & 8th way.) Many freelance writers have the luxury of a spouse to foot half the bills and, hopefully, snag the health insurance, but Cauley made a career all on her own as a single mom. Go girl!

My big takeaway from Cauley’s seminar was to stay constantly on the lookout for ideas, and wrestle them down when they come along. For example, she once saw a sign pointing to a chapel here in Atlanta at Hartsfield Jackson Airport. Her curiosity about a chapel in an airport turned into a story about the airport’s full time chaplain. Who knew they even existed? Few people. Which is why it was a great story.

So, follow in H. M. Cauley’s footsteps. You probably see and hear dozens of story ideas every day. When one pops up, knock its legs out from under it and take it down!

But first, welcome to day two of “Why Should Freelance Writers Attend Writing Conferences?” Like I said yesterday, I’m a devoted advocate of industry related networking opportunities, and writing conferences offer not only networking opportunities, but learning opportunities, too. That’s a whole lot of opportunity right there.

When attending the Red Clay Writers Conference sponsored by the Georgia Writers Association and held in Kennesaw, GA last Saturday, I met a delightful author named J. Steve Miller who’s seminar was entitled “Sell More Books! (Cheap, Unobnoxious Tactics that Actually Work for Shy Authors and Non-Celebrities).”

Miller had quite a lot to say about strategies for book publicizing, and just like with Karen Denovich yesterday, I’m not going to give away all the maestro’s secrets here. I will talk about my favorite take away:

When publicizing your book the right way, you are NOT self-promoting. You are providing a service to people who need it.

Wow, so simple, yet us self-promotion shy folks would never have thought of it quite in that light. And we’re not just talking about books here. Like many of you, I used to (okay, sometimes still do) see a lot of public relations techniques as sheer self-promotion. But when I stop to think about it, the work I’m promoting is awesome, right? Shouldn’t I share that awesome with others who want to learn all about the awesome I have on offer? Now substitute words like specialization, expertise, information, your book, your article, your manuscript, etc. for “awesome” and you are in the mindset to promote yourself.

Shy promoters, put that in your pipe and smoke the next time you hesitate to send out that blog post, press release, or query. Of course, be sure you really are promoting your work to people who need to see it. Otherwise, yes, you’re obnoxious.

For more about J. Steve Miller, check out his freelance writing blog or head over to Amazon to browse “Enjoy Your Money! How to Make It, Save It, Invest It, and Give It,” the personal finance book he is currently “unobnoxiously” promoting. And, as always, come back tomorrow for more insider secrets I managed to glean at the Red Clay Writers Conference this weekend.

Let’s pretend I don’t attend graduate school at the university where the conference was held. I went because I wanted to meet other people in my field and network with them. I met two other freelance writers, a book publicist, a poet, an online connection I’d never met in person, and a potential client who ask about my ghostwriting services. Truthfully, meeting the potential client was an added bonus. I really got (relatively) dressed up and spent my lovely Saturday afternoon in doors to network with others in my industry.

While at the conference, I was able to sit in on four really amazing seminars. I was very impressed with all the speakers, and so I thought I would give each one of them props throughout the week.

First up, freelance writer Karen Denovich.

I’ve never seen anyone illustrate the freelance writer’s double life quite like Karen Denovich. I won’t give away her joke, but I will recommend that you attend her next seminar for a laugh. Ah, there’s nothing like freelance writing humor.

Denovich presented a basic overview of the freelance writing life. As an experienced freelancer, I did not learn anything that was totally new and foreign to me, but I did learn about a few things in more depth. For instance, did you know you can comfortably say about 75 words in 90 seconds in a television commercial? On the other hand, I attended this seminar with a friend who is interested in becoming a freelance writer, and she took copious notes and learned a ton of basics. Denovich is definitely your woman if you need a funny and credible overview of the freelancing life.

As Denovich described some of her most interesting projects, I realized that she’s a marketer as much as a freelance writer, and that reinforced something that I’ve noticed lately: the most successful people in our profession do more than just put fingers to keyboard all day. In fact, much of what she said reminded of the latest SpecialtyBuzz interview on this site. Like Denovich, Jennifer Mattern is an experienced copywriter, and both give similar advice.

Denovich’s most important advice to freelancers was to get out of the house and meet as many people as possible. As the president of the Marietta Business Association (for you non-locals, Marietta is one of Atlanta’s largest suburbs), Denovich has found a great way to network and meet all kinds of contacts to further her business. While she didn’t specifically say to go out and run for a Presidency of join a Board of Directors, it sure sounded like the connections had aided her in her business. I’m going to follow her advice and attend a Networking in Atlanta event ASAP because I really, really, really need a few good web designers and graphic designers to call on when my clients need extras.

Come back tomorrow for my review of J. Steve Miller’s seminar on effective yet non-obnoxious ways to publicize your book.

You see, I’m asking this question for a hypothetical friend, Yennifer Jescalona. Yennifer is a fiction writer who chooses to keep her freelance writing portfolio on point by only including business writing. On the other hand, she was recently offered a freelance writing job because the client felt that her fiction “stood out.” That, of course, presents Yennifer with a problem:

Do fiction stories have a place in the freelance writer’s portfolio?

Why They Do – Like the client said, they make you stand out. Not only can you write a killer landing page, you have the capacity for creative thought, can tell that story on paper, and have been recognized by your peers for it.

Why They Don’t – In my… Yennifer’s line of work, she’s not going to get asked to write fiction, therefore fiction stories included in a portfolio are distracting and off point. Further, fiction is highly subjective. If you were in Yennifer’s place, a potential client could be thrilled about your work and then put off by the subject matter or tone of your fiction, thus costing you the job.

So Yennifer and I want to know – should the fiction stay in the portfolio and serve as a conversation piece, or stay where it belongs, on the bookshelf? Even if you aren’t a night time fiction writer, I look forward to hearing your opinion.

Crap.

The view from my in-laws' balcony. Close to heaven.

You see, I was one of those workhorses who didn’t think vacations were important. And besides, even if they were important, who had time to take one? I kept up that attitude for six long, fruitful, stressful, hectic and chaotic years.

And I will never, ever make that mistake again.

Vacation was wonderful! I spent eight days without checking my email for work, writing a paragraph that didn’t end with “Wish you were here, suckers!” or speaking one word on the phone. In other words, I took real time off. And so should you.

Recently writer Sara Altshul wrote in Health Magazine about a scientific study that found “engaging in enjoyable leisure activities can lower stress hormones and blood pressure, make you feel better all over, and reduce your waist circumference and body mass index.” I’m here to tell you that it’s all true. My jeans even fit better after vacation – probably because I was waking up and taking the time to leisurely inspect each finger nail and thoroughly apply my moisturizer every morning instead of rolling out of bed and logging on. And my vacation didn’t stop at only pampering myself. I saw my husband’s home country, drove over a magically terrifying rain forested mountain with no seatbelt, and met and got to know my in-laws for the first time. And I did all this without having to excuse myself to meet a deadline or take a call.

Sound like something you want to try? I highly recommend it. And the first step to getting started, in my humble opinion, is subscribing to Alex Fayle’s Freelancer Vacation Clinic. I subscribed to the clinic back over the summer when I thought that a vacation was just a fantasy. But with the Freelancer Vacation Clinic’s help, and my own motivation to visit South America, I was able to take Alex’s (infrequent, motivational, non-annoying) emails to heart and manage my vacation like a dream.

If vacation seems like a pipe dream to you right now, do yourself a favor and subscribe to the clinic. If I managed it – and I’m the most ornery, cantankerous, workaholic-y, non-tropical person in existence – then you too can enjoy all the benefits of vacation.

(FTC, I’m not getting paid to advertise the Freelancer Vacation Clinic. I’m a subscriber and it worked, baby.)

Well, my good friend, a husband, father and fire captain who pulled off the drooping walrus mustache look where so many others had failed, passed away at 3am this morning. Of course, the stereotypically sensitive writer might be expected to brood over this, write a poem about it, or even go on a whiskey bender. But you know what? We’re not all like that. We don’t all trickle absinthe over our best friend’s graves before propping on a headstone to write a long, tortured poem with a title like “O Ye Purple Creeping Death.”  And as for the writers that are a little nuts, they often – discounting notable exceptions like Coleridge’s Kubla Khan – did their best writing in periods of sobriety, clean living and relative happiness.

Photo courtesy of Aandre Banyai via Flickr

So I thought I would address today some of the stereotypes that we writers have to deal with – the long-suffering, head-in-the-clouds, suicidal alcoholic. My friend the gentleman firefighter – may he rest in peace – was the kind of man’s man who wouldn’t mind me using the event of his death to make an important point about a misunderstood profession.

Let’s first examine the evidence in favor of the argument that all writers are lunatics.

Dylan Thomas drank himself to death at the age of 39 in the White Horse Tavern in Greenwich Village. Distraught over her failing marriage, Sylvia Plath sealed all the doors and windows and stuck her head in her gas oven. Hemingway, true to himself until the end, took the functional and utilitarian way out with a Boss & Co. shotgun. More recently, David Foster Wallace hanged himself while attempting to write the Great American Novel on the subject of boredom. Virginia Woolf filled her overcoat pocket with stones and kept walking until the water from the River Ouse closed over her head.

Can you really blame people for stereotyping writers? And those are just the deaths. Let’s move on to the drugs, alcohol and mental illness now.

Psychology professor Nancy J. Andreasen (who, interestingly, holds a Ph.D in English), conducted a 15 year study on 30 writers who came through the famed Iowa Writer’s Workshop in an attempt to find a link between creativity and schizophrenia. She didn’t end up making that connection, but instead found that 30% of writers went on to become alcoholics as opposed to 7% of the control group of nonwriters. She also found that 80% of the writers – that’s 4 out of 5 – suffered from some kind of affective disorder such as bipolar. Out of the control group, only 30% suffered from affective disorders. Two out of the 30 writers committed suicide. Everybody in the nonwriter control group appears to have made it through the study without chasing a bottle of happy pills with a fifth of bourbon.

As for drugs, Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s albatross was opium while William Burroughs was a heroin addict. Charles Baudelaire got low on hashish while Jack Kerouac got fast on Benzedrine. Aldous Huxley tripped the light fantastic with LSD. And we’ll just go ahead and round up and say that every famous writer ever was an alcoholic.

There was kinky sex, too, of course – I’m looking at you, Marquis de Sade – but that isn’t as well documented so I’m not going to go there. This time.

So yes, there may be some truth to the stereotype that writers have problems. But we’re not all like that. In fact, I would venture to say that the most functional of us – the ones that churn out a book every few years, keep up appearances on their author tours, refrain from blowing advances on scotch and midget hookers, and, it stands to reason, get more work – are sane, normal people. Healthy, even.

These are the working writers making a living from writing, not bull fighting like Hemingway, or piloting war planes like Roald Dahl or Antoine de Saint-Exupery. They’re sane, healthy, functional, and they live comfortably on their royalties. That sounds like a nice life.

So I suppose the question you need to ask yourself, while the clock is ticking, the drinks are pouring, and leukemia is taking good men, is what kind of writer do you want to be?

While you think about it, I’ll be down at the bar.