(How to Take a True Event and Turn It Into a Compelling Story.)

The majority of editors I have worked with have a strict blanket policy denouncing it in all its forms, citing the need to maintain strict levels of journalistic integrity. “Once you start letting people change what you write to suit their own agenda, you may as well hand them full control,” one editor told me.

And it is a valid point. There is also the danger of overcomplicating matters. If you grant one party copy approval, in the interests of fairness you should offer every contributor the same privilege. If there are only one or two, there shouldn’t be much of an issue.

But imagine the article you wrote includes material from a dozen or more different sources, they all demand copy approval, and then they all want to amend the copy for some ambiguous (no doubt marketing-related) reason. That level of interference would send you right back to the drawing board. On one memorable occasion, a company asked me to re-write an entire feature because I had inadvertently placed one of their main competitors ahead of them in the copy, which in their view was tantamount to endorsement.

High-profile celebrities often let the media know in advance what topics they don’t want to discuss, and at the same time making clear the topics they DO want to discuss. I once interviewed Jason Statham for a magazine and was told in no uncertain terms that under no circumstances would he be discussing a certain actress with whom he had recently been romantically linked in the tabloid newspapers.

Some take it several steps further. I remember attending a press conference featuring the entire cast of the Avengers, and being quietly informed at the start that any question not specifically related to the topic at hand (i.e., the movie) was off the table and may lead to the journalist responsible being ejected from the venue. The next few minutes were a frenzied blur of panicked reporters hastily revising their notes.

You might think requests like this are perfectly reasonable, and in a sense you would be right. Yes, celebrities have media commitments but nobody should be expected to talk about things they don’t want to. But on this occasion and others like it, the result was every journalist in the room going back to their respective editors with slightly altered versions of what was essentially the same overly-sanitised article. That’s what happens when everyone is given the same answers to the same questions.

An old trick I learned is to save any potentially problematic questions until the end of the interview or press conference. That way, if sparks fly you already have enough material to write your article. However, by doing this you run the risk of burning your bridges and getting yourself removed from certain media lists.

One instance where copy approval is not only justified but recommended, is when you are writing about unfamiliar topics, or using material translated from another language. In the case of the latter, always have the content, and in particular any quotes, double checked and cross-referenced, preferably by actual people more attuned to a language’s complexities than an online resource.

Technical writing that perhaps contains a lot of numbers or calculations can also be a minefield, as it is very easy to get something wrong. All it takes is one misplaced decimal point. And if that happens, not only do you and the title you are writing for lose credibility, but you also lose the respect of the people you are writing about and they may never have anything to do with you again which can be very damaging to a freelancer when reputation is everything.

That said, errors and typos are much easier to correct in the modern age where the majority of titles are digital. Websites and online magazines can be corrected later, print can’t. Once that is out there, mistakes and all, it can’t be taken back. And one way to avoid this is to offer relevant parties copy approval. Just use it sparingly.

The post When to Grant Copy Approval (And When Not To) appeared first on Writer's Digest.

(10 Interviewing Tips for Journalists.)

As the consultancy is primarily involved in the plastics industry, the digital magazines covered things like company acquisitions, personnel changes, technological developments, new applications, legislation, scientific breakthroughs, etc. This is all very niche, probably of interest only to people directly involved in the plastics industry. But there are a lot of them. According to recent a report from the Plastics Industry association, over a million people work in the sector in the United States alone.

As a journalist, you master certain skills and carry them with you as they form the building bocks of your career. These skills might involve basic computer literacy, research methods, interview techniques, etc. Plus, I had over two decades of publishing experience to call upon. However, none of this changed the fact that I had never worked in plastics before, so in my new role I quite often had very little idea of what I was writing about.

The thing is, it doesn’t matter. This is the 21st century. We have the internet, the best resource known to man, at our fingertips. You can pick up an assignment about the most obscure topic in the world, and be a virtual expert in three hours. A journalist is simply a conduit. You don’t have to know every little detail about some obscure area of business. You just have to find people that do. Then you simply find a common theme, often tied to some new development to make the piece more newsworthy, and then write it up to the accepted house style. If you can, try to include at least one original quote, which adds legitimacy. Of course, most interview subjects regurgitate the same information to every media outlet that asks them, in which case it becomes more about how you frame it.

My first assignment proper was to write a 2,500-word feature on plastic compounds in EVs. I didn’t even know what an EV was (for the record, it stands for ‘electric vehicle’) so you can probably imagine how overwhelming it was. But after a while I started seeing my lack of industry knowledge as an advantage. One of the most difficult things to do in any form of writing is to make difficult concepts easily digestible. Approaching the topic from a layman’s perspective means you do this subconsciously, for your own benefit. One thing to avoid is using specialized words or phrases. Instead of showing off the depth of your knowledge and appealing to industry types this often has an alienating effect, especially if English is not the reader’s first language (as an international publication, only around 40% of our readership are native English speakers).

A prime concern for me, as with most writers, is word count. There is more flexibility elsewhere, but every feature I write for the magazine needs to be in the 2,000-2,500 words range because that has been determined the optimal length and works best for the advertising department, who may have sold ad space to 3D manufacturing companies knowing we had planned to run a feature about it.

After several years in the job, I have now devised a system. In the first instance, I write up a list of relevant companies or individuals (which can be filed away for later reference) and send them a media enquiry outlining my intentions for the article and asking if they would like to contribute. Some companies send you the perfect package; a well-written, original 300-word submission with a couple of good supplementary images. Others may need more direction or instruction, and a large percentage of the article might be scraped together from news articles, press releases, and the odd second-hand quote. Some companies and PR departments like to send you completely irrelevant material hoping you’ll be able to slip it in somewhere. Or they will submit dated information you have already covered elsewhere.

At the final count, I might find myself with 6,000 words-plus of material, which I then have to deconstruct and decide what to cut and what to keep. On the flip side, other times I don’t have enough material, and the feature might finish a few hundred words short. In those situations I need to get creative and bulk things out. You can wax lyrical a little, drop in some statistics, make some comparisons, or even references older stories.

At any given time, I am usually working on several different features at various stages of development. One might be almost ready to submit (always before deadline!), another might be at the polishing or self-editing stage, while I might be researching one or two others. Don’t forget that just as in the consumer press, some features are time sensitive and designed to coincide with certain events penciled into the international calendar.

The arrangement the magazine I work for has with the majority of companies it deals with can be best described as mutually beneficial. We need material, and they need publicity. The same companies we write about take out advertising in the magazines, and are also active across other departments. That said, something drummed into me early on was the importance of impartiality. For that reason, we never allow outside influences, like the possibility of upsetting an advertiser by painting them in a negative light, to affect us. News is news, after all.

The post How to Write About Unfamiliar Topics With Authority! appeared first on Writer's Digest.

(How to Become a Full-Time Writer.)

Yes, it can be a tedious, even dull existence. Just ask my social life. To break the monotony sometimes I cut loose, write whatever I want, and look for a market later. It’s counter-intuitive in a way, because if I fail to sell the piece it would be a huge waste of my time and resources. Or so I used to tell myself. But over the years I’ve discovered where the real pleasure lies.

It’s about celebrating the little wins.

Let’s be real, the check is the ultimate reward. Or, more likely, the PayPal payment or bank transfer. It legitimatizes your work, brings credibility, and hey, you’re published! There’s nothing better than seeing your name in print and it never gets old. I still get the same thrill now as I did as a hungry 23-year-old. But what I have come to appreciate more are the other points along the way where you can derive some level of pleasure or satisfaction.

First comes the idea, the Eureka moment when a concept presents itself. That initial thrill is so full of hope and optimism. And it applies across the board, whether you’re a novice writer or a seasoned pro, whether you write fiction, nonfiction, or poetry.

I ponder the idea for a while to see how viable it is, and whether it’s worth pursuing or not. If I decide in the affirmative, I’ll do some preliminary research. I might send out a few tentative emails, do an internet search, or read some articles, and little by little I learn more about this project I’ve become invested in. Slowly, the puzzle starts coming together and—when I feel confident enough—I start writing.

This is the part I find most exhilarating. I’ve done the prep. The research. I know what I’m going to do. It’s go time. I sometimes fall into a zone where the words are flowing and it feels like I am riding the crest of a wave. The words appear almost unbidden, and all I have to do is write them down. I’d wager most writers know that feeling. I only wish I could bottle it and sell it.  

Then follows a roller-coaster ride. There will be setbacks and disappointments, but there’ll also be moments of pride and extreme satisfaction as the story, or article, takes shape. Finally, when it is finished, you get a little extra rush of endorphins. You feel accomplished, like you have achieved something. And you have. You created something from nothing. I imagine it’s a similar feeling to what a gardener may have when picking vegetables they’ve grown from seedlings. And you may be able to milk that feeling twice; once when you write ‘the end’ on your first draft, and again when you type those same words on your shiny, polished, submission-standard draft, confident and safe in the knowledge that your baby is ready to enter the world.

When the piece is finished, I might have a think about who might be interested and send out a pitch or two. Looking at it in this context, maybe all my decisions leading to this point have been influenced to some degree by how sellable the feature or story might be. It definitely plays a part in the initial weighing-up process. If I don’t get any hits, all is not lost. I either use the piece as content for my blog, or I file it away. I might not be able to sell it that moment in time, but I might be able to further down the line.

You can always tweak it to fit certain markets or submission calls that emerge. A word of advice, though. It’s better not to do both. If you post a short story, for example, in a Facebook group for feedback, which many do, it has technically been published. So if you submit it to a market in the future you would only be able to offer secondary publication (reprint) rights, which generally pay less. There’s nothing stopping you posting progress reports, extracts, and teasers on your social media to build interest, though.

Earlier in my career, if I couldn’t get the sale after doing all that hard work, I would be disappointed. But being a little further down the road, I have come to realize that enjoying the process is a lot more important than making a few extra dollars. I am still fundamentally opposed to ‘for the love’ markets. As the popular internet meme says; I can’t pay my rent with exposure. My rule is, if the publisher is making money from my work, then I should, too.

Depending on who you believe, either Mark Twain or Confucius said that if you find a job you like, you’ll never have to work a day in your life. And whoever said it was right. Those little wins along the way make it all worth while, and—if we play it right—it can all be topped off with that acceptance and pay check, which is very much the icing on the cake.

The post Celebrating the Little Wins as a Writer and Freelancer appeared first on Writer's Digest.

(7 Healthy Habits for Writers to Find Success.)

For example, I was recently invited to contribute to an anthology of short stories, which is always an honor. The problem is, or was, that I had nothing in the vault that remotely fit the brief. I didn’t want to put the publisher in an awkward position by submitting something outside the remit, so I decided to write something new from scratch.

Two problems immediately presented themselves. One was the deadline. I thrive on deadlines when writing nonfiction articles. They help me plan my workload and structure my days. But this was different. It was fiction. I needed to be creative, and that is something you can neither force nor turn on and off like a tap. It’s either flowing or it isn’t. This immediately fed into the second problem; I didn’t have any solid ideas. I had a main character, and that was about it.

The longer I procastrinated, waiting for inspiration to strike, the closer the deadline became and the more my anxiety peaked. So one afternoon I just started writing. I realize this may be considered the height of pantsing, as opposed to plotting, attitudes to which is something which divides the writing community. To somebody in the habit of plotting, pantsing can seem somewhat impulsive or even counter-intuitive. How can you possibly arrive at a destination if you don’t know how to get there? The trick, I soon learned, is to put your faith in your characters and trust them to take the lead.

I found the experience both liberating and thrilling. I had no idea what on earth was going to happen next. Advocates of the pantsing method claim that as you are not bound by pre-determined concepts or ideas, it frees up your characters, and in turn your imagination. This often injects enthusiasm and a sense of wonder into your work, making it more exciting and less predictable. If the writer doesn’t know what’s coming next, how can the reader?

Quite unexpectedly, I quickly found myself completely immersed and the story powered along, taking me with it. There was a kind of symmetry as I, the main character, and the reader, all learned where the story was heading at the same time. The work took slightly longer to complete than normal. I am not a prolific short story writer. I usually manage about half a dozen a year. But when I hit upon a solid idea, I am usually able to apply myself and produce a first draft within a few days.

Then follows the editing and rewriting process, obviously, but apart from a few tweaks the story itself doesn’t change much. In this case, I did hit a few roadblocks and even had to rewind on more than one occasion after taking a wrong turn, but that’s okay. It’s the nature of writing and we can’t all get it right first time. Just remember it’s your story, your world, and you can mold it however you want.

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In the end, my unconventional working method mattered not one jot as the editor of the anthology loved the story and I was soon the recipient of a much-welcomed contributor’s check. It goes to show that it makes little difference how you achieve your goals or fulfill your obligations, just that you do. Of course, some methods will always be more popular than others, but it is our responsibility as writers to find ways that work for us, and we can’t all be the same.

With a little tweaking, this same approach can be applied to other forms of writing. Take those nonfiction articles I mentioned earlier. As I said, your first priority is to fulfill your brief. Don’t try to pass off a 1,500-word article on the breeding habits of penguins in captivity if you were commissioned to write a 2,200-word article about the science behind cloud seeding. This happens more often than it should. Ask any editor. Sometimes it may be attributed to a misunderstanding or a communication breakdown, but (whisper it) it could just as easily be the result of freelancers biting off more than they can chew and failing to deliver on their promises. Needless to say, this can be very damaging.

After you submit the requested article on time, to spec, and with your reputation suitably enhanced, you should seriously consider hitting that editor with some new pitches, perhaps for articles on adjacent or related topics to the one you just wrote about. You might be surprised how receptive editors can be when your name is still fresh in their mind and they know you have the ability and inclination to get the job done. 

The post When Pantsing Pays Off for Writers appeared first on Writer's Digest.

(7 Healthy Habits for Writers to Find Success.)

Many of us yearn to break through as a full-time writer but still have that day job, which pays the bills. Most of us are self-aware enough to know that we are probably never going to make J.K. Rowling money. That isn’t to say it can’t be done. After all, J.K. Rowling herself did it. But the odds are stacked against you. A far more realistic goal is making a steady living from your passion which, though not easy, is far more achievable.

There are two ways of accomplishing this goal. The first is to land a job in the media. That means applying for entry-level jobs at newspapers, magazines, trade publications, publishing houses, and even radio stations, TV production companies, and movie studios. There are thousands of them all over the world, in every country, and they all need content. Don’t be afraid to apply to those jobs.

If you are reading this article you obviously have an interest in the media so that’s the first hurdle. Plus, there is a good chance you’ll have a couple of cuttings or published credits, maybe a blog or a book, you can point to and use as evidence of your skills. In many cases that is all you need. Yes, a degree (in any topic) helps your case but is by no means essential. What’s the worst thing that can happen?

The other route to becoming a full-time writer is by going freelance. This is actually the preferred option for some as it offers more flexibility, if not outright stability, and as you are writing for multiple clients rather than one employer, it keeps things fresh and exciting. You get to make your own schedule, and know exactly where all the money is going. For many, it’s the dream ticket. They just don’t know how to make it happen. That’s where this article comes in.

Begin in the Beginning

We are all familiar with the expression ‘Fail to prepare, prepare to fail.’ The first thing you are going to need is a safety net. This will at least take some of the pressure off. It is recommended that before making any kind of significant career change, especially one with so much uncertainty attached, you accumulate enough savings to cover your living expenses for a year.

For most of us, that could be a little unrealistic. Who has that much money lying around? Obviously, the exact amount we are talking about here depends on your outgoings and other financial responsibilities, but you should aim for enough savings to keep you afloat for at least three to four months.

Bear in mind that even after you sign a contract and make a sale, you invariably have to wait a couple of weeks or months for the payment to hit your bank account. 

Lay the Foundations

Before you quit that day job, try to make sure you have some contracts and regular commissions under your belt. Of course, that is easier said than done. It all comes down to how hard you are willing to work for your dream.

Being self-employed means you get what you work for, and no more. The process can be as fast or slow as you want, but try to get a minimum of three or four regular clients. They don’t need to be paying you the earth, but aim to cover at least 40% of your anticipated monthly outgoings with these regular commissions and cover the rest with more sporadic work.

Ideally, you’ll be able to build on this figure incrementally as you become more established. How many commissions you need ultimately depends on how much they pay and how that figure equates to the amount required to cover your basic requirements. Do the math!

Be Flexible

Of course, we would all like to count someone like Rolling Stone or The New Yorker as one of those regular clients because they pay so well, so why not ask? Other people are doing it, so why not you?

Study the markets, be invested, figure out what they want, and give it to them. Failing that, don’t be too fussy. Write anything for anybody, and take every job that comes up. If it falls outside your comfort zone, look at it as a challenge.

At first you probably won’t be selling many articles for upwards of $2,000. But selling 10 articles to less prestigious titles at $200 each is definitely within your sights. Over the course of my career I have been paid wildly varying amounts for features covering everything from chili pepper farming to Chinese media manipulation.   

Click to continue.

Create Multiple Revenue Streams

This epitomizes flexibility. When freelancing, don’t rely on just one or two sources of income. Instead, try to create as many revenue streams as possible. Some have to be nurtured, and others may only ever bring in pennies. Regardless, don’t neglect them.

The bulk of my income comes from writing magazine articles, but I also sell short stories, receive book royalties, and grab the occasional editing or proofreading gig. You can also monetize your blog or social media channels if you have a large enough following. Another useful revenue stream are platforms like Medium and Fiverr. Investigate everything, and rule nothing out.

You might also think about taking on some part time work. Pubs, cafes, and restaurants are always looking for casual staff, and these places are great for meeting contacts and sniffing out stories. Being a journalist is a very precarious existence, even if you work for a publication full-time, and you regularly have the rug pulled out from under you.

While I was making the transition to full-time writing, and at times since, I did bar and hospitality work, teaching, and even the odd medical trial. That might not be for everybody, but it pays well and offers something you can incorporate into your writing later.

Raid Your Archives

You are going to need a boost from time to time, especially early on. Most of us have been writing for years, and have built up a little (or even a big) treasure trove. Short stories, articles, poetry, blog posts. That’s money. You just have to find a home for it.

Even if it has been published before, check when or if the publishing rights have reverted back to you, and if then look at selling them as reprints. Give the piece a lick of paint or perhaps update it before you send it out. You’re probably a much better writer now than when you wrote it. You might also be able to tweak some pieces to fit specific markets you weren’t aware of before.

Don’t Rest on Your Laurels

So you are starting to see some success in your freelance career. Congratulations! Now the hard work really begins.

Yes, your new routine allows you to be flexible, but you still have to put in those hard yards. Try to settle into a system whereby you have a conveyor belt of work laid out before you, all at different stages of completion. You might have two articles out on submission, another two in the polishing phase, and two in the research stages.

People often ask where my ideas come from. They are usually referring to fiction, but it could just as easily apply to nonfiction. My answer is, where DON’T ideas come from? They are all around you; in movies, games, the news, real-life interactions, gossip you overhear at the coffee shop. Just be receptive and jot down ideas when they come.   

Under Promise, Over Deliver

Regardless of what you did for a living before, your reputation is now everything. Hit your deadlines and deliver your clean, accurate, error-free, well-polished copy on time and to spec. This is the bare minimum expected of you.

If you disappoint an editor, it’s unlikely they will be willing to give you many more opportunities. Freelance writing is very competitive. So to summarize, put yourself out there and throw the dice. Just be smart about it.

The post Making the Dream a Reality: How to Become a Full-Time Writer appeared first on Writer's Digest.

(7 Healthy Habits for Writers to Find Success.)

Seeing honest, hard-working people struggle is never easy, but it isn’t really surprising. Times are tough in every industry, except maybe arms manufacturing, which seems to be booming (I’ll get my coat), and publishing is no different. We would all like to retire to our ivory towers and write whatever we want, safe in the knowledge that simply attaching our name to something means it will sell by the truckload. Unfortunately, only a select few ever attain such a lofty position. The rest of us have to dig in, hustle, strive, and get by any way we can. Being a freelance writer is a wildly unstable profession, but a good way to oil the wheels of success, or at least ensure you don’t starve to death, is by spreading your bets and creating multiple revenue streams. And it’s not as difficult as it sounds.

I’ve been writing fiction since I was a kid, but seeing very little financial reward, I soon began focusing on magazine features. It took me a long time to climb the ladder far enough to be able to make a living from it, and even I was writing on the whim of an editor. It’s not all red carpets and goody bags. Writing about topics you neither know nor care much about with enough authority and enthusiasm to hook the reader is a skill unto itself. But then the bottom fell out of the men’s lifestyle magazine sector, where I had aligned myself, and the work dried up. I still sold the odd feature, but nowhere near enough to sustain myself.

Clearly, I needed to branch out into other things. If you are a writer, you probably appreciate the arts, and habitually watch movies or TV and perhaps read a lot of books. Some outlets actually pay for reviews. Most don’t pay a lot, but they pay something. If you manage to sell a few reviews writing about something you are doing anyway, it can be an excellent use of your time.

I also went back to writing fiction, and released a handful of novels and novellas that had been gathering dust on my hard drive. The ones that weren’t picked up by traditional publishers, I self-published via Amazon. I’m going to be perfectly honest here and tell you that they don’t make much money (shock, horror!) especially after you factor in costs like marketing and artwork. But getting rich was never the plan. Creating a brand and a stable, if modest, income was. Once a book is out there, it will stay out there for as long as you want it to generating regular passive income.

Numbers are important. If you look at the few actually making a living from selling books on Amazon, most of them have one thing in common—they release a lot of books. Let’s suppose your book sells five copies a month and generates a total of $10. You aren’t going to be dining out very often on that. But if you have a dozen books out there selling comparative amounts, that figure jumps to $120 a month, or an extra $1,440 a year.

In addition to the books, I usually manage to place a short story or two a month with websites, genre magazines, or anthologies. Some pay good money, most don’t. The average for a short story sale is around $40 to $50. When a bunch of my short stories have been published, I collect them together in a book and add it to my Amazon repertoire. That’s an easy way to be paid twice (or more, if you include reprints) for the same pieces of work. I use a variation of my name for fiction to differentiate it from my nonfiction work, and spend a lot of time and effort promoting and marketing. 

I do interviews and guest posts, maintain a blog which I update with new material regularly, and am very active across several social media platforms. I don’t do all this expecting to see an immediate spike in book sales (though that would be nice, and it does happen occasionally) but to get my name out there, as they say. It sounds cliché, but it’s true and absolutely necessary. I am always looking to increase my platform, my reach, and haul myself up in those search engine results and Amazon author rankings. Because that means more visibility, and hence more sales.

I lived in China for many years, and published a series of books about it which sell consistently with very little or no marketing. Because this is such a departure from my usual work, I use a pseudonym. When your name isn’t attached to something, you don’t feel accountable and can write with much more freedom. So, between the magazine features, the short stories, the reviews, and the two dozen or so books I’ve published under two different names, do I make a comfortable living?

No. not even close.

I soon started dipping my toes into copywriting, producing a couple of product descriptions a month or some advertising copy for Chinese businesses I know through friends and acquaintances. I’m not going to lie, it’s boring as heck, but it isn’t difficult, and it pays well. This has led to some media consultation work with some of those same companies. They have products and services they want to sell to the lucrative European and American market, but understand that media works very differently here than in Asia. I am in the perfect position to point out the differences and present solutions to various problems via Zoom calls.

I also take on the odd freelance editing job for indie writers who need their books straightened out before publishing. This is something I fell into, and work generally comes my way via word-of-mouth. I keep my prices low and make sure I provide a good service to my clients. That way, I get a lot of repeat business.

Then, there’s ghost writing. These jobs don’t come around often, and when they do, they are often a little, um, sketchy. But like copywriting, they pay well. I have a couple of semi-regular clients who hit me up every now and again with various assignments. How it works is very simple. They tell me what they want, I go off and write it, then they put their name on it and sell it as their own. As long as I get paid, I’m not precious.

Something else that may be worth investigating is working with students. Try approaching attendees of colleges or universities in your area (social media is best) and explain what you do and how you can help them. Many will jump at the chance, especially if English is not their first language. Don’t get involved in the murky business of essay mills, but proofreading, modifying, even editing papers and coursework is absolutely fine. If you do a decent job, these students may well tell their friends. Bear in mind academic work is generally seasonal, and you’ll see a big uptick near the end of the academic year.

As you can see, it isn’t easy, but it’s by no means impossible to make a living by combining various aspects of the craft. It’s all about diversifying, being adaptable, and creating multiple revenue streams, instead of relying on one or two and hoping the world will change to accommodate you. Because it won’t.

The post How to Maximize Your Freelance Profits by Creating Multiple Revenue Streams appeared first on Writer's Digest.

(7 Healthy Habits for Writers to Find Success.)

If you are struggling to find your niche, simply ask yourself how you spend your free time, because as we all know ‘free’ time is the most valuable time of all. Your hobbies and interests say a lot about you, and combining your favorite pastimes with writing could be the way forward. Not only would it be a great way to expand upon (and show off!) the knowledge you’ve spent a lifetime curating, but it can also be a great way to convert that expertise into cold, hard, cash. 

The more obscure and unusual your area of expertise the better. Hone in and look for depth rather than breadth. For example, ‘sports’ is not a niche because it’s far too wide a category. So is ‘recreational sports.’ But if you can focus on just ONE recreational sport, you’re getting there.

For argument’s sake, let’s say you are an avid angler, and you recently spent some time fly fishing on Boulder River in Montana. There’s an article right there, which could appeal to a range of publications from specialist fishing or outdoor sports titles to local interest or travel magazines. It’s a great starting point. 

From there you can focus on fishing in designated geographical areas, using certain equipment, pursuing a particular fish, or any combination of the above. Perhaps the best thing about the way the media has evolved and fragmented in recent years is that there are now readily-accessible markets for absolutely everything and niche outlets with limited but fervent supporters are on the rise.

Once you have identified your niche, or at least the area in which you want to work, you need to establish your reputation and become an authority. This needn’t be as difficult as it sounds. Social media is a must, so set up Instagram and X accounts, along with a Facebook business page, and keep them separate from your personal ones. A dedicated website, podcast, vlog, or blog, is also a good idea, and can eventually become a money spinner in itself. But this, of course, would require a little upkeep. To begin with, you’ll need a snappy, search engine-friendly, tag, ideally something related to your niche. FlyFisherRick, for example. 

You can build an audience simply by being actively involved in the community (look for relevant hashtags to point you in the right direction), and sharing snippets of information or advice, tips, and even articles from other sources. Don’t see this as a chore. If you have a genuine passion for the topic, you’ll probably be seeking out this kind of news on a regular basis anyway, and will already have identified the best sources of information. It’s a great way to keep your accounts ticking over and your name at the forefront of people’s minds with a minimum of effort.

You don’t have to wait until you get some traction before you start pitching to editors, but your chances of publication will be greatly enhanced if you have some kind of platform you can point to, especially in the absence of a large body of work. Once established, you may find publications will approach you. I lived and worked in China for several years, and I made sure everyone in my professional circle was aware of the fact. Now I am regularly contacted by various publications to provide comment on China-related features.

It is important to be as proactive in as many ways as possible. Dedicate a proportion of your daily schedule exclusively to networking, which you can think of as marketing. Join clubs and associations, Facebook groups, subscribe to newsletters and magazines, go to social events, generally be a presence, and build up a contact list. Then, email everyone on it telling them exactly what your area of expertise is and what you can offer. If you make firm connections, even outside the publishing industry, your name will be passed around.

Finally, don’t neglect the PR and marketing companies who get paid a great deal of money to promote the clients who hire them. They can’t do that without people like you. So, do some research, and find out who represents who and what in whichever field you’ve chosen to immerse yourself in and again, introduce yourself. Just being on their mailing lists is a great way to keep ahead of the curve with regards to innovation, popular fashions, and emerging trends, and you’ll also be privy to interview opportunities with industry figures, product launches, and review samples, all of which can be leveraged into articles generating yet more income.

You might think that writing almost exclusively in one area will leave you feeling stifled or restricted. Trust me, it won’t. Embrace it, and put yourself out there. We all have a distinctive skill-set, along with a unique range of interests. Harness yours and make them work for you. You won’t just be financially better off; you’ll also be happier and more content because most of your time will be spent exploring your own interests. 

The post Finding Your Writing Niche (And Making the Most of It) appeared first on Writer's Digest.

(13 Paying Horror Markets for Writers.)

One: Write Every Day

It sounds like a cliché, and it probably is, but try to write every day without fail. Whether you feel like it or not. It doesn’t even have to be for long. Depending on your schedule and other commitments, an hour a day five or six days a week would be a good starting point. If your time is especially limited, try to organize your thoughts and develop an idea of what you want to write beforehand so it saves ‘thinking’ time when the opportunity comes to sit down at the computer. It might help to unplug to eliminate distractions, so turn off the TV, and most importantly, your phone.

Pro tip: Avoid the dreaded writer’s block by not working exclusively on a single project. Keep several on the go concurrently, and when the words dry up on one, switch to another.

Two: Cultivate a Routine

Get into a routine. Try a few variations, and see what suits you best. Personally, one of the first things I do each morning when I sit at my computer is check the news. If someone started World War III overnight, I want to know about it. Before I head to the news sites, on the way past, you might say, I often take a quick glance at what’s trending on X. The platform has its detractors but does a decent job of judging public opinion and distilling what people are reading about. As the day progresses I have regular meal times and exercise breaks. Structure is especially important if you work from home.

Pro tip: Experiment writing at different times of day until you find the working conditions that make you most productive.

Three: Read Widely

Another cliché, perhaps. And also bang on the money. Try to incorporate a designated reading period—half an hour immediately before you go to sleep, for example—and stick to it. Don’t just read in your niche or genre, but read everything you can get your hands on. Study the various techniques and styles you come across, and make notes about what works and what doesn’t. You can learn just as much from bad writing as you can from good writing. All this provides not only a literary education but a solid grounding for your own work. Finally, visit or revisit some of the greats and try to understand what makes them great.

Pro tip: Joining a book club can not only provide motivation and inspiration, but also help with book recommendations and encourage you to venture outside your comfort zone.

Four: Consume Media

And don’t just read books. Consume all media. That means magazines, TV shows, movies, podcasts, radio shows, and websites, especially those which publish content with a cohesive narrative structure. Study the plot, the characterization, the pacing, and the dialogue. If you have never read poetry, read some poetry. Also, talk to members of your social circle who have an appreciation for a particular writer or artist and ask them what the attraction is. Try to think of ways—any positives you identify can benefit your writing.

Pro tip: Writing opinion pieces or short reviews of the things you see or hear is not only a great way to flex your writing muscles, but also provides a steady stream of content for your blog or social media channels.

Five: Keep Records

Take copious notes. Life is happening all around you, so document as much of it as you can. You never know when inspiration will strike or when something seemingly mundane will ‘land’ and provide a spark. While a great many writers still prefer the old ‘pen and notepad’ approach, you can just as easily write notes using an app on your smartphone or even email them to yourself. When you have an idea for a story, or a snippet of dialogue spontaneously forms in your mind, write it down immediately. Don’t trust yourself to remember it later.

Pro tip: Keep a notebook next to your bed because you will probably find that many of your best ideas come at night when you are processing the day’s events. This can also double as a dream diary, another potentially fertile source of material.

Six: Be Organized

This means filing away everything you write in a logical order so you can easily find it again later, and regularly backing up your files to avoid losing anything. Make to-do lists so you don’t forget anything important, prioritize time-sensitive projects, and keep detailed records of everything you submit. Trust me, there is nothing more embarrassing than receiving an email from an editor saying, “We already said ‘no’ to this story last December.”

Pro tip: Physically write your to-do list on paper, or print it out and pin it somewhere you will see it multiple times a day. On the wall of your office, for example, or on your refrigerator door. This makes it more tangible.

Seven: Create Clear Goals

Think seriously about what you want to accomplish, both long term and short term, and devise a strategy that will give you the best chance of getting there. One inescapable commitment is word count. You should always aim to work smarter, not harder, but as a writer, you won’t get very far if you don’t write. Be firm but realistic. You often see people crowing on social media about how many thousands of words they wrote that day. What they don’t tell you is how many hours they will have to spend bringing that writing up to a publishable standard. Personally, I would much rather have 700 carefully-honed words I can use than 7,000 words it will probably take me another two days to polish and edit.

Pro tip: Implement a reward system. Everybody works better with some kind of incentive in place, so be good to yourself.

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(Find Market Spotlights.)

There is no shortage of paying markets for your tales of terror and best of all, most are available all year round, not just during Halloween. Remember to read an issue or two before you submit to get a handle on the kind of material each outlet publishes, and check the individual guidelines for formatting requirements, issue themes, and submission windows.

Nightmare

This horror & dark fantasy magazine edited by Wendy N. Wagner seeks original horror and dark fantasy stories spanning the spectrum of dark fiction, with an emphasis on ‘fascinating characters and delicious prose’ and no subject considered off-limits. Pays $0.08 per word for stories up to 7,500 words. No reprints.

www.nightmare-magazine.com

The Dark

Monthly online horror and dark fantasy magazine paying $0.05 per word for original fiction from 2,000 to 6,000 words and $0.01 for reprints. Encourages prospective contributors not to, “Be afraid to experiment or to deviate from the ordinary,” but stresses it is not a market for graphic, violent horror. No multiple submissions. Extremely fast response time.

www.thedarkmagazine.com

Baffling

Quarterly flash fiction online magazine looking for speculative stories that explore science fiction, fantasy, and horror ‘with a queer bent.’ Currently publishes two to three flash story a month on its Patreon which are then made available in quarterly issues, and finally in an annual print anthology. Pays $0.08 per word for stories up to 1,200 words.

www.bafflingmag.com

Tales of Horror

New magazine launching in September 2024 on the hunt for ‘literary wordsmiths of the weird, chilling, and the horrific.’ Plans to publish a mix of classic and contemporary fiction four times a year, and pays $0.06 for original stories up to 5,000 words. Reprints accepted. No multiple submissions.

https://talesofhorrormagazine.com

Apex

Magazine and podcast specializing in ‘horror, fantasy and SF with an edge,’ publishes a bimonthly mix of original fiction, classic fiction, nonfiction, interviews, and reviews. Pays $0.08 a word for new stories up to 9,000 with a minimum payment of $50. If your story is used in their podcast, they pay an additional $0.01 per word. Also runs a flash fiction contest. No reprints.

https://apex-magazine.com

Dust & Dark

New quarterly print and online magazine open to submissions from October 2024 and scheduled for launch in spring 2025. Paying $0.09 per word for ‘stylish, atmospheric’ horror fiction between 2,000 and 7,000 in length, with the majority being in the 3,000-5,000 range. States they are more interested in ‘expertly rendered dread’ than straightforward shocks. Plans to publish in British English.

www.dustanddark.com

Weird Horror

Claims to be a home for the strange, the macabre, the eerie, the esoteric, the fabulist, and the gothic, offering $0.02 per word for stories 500 to 5,000 words with a minimum payment of $25. Not interested in extreme horror, science fiction, or fantasy. Simultaneous submissions welcome, but no multiple submissions.

www.weirdhorrormagazine.com

The Deadlands

Monthly speculative fiction magazine paying $0.10 per word ($0.01 for reprints) for pieces up to 5,000 words in length that concerns itself with death and everything that may involve. Publishes short stories, poems, and essays about the “other realms, of the ends we face here, and the beginnings we find elsewhere.” No multiple or simultaneous submissions.

https://thedeadlands.com

The Dread Machine

Digital magazine publishing futuristic dark fiction, speculative fiction, cyberpunk, slipstream, and science fiction under the tag line “Where nightmares are manufactured.” Pays $0.05 per word for original fiction up to 4,000 words and $0.01 per word for reprints up to 7,000. Operates a ‘blind’ submission system whereby contributors are asked to remove all identifying information.

www.thedreadmachine.com

Electric Spec

Not-for-profit speculative fiction magazine established in 2005 paying $20 per acceptance for ‘Shockingly good short works of science fiction, fantasy, and the macabre’ between 250-7,000 words in length. Publishes four issues a year and has dedicated reading periods for each issue, but never closes to submissions. No over-the-top sex or violence.

www.electricspec.com

Aurealis

Australian zine pays between $13.50 (USD) and $40 (USD) per 1,000 word for stories between 2,000 and 8,000 in length. All types of science fiction, fantasy, and horror will be considered, but does not publish horror lacking a supernatural element. No reprints, extracts, or serializations. Operates separate submission windows for Australian/New Zealand writers and those in the rest of the world.

https://aurealis.com.au

Gamut

Gamut Magazine is a non-profit seeking fantasy, science fiction, horror, thrillers, neo-noir, new-weird, transgressive fiction, magical realism, and literary fiction that ‘leans into genre.’ Pays $0.10 per word for original fiction up to 5,000 words, and $0.03 for reprints. Blind submission policy.

https://houseofgamut.com

Seize the Press

Anticapitalist publication looking to publish ‘dark speculative fiction, bleak sci-fi, dark fantasy, horror and all kinds of weird, messy, genre-defying stories that defy labels.’ Pays £0.03 ($0.04) per word for original fiction up to 7,500 words. Also publishes nonfiction, and accepts simultaneous submissions.

www.seizethepress.com

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(How to Find Freelance Success Pitching to Magazine Families.)

I’ve been in the magazine industry most of my working life, having started freelancing in my early-20s to help fund my education. At various points I have also been an English teacher in China, a factory worker, and a bar tender. Around a decade ago I landed my dream job writing for a men’s magazine (not THAT that kind of men’s magazine) in London when someone who worked there thought I was funny on Facebook. Yes, things like that really do happen occasionally. It was my first full-time journalism gig. The magazine was mostly about action movies, sport, and rappers. The only problem was, it was on a downward trajectory and cutbacks were inevitable. I was laid off after six months.

From there I worked for a couple of sports magazines, including a new launch which cost the publishing company £7m and folded within a year, before ending up on a very niche hunting and shooting title. I won’t go into detail, but let’s just say it takes a special kind of person to do that job, and I wasn’t that person. There was also a lot of worrying takeover talk. I’d been in that position before. I could read the signs, and started looking for a new job. One stood out; Senior Staff Writer at a company I’d never heard of. 

I’m not going to lie, the thing that initially attracted me was the money which was almost double what I was making at the hunting and shooting magazine. I did what any responsible person would do and Googled the new company. I soon learned that the magazine department was just one branch of the company, which was involved in the plastics industry. It also held conferences and exhibitions, performed data analysis, and published white papers. Is that what I would be doing? It sounded both complex and boring. Still, it would make a change from writing about dead animals. It was a newly created position, which meant the company was growing. That would make a welcome change from working for a company heading in the opposite direction which describes most publishing companies. 

In a perfect world, the new hire would be a journalist with a background in chemistry. But that was a pretty tall order. A more realistic alternative would be to either take someone with a chemistry or science background and teach them how to write, or someone with a journalism background and teach them about plastics. For someone who had spent almost his entire career in consumer magazines, these were uncharted waters. But as a fellow ex-consumer journalist once told me, it’s where we all end up. Evidently, he was right.

The trade magazine sector is far less glamorous and you get invited to fewer parties, but the work is more stable. When you reach a certain age you don’t want too many surprises. In consumer publishing, the rug gets pulled out from under you. A lot. One minute you’re on top of the world, winning awards, schmoozing with celebs, and going to red-carpeted film premiers, and the next you are being shut down. It happened to me so often that I thought I was a jinx. 

Now, with the benefit of hindsight, I can see it was mostly about timing. I just managed to catch the end of the golden age of UK magazines, when the industry was going through its death throes and titles were closing as quickly as the pubs, but the major publishing companies were still throwing money around trying to buck the trend. It was a strange time. It was all very panicky, and a lot of rash decisions were made. 

One of the first things I learned after I made the initial switch is that the trade press is very insular and self-contained. You won’t find many of these publications in the big newsagents. In fact, you wouldn’t find ours in any newsagents, not least because we are digital only. The companies we write about are the same ones spending their advertising budget with us, and our readers are their customers. The more subscribers we get and the more social media impressions our posts get, the more we can charge for advertising and the more money our company makes.

Transferable Skills

On an average day, my first job is to sort through my inbox for useful press releases and collate the most recent industry news from various trusted sources into an email I fire off to my editor-in-chief, who then selects the stories he wants to run in our news sections and on our social media channels. X (the platform formerly known as Twitter) is our main outlet. Our socials are the most front-facing part of the business, which draw people in and encourages them to interact with other departments. 

As a seasoned staff writer, news gathering is something I’m used to. The process is the same, you just use different media outlets. It can be a challenge identifying those outlets at first, but most journalists are trained in such occupational pursuits and it’s a valuable transferable skill.

The plastic industry, like every other, is extremely very fast-moving. There is always something happening. Not just one something, a hundred somethings. My job is to identify the developments of most value to our readers, who are invariably industry professionals, and report on them. It can be overwhelming at first, but after a while you get a handle on things and learn which companies are worth paying attention to. You can follow some stories for months. 

As a journalist, you are always thinking about how you can best utilize and package what you have at your disposal. If something as simple as filing away a press release can save you time later, you do it, and if you come across a particularly interesting story, you might consider contacting one of the companies involved to see if a spokesperson or representative will answer a few questions. They usually jump at the chance of some free publicity.

On previous magazines I was on the phone a lot, usually tangled up in wires as I struggled to record interviews on a Dictaphone which then had to be transcribed later. Everything was time sensitive and I always seemed to be in a hurry. In the trade press, there’s less urgency so most people prefer answering questions via email. This also serves as a written log of your communications. A lot of the data we deal with is very technical, and some of it quite sensitive, so a digital version of a paper trail is a good idea. Not only for legal reasons, but because you can always go back and check something if you need to. Plus, of course, it allows you to simply copy and paste the bits you need. 

Talking to these companies serves many purposes. You are showing an interest in what they are doing and (usually) saying nice things about them, which puts you in their good books. Plus, you might get a jump on your competitors (they exist in every industry and ours is no different) and maybe grab a few precious original quotes to add weight to news stories or features further down the line.

Meat and Potatoes

My main responsibility is writing features. This is nothing new to me. I have written about everything from Chinese UFO sightings to chili pepper farming. The features I write now are very detailed, tech-heavy, in-depth detailing very specific aspects of the plastics industry. They are comprised mainly of news stories and carefully curated press releases. There is a lot of making media requests, researching, chasing images, etc. 

Regarding content, the magazine has to not only be topical but remain objective. Every company toots their own horn in their press communications and makes outlandish claims like being ‘best-in-class’ or ‘world leaders.’ Our magazine tries to avoid using terminology like that and refrain from calling anybody ‘world leaders’ even if they are. This is because we can’t be perceived as giving anyone preferential treatment. It’s a matter of integrity. 

And from a more pragmatic viewpoint, we can’t risk upsetting current or potential advertisers. There are a couple of other writers on the team, mostly freelancers. We never see each other because we are based in different countries, but we maintain a good relationship and help each other out by sharing contacts and material. It makes everyone’s life easier.

When I write a feature, any feature, I follow a formula. It’s the same formula I used when writing the article you are reading right now. You narrow down a topic as much as possible, do some research, decide an over-arcing theme, gather some suitable material, and then stitch all the components together into a cohesive narrative. There are usually have a handful of items I want to include, or points I want to make, and I use them as signposts. Collectively, they form a sort of skeleton. 

Then I simply put meat on the bones, taking advantage of the natural segues which appear during the process. This formula is why I find writing features so much easier than fiction. You may have more freedom in fiction, but there is no blueprint and no structure. Sometimes, the lines get blurred. Writer’s block doesn’t exist in my world. If I am struggling on one project, I switch to another. Writing is writing to me, I just write different things. 

Infuriatingly, my best ideas always seem to come when I am working on something else. I used to jot them down somewhere, but they invariably got lost. To remedy that I started using different Word files for each idea and saved them in a folder on my desktop. Now I have a ton of word documents with just a few lines of text in and no context whatsoever. Some files don’t even have names.

Every magazine has a distinctive house style. At this stage in my career I find it relatively easy to mimic the style of whichever magazine I happen to be writing for that day, but it sometimes requires a period of adjustment. However niche your area of expertise becomes, you will meet people who know more about it than you do. They are completely immersed in it. They are your core readership and you have to keep them happy. You can’t dumb things down too much, but you also have to cater for the more casual reader who may not have such exhaustive knowledge. It’s a thin line. 

Plus, around a third of our readership come from countries where English is a second language so they naturally have a limited vocabulary. This means getting the tone right is vital. We have to be accessible but not too simplistic, and the language we use must invite readers in rather than alienate them.

*****

The Writer’s Digest Guide to Journalism is a practical, informative, and well-researched introduction to journalism and its best practices, with actionable advice, tips, techniques, explanations, and anecdotes straight from the field. In this digital guide, writers will learn how to write an effective news piece, skills need to be an effective journalist, outlets for publishing journalism, journalism associations, and so much more. Both inspirational and pragmatic, The Writer’s Digest Guide to Journalism is packed with valuable resources for aspiring journalists.

Click to continue.

*****

Networking

Another aspect of the job that crossed over from my years in consumer magazines is dealing with outside PR agencies. These are usually used by mid-sized companies, as smaller companies can’t afford the expense and larger companies tend to keep comms in-house. As a general rule, the bigger the company, the more resources they devote to public relations. You could debate all day whether they pay more attention to PR because they are more successful, or whether they are more successful because they pay more attention to PR. 

As a journalist you build up a symbiotic relationship with PR executives. You need them to produce content, and they need you to generate the publicity their client pays for. What you don’t need is them trying to push irrelevant content on you. Do any of our clients have any new thermally conductive polymer offerings? No, they don’t Mr Saunders. But one just released a new line of interior EV parts with 55% recycled plastics content (mass balance approach) boosted by a new stripping agent, would that do? It’s the equivalent of asking for a steak and being offered a Pop Tart instead. As far as annoying things PR execs do, that is right up there with sending you an email to ask whether you received their last email.

Pre-Covid, it was standard practice to meet PR execs in person every few weeks and let them treat you to a free lunch or dinner. They have to spend that expense budget somewhere. That kind of thing is probably illegal now. These days you just trade a few quick messages or perhaps have the odd 2-minute video call. Public relations is another fast-moving industry where people switch jobs all the time. You might work with one PR exec for a couple of years, then they’ll disappear only to pop up again months later at a different agency.

In my last couple of jobs I have worked ‘across titles,’ which is industry speak for having one person do three people’s work. Publications which had a bloated staff of 22 six or seven years ago now limp along with a skeleton crew of four, most of whom divide their time ‘across titles.’ The reduced staff also have to take on new, often unfamiliar responsibilities. There are digital versions, websites, newsletters, apps, and social networking channels to maintain. The result is that the quality of content drops. That costs you readers, so profits dip still further, and so it continues. It’s a vicious circle.

Job descriptions themselves have also become more fluid. Being a staff writer no longer means you are focused on writing copy. Now the role might also take in sub-editing, picture researching, designing, laying out, and any number of other duties, many of which you are not actually trained for. But even working across titles is easier on trade magazines because I can use the same resources and recycle the same material. It just appears in different places. 

Perhaps the biggest plus point of all is because the trade press doesn’t chase trends as flagrantly as the consumer sector does, things are much more organized. I know what I will be working on up to a year in advance, which leaves plenty of time to plan and prepare. This all helps the operation move more smoothly, and is just one of the reasons why I will probably stay on the dark side.

The post Making the Switch From Consumer Magazines to Trade Publications appeared first on Writer's Digest.