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Subject:Newsletters and other part-time writing jobs? From:"Hart, Geoff" <Geoff-H -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Fri, 31 May 2002 08:50:28 -0400
Joe Campo wonders: <<Can someone suggest ways to find or develop regular
paying part-time writing jobs, such as newsletters?>>
The trick is twofold: First, spend some time figuring out what you want to
write and how you can convince someone you can write it well. Second, use
that information to search the annual Writer's Market guide, Google.com, and
your hidden memories of stuff seen on newsstands to find potential markets
that overlap. Libraries are a great resource too: what do you read in the
library? Could you write for them?
Writer's Market gives all kinds of interesting tips on how to create query
letters, approach editors, etc. For online resources, try skimming the
bounty at www.writing-world.com (and its predecessor, www.inkspot.com, if
they're still up and running). Sometimes it pays to start your own
newsletter if nobody else is publishing your type of writing and you're
convinced there's a market for it. That's another whole topic.
Once you've found a list of likely candidates, start figuring out how to
seduce their editors into giving you work. Spend some time examining the
articles they write and their style. (Some magazines have such a strong
house style that you can't recognize the author's voice after a story's been
edited, and submitting something in that style is more likely to succeed
than submitting something entirely idiosyncratic.) Query the editor with a
strong proposal, explaining what you want to write about and why you're the
guy for the job. Where possible, show that you know the magazine well enough
to understand how your article will fit with existing content: it must play
to the editor's prejudices, yet add to the body of what they've already
published rather than merely repeating the same thing. If you've got a great
teaser ("not many of us have ever done CPR on a programmer, and let me tell
you, it's not for the faint of heart"), work that into the "conversation"
too to hook their interest.
Once you've got the go-ahead, the rest is easy: all you have to do is write
it. <g>
--Geoff Hart, geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada
580 boul. St-Jean
Pointe-Claire, Que., H9R 3J9 Canada
"User's advocate" online monthly at
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