In the April issue of The New Yorker, John McPhee offered this advice to a young friend who complained of writer’s block. I love it and think we could all take a lesson or two from it:

“Dear Joel: You are writing, say, about a grizzly bear. No words are forthcoming. For six, seven, 10 hours no words have been forthcoming. You are blocked, frustrated, in despair. You are nowhere, and that’s where you’ve been getting. What do you do?

“You write, ‘Dear Mother.’ And then you tell your mother about the block, the frustration, the ineptitude, the despair. You insist that you are not cut out to do this kind of work. You whine. You whimper. You outline your problem, and you mention that the bear has a fifty-five-inch waist and a neck more than 30 inches around but could run nose-to-nose with Secretariat. You say the bear prefers to lie down and rest. The bear rests 14 hours a day. And you go on like that as long as you can. And then you go back and delete the ‘Dear Mother’ and all the whimpering and whining, and just keep the bear.”

The Content Marketing Association, the UK version of the Custom Content Council here in the U.S., had this to say about the evolving role of editors:

“New media is changing our notion of editors. On the web, editors are usually hands-on journalists, working and responding at a pace which keeps them out of power restaurants and PR events. In print, they are running smaller teams and taking on much more work themselves. And in both, they’re acutely aware of running a brand, with all of its extensions, opportunities and constraints,” wrote Paul Keers, London Bureau Chief of White Light Media.

Today on Journalism Jobs, the most use media employment website, there are 148 ads for editors. Nearly all of the publications seeking someone with the title “editor” are print publications — mostly newspapers and magazines. Other forms of media are more likely to be looking for “producers” or “directors.”

I was especially bemused by Crain Communications, which is advertising for a “Premedia Director.” You had to read to the bottom of the ad to find out that this was a graphic arts and production job.

Whatever the title, these are still jobs for wordsmiths who make decisions about what we read, watch and hear. To me, that makes editors VIPs — Very Important People.

Finding health insurance can be one of the biggest challenges a freelance wordsmith faces, but thanks to the Affordable Care Act, things could be looking up.

The non-partisan research firm Urban Institute studied government and other statistics related to self-employment and concluded that “As a result of the guaranteed issue of non-group coverage and the financial assistance available for its purchase, the number of self-employed people in the United States will be 1.5 million higher in 2014 than it would otherwise have been.”

Factors that will encourage other people to make the leap to self-employment will also make it easier for those of us who have been self-employed for a long time. After Oct. 1:

• No applicant can be turned down because of a preexisting condition
• Individuals cannot be charged higher premiums because of his or her health status.
• Insurers must offer plans with a comprehensive set of essential health benefits.
• Tax credits to help low- or moderate-income individuals and families reduce premium costs.
• Help with the costs of deductibles and co-pays for those with low-incomes.
• Expanded Medicaid for those with the lowest incomes, depending on state decisions.

Here’s a Kaiser Family Foundation calculator that will help you predict how much health insurance will cost you under the Affordable Care Act.

There are a lot of people opposed to the Affordable Care Act and some who would stand in the way of its implementation. But for those of us who are self-employed, it is hard to argue that something isn’t better than nothing.

For the last three years, I’ve blogged daily for Bankrate.com about retirement planning.

Sometimes I hit, and sometimes I miss, and sometimes I’m not sure. Last week, I wrote about the annual Social Security Trustees report and some related testimony by an actuary Donald Fuerst of the American Academy of Actuaries before the U.S. Congress. Fuerst testified about ways to make Social Security’s finances more stable.

Are you asleep yet?

Before you snore too loudly, I want you to know that before the post had been up a week, it had more than 167,000 hits, 428 likes on Facebook and 285 comments. And the numbers are still rising.

Why? It wasn’t because of the brilliant writing. My Bankrate editor and I talked about that when I first submitted the blog. She thought some of the data points were too close to the original report and should be revised so they were more readable.  That’s why she’s the boss.

And it wasn’t hot news. It was actually the second time in a week I had written about the report and hardly anybody read that first effort.

Here’s my best guess why this piece found so many readers while others don’t.

• Choose a pocketbook issue when you can. Most people opt to collect Social Security at 62, but the expert I quoted told Congress that 62 is too young and the minimum age should be raised. That hit a nerve with the 70 percent of people who choose to claim early.
• Keep the length manageable. There has been a lot written about how long blogs should be. I think 300 to 400 words is perfect. Shorter and you can’t say enough that’s interesting. Longer and lots of people lose interest.
• Keep it simple. I just ignored most of the 75 pages of testimony and supporting information this expert provided. It is much easier to write about complex topics if you only slice off a small bite of information.
• Post it in the right places. Bankrate.com has syndication agreements with a variety of websites and its marketing staff encourages broad use. That leads to lots of traffic. I don’t get any extra money directly, but this kind of traffic makes it easier to find sources and that leads to more interesting things to write about going forward. When the stories fall in my lap, blogging daily takes less time and that translates into a higher hourly rate.

For a good idea what a freelancer who is in the right place at the right time can do that publishers of all sorts are interested in, take a look at the July issue of Runner’s World.

The magazine is devoting the entire issue to the Boston Marathon tragedy. The content will include:

• Oral history. The centerpiece will be a 20-page time line from early morning race day to reflections on the attack; online only extras will include photos of the bombing, audio commentary, videos of injured runners telling their stories; and maps of the explosions.
• Profile of Bill Iffrig. A complete report on the injured 78-year-old runner who got up and finished the race, including video.
  
• Time-lapse finish line video. Take a look.
• Police Superintendent Billy Evans explains why being a runner himself gave him the strength to run the investigative marathon.
  
• Former champ who was lucky enough to be unable to finish the race, thus avoiding the bomb, vows to run next year.

This is a remarkable and inspiration job as well as a good lesson in how to cover a major story, no matter what it is.

People say “yes” to kittens and “no” to children — or, at least, that was the conclusion of Adestra, a UK-based marketing firm that analyzed the subject lines of more than 1 billion emails to determine what works and what doesn’t.

Here are seven more highlights from the study, or you can download the full report.

1. Shorter subject lines– about 70 characters — motivate readers to click through, but if you want opens, longer subject lines work better.
2. “Coupon” turned off readers, but “% off’” and “summer sale” drove increases in both clicks and downloads.
3. The words “conference,” “seminar” and “webinar” are tired. Sell specific benefits instead.
4. Personalization in the subject line is also good — unless you don’t have a correct mailing list.
5. Avoid the words “newsletter,” “forecast” and “intelligence.” Instead, favor “bulletin” or “alert.” “Exclusive,” “video,” and “interview,” also appeal to readers.
6. “Give” is more effective than “donate.”
7. Lists — like, “Five Reasons to Give,” are cliche and turn readers off.

The Chicago Sun-Times fired all its photographers this week. Instead, it will expect its reporters and freelancers to use their iPhones to shoot pictures.

Good luck.

Not that reporters can’t aim the camera in the right direction and push the button, but the difference between what most will shoot and what professional photographers shoot is the difference between night and day.

Business has been tougher than it used to be for freelance photographers. With so many publishers deciding that stock photos and amateur images will do, the number of available assignments has shrunk and so has the cash flow.

On the other hand, there are new opportunities. When I put my house on the market in April, I hired a former Associated Press photographer who had opened his own business shooting real estate photos for use on sales sites like Zillow.com. Yes, anyone and her real estate agent thinks she can shoot acceptable pictures, but most of the time, they are wrong. The money I spent to hire a pro paid off in a full-price offer in two days.

The appeal of professional photos is what will almost certainly persuade the Sun-Times to rehire its photographers soon. In meantime, if you freelance for a client who expects photography for free, negotiate at least some payment. Shooting pictures takes time and time is money.

The late Meg Greenfield, editor of the Washington Post editorial page for 20 years until her death in 1999, wrote in her posthumously published memoir that Washington journalists and almost everybody else believed until sometime in the mid-1960s:

“The people in charge in Washington knew best. They could make things happen if they wanted to. Almost all of them were acting in good faith. And they were entitled to both privacy and discretion to do what they judged necessary for the nation’s well-being.”

This quaint approach to news has almost totally disappeared. In its place is a journalistic style that some call “contextual reporting” — a mix of facts and journalist opinion that aims to put the story in perspective. A study of  newspaper content by two professors of journalism at Columbia University, Katherine Fink and Michael Schudson, found that in The New York Times, Washington Post and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel  “contextual reporting” went from being less than 10 percent of the three newspapers’ content in 1955 to about 40 percent in 2003. During the same time period, conventional reporting declined from 80 percent to 90 percent  to about 50 percent in all three newspapers.

Along the way, the “just the facts ma’am” style of reporting that many of us mastered in journalism school has fallen out of favor, replaced by a demand for a more opinionated approach. Striking a balance between a straight-reporting style and the more intense naval-gazing approach can be tricky. Some people do it well and some people — you might notice — don’t. But a freelancer who wants to make a living has to be able to master both styles and move gracefully between them — no matter which one she personally likes best.

One more reason why freelancing is a tough way to earn a living.

AdAge reported that this Sunday’s edition of Parade magazine, which is distributed to 59 million readers in 670 Sunday newspapers, has a new look that is part of its effort to recruit younger readers. Only 20 percent of those who read the Sunday newspaper’s print version are 18 to 34 years old, according to research firm Scarborough, Adage says.

Lots of freelancers have soft spots in their hearts for Parade. For many years, Parade paid its freelance contributors $2 — sometimes $3 — per word for long, meaty stories. But is that about to change?

In the AdAge story, Editor Maggie Murphy said the publication is setting up a nationwide network of contributors. Their work will appear in Parade of Voices on Parade.com. “We publish a magazine on a small island off the continental U.S. for the rest of America,” Murphy told AdAge. “Parade of Voices is our way of making sure different voices are represented.”

Some freelancers have already been invited to be among the group of regular contributors, but that invitation didn’t come with any discussion of what Parade will be paying for their contributions. That led some of them to worry that the while the invitation is flattering, the check could be puny — or even nonexistent — because most of the contributors will be people who do something other than write for a living.

Writing for newspapers has long been a lousy deal for freelancers, and contributing to magazines is increasingly a lousy deal as well. But we’re all hoping Parade continues to be an exception.

Who says magazine readership is dying? The GfK MRI media research firm reports that the circulation of 10 magazine titles grew by more than 20 percent year-over-year, including:

1. Diabetic Forecast, 48.73 percent
2. Veranda, 32.52 percent
3. Yoga Journal, 31.18 percent
4. Mother Earth News, 27.72 percent
5. Coastal Living, 26.95 percent
6. Food Network Magazine, 25.56 percent
7. Diabetic Cooking, 25.04 percent
8. United Hemispheres, 24.93 percent
9. Elle Decor, 23.92 percent
10. Life & Style Weekly, 23.22 percent

The biggest losers were:

• FamilyFun, 23.28 percent
• Ventures’ Inc., 21.52 percent
• PCWorld, 21.25 percent
• Star, 16.50 percent

Freelancers who are looking for new opportunities should keep these numbers in mind. Publications that are growing are more likely to be looking for new ideas and new writers than those that are on the decline. Plus, when circulations contract, budgets are likely to do the same. Almost anybody who has been freelancing for any length of time has had at least one bad experience trying to squeeze payment from a publisher whose business is on the rocks.