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.”

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.

Glenn Goldberg, president of McGraw-Hill’s Information & Media segment, told Folio, “The days of editors saying ‘I want to write about this’ are numbered.”

Instead, editors will be expected to provide content and market expertise that satisfies specific clients, the Folio piece concludes.

Those of us who work frequently for custom publishers and who write advertorial have been working that way for a long time. And many trade publications have been moving in that direction in the last couple of years. But it hasn’t been as obvious in the consumer magazine world.

Will this mean that a content producer’s compensation will be commission based? Will we be able to make lots more money?

Tennis writers and editors take note: Bob Miller, co-owner and CEO of Tennis magazine says his publication is going to cut staff and outsource more design, photo and editing work. “Number one, I think the work is going to get done better,” Miller told Folio.

He also said that remaining editors will be working with freelancers for a redesign of the magazine that’s planned for the January/February issue.

Anne Trubek, a mentor of new writers, offered this guest blog and I gratefully accepted. It illustrates that the best thing about Freelance Success is its smart and generous subscribers.

***

Six years ago, I received tenure at Oberlin College. I had spent my entire adult life teaching writing, studying writing and writing scholarly articles. I was successful and enjoyed my job, but something was missing: I was not enjoying writing. And, now that my job was secured, I could not imagine a goal for myself that I was eager to pursue. I had no drive to write another academic book, say, or become a dean.

Around this time, a colleague of mine published an article in the Travel section of The New York Times. I was insanely jealous of her. I realized that this was a goal that would motivate me.  I asked her how she knew how to do such a curious and surprising thing. Here I was, a life-long reader of The New York Times and a lifelong teacher of writing, and I absolutely no idea how one wrote for that publication.

She told me that she had joined Freelance Success and the site helped her. So I did the same. For the next six months, I obsessively logged on to FLX, as I would come to learn to call it. I read the main boards, and I read the query forum (though it took me awhile to figure out what “query forum” meant, as I had no idea what a query was.) I read the boards and got a sense of what this place was all about — the informal codes of conduct, spirit of participation and odd language people used (what was a “graf”? What was a LOI?). I read the Newsletters and began to think of the magazines and newspapers I had consumed all my life, often clipping from to teach to my students, as “markets.”

Eventually I worked my way to the archives.  I studied them as I had 19th century American literature for my dissertation. I learned how one got from idea to query by searching threads on “can anyone help me figure out an angle for this idea?”  “what to include in my bio?” and “do I plunge right into the query or introduce myself first?” I began to tailor my ideas for stories more specifically for markets, and eventually realized I needed this odd thing, foreign to academics like myself, called a “news hook.”

In other words, I went to school on FLX. It taught me how to freelance. After one newsletter led to an assignment—for the History Channel Magazine — I realized I had not only had an education in freelancing for less than the cost of four “How To Break In To Magazine Writing” books, not to mention one “How To” class, but I had earned ten times that amount along the way.

I was juiced on the thrill of the hunt — can I track down an assignment?—and the gratification of payment. After a lifetime of writing for free (though with the promise of career advancement — this is how academics roll), I could not believe someone would pay me to write.

When I began to put together a book proposal, I started spending time on the author boards. And when I decided to make freelancing a part of my financial bottom line ( I am now half-time academic, half-time freelancer), I started scouring the threads and sections devoted to pay.

It took me awhile — okay, it is still taking me awhile — to learn how to develop ideas appropriate to markets. I still think like a scholar, hunting for that tiny nugget of an idea no one has thought about before, instead of keying in to the ideas people are thinking about, but presenting them in a new way, which is what most freelancing requires. I still send off queries too quickly, and need to spend more time interviewing and researching my ideas before I click send. In other words, I am still learning, and FLX remains my teacher.

These days, I teach my students at Oberlin College how to get into freelancing, and am so proud when, as just happened last month, one of them writes a successful query to a national magazine in my class, netting a feature. Others have gone on to journalism graduate school, to staff jobs, and to other writing-related endeavors that, they tell me, they would never have known how to do without my class.

The other day, a new colleague of mine asked how I got an article published in The American Prospect, and I could see that look of desire in her eyes, the same look I had when my former colleague–who, by the way, left academia completely and is now a full-time freelancer—published in The New York Times. I told my new junior colleague: “I just joined this website and learned everything there.” It sounded odd to her, and it sounds odd to me too, but it is the truth.

Anne Trubek
Associate Professor, Rhetoric & Composition
Oberlin College
website: http://www.annetrubek.com
blog: http://www.good.is/series/signatures

The freelance writing business is clearly picking up. Just this week, two people have posted about new books. One travel writer is pleased to be blogging for Atlantic. And several people are trolling for source ideas for assignments they’ve gotten in the last few days.

This time last year the forums were full of complaints and tales of slow business woe. But this year on all the forums, including the Corporate forum, writers are talking about new opportunities and contracts with new clients. As one writer said, “Things are looking bright for the second quarter — knock on wood.”

One of the most interesting things on the forum this week is contributed by a savvy blogger and author who was interviewed on the Today Show last week — a marketing achievement that many would like to emulate. She wrote a fascinating and detailed explanation of how she managed this feat, including just being available on a moment’s notice. It encouraged the rest of us to aim high.

A few months ago, we surveyed FLXers as they gathered 1099s in advance of paying taxes. 51 percent said their income from freelancing was between $40,000 and $74,000 in 2009. Another 22 percent said they made more than $75,000. Decent  incomes, especially considering that most of us work from our spare rooms.

64 percent said their incomes declined last year, while 35 percent reported an increase — despite last year’s media meltdown.

I’m predicting that things are going to be even better this year as both publishers and freelancers get a grip on new business tactics and ways to succeed in this changing media world.

Freelance writing used to mean taking an isolated assignment from a publication, writing it, sending back the finished product and hoping that the check would arrive soon.

Increasingly, freelancing is a lot more entrepreneurial, challenging and fun. Here are four FLX entrepreneurs who are making money in innovative ways:

• Two years ago Jennifer Maciejewski, a Georgia-based writer and editor, turned to fellow Freelance Success subscribers to launch CitiesOnTheCheap.com, now numbering 60 affiliated websites that offer alerts to retail and other local bargains. Within a year the sites took off with enthusiastic participants earning revenue based on Google Adsense and direct ad sales. Today, each site is independent, but shares information and links that boost traffic.
• Jodi Torpey started as a business writer, found it unfulfilling and turned to writing about gardening. She published a conventional book on a gardening topic, but found that whole process dull and unprofitable. These days, she’s publishing her own e-books and selling them on her website.
• Kathy McCabe used to be a travel writer and newspaper travel section staffer. Today, she’s the editor and publisher of DreamOfItaly.com, a subscription newsletter for people who are serious about spending time on Italian soil.
• Jen Miller has turned a guide book, The Jersey Shore: Atlantic City to Cape May, into a marketing blitz for herself and the region she knows best.

Writing for somebody else can be satisfying. It’s a kick to see your own byline. But this kind of work can be even better. As Jodi Torpey says, “”It’s so much fun to open up my e-mail and see a note from PayPal.”

Freelancers’ taxes are complicated, but doing them does have its rewards. As one Freelance Success member said on the forum: “I hate the paperwork, but I love the opportunity it gives me to analyze my business.”

Her comment resulted in about a dozen people sharing what they had learned from giving the government its due. Here are five of the highlights:

1. Playing well with others pays off: “Every new client I got this year came from a referral rather than a query or a letter of introduction.”
2. Selling words is like selling anything else. You’ve got to remind the editor you’re still there: “Many of my assignments came after I sent ‘Hope you’re doing well; I’d love to write for you again’ emails to previous clients.”
3. Putting all your freelance eggs in one basket is very risky: “My income was down 21 percent from 2008. I need to diversify much more, as one client that was 35 percent of my business shut their magazine.”
4. Freelancing is work and you’ve got to have time to do it: “I need to send my kids to summer camp programs. No camps last summer = ouch at tax time.”
5. Freelancers are leading employment indicators. We get busy before full-timers go back to work: “I saw a big upswing in work beginning Aug. of 2009, in part due to new pubs and existing pubs coming out of hibernation. My 4th quarter of 2009 was my best ever. “

By the way, any editors who are looking for last-minute tax content, should try our writer search on the Freelance Success homepage. We have several knowledgeable tax writers among us –and at least one very literate CPA.

For many people, one of the toughest parts of running a writing and editing business isn’t finding work, it’s quoting a price.

A potential client asks what the charge will be for a few hours of work or months of effort. A freelancer figures out the scope of the project, calculates what the job will cost at her hourly rate. Goes back to the client and lays out the quote.

And the silence is deafening. Send it via e-mail and nothing comes back in return. Offer it over the phone and there’s moment of silence, then the client mutters, “I’ll get back to you” – and you know it won’t happen.

How to effectively quote and close the sale is something we talk about often on Freelance Success. Here are six tips from the people who are better at it than the rest of us.

1. At the beginning of the negotiation, ask what the budget is. That simplifies the discussion.
2. Lay out the scope of the work and explain thoroughly why the job costs what it does. That makes it easier for the potential client to understand what she will be paying for.
3. If the client seems shocked by the quote, ask her, “What are you expecting to pay?” The client certainly has a number in her head, even if she’s reluctant to say it. Encourage her to say what it is.
4. Explain what’s good about hiring a professional. If necessary, offer to change the scope of the project so it is less costly.
5. If the gap is still too big – the writer wants $5,000 and the client doesn’t want to a penny over $500 — walking away will save everybody time.
6. Keep it cordial.  Failing to reach a meeting of the minds on this job doesn’t mean the end of what could be a beautiful relationship. Follow up with a thank-you note and ask to be kept in mind for the next assignment.

Is Writer’s Market in print or online worth the $30 or so that it costs?

We’ve been discussing that on the Freelance Success forums. Some people find having a book on the shelf listing publications that buy freelance material to be useful. Others say the book is out of date before it goes to the printer and the Website isn’t adequately updated either.

If you’re not familiar with it, Writer’s Market is a doorstop-sized book and accompanying Website that lists contact information and submission guidelines for more than 3,500 markets, ranging from consumer magazines to trades, newspapers, greeting card companies and literary publications. It has been around for more than 50 years and before the Internet when long-distance phone service was appallingly expensive, it was a fundamental tool for anyone who wanted to earn money freelancing.

Today, it’s not essential, but it can help a writer identify markets that otherwise wouldn’t have popped into her head. It also can be useful to track down editor contact information. It doesn’t include editor e-mail addresses. If it did, it would be super useful, but I’m not expecting it to. Even services like Cision, which charges almost $4,000 a year for single-user access to its editor contact database, can’t keep up with editor staff changes.

What Writer’s Market does do is help identify e-mail configurations. For instance, almost all editors at Hearst Corp., which publishes everything from Cosmopolitan to Veranda, have an e-mail address that follows this pattern: firstinitiallastname@hearst.com. It used to be that you could find those configurations on magazine Websites, but lately many magazines have gone out of their way to hide all e-mail addresses. So knowing the publisher’s standard configuration can help a lot if you’re trying to query an editor who is new to you.

The last time I bought Writer’s Market I bought a used copy for about $2 at one of those remainder bookstores. The fact that it was out-of-date and didn’t provide access to its Website didn’t matter enough to motivate me to pay the full freight. When I cleaned out my office last year, I threw my copy in the trash because I hadn’t used it in at least a year. But if I were new to the freelancing business, I might have hung onto it. You can waste a lot of time tracking down contact info.