Want to get paid to
write articles for print and online markets--but not sure how to get started?
This post is for you.
In short, to pitch,
sell, research, and write an article, you’ll do the following:
1. Come up with an
idea. (This is unnecessary if an editor approaches you with an assignment.)
2. Choose the market for your idea. (You may already be
pitching and/or writing for a market that you plan to pitch. Otherwise, you’ll
need to find the market you plan to approach with your idea. And it never hurts
to have more than one potential market in mind—that way, if an editor says
“no,” you move on and resub the idea to another market, remember?)
3. Research and write
a query letter, and send it to your target
market.
4. Send a follow-up, if you haven’t heard from the
target market yet.
5. If you get a
rejection (what I call a “bong”), return to step 2 and resub to another market.
If the article is assigned by an editor, ask about the publication’s contract
terms (see step 6), and prepare to research and write the piece.
6. Read your contract, and negotiate any writer-unfriendly
terms as best you can.
7. Research the
piece. This may include doing background research, identifying and contacting
potential sources, and conducting interviews with sources.
8. Write the piece,
doing your best to meet your editor’s specifications—in other words, give her what she wants.
9. Turn the piece in
and wait for feedback from your editor.
10. Rewrite or rework
the piece if necessary, and submit backup, or fact-checking material, if she
requests it. (Some markets require it; others do not.)
11. Submit an
invoice, if your editor needs one. Otherwise, she’ll request payment on your
behalf.
12. Wait for the
piece to appear in print or online, and notify your sources that the story is
out.
13. Collect your
check!
14. Celebrate seeing
your byline—and move on to the next story idea, with a little more confidence
and experience under your belt.
You won’t necessarily
perform every step for every story, but this process gives you an idea of what
to expect when you write for publication. But maybe you’re thinking, it can’t
be that easy! How do I find experts? What do I say when I contact one? How do I
pull a story together? How do I know I’m doing a good job?
When I teach magazine
writing, I’ve found that the best way to teach these skills is by showing
students how I’ve approached stories in the past. So let's take a look at how I
approached one simple, short piece just about any new writer
could tackle.
Step 1: Come up
with an idea.
As a long-term
runner, I’ve been interested in fitness topics for years. The idea for this particular
story came about after I came across a press release about a new study about
something called “non-exercise activity,” or NEAT. Researchers at the Mayo
Clinic found that NEAT (things like fidgeting, shifting position, jiggling your
leg during a boring meeting) may burn more calories than originally thought,
and may help people maintain a healthy weight. It was surprising to me, and
made a good “hook” for a pitch.
However, simply
reading the press release didn’t give me enough detail to write a strong query.
So I went online to search PubMed.gov, the U.S. National Library of Medicine’s
database of more than 22 million journal articles. There I pulled up the
abstract to the article itself. (An abstract is a brief summary of a journal
article; it includes the citation, title study, authors’ names, and background
and a short overview of the study results. If you’ve never used PubMed before, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK3827/
gives a great overview with tips about how to search it.)
In this case, the
article had been published in the December, 2000 edition of the American
Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Though it was a small study (involving only
24 participants), the conclusion stated, “There is marked variance between
subjects in the energy expenditure associated with self-selected fidgeting-like
activities. The thermogenic [calorie-burning] potential of fidgeting-like and
low-grade activities is sufficiently great to substantively contribute to
energy balance.” (Yeah, that’s awkward phrasing. But the researcher wrote it,
not me!)
With the abstract in
hand, I could write a query letter. In the meantime, I requested a copy of the
article through my local library. (Your library is often able to obtain copies
of journal articles for little or no charge; this is less expensive than using
a source like LexisNexis, www.lexisnexis.com, or Electric Library, www.elibrary.com,
both of which you must pay to use.) Many libraries and universities allow you
to access the full-text articles in their research databases for no charge;
check out Stanford University’s High Wire Press, which includes more than two
million full-text science and health articles (www.highwire.stanford.edu/lists/freeart.dtl)
or New York Public Library’s collections at http://www.nypl.org/collections.
Back to my article.
At this point, I didn’t bother to contact one of the study authors. I typically
wait until the story is assigned to do that. (The only exception I make to this
rule is if I know I’ll need to interview a particular person for the story,
such as with a profile. Then I contact that person first to make sure he is
available and willing to speak with me if and when I get the assignment. That
way I feel confident that I can deliver the story if it’s assigned.)
**Next
post, we'll move on to the next steps in the process, so stay tuned! In the
meantime, Dollars and Deadlines: Make Money Writing Articles for
Print and Online Markets, from which this post is drawn, in now
in print. (Prefer the Kindle edition?)
**And if you want to know more about writing articles, sign up for Rochelle Melander's Write Now! Mastermind class. She'll be interviewing me for How To Pitch And Sell Articles To A Variety Of Freelance Markets. The call is free, but you need to sign up at http://www.writenowcoach.com/resources/write-now-mastermind.html. The Write Now! Mastermind Class
provides free monthly one-hour educational calls with accomplished authors, agents, editors, and other publishing professionals. The calls are hosted by Write Now! Coach Rochelle Melander, who is an author and professional certified coach specializing in helping people write books fast, publish their work, and market it online.
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