Always keep a calendar. It should include such things as a writing schedule, upcoming meetings, assignment deadlines, submission response dates (expected replies), upcoming payments, upcoming publication dates and tax deadlines.

Track all of your submissions and replies. You can use a program such as Microsoft Outlook or simply keep a notebook or planner. There are plenty of planning / scheduling books at any large bookstore. Look around until you find one that seems to suit you. Read a book about time management while you are there. Time management is crucial for professional writers.

Start a filing system. Keep copies of all of your manuscripts and publications. Keep research files on the topics you write about. Keep all of your receipts and invoices. Keep all of your tax records.

Learn to promote yourself. Some types of self promotion writers use are: business cards, resumes, portfolios, readings, signings, advertisements, web sites, lectures, teaching classes, attending conferences, hosting parties (such as publication parties), sending out clippings of your latest publications, sending out review copies, getting endorsements from other writers and contacting the media as a potential source.

Always treat editors, agents, publishers and clients as what they are — business contacts. Depending on the person, you may not always need to be formal, but you should always be professional. If you have an issue, don’t whine and complain or make it personal. Present your side of a problem rationally and professionally. Don’t back down if something is important, but always remember that they are your customers. A person is more likely to want to work with you in the future if they have had a good experience working with you in the past.

Set business goals for yourself. There are all sorts of goals you can set such as making a certain amount of money, cracking a market, getting published a specific number of times, finishing a project ahead of schedule, or contacting a specific number of new editors or clients. It is good to have something to work toward.

Research markets before you jump into them. If there is a topic that interests you, find out what the market for that topic is. Whether you want to write mystery novels, history articles or architectural reviews, find out what the market is like. Does the market pay what you need? Is the market open to newcomers? How much competition do you have? How many potential paying clients can you find? Is there special knowledge or certification that you need? Look before you leap.

Get to know the resources in your area such as libraries, associations and clubs, places that host readings, beautiful places to write, Internet hot spots, bookstores, shipping and mailing stores, office supply stores, publications and potential clients.

If you want to have a career as a freelance writer, you need to view it as a business.

Freelance writing involves making sales. Being a salesperson means risking rejection.

There will always be better writers than you, and there will always be writers who are worse than you but make more money. Concentrate on your own career.

Create an environment that you can work comfortably in. Consider anything that makes it easier to accomplish your job to be an investment.

If you need privacy to work, find a way to get it. There are plenty of portable tools for writers (laptops, PDAs, notebooks, pencils) so go where you need to go and leave the phone behind if you have to.

Create a writing schedule that works for you and stick to it.

Learn how to write a good query letter. It is an important sales tool.

Learn how to properly format your submissions and do it every time, even for clients you have worked with before. Always write a professional cover letter to go with your submission.

Don’t promise work you can’t deliver. Don’t make agreements you can’t follow and always follow the agreements that you make.

Take the time to research and understand the publishing industry and every market you plan to pursue.

Don’t waste research. If you need to learn about a topic for one project, look for ways you can use that information for other projects.

Don’t send identical queries to different markets. Always take the time to rework your query or submission so that it is customized for each market.

Always wait for the check to clear before you spend the money.

Even when you have plenty of work, take the time to market your services. Never let a week go by without spending some time on promotion and sales.

Create a network of writing and freelancing friends with whom you can share advice, leads, sympathy and work.

Once you establish success with a client, don’t be afraid to negotiate a better deal for your next project. They may say no, but they may say yes.

Keep records of all of your submissions, transactions and clients.

Freelance writers have special tax needs. Take the time to research your tax liability and if you are getting a lot of work, consider using an accountant.

Keep cash reserves for the lean times. Good financial planning is a key to long-term success as a freelance writer.

Create a resume and a portfolio of your work. Send it out with each query to a new market.

By Gwyneth Box

Many people decide that they are going to work from home when they go freelance. This is especially tempting when the work involved is something that requires little office infrastructure, such as freelance writing or computer design. It’s easy to think that a spare bedroom can be converted into a studio and that will be sufficient. But can this really work?

There are, of course, a list of advantages to working from home that everyone cites: there’s no time lost in commuting, and no travel expenses; it’s a way of making money out of the spare room you use so seldom; you won’t need to pay for a babysitter as you’ll be in the house; you’d want to have a computer at home anyway, so why pay for a second to use elsewhere, etc. Having worked from home as a freelance writer and web designer for several years, I have found that the reality may be somewhat different.

Competing for space and facilities

First of all you need space. If it’s to be the spare room, you can guarantee that the week after you’ve set up your studio someone will invite themselves to stay for a month. What will you do? Have the houseguest sleep on the sofa? Or dismantle your studio and set it up in a corner of the lounge?

If your computer is in the lounge, are you going to have to compete with the television? Will you try and go on working despite the rest of the family? And what will you do when people call round?

Come to think of it, if you only have one computer in the house, are you going to have to compete with the kids and their mates who want to play games or surf for porn sites? Can you actually convince them that the ‘P’ in ‘PC’ is for personal and that means you? I came home the other day to discover my four-year-old niece happily playing on my computer while the grown-ups watched a film on TV. It was impossible to tactfully demand her removal, so I had to watch the film instead of getting on with my work.

And don’t forget that if you use the Internet, you’re going to have to have a separate telephone line installed or compete with the family for its use. This may be a major bone of contention, particularly if there are teenagers involved.

Being Taken Seriously

When you are a freelance writer or computer designer, one of the biggest problems is convincing people that you really are working. Unless you win the Booker prize or get your own column in a national daily, hardly anyone will believe you’re a ‘proper’ writer. As for the computer, well they have their own PC, too, but that’s just a hobby, isn’t it? Why should yours be any different? Of course, while they refuse to let you work in peace, you’ll never get enough written or complete enough projects to prove them wrong.

Interruptions and distractions

The fact that you are at home all day means that anyone can drop in, or phone you for a chat. If you have someone staying with you, it’s very difficult for them to see that your being in the house doesn’t mean you’re available for long discussions, extended coffee-breaks and convoluted explanations of how the shower works. It seems that parents and parents-in-law in particular find it hard to understand that my work at home is every bit as ‘real’ as the nine-to-five they themselves did. Not that the problem is exclusive to the ‘older generation’: friends who have found me welcoming when I had no pressing deadlines are now convinced that ours is open house all the time.

If your studio is part of the house, it’s easy for others to assume that you are available to feed the cat, watch the children and let the neighbor’s dog out. Can you justify a babysitter in your own home when you are on the premises? And if you do, and the baby cries, will you have the strength of will to leave your child at the mercy of another woman?

Even if you have no children or animals to worry about, you’ll still be expected to answer the door to callers – not just the meter reader, but also the postman with a parcel for the neighbor, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the canvassing politician. It takes great self-discipline to ignore the doorbell and pretend you aren’t home – after all, you just might miss something important! The same goes for the telephone, although this is perhaps easier to deal with by filtering the calls using an answer-phone.

It’s not just other people who are distracting. I am not particularly house proud, but many are the days that I can’t settle to write until I’ve swept the floor, put the washing machine on, been to the market and organized lunch. Household tasks are particularly difficult to ignore if you’re sitting in the middle of them!

Meetings and client visits

There’s also the problem of what to do if a client comes to the house. How can you entertain him in a room draped with wet washing, and how do you ban the cat from the studio when she’s in heat? It just isn’t professional to have her wrap herself round a potential customer, but very difficult to prevent when she normally has the run of the flat as our cat does. I don’t think any client has ever needed to use the bathroom in my home, but every time I’ve had a meeting scheduled I’ve had to make sure it was clean, just in case.

Of course, if you know that you’ve got a meeting, that’s all very well, but sometimes a client will turn up unexpectedly. Perhaps he’s got your address from your web site, or a letter you sent him. He just happened to be in the area and how was he to know it was the afternoon your 6-year-old was having his birthday party? You may have re-scheduled your workload, but it doesn’t create a good impression.

Monotony

The joy of no longer having to commute can quickly transform into the monotony of the same four walls and the desire to escape. Working from home I spend far more money on eating out than before: not in order to save time by avoiding cooking and washing up, but simply to get out of the house. The fact that I need to see life outside the house to find inspiration for my writing is another excuse, of course.

Defining Limits

How many hours are you prepared to work? With the studio as part of the house, I’ve still been at my computer at 2am and then back there at 7 the next morning. It had reached the stage where there was no difference between work and leisure: I was already at work before I’d even got dressed in the morning. Or, if there was no project in hand, I could stay in bed as long as I liked: it didn’t matter if I started work at 9am or 6pm as I could work as long as necessary either way.

My husband and I have finally decided that we need an office apart from the house in order for us to enjoy our home. We’ve been very fortunate and managed to find a studio just two doors down the road, so we will still spend hardly any time traveling and we will be able to come home for lunch, instead of eating out all the time.

I shall be able to get on and write without worrying about the washing and cleaning: what the eye doesn’t see, the heart doesn’t grieve over. Anyway, there’s only one room to be kept respectable for client meetings – and it won’t be covered in cat hairs! If a client wants to call, as long as he does so in ordinary office hours, he can, without being molested by the cat. Nor will there ever be wet washing about or children’s parties going on.

The fact that I won’t hear the phone if it rings at 9.30 means that I’ll have to get up and go to work. But if it rings at 10pm I will neither hear it nor worry – I intend to be home enjoying myself.

Personally I believe that working from home is fine if you are only ‘dabbling’: if what you’re doing is a paying hobby rather than a real job. It may also work if you are prepared to consider the whole of your house a work zone: a single person or childless couple whose work and hobbies overlap may be prepared to eat, sleep and work in one location. However, I’m not sure it is the best situation for anyone with a family and much of a life apart from their work.

Gwyneth Box is the editor of Patchword at http://www.patchword.com. You may contact her at gwyneth@patchword.com

By John Hewitt

Some writers know exactly what they want to say. They merely have to start typing and passion flows from them. This doesn’t necessarily mean they write well, but they don’t sit around wondering what to write about. Most writers, however, need a little prodding. Sometimes they have great ideas, and sometimes they stare at their computer screen waiting for something to come to them. If you fall into the second category, you can reduce your time spent staring at the screen by creating a log of your good ideas when they come to you. You can also spend those slow times looking at a few tried and true idea resources and seeing what ideas you can grow for the future.

What is an idea log?

Your idea log can be as simple or as fancy as you wish. Some people create file folders for their ideas. They fill them with notes, clippings, pictures and whatever else will assist them. When they pull out the folder, they have all they need to start work. This can be a great system, but it is a lot of work, especially if you never pursue that idea later.

Many people take advantage of their computers. They write quick notes, or even put them in the form of a query to an editor, and keep them in individual documents or add them to a database. This is an excellent system and one that can also get you going quickly once you decide to write because part of the document is already written. You just have to expand on it.

The third way that I propose is simpler and not as thorough. I use it myself, however, because of its ease and portability. I keep a stack of 3×5 cards in which I jot down my ideas. I put a title and description at the top then jot down the note below. I rarely fill up more than one side of one card. It isn’t as thorough as a file or as ready to roll as a computer note, but it keeps me from prattling on about what is just a single idea that I may or may not follow. Plus, when I have a stack of these cards, I can pull them out and thumb through them quickly, more quickly than going through a file folder or a computer database. I can also take these cards with me anywhere and jot down the ideas as they come. I am a big fan of computers, but for this task I really do prefer the simplicity of a 3×5 card.

What do you like? What do you hate?

A great place to start looking for ideas is to look at your likes and dislikes. What makes you happy and what makes you sad or angry. These are the things in your life that will provoke your most passionate writing. This can range from politics, entertainment, to a lump in your carpet that you’d like to get rid of. It all depends on what interests you enough to upset or please you.

Who do you know?

The people in your life can be one of your greatest sources of ideas. They have jobs, hobbies, interests and problems that make them experts hundreds of things. Your architect friend can now be interviewed about what makes for a good or bad home design. Your divorced friend with three kids probably has much to say about child support issues. With a little fictionalization, the annoying woman at work might make for a great short story. Look at the people around you. Evaluate them as article sources, interview topics and as story ideas.

Who would you like to know?

People often portray writing as a solitary task, but one of the great benefits of being a writer is that you can use it to meet people. Think about the respected or famous people you would like to talk to: writers you respect, experts in fields you are interested in, actors and politicians. Some of them will be difficult to meet, but many are easier than you think. While the ten most famous writers in the world may be hard to contact, most writers do not spend the majority of their time fending off interview requests. The same is true of experts in most areas. Politicians and actors are probably the hardest to get an interview with, but even then you might be surprised. Just remember that the top few in those fields are nearly impossible to interview without some clout behind you, but there are plenty of others in the field who would be happy to answer your questions.

Where have you been?

Travel is a great way to generate ideas. Look at the places you’ve gone and the things you’ve done there. Think also of the trips you would like to take. From travel guides to the settings for stories, your journeys can be a great source of ideas. Whenever you travel, it is a good idea to keep a journal and write down your thoughts and impressions. You never know where you might find your next idea.

What have you been doing?

Take a look at your areas of expertise. What jobs have you held? What hobbies have you had? What have you studied? These are your areas of knowledge. You may not be an expert, but in writing it is generally enough to be an intelligent amateur as long as you are willing to do the research for your story. Just as your friends are great sources of information, you are your greatest source. Not only do you know something about these things, but also you can rely on yourself, more than anyone else, to do the work required to find out more. Every job, from working in a warehouse to being a phone solicitor to managing a small office, has requirements and areas of interest. Think about how these things can become articles or stories.

What have you been reading?

If you are a writer, then chances are you are an avid reader, and it pays to keep a few notes while you read. The daily paper, magazines, the Internet and the books you read are great sources for ideas. My favorite example of this process is the movie The Player, in which a studio executive challenges anyone to read him a newspaper article and he’ll come up with a movie based on it. Over and over he turns the most mundane articles into feature film ideas. Ideas are everywhere.

What happened to you?

Beyond the jobs and hobbies you’ve had, there is plenty more to your life. There are hundreds of high points and low points in every person’s life: people found and lost, love shared and unrequited, accidents, plots, plans, choices and mistakes. Most of your memories are worthy of a story or article, because chances are you haven’t managed to remember the ordinary and mundane parts of your life, just the highs and the lows and the elements that contribute to who you are. Your life is an endless source of material if you have the talent to make it interesting to others.

Ideas are all around you. If you go through the items above, you will have plenty of ideas to work with, but beyond that, you just need to keep your eyes open and your other senses ready to back them up. Ideas will come to you if you are paying attention. Just remember to have some system to keep track of them, even if it is just a notebook for you to jot things down in. Your ideas are fuel for your writing. Keep plenty of fuel handy.

By Shoma A. Chatterji

To survive as a journalist in a world of cutthroat competition and to sustain high standards of performance over time, every writer worth his salt should build up a documentation library for himself. Some people also term this a clippings file or an archive of documents. This offers a thorough database of secondary research, which could often stand on its own without the support of library books and files.

Over the past two decades that I have been writing prolifically for the print media in my own country, I have built up a documentation library of my own. I have around 100 envelopes of documentation. Which means that if I have to write an article, say, on Sexual Harassment of Women at the Workplace, I have just to pull out the plastic envelope labeled Sexual Harassment take the newspaper and magazine clippings out of it, choose the clippings I want, link these with the current topic I am going to write about and get set to work. This gives a solid base to the subject I am writing about, and makes the article more in-depth.

Below are ten tips on how you can begin building your own documentation library.

1. Subscribe to at least one daily newspaper and not less than two newspapers on Sundays.

2. On the Saturday of each week, collect the newspapers in chronological order. Sit down, preferably on the floor with a pair of scissors, a stapler, a stapler pin box, two thick paper, canvas-lined large envelopes and one ball-pen.

3. Open each paper, mark out the portions you would like to cut out, according to your subject-specialty and keep them aside. For example, you may be specializing in health issues and on television. Mark out only those articles, reports, analyses that have appeared in the paper for cutting and keeping later. If the paper does not have anything worthwhile to cut and keep, keep it aside and go on to the next.

4. Now take one newspaper at a time and cut out the marked portions, inserting the date on the top margin with your ball-pen.

5. Keep the clippings you have cut out in a thick magazine for later sorting as you go on doing this.

6. If you also mark the subject along with the date and the name of the newspaper briefly on top, this will make sorting easier.

7. After you have finished cutting out all the marked portions you have chosen from the previous week’s newspapers, you can turn your attention to the envelopes.

8. Since you have decided to have two subject-clippings only, you will need just two envelopes. Label one of them with the words HEALTH ISSUES in bold caps and the other with the word TELEVISION.

9. Take the clippings out of the thick magazine, sort them out into two neat piles and put them into the respective envelopes.

10. This is just the beginning. There is more to follow.

As you go along you will discover that with every succeeding week, your envelopes begin to thicken. Then begins the next part of your specialized clippings work.

1. Arm yourself with more large-sized, thick-paper, canvas-lined envelopes, pen and the two labeled envelopes you already have filled with clippings.

2. On a rough sheet of paper, break up the subject health issues into as many topics as you wish to write on. It would be wise to choose topics that never lose their topicality in the global market. AIDS, REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH, DIET AND NUTRITION, WELLNESS AND FITNESS, EATING DISORDERS, EVILS OF TOBACCO, DOCTOR’S INTERVIEWS, GYMS AND FITNESS CLUBS, HEALTH AND PUBLIC POLICY, THE ABORTION DEBATE, are just some of the sub-topics that are covered under the large umbrella of HEALTH ISSUES. If you wish to write on all these sub-topics, you are free to do so. You will then have to label as many envelopes as the number of sub-topics you choose and sort out the earlier clippings kept inside the HEALTH ISSUES envelope to place them in their new envelopes.

3. Therefore, where you began with just one envelope marked HEALTH ISSUES, you now have TEN envelopes with HEALTH ISSUES as the main heading and the sub-topic as the sub-heading on the envelope. You find yourself specializing in several areas of Health.

4. Do not discard the first envelope labeled HEALTH ISSUES. When it is empty, you will use it to update your documentation. Remember that it is ideal if you can update it on fixed day every week. Otherwise, the papers keep piling up and you feel lazy to sit down and sit with a large pile.

5. Keep your eyes and ears open to anything topical that may be happening around you in any of these areas. For example, a man dying of AIDS has been refused admission to a bed in a public hospital. You find this as a news item in you daily paper.

6. Make this story your peg to hang your article on. Dip into your AIDS envelope, pull out all the clippings, choose news items or stories on similar cases where AIDS patients were refused admission and died as a consequence, compare them with other news stories about AIDS patients having received sympathetic treatment at public hospitals and create an article around the subject AIDS AND THE HUMANE QUESTION. The article will surely find a good buyer because of the solid research base it has, solely supported by your own clippings. The same principle could be applied to the subject TELEVISION. You will slowly learn to do the classification yourself.

7. If you also subscribe to a magazine or two, you could add cuttings from these too, to your clippings envelopes.

8. When the paper envelopes get too thick to manage, replace them in large plastic envelopes.

9. Use schoolbook sticker labels to label these envelopes and file them on one shelf of a book cabinet.

10. Number the envelopes too, to create an index for easy locating.

11. Make an index of the envelopes according to number and the sub-topic of each envelope and keep this list on your computer or on a piece of thick paper which you can stick on the wall in front of your work table for easy reference. For example, you can give the number ONE(A) to the envelope marked AIDS. ONE stands for HEALTH ISSUES and (A) stands for AIDS. This will make it easy for you to locate the subject when you want it. Because as your documentation library begins to grow, locating them is a difficult task. REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH will be ONE(B), DIET AND NUTRITION will be ONE(C) and so on. TWO will then be used for TELEVISION. TWO (A) may be used for the sub-topic TELEVISION PERSONALITIES, TWO(B) for DAILY SOAPS, TWO(C) for SATELLITE WARS and so on.

The two pitfalls you must guard against are (a) asking someone else to mark out the clippings for you. This is one job you must do yourself and let me assure you, it is not a waste of time. In addition, (b) try not to postpone your weekly date with cutting and filing clippings. I’ve done it myself, and ended up spending an entire weekend clearing the backlog.

One last tip is to mark an envelope with the label MY OWN ARTICLES where published clippings of your own articles may be filed, preferably date-wise and not publication-wise because you often need easy access to a new article you may be writing on the same topic as before.

Happy clipping and filing!

Shoma A. Chatterji, gave up teaching Economics to undergrads to take up fulltime writing. She is a freelance journalist who specializes in gender issues, films, television and human rights. She has published six books: THE INDIAN WOMEN’S SEARCH FOR AN IDENTITY, YES AND OTHER STORIES, THE INDIAN WOMAN IN PERSPECTIVE, KAMINI AND OTHER STORIES, SUBJECT : CINEMA, OBJECT: WOMAN, A STUDY OF THE PORTRAYAL OF WOMEN IN INDIAN CINEMA and INDIAN WOMEN – FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT. She has traveled abroad extensively since 1988 and has been on the panel of the international jury at several international film festivals abroad.

By Susan K. Perry, Ph.D.

Some of us hate deadlines of any kind: they feel like pressure. Others can’t get a thing done without that pressure. What’s going on here?

I interviewed 76 really topnotch novelists and poets when I was working on my book Writing in Flow. One of the most inspiring things I learned is that writing feels like play when you’re motivated intrinsically. That is, when you’re doing what you want to do, not because someone is MAKING you do it, it feels great. When you’re intensely involved in the writing process itself, with little or no thought of future publication and riches, you are more likely to persist, feel good about yourself, be your most creative, enter flow.

What is Flow?

Flow is what happens when time seems to stop and you’re writing for the sheer pleasure of it. Good stuff often results — though there are no guarantees, and it’s best to worry about that later, not in the free-flowing first draft.

It’s also been found, however, that when motivators or competition, where you feel judged, are thrown into the mix, the desire to do the thing for its own goes down. Even words like “Good writing!” or something as simple as a pat on the back, are meant to tell you how good or bad you are. That is, when someone tells you how well they think you’re doing, they mean to give you information about how well you’re doing. Obviously. But such remarks and rewards, for some writers, feel like someone’s trying to control them. It shifts the focus — the “who’s in charge, who’s the boss of me, who’s the judge here?” — from inside to outside. (Poet Lucille Clifton once said, “If someone gives you permission, they can take it away. I give MYSELF permission.”)

What happens next is that you don’t feel the same urge to write for its own sake, at least in the long run. One psychologist writes of the “laxative principle of motivation”: “People who always take laxatives become dependent on them — they can’t push for themselves.”

Ignoring Deadlines

Some writers, of course, are able to ignore deadlines when they become unrealistic (to the writer’s mind). Says popular novelist Diana Gabaldon, “Let’s put it this way: we have deadlines in my contracts because there’s a space for them. I’ve never met one. They get the book when I’m finished with it. They scream and tear their hair a lot. . . . But I have a much higher loyalty to my book than I do to any of them.” (Remember, Gabaldon’s a bestselling author and has earned a certain freedom.)

What does this have to do with flow entry? When you’re writing ONLY as a means to an end (to shut up the voice in your head, to please someone else, to meet a deadline obligation, to pay the rent, to win an award), you’re likely to be less intensely absorbed by the writing itself. And THAT means you’re less likely to enter that charmed state of timeless flow.

The good news is that outside motivators may COMBINE with inner ones to make flow even more likely. As long as you don’t feel manipulated by your deadlines, you’re okay. For example, say you are harboring the thought that your editor — whoever gave you the deadline — has marketing in mind rather than quality. If you feel rushed, you might either shortchange the work or you might resist meeting the deadline in an effort to hold fast to your internal ideal for it. If your deadline feels as though it would be unreachable unless you sacrificed either your sanity or the quality of the work, then you may decide to speak up.

Why Deadlines are Useful

Plenty of writers, though, find deadlines extremely helpful in keeping themselves on track. That’s why I always tell beginners and others working without a contract or deadline to consider setting their own mini-deadlines.

Deadlines are also a way of setting standards to measure yourself against. You can sense yourself improving. Surely, sometimes you do your best, most flowing work when you’re on a tight deadline, even when you know you’re going to be judged.

What happens is that, by facing a deadline, your perfectionism is forced aside so that you are able to meet the goal. When you have a limited time to produce your work, you may find it focuses you, as poet Marvin Bell has said: “Do I procrastinate? Yes, I delay until something has begun, and the right energy seems available. And sometimes I wait for a deadline to come closer, knowing it will force me to stay with the writing. There are inner deadlines I can only sense (the pot simmers) and outer deadlines I can put on the calendar. Both kinds release adrenalin.”

And that’s why so many of us have love/hate affairs with deadlines.

About Susan K. Perry

Susan K. Perry, Ph.D., is a social psychologist, writer, and writing instructor and consultant. Her recent bestseller, Writing in Flow, is now out in paperback. It’s based on interviews with 76 successful novelists and poets. Perry has written several other books, including Catch the Spirit (about teen volunteers, just out) and a revised edition of the award-winning Playing Smart. She has had more than 800 articles, essays, and reviews published in periodicals such as Writer’s Digest, Psychology Today, Seventeen, L.A. Times, and Child. She has taught writing at UCLA Extension’s famed Writers’ Program and other universities, as well as psychology at Woodbury University. She currently teaches writing for Writer’s Digest’s Online Workshops.You may reach her at BunnyApe.

You must always market your services, even when you have all the assignments you need. Marketing during the good times keeps the slow times at bay. Here are a few very simple steps that many writers fail to take.

Purchase Business Cards
Some people believe this is too obvious to mention. However, I am always shocked by how many professional writers don’t have business cards. My advice is to use both sides of the card. The front side should contain the traditional information such as name, occupation and contact information. The back side should contain a mini-resume with a short list of your experience and services.

Create a Portfolio
You should create a promotional kit describing your services. The promotional kit should include a resume, samples of your work and letters of recommendation. Compile these in a nice folder. You might have very large samples (such as books) that don’t lend themselves to putting in a folder. If so, consider creating a samples CD. You will want to leave this with prospective clients or employers. Never give a client the only copy of your work.

Get Letters of Recommendation
As I mentioned, a portfolio should include letters of recommendation when possible. Don’t be afraid to call up former clients or employers to ask for a letter of recommendation. If they seem pressed for time, be willing to write the letter and have them sign it.

Make Business Contacts
While you’re calling all those people looking for recommendations, don’t forget to ask them if they have any business for you or if they know anyone who might be looking for services. Most employment is actually found through friends, acquaintances and old clients and employers. They are a much better source of information than job boards and newspaper classifieds.

Join Writers / Editors Groups
This is another part of networking. Meet other writers and editors. Establish a peer group. Some groups for you to consider are the National Writers Union (NWU), Society for Technical Communication (STC), American Society of Business Publication Editors (ASBPE), The American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) and the The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA).

Know the Publication’s Guidelines

The easiest way to find out what a publication wants is to let them tell you. Many publications post their writer’s guidelines on their web site. If you can’t find the guidelines on the web, contact one of the editors and ask for them to email or snail mail you the guidelines. don’t be afraid to call or email for more information.

A publication directory such as Writer’s Market can be helpful for your initial search, but don’t rely on them for all of your information. Any number of things can change between the publication of those listings and the day you decide to send your query.

Not only do writer’ guidelines tend to address content issues, but they can also tell you what format the publication prefers their submissions in. One publication may want you to email them a text file, another might want you to send a paper copy and a third may want you to upload a Microsoft Word file. You won’t know if you don’t do the research.

Sample Guidelines:
Clarkesworld
The Writer
Smithsonian

Know who the publication’s editors are

Knowing the right person to send your query to is one of the little details that can make a big difference when you are trying to make a sale. If you query the wrong person, any of a number of bad things can happen. The person who receives it might dismiss your query and throw it away because it isn’t what they are looking for. The person who receives it may know who should get it and plan to give it to them, but never get around to doing so. If your query does finally get to the right person, they may hold the fact that it was addressed to the wrong person against you.

Always take the time to find out who the right recipient for your query is. Check the publication’s masthead (a listing of editors and other staff) for the latest information.  Don’t be afraid to call or email to confirm your choice.

Sample mastheads:
Boston Magazine
Seventeen
Cosmopolitan

Know the publication’s editorial calendar

In addition to writer’s guidelines, many publications have an editorial calendar that covers such things as publication lead times, deadlines for holiday or seasonal items and upcoming special editions or subject focuses.

Many publications dedicate issues to a single topic or maintain an ongoing series for several issues. Knowing what a publication is looking for and when they are looking for it can give you a serious advantage over the competition. When you request submission guidelines, be sure to request the editorial calendar as well.

Sample Editorial Calendars
Alaska Airlines
Chicago Magazine
Bass Angler

Know the publication, front to back

Don’t assume you know what a publication wants just because you have read their writer’s guidelines. The proper way to research a publication is to read it. Get your hands on a copy of the publication (the more copies the better). Check the publication’s website.

You don’t have to read every word of every article, but take the time to get familiar with the different sections and the general writing style. Writing styles can vary widely from one publication to the next. Be sure that what you are proposing fits in well with the publication’s approach to content and style.

Know how to write a query letter

Your query letter needs to demonstrate both the quality of your idea and the quality of your writing. Additionally, it should demonstrate that you know how to follow the publication’s submission guidelines. Many editors receive dozens of queries each month. For major publishers, the number of queries can climb into the hundreds.

This may seem intimidating, but the number of queries that are actually well-written and well thought out is quite small. Most queries are terrible. They are badly written, inappropriate or fail to follow the publication’s guidelines. It is easy to rise above the crowd if you know what you are doing and you are willing to make a genuine effort to create quality query.

Helpful Articles:

• How to write a query letter
• Why did I get Rejected?
• Successful Freelance Writers Don’t Let Fear Stop Them
• The Holy Grail of Getting Published Big
• Top Five Mistakes Authors Make in Proposals
• Five Tips To a More Effective E-Cover Letter
• This Query Sucks (or how to fail and still succeed)
• 7 Rules to Pitching a Glossy Magazine
• How One Query Letter Got $6,000 in Assignments
• 9 Tips For Reading & Using A Market Listing
• Seven Tips for Submission Success
• Seven Tips for Submitting

Here are a few good articles I’ve come across lately. I hope these get you through your Friday.

Who’s the Biggest Loser in E-Books? If you guessed the authors, you’re right, at least when it comes to major publishing companies. This one is from the Freakonomics guys, so I would give the article some weight.

Major Publisher Investment Advances Inkling as the Future of Digital Textbooks: The affordability of textbooks has become a major issue in colleges today. The work being done to digitize the process will help keep costs down and eliminate middlemen such as campus book stores.

Tips for returning to normal after a large disruption: Getting back in the saddle after a long disruption such as an illness or a personal crisis can be a challenge. This article has some good tips for dealing with the disruption and moving forward.

10 Top Tips to Combat Procrastination: There’s nothing earth-shattering about these tips, but you probably need to be reminded of them anyway.

4 Ways To Make Yourself Complete a Book: I especially like her advice for breaking out of a slump.

The Tucson Festival of Books was a great event. I didn’t get to spend as much timer there as I had originally intended, but it was nice to walk around and see how many people in the area are interested in books. I got to take part in a poetry slam, though it wasn’t a true slam so much as an open mike since we didn’t have a lot of people who were bold enough to compete.

I wasn’t planning on attending, so I had to read some poems off of my iPod. It was a little awkward, but looking foolish on stage is a fear I got over a long time ago. I even managed to tell a joke that didn’t go over too well with the younger poets in the crowd.

Q: How do you get a poet off your porch?

A: Pay for your pizza.

Luckily, my older poet friends did enjoy the joke. Sometimes it really is the audience that matters.