Tips To Get More Success With Your Freelance Writing

Leaving your day job to embark on a freelance writing career can be a daunting move. Most freelancers have to face uncertainty, and a big drop in salary at first, before they begin to build up bigger clients, and a better reputation.

So how do you make more money freelance writing, get those coveted clients, and have more success with your freelance writing pitches?

Here are 5 techniques to try:

Study your market

Figure out what kind of writer you are, or at least what kind of writer you want to be, and then do your research thoroughly.

Find out what topics are hot right now, what people are talking about, and come up with several ideas around that topic to write about. Finding your market, and your readership, and crafting articles to suit them is far easier then blindly writing and then trying to pinpoint your audience afterwards.

Practice

When you first start as a freelance writer you may feel a little rusty. Often the task of sitting down and writing can be a struggle in itself, and when you do the words just won’t come out.

Whether you are story, poetry or article writer, you need to practice your craft in order to perfect it. The more you practice, the more naturally it will come to you.

Write a good query letter

You shouldn’t have to spend hours writing query letters. Once you understand what a good query letter must contain this should actually be a relatively simple job.

Your query letter is your pitch to an editor explaining what your article is about, and why you think it would be a good fit for their publication.

You need to make your query letters as interesting as possible, but don’t go overboard, or make them too long. An editor will receive a huge number of query letters each week, so will make their decision quickly.

Your first couple of paragraphs need to clearly and engagingly explain your idea, and why you know it will interest their readers. Be concise but confident, and whatever you do make sure you know the submission guidelines and follow these to a T before you send your query off.

Be persistent

Writers get rejected - this is just the nature of the job. If you can’t handle being rejected, or if it takes you too long to pick yourself back up and try again, then you’ll have serious trouble making it as a freelance writer.

Your idea may not work for one editor, but another might think it is fantastic, so if you do get a rejection, simply find another market, another publication, and try again.

Be your own biggest fan

If your work gets published make sure you shout about it. Set up your own website and build a strong portfolio - this is something you can refer to when sending out more pitches. Put links to it on your social media pages and do everything you can to draw people’s attention to it.

The more people who read it, comment positively on it, share it etc. the more success you’ll have, and the more likely an editor will want to work with you again.

These tips can really help you to get up and running as a freelance writer. With time, patience and practice you can start to get regular work, build relationships and become more successful overall.

Bethany Cadman -author of 'Doctor Vanilla's Sunflowers'

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