Virtually everything ever written about freelance writing and getting published says that you need to write query letters. Yet, in my experience, query letters are almost always a huge waste of time. Certainly some people do get work by writing query letters. But the query process soon turns into a numbers game, almost like a […]
Don’t Be That Flaky Freelancer Editors Hate
Many writers would prefer to hole up in their little garrets and write and write and write. They’d be happy to never talk to anyone again and live quietly alone with their writing. Unfortunately in this picture, the writer starves to death. The reality is that if you’re smart, you will develop good relationships with […]
How to Find Your Writing Niche
If you’ve been a freelance writer for a while, you are probably adept at two or three types of writing. If you are a good advertising copywriter, you can probably also write good catalog copy and good promotional copy. A good short story writer can often write good human-interest features. Some good technical writers can […]
To Get Published, Do Your Homework
Writing is a product. A basic marketing truism is that you can’t sell a product if no one wants to buy it. Whether or not your writing is wonderful doesn’t matter if you are writing about a subject no one wants to publish. The moral of the story? Never create your writing in a vacuum. […]
Cures for Common Writing Mistakes
Techniques to keep your writing interesting and fun to read.