It’s high time I wrote a little bit about writing. After all, I started this blog as a way to showcase myself as a writer.
In the beginning I was thinking children’s books. It’s still in the back of my mind, but it’s no longer my main priority. My main vision was to write, and to be able to do it for some amount of compensation. My husband and I are now in the situation where we need to write to pay the bills. That will give one a very different perspective on the conventional route to publication that involves sending multiple query letters or manuscripts on spec, waiting for months before getting any sort of reply, piling up the rejection notices, and trying again. The problem with that scenario is that you can’t send a rejection letter to a utility company, especially when you’ve been using their services.
I learned very quickly that the way to make money at this business is to write not what I want to write, but what other people want me to write. I don’t mean this is any sort of cynical way. It’s just one of those life lessons that are best not ignored. I can still write what I want to write; I just need to make sure I am doing a certain amount of writing for others first.
With that in mind, my freelance writing career is doing quite well considering the time and effort I’ve put into it. I got regular writing gigs for two local newspapers thanks to the connections of a member of my writer’s group. I also landed a gig writing for a friend of a friend who has several web sites on topics of interest to me. I was pretty content with that for a while, but in the past month have strived to increase my client base.
I landed my first national client through Elance, and have completed my first project. I’m hoping to turn it into repeat projects. Through another freelance writer, I got introduced to a couple more editors and am looking to see where that goes. It seems to me the way to get in is through connections. I haven’t had the greatest success writing editors cold. Though I haven’t sent out many, query letters and manuscript submissions have been an unmitigated failure. I’ve gotten the farthest when a writer who already works for an editor recommends me. Once I’ve gotten in, I’m in. At this time, I don’t know too many people, so I don’t have too many connections. But that is slowly increasing. At some point it will start to snowball. My attitude right now is to consistently knock on a few doors, then run through the ones that open. So far it seems to be working. I’d love it to work faster, but then doesn’t everybody? At least it’s moving. It’s better than waiting months and months to hear back on a query letter or manuscript.
Having said all that, my attitude about submitting a manuscript on spec is changing. For a few months I was adament that I wouldn’t do that. I’d only write what I’d already sold. But at the moment I have two publications in mind that I think would like some material I feel I could write fairly quickly. So, I’m going to go for it and see what happens. These aren’t big publishers. They are local magazines. It’s worth a shot, as long as I’m keeping up with the writing I have sold.
So that’s the quick summary of my writing experience. Now it’s time to get on with life and with the paid writing 
