Category — Freelancing 101

Most writers, when they up a copy of Newsweek, Time or People in the supermarket or the bookstore, dream at least every now and then about seeing their names in print in one of the big-name glossy consumer magazines.

But as nearly every writer who’s ever searched for a job at a magazine knows, consumer magazine publishers almost never post their available positions on the major Web job search sites or really in any kind of high-traffic public-facing site, other than perhaps their own company’s sites. So where does an aspiring writer turn to find work with a magazine, especially freelance work?

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If you’re interested in finding work as a writer, whether as a freelancer or in a full-time job, you’ve probably come across sites in your job search that make some pretty sketchy claims about the money that can be made from freelance writing. In an email I received today, one reader summed up perfectly the anxiety that many, many writers feel:

So my school is finally forcing me out the door with my degree.  I have loved school for so long that I don’t want to leave, which is why I plan on going on to graduate school, but first I am taking at least one year off.  Truth be told, I want to be a writer.  But, who doesn’t in our area?  I’ve looked at some of these freelance websites, but it seems like a scam to me.  I don’t want to pay to do work.  Where should I start?  I have 3 months left in college, and I’m beginning to get nervous.

In my view, this writer is smart to be suspicious of the claims she’s reading on those sites. But if those companies are a waste of time, where should she and other writers like her look for work? From my experience, what I’ve found works best is following these four rules:

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