Secrets of A Successful Freelancer Table of Contents

Introduction:  Burning Questions . . . . . . . . . . 2

  • Where do I find writing assignments
  • How can I find my best niche
  • Can I make money travel writing
  • Are there still Web-writing jobs
  • I'm nervous about interviewing, what do I do
  • Do I need a Web site
  • Can I e-mail queries
  • Do I need to include photos with my articles
  • Where do I find witty anecdotes

Chapter One: Why Niche, Why Now? . . . . . . . 6

  • Market Smarts
  • Niche-dom is Everywhere
  • If You Are a Generalist
  • Show Me the Money

Chapter Two: Finding Your Niche Market(s)  . . 10

  • What's Your Line?
  • Niche Markets
  • Gauging Financial Potential
  • How To Be a Trend Spotter
  • Tracking Business Ebb and Flow
  • You Don't Have to be an Expert

What Niche Editors Want . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  .15
Interview with Melanie Rigney, Writer's Digest

Chapter Three: What Type of Article? . . 18

  • Writing the Short
  • Structuring the Short
  • The Feature Article
  • Structuring the Feature
  • Writing for the Web
  • Web Content Technique
  • More Bucks for Your Bang

From the Writer's Desk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  25
Interview with Marcia Yudkin on Business Writing

Chapter Four: The Killer Query . . . . . .27

  • They Want You!
  • 5 Components of a Great Query
  • 4 Dynamite Query Leads
  • Query Resources
  • When Editors Say "No"
  • Same Subject, Multiple Queries
  • 5 Most Common Query Mistakes
  • 6 Things You Need to Know About E-Mail Queries

Special Report: The top 10 mistakes of . . . . . . .  36
magazine writers

What Niche Editors Want . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Interview with Sharon Korbeck, Toy Shop

Chapter Five:  Research . . . . . . . . .  44

  • Research Basics
  • Seacher Beware
  • Simple Searches
  • Advanced Searches
  • How Search Engines Work
  • Boolean Logic
  • My Favorite Search Engines
  • Meta Search Engines

From the Writer's Desk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Interview with Janine Adams on Pet Writing

Chapter Six: Interviewing Experts . . .  55

  • Why You Need an Expert
  • Where to Find Experts
  • ProfNet
  • The Yearbook of Specialists
  • American University
  • The Annapolis Group
  • The Mother of all Expert Sources
  • Conducting Your Interview
  • Interview Basics
  • In Session
  • Go for the Gold
  • After the Interview
  • Other Resources
  • Equipment for Taping the Interview


What Niche Editors Want . . . . . . . . .62
Interview with Halvor Moorshead, History Magazine, Family Chronicle

Chapter Seven: The Photo Package . . . 64

  • Selling the Total Feature Package
  • Going Digital
  • New to Digital?
  • 2 Must-Have Camera Features  
  • Recommendations
  • What Quality Can You Expect?
  • Basic Photo Skills
  • 5 Tips for Turning Snapshots into Great Shots
  • Web Resources
  • Advice from a Professional Photographer


From the Writer's Desk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .74
Interview with Michael Sedge on Travel Writing

Chapter Eight: Know Your Rights . . . . . . .76

  • Selling the Rights to Your Work
  • Work for Hire
  • All Rights
  • First Serial Rights
  • Electronic Rights
  • One Time Rights
  • Second Serial Rights


What Niche Editors Want . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .78
Interview with David Fryxell, Family Tree Magazine

Chapter Nine: Where to Find Jobs . . . . . . . . . . . .80

  • Magazine Market Guides
  • More Market Guides
  • Web Clients
  • Show Me the Jobs Now!
  • Mailing Lists
  • Writer's Weekly
  • Inscriptions Magazine
  • Freelance Writer's Newsletter
  • Writer's Web Events
  • A WritersLife.net
  • Books
  • Online Job Sites
  • Current Magazine Clients
  • Freelance Success

From the Writer's Desk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Interview with Barbara Krasner-Khait
on History Writing

Chapter Ten: Promoting Yourself Through . . . . . 91
Mailing Lists

  • Why You Need to Join a Mailing List
  • Types of Mailing Lists
  • 6 Tips on Using a Mailing List to Nab a Gig
  • How to Join and Use a Mailing List
  • List Netiquette
  • Niche Lists
  • Where to Find Mailing Lists
  • Writers' Lists


What Niche Editors Want . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Interview with Donna Marcel, Dog World

Chapter Eleven: Your Cyber-Space . . . . . . . . . . . 100

  • Your Web Site
  • What To Include
  • Domain Names
  • Web Host
  • Web Authoring
  • File Transfer Protocol
  • Getting Notriced: Meta-Tags
  • Meta-Tag Tutorial
  • Automatic Meta-Tag Builder
  • Web Page Submission
  • 8 places to Print Your Web Site Address


From the Writer's Desk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .107
Interview with Pamela White on Food Writing

Chapter Twelve: The Last Word . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

  • A Writer's Life
  • The Odds are in Your Favor
  • Nancy's 10 Secrets for Success


Appendix A  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .113
Queries That Worked

Appendix B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Writing Samples


Learn more about this book through this link to Terry Whalin's review.


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