What is the Path to Becoming a Freelance Writer?
Once the earning potential of freelance writers becomes apparent, many people will ask themselves "How do I become a freelance writer?" The process can be as hard or as easy as you want to make it. Like any process, you have to have a reasonable idea of what the final product is and the ingredients or steps along the way to achieving it. If you give some thought to how many different types of writers there are, you will see that you have discovered the first step along the way to becoming one.
Step one if you would like to become a freelance writer is for you to decide what kind of writing you would like to do. Don't overlook the importance of this simple step. If you don't pick the right kind of writing that suits you best you may never be able to reach your ultimate goal.
There are many types of writing that can be done here are some ideas: News reporting, poetry, stories (fiction and non-fiction), reviews, advertising copy, articles, etc. You have to decide what type of writing you enjoy doing the most and then compare your writing to works that have already been published in the same style.
Many freelance writers often maintain their own blogs to showcase what kind of writing they are capable of doing; do you have a blog already? Some people belong to writing clubs to help sharpen their writing skills and get constructive criticism, if you do belong to such a group how is your work generally received?
Whatever type of writing you want to do, it will always help if you have a significant amount of experience already doing that sort of writing. For example, if you've never written a poem before, you probably shouldn't try to become a freelance poet. Not only should you have already written extensively in the field you want to become a freelancer for, but you should have also received some sort of objective feedback on it, so you know whether you're good at it or not.
Once you have some pieces of work that you have done and you have received positive feedback on them, you should take your best pieces and put them together into a portfolio. You may think finding work as a freelance writer is the most difficult, this isn't true, because of the internet, this has become quite simple, the difficult task is finding someone who will read your samples. Sending your portfolio to the right person is absolutely critical if you want to get beyond step one.
The very first step in trying to ensure that your portfolio will be looked at is to make sure you know who to send it to. It is not too difficult to discover the person's name and email address, after all, it is part their job to discover new writers to keep the publication fresh and interesting. Once you know who to send it to, you need to compose a simple message that will introduce yourself in as few words as possible and ask them to look at your work on the understanding that you would like to be considered as a future freelance contributor.
If your work is to a reasonable standard and relevant to the content that is usually included in the publication, you will be considered and probably invited for an interview and, possibly, a trial period. Most of the time freelance writers are only paid when their content is published, so you have to make sure you do the best work of your life if you are given a test assignment.
About the Author:
Barry Walls online writing course has developed into what many internet marketers are calling the fastest day job killing program online ever. His training course and forum show experienced and new people alike how to make full time incomes in weeks, not months, using his freelance writing training
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