Are you feeling stalled as a freelance writer? Have you hit a wall in terms of the publications you’ve broken into, story ideas you generate, or rates you garner for your services? Are you feeling lost or frustrated but still unwilling to trade in your home-office bunny slippers for days of pencil skirts, blazers and sensible shoes?

As someone who has been writing and editing on a freelance basis for about 10 years — and who now also works as a career coach to word nerds — I’ve become pretty intimate with the obstacles that hold freelancers back.

While many failures can be attributed to inertia and lack of self-discipline (I’d rather be watching old Farscape episodes/catching up on Twitter/eating peanut butter truffles), most freelance failings actually come from fear and self-doubt.

Fear that you’ll squander your  chances with an editor if a pitch is not perfect.

Fear that your idea is not good enough anyway.

Fear that you don’t have the right clips, experience or contacts.

Fear that you’re not worth it.

Though I still often find myself in the grip of such fears, deep down, I know they’re hogwash. I’m awesome. You’re awesome. Together, we create word glitter from thin air.

Here are five ways to bust through your freelance fears and achieve freelance awesomeness:

1. Get the pitch process down cold. Once you become used to the process of generating ideas, targeting the best publications and whipping up strong pitches, you’ll agonize a little bit less over each query letter. Not because you’re getting lazy, but because you know the formula.

I developed a series of worksheets, spreadsheets and templates in the service of becoming a lean, mean, querying machine. But I only got there after many years of freelance experience, filled with many (many) pitch attempts.

Bottom line? Even with experience, querying is a numbers game. The sooner you realize this, the sooner you’ll realize your fears are only holding you back.

2. Maintain momentum. The rejections… they will come. So will howling silence. That’s why your pitch process should include a Plan B (and C, and D, and so on).

For each story idea you have, pinpoint multiple publications where they’d be a good fit. Then, aim high. (Because why the hell not?) If you hear nothing, be prepared to follow up after a certain period of time. If you hear the dreaded “No thanks,” flip that pitch to the next pub on your list. Wallowing in grief (where’d those peanut butter truffles go?) will only slow you down.

3. Resist the urge to be a total recluse. I’m at a point in my career where most of my work comes to me, from fellow freelance writers, former colleagues, editors I’ve worked with in the past and even former story sources! I’m not gloating. (Neener neener!) I’m just pointing out that freelancing will become a lot easier if you take the time to build up a strong, freelance community. These people can share tips and contacts with you, pass along project leads and act as a social outlet when you find yourself having in-depth conversations with your three cats.

4. Believe in karma. As an extension of the tip above, people will be more likely to help you if you show a genuine desire to help them.

5. Continue to create work you love. My focus now is not the same as it was 10 years ago. Once upon a time, all I wanted was to have my own column. I’ve done that. Nowadays, I’m trying to break into new markets, I’m working on building up my career coaching business, I’m brainstorming a variety of Word Nerd Networking ideas and I’m even thinking of becoming a yoga instructor.

To remain motivated to kick some serious freelance ass, I take care to reevaluate my business on a regular basis. So ask yourself: Are you feeling challenged and passionate about the work you do?

Steph Auteri is a freelance writer, editor, and career coach. If you’re interested in receiving a free copy of Freelance Awesome: A Starter Kit, which includes the freelance writing worksheets, templates and spreadsheets mentioned above, join her mailing list. You can also follow Steph on Twitter or read her blog, Freelancedom.

Dear WordCount:

A client is asking if I can produce 500-word articles they would post under their name for a trade association. Another client asked me to write and produce a four-page, monthly newsletter.

I’ve done straight up production work in years past and those costs are more definable for me.  I have also written mostly analysis and technical books in the past that had fixed prices or were incorporated into a freelance contract. I am finding it challenging to price a la carte articles and newsletter work. I have done searches and found that, like many things, the answers depend on who you ask. The clients haven’t been helpful with establishing a baseline. I am reaching out to better inform my thought process and establish a point of reference. My thought is to charge $200 for a 500-word article, and for the newsletter, $1000 to setup the template and $300 to collect client material and edit each issue.

What do you think?

Anonymous Copywriter

Dear Anonymous:

Great questions. For client #1 that wants you to ghostwrite 500-word articles they’d submit to a trade association: $200 for a 500-word article seems low, especially if you frequently write about their field. If you have accumulated industry expertise and are an experienced writer, you should be able to charge more. I don’t do a lot of marketing writing per se, but I have written for trade magaziness for years and know that the pay can range from .30 to $1.25 or higher per word.

My suggestion: have a bottom price in mind – something that jives with your hourly rate or your normal project rate. Then ask for about 50 percent more so you leave yourself room to negotiate. You didn’t say whether the client wants one article, five, 10 or one a month for the foreseeable future. If this job could turn into an ongoing gig, you might consider charging less – after all, ongoing work means less marketing for you and that’s worth at least a small discount.

While you’re negotiating, ask for a contract, and make sure it includes how many revisions you’ll do for the fee. $1 a word for ghostwriting a trade association magazine article sounds great until you’re on your fourth revision because they can’t make up their mind what they want the article to say. In my experience, one revision is standard. In a contract, spell out who will review your work and the turnaround time, so you’re not getting edited by committee and waiting weeks instead of days for them to get back to you (it happens).

For client #2 who wants the newsletter: $1,000 to set up a template sounds reasonable. But $300 per issue to research and write subsequent issues could be low. It really depends on the subjects to be covered, how much it would take to collect and write the material, if there will be standing columns or features (which I’d highly recommend to make it easier on yourself to write), etc.

If you could do all needed data collection and writing in a couple hours, $300 per issue ends up being pretty good. Do factor reviews and revisions into your production time, as well as any other PITA (pain in the a**) factors. Add 25 to 30 percent to that for unforeseen circumstances. Then multiply that amount by your standard hourly rate – and give them a discount for being an existing client if you want – and you should come up with a price that works. Again, you might want to bump it up slightly to leave yourself some wiggle room during negotiations.

Got a freelancing question? Send it to Dear WordCount at wordcountfreelance@gmail.com.

To find out how, tune to today’s WordCount Last Wednesday writer’s chat, when we’ll discuss how to supercharge your freelance writing income.

The chat takes place at 10 a.m. Pacific time. Use the hashtag #wclw to join the conversation.

Questions for the chat

For the 60-minute chat, we’ll start with introductions, move to some pre-set questions and leave time at the end for your questions.
Here are the pre-set questions:

• Q1: In 2011, was your freelance writing income higher, lower or the same as in 2010?
•  Q2: What are you doing in 2011 to boost your freelance income?
•  Q3: What freelance markets pay more – or less – than you realized?
•  Q4: What’s been your biggest obstacle to a higher freelance income?

Joining the #wclw chat

It’s possible to use the standard Twitter interface for the chat, but you might find it easier to follow along with an add-on application such as TweetGrid, TweetChat or HootSuite. Of those three, my favorite is TweetChat, which you can log into using your Twitter account. You might want to alert followers that you’ll be tweeting more than usual during the chat, and suggest they use Muuter.com to temporarily mute you if they don’t want to tune into the conversation.

If you’re unable to join us, I’ll post highlights from the chat in an upcoming post.

Photo by rachaelvoorhees/Flickr

Being a freelance writer doesn’t mean taking a vow of poverty.

If you know how to work the system – and just plain work – you can generate a more than comfortable income as a self-employed freelance writer.

I know  - I hit six figures in 2010 and 2011 when the economy was still hurting and the media industry was going through more changes than it’s seen in decades.

There are plenty of other writers out there like me. How is it possible, and more importantly, how can you do the same?

To find out, tune in Wednesday, Jan. 25, for the next WordCount Last Wednesday writer’s chat, when we’ll discuss how to supercharge your freelance writing income.

The subject of increasing your freelance writing income hit a nerve with WordCount readers when I wrote about it last week, so I’m using the #wclw chat to follow up.

The chat takes place at 10 a.m. Pacific time. Use the hashtag #wclw to join the conversation.

Questions for the #wclw chat

But there’s a right way and a wrong way to convey it, especially if you’re sending a letter of introduction to a publication or editor you’ve never worked with before.

Use a letter of introduction (LOI) to subtly entice an editor to work with you or buy your story, not bang them over the head with how great you are. Sing your own praises too strongly and you’ll come off as snobby instead of helpful,  arrogant instead of well-seasoned.

Here’s an example of how not to introduce yourself, sent to me by the editor of a popular consumer website.

The editor writes: “This one is a doozy.  An e-mail that a freelancer sent to an editor here — amazingly, someone he does not know. It could be the breezy nature of [industry] writing in general, or the tone that it takes on our [website name] that emboldens this guy. It could be the mutual acquaintance factor or the fact that [blog name] prides itself on being brash and iconoclastic. But still…

Here’s the LOI the editor is referring to, with some parts redacted to protect the privacy of all parties involved:

Subject: The World Famous [freelancer's name] From [blog name] wants to write a few articles for [website]

What? You don’t know me? Well [friend's name] has recommended I get in contact you. Which is why this email is occupying your time.

[Friend] thinks (along with yours truly) that my work would be valuable to [industry reference] buyers. Specifically the buying, selling, and general storytelling of the [industry] business.

Feel free to judge for yourself.

[link to writing sample]

I am an [relevant job title #1], [relevant job title #2], [relevant job title #3], and writer at [blog name] for a good five years.

Read my stuff. I also co-write a little article called [title] which seems to have become a favorite at [blog name]….

All the best!

According to my editor friend, the colleague in her office who received the LOI, told her:  “Well, there might be a worse way to introduce yourself to people you don’t know, but it doesn’t come to mind right now.”

Looking back at your own freelance writing business, what’s the worst LOI you ever sent, and did anything ever come of it? Please share in a comment: if I get enough good examples of bad LOIs, I’ll include them in a follow-up post.

I’m no different. Here are the top WordCount posts from the past year on writing, running a freelance business, running a blog and using social media to find or promote your work. These posts created a buzz either because

1. WordCount rerun: Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling’s writing style - This was far and away the most popular post on WordCount this year, with twice the page views as any other post, even though it’s from November 2010. Why? Because the continuing popularity of the Harry Potter franchise and because of Reddit and StumbleUpon. In late 2010, I asked my website designer to add social media buttons so people could share links to the posts with their friends on Facebook, StumbleUpon and Reddit – and share they did. It breathed new life into some older posts, especially this one. Moral of the story: if you don’t already have share buttons on your blog, add them.

2. The 2011 WordCount Blogathon - This year, the blogathon community blogging challenge was bigger and better than ever, with more than 200 participants, extra theme days, a weekly newsletter and a Google Group bloggers could use to commiserate, celebrate and share links to their posts. Stay tuned for details about the fifth annual blogathon in early 2012.

3. Goodbye Google: 8 Internet search alternatives - Writers have a love-hate relationship with Google. The “hate” part was winning out early in 2011 before the company tweaked its search algorithms to prevent material from content farms from rising to the top of search results, which prompted me to come up with a bunch of alternatives.

4. WordCount’s Greatest Hits - I can’t claim credit for the idea to add a Greatest Hits page showcasing the blog’s 101 most popular posts ever, that came from social media guru Chris Brogan. And what a great idea it turned out to be. Not only has it driven traffic, it’s been a handy resource to point beginning freelancers to, and I use it when I’m writing new posts and need older posts to link back to. Don’t have a Greatest Hits page on your blog? Add one.

5. About Michelle V. Rafter - I have to admit, this is a bit of a shocker. My little old About page, which has been on the site since day one, is one of its most popular destinations. What that tells me is people are using the site to find out more about me: are they editors in need of a writer, sources, bloggers wanting to know more about the organizer of the blogathon, or fellow Portland writers? Who knows. What I do know is that I better make sure it’s up to date.

6. 2011 WordCount Blogathon Blogroll - This list of bloggers who participate in the annual blogathon takes more time to put together than any other post I do in the entire year – so much time that this year I hired someone to do it for me. That worked out so well, I’ve already decided to hire someone to assist with other details of running next May’s blogathon, a scary but exciting next step.

7. Dear WordCount: What should I pay a proofreader? - Another shocker. I had no idea one of the “Dear WordCount” advice columns I run on a regular basis would be such a hit. On the other hand, I shouldn’t be surprised. It’s tough to find out going rates for editorial services, so anything that helps people figure out what to charge will be popular. Speaking of “Dear WordCount” – if you have a burning question about some aspect of the freelance business, send it my way and I’ll use it in a future post.

8. Thinking of joining BlogHer ad network? Here’s what to know - This is another oldie but goodie. I wrote it after joining the BlogHer ad network, which means they run the ads that appear on this blog. Since it appeared, it’s become a go-to post for bloggers interested in learning what BlogHer’s all about. I’m happy to announce that my BlogHer affiliation is moving into a new phase: I’m editing a series on changing careers called “Reinvent Yourself” that debuts on the network this week. I’ll post more about it once the first posts are live.

9. 6 step guide to writing mobile apps - I don’t have to tell you how big mobile is getting, it’s everywhere, and it’s providing opportunities for writers to contribute to or write their own apps. I’d like to do more on this subject during 2012, so if you’re reading this and have written an app or two or three, let me know, I’d love a guest post on the subject.

10. Getting sources to talk: secrets from an ex-FBI profiler - Speaking of guest posts, this post on interview techniques culled from a former FBI agent written by freelance writer and book collaborator Alisa Bowman is a good example of why they’re a great addition to a blog. If the guest blogger is a big name like Bowman, they bring their own readers with them, which improves traffic. Guest posts are a way to cover topics that you might not know much about. And if you’ve committed to blogging three, five or seven days a week, they’re a great way to cover yourself.

That’s my top 10 list. What posts made it to the top of your list in 2011?

Dear WordCount:

I have been praised for my writing ever since I was a kid. I’ve always been told I should become a writer. Years ago, I moved to the West Coast before I finished college because I was dying to escape to the big city. I needed to pay the bills, and I fell into word processing because it turned out I can type like the wind. As a result, for my entire work life, I have functioned as a de facto editor, writer, proofreader, and fact checker, but with nothing to show for it. I am always prettying up someone else’s work, or flat out rewriting it for them. “Uncredited ghostwriter” is my middle name. These days, technology and off-shoring have defoliated the job market of word processing work, permanently. It did not satisfy me anyway. I am trying to transition into freelance writing, but I do not have the writing samples to prove that I can do it. If you have any suggestions I would be very grateful. No one will help me and I am just about at the end of my rope.

Yours, Jane S.

Dear Jane:

There’s no easy way to do what you want to do, but it’s not impossible.

You don’t really say what type of writing you want to do. I’ll assume it’s journalism because that’s what I know best.

If you’re interested in working as a freelance journalist, you need training and practice.

For training, take classes through a local community college or university extension program. Not only will you learn basics like the inverted pyramid, nut graph, how to conduct an interview, etc., you’ll meet teachers who are likely to be in the business and who can give you good feedback and introduce you to publications that might need writers.

For writing practice, start a blog. Pick a topic and write about it – a lot. Since you don’t have other clips, blog posts can serve as clips.

Post your resume online. Put it on your blog, and emphasize your writing experience. Join LinkedIn and fill out a profile – that will help you show up in searches of people with your qualifications. Reach out to people you’ve worked for before and ask them to write LinkedIn recommendations for you, again emphasizing your writing and editing skills.

Join a local writers’ group, or start one; these days writers’ groups can be online too. Use the group to give you feedback on your work.

Collect ideas and craft them into queries that you pitch to the appropriate publications. If you’re nervous querying big publications start with little ones, but not so little that they don’t pay anything.

Treasure feedback you get from any editor who takes the time to explain why they didn’t accept your query. Use it to make the next one better.

When you get assignments, drink in everything the editor tells you to do – or not to do.

Meet your deadlines.

Send an idea for a second assignment when you turn in the first.

Rinse. Repeat.

How did you break into freelancing? Share your experience by leaving a comment.

Got a question for Dear WordCount? Email it to me at wordcountfreelance@gmail.com.

Photo: Chris-Håvard Berge

This is the latest installment of Dear WordCount, an advice column answering your questions about writing, blogging and running a freelance business.

Dear WordCount:

A person I worked with in the past sent an email introducing me to a possible new client. But they got some information wrong in the intro, saying I wrote for a website that I don’t write for.  The rest of the introduction was correct.  How should I handle this tactfully?

Thanks,
Veronica

Dear Veronica:

Letters of introduction are a freelance staple and the fact that a former co-worker is willing to write one on your behalf says a lot about you and how highly they think of your work.

These days, a letter of introduction, or LOI, is typically an email of introduction, which by its electronic nature can come off as slightly less formal than the traditional snail mailed LOI. That means that it would be fine to wait and bring this up if and when the potential client contacts you.

If they do, and it’s via a phone call, wait until a break in the conversation and then say something like, “By the way, Simone said I’d written for Slate but actually I’ve written for Salon. I’ve done a dozen or so pieces on parenting issues and I’d love to share those clips with you.” Use some version of that if they get in touch via email.

Chances are an editor isn’t going to hire you based solely on one publication you’ve written for or on one clip. If the publications you have written for aren’t of the same caliber as the one your friend accidentally included in their LOI, let everything else about your interaction with a potential client show how professional you are. That means being able to speak concisely about your accomplishments, strengths as a writer and any subjects you cover. It also means having a couple story ideas to pitch if you’re asked, and a clear picture of your availability should the editor or client decide on the spot to assign you something.

In the end an LOI is just that, an introduction. It’s your foot in the door. What you do after that is up to you.

Here are a few other posts I’ve done on working with editors:

• 10 ways to make editors fall in love with your work
• Surefire ways to get editors to get back to you faster
• Why freelance queries get rejected

Do you have a question about writing, blogging or running a freelance business? Submit it to Dear WordCount by writing wordcountfreelance@gmail.com.

Valerie Ward know this more than most. Ward has spent 16+ years working as a freelance writer and communications consultant, writing for private and public sector organizations as well as print and online publications.

In this guest post, Ward share some of the wisdom she’s collected from working with corporate clients. You can read more about Valerie and her work here.

Freelance writers on contract with big organizations can get caught in internal politics that range from needing to go through myriad approvals to riding out constantly shifting priorities.

It’s easy to feel frustrated and powerless, but there are ways to cope. Here are a few:

1. Help the client to help you. Prepare a schedule for the products you’ve been contracted to deliver, working back from the due date and factoring in approval cycles and other project milestones. Update it regularly and distribute updates to the client. Not only does a schedule help you, it helps organize the client, educating him or her about turnaround times and the effect of internal delays. Clients aren’t always aware of the role they have to play in helping freelancers deliver a quality product, whether it’s giving timely feedback on work or providing essential information and contacts.

2. Suggest ways to streamline approvals. If drafts must go through multiple approvals, encourage the client to appoint someone in-house to review changes, sort out discrepancies and consolidate everything into a single document before sending it back. An efficient approvals process will save the client time and money, as well as make your life simpler. Besides, an employee is in a better position than a contractor to talk to people who’ve made changes and negotiate what goes and what stays. By working with a one set of revisions, you can focus on the writing and editing you’ve been hired to do.

3. Don’t stress out when you can’t do anything. It can be crazy-making when you’re working on deadline and the project abruptly comes to a standstill for days or weeks. But if you can’t change it, don’t stress over it. Instead, take advantage of the delay to work on other projects or look for future business. Be patient. As long as the client understands that internal delays will affect the due dates, just accept them. They’re an unavoidable part of freelancing for organizations.

What are your secrets for dealing with large corporate clients?

It was the year conferences went digital, Twitter went viral and the bad economy made every writer a business reporter.

It was the year phrases like hyperlocal, meetup and content aggregators entered freelancers’ lexicon.

It was the year of the mobile app, the multimedia story, SEO tags and crowdsourcing.

It’s only fitting that as we say goodbye to 2009, and with it the first decade of the 21st century, we also bid farewell to journalism practices of yesterday and embraces those of the future as the media business leaves print behind (more or less) for an online-only world and all the changes, risks and opportunities that come with it.

With that in mind, here are my picks for the top media trends of last year, and what they mean for independent writers in 2010:

Content aggregators – They’ve been called mills, farms, and in one case even demonic. I’ll stick with the more neutral-sounding content aggregators to describe sites such as Demand Studios, Associated Content, Helium, and possibly AOL’s new Seed.com. All those sites are hiring freelancers to churn out thousands of SEO-enabled how-to pieces and other “articles” a day in hopes the information will show up high in Google search rankings thereby maximizing the proprietors’ online advertising earnings. The debate over the opportunity these sites present for freelance writers has raged on here and on other freelance blogs for the better part of the year, and media industry heavyweights have weighing in with their (mostly) negative opinions.
Takeaway for freelancers: Content aggregators are here to stay, at least for the short term – although recent changes Google’s made to its search algorithm could affect them in the long run. Also here to stay are a contingent of writers happy for the query-free gigs these sites offer, even if the rates they pay are pitifully low when calculated on a piece-by-piece basis. I remain unconvinced of the merit of doing this type of work, though understand its attraction to someone breaking into the freelance business or with limited time or desire to pitch stories.

Hyperlocal – From the everything-old-is-new-again department. Never have so many been so interested in what’s happening in your Zip Code, your voting precinct, your city block or rural postal route. They are to the news business what nanotechnology is to the tech industry. From biggies like MSNBC, AOL and Examiner.com’s billionaire owner Philip Anschutz to tiny startups, hyperlocal is everywhere. According to Knight Citizen News Network, journalists and hobbyists have started more than 800 hyperlocal sites to date. But will they last? Some are already shutting down. The cofounders of one ambitious southern California hyperlocal project – both long-time journalists – opted to shutter their site at the end of 2009 despite accolades, ads and a partnership with their area’s major metro daily. Why? They couldn’t scale the business to make it profitable without taking on more employees – and the cost that comes with them – a step they were unwilling to take.
Takeaway for freelancers: Hyperlocal remains a viable alternative to working for content aggregators. But like aggregators they don’t pay much. Treat it like the experiment it is. Include work for hyperlocal sites in a broader assignment mix so if a venture goes under you’re not stuck. Or if you go on staff, treat it like a stint at a community newspaper – which is basically what it is – and gauge how long you’re willing to stay for the experience and clips you’ll gain. If you’re interested in starting one of these on your own, you can apply for one of 9 grants of $25,000 each that American University’s J-Lab is awarding for community news sites this year. Applications are due March 1.l

Nonprofit news – This year, everybody who wasn’t busy creating a hyperlocal news site was putting together a 501c3 to start a nonprofit news venture (actually, some were one and the same). According to popular thinking, if nobody’s making money from advertising anymore, why bother, just start out as a nonprofit and hunt for financing through grants, corporate sponsorships, subscriptions and donations. So far it’s working for sites such as MinnPost, Voice of San Diego and ProPublica, which have raised hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars respectively. The bigger question: whether it’s a model that dozens, or hundreds of other ventures can successfully duplicate, similar to the country’s public radio stations. As a matter of fact, don’t rule out the country’s public radio stations as a source of nonprofit news innovation, as stations such as Oregon Public Broadcasting are busy working to expand their coverage areas and the news they dish up on their websites.
Takeaway for freelancers: Nonprofits aren’t the backwater they used to be, especially if an organization is savvy or lucky enough to get backed by Knight Digital Media or another source of major grant funding. Most of these enterprises are being started by ex-newspaper or magazine journalists – meaning if you write for them you’re more likely to get high-quality editing, always good for the clips file.

User generated content – Where to begin. User-generated content is old news if you think of it in terms of YouTube and Facebook. But it’s catching on in new ways. For example, in a different type of user-generated content, more companies are choosing to bypass newspapers and magazines and instead of advertising, starting custom publications, especially online. Expect these types of projects to flourish in 2010 (Disclaimer: I started working on one of them not long ago). Is it journalism? Yes, and no. Sponsored content is after all, sponsored content. But some sponsors understand that for their publications to be taken seriously they have to present information that’s reported and presented like the real deal. The more well-known user-generated content trend is of course the reader comments, videos, etc., that more publications are building into what they do. Expect to see newspapers, magazines and websites do even more of this in 2010.
Takeaway for freelancers: If you don’t already do work for custom publications, now’s the time to look into it. Don’t think you have to pitch publishers of custom publications for the work. If you’ve written for corporate clients in the past, why not pitch them on a news site, or even an e-newsletter. Another options: introducing yourself to one of the growing crop of digital media agencies that produce online-only custom publications. As for the other kind of user-generated content – any writer running a blog or specialized social network has to think about ways to maximize reader involvement.

Entrepreneurship - With so many journalists getting laid off, it was inevitable some would go into business for themselves. Unlike long-time solo writers – such as yours truly – these reporters and editors don’t want to identify themselves as “freelancers,” a word that for better or worse still connotes a lower status word worker in some circles. Besides, some portion of these newly unleashed writers are opting to steer their own destinies rather than wait for editors to answer their queries, so calling them entrepreneurial journalists fits. What are these EJs doing? Creating news apps for iPhones and Androids. Working on the hyperlocal and nonprofit news ventures above. Creating technology platforms or providing the training journalists or newspapers need to their jobs better in the future.
The takeaway for freelancers: There’s never been a better time to start something on your own. The tools are abundant and free or close to it.  In cities such as Portland and New York, it’s relatively easy to find coworking spaces dedicated to writers or start ups or both. There’s also a wealth of information online and

Twitter - At the start of the year Twitter was still Facebook’s little brother, a circus sideshow fun for goofing off on but not really anything you could use for business. At least that was the perception. But as the year wore on and more publications and writers opened accounts, it became apparent Twitter could be used not just to research stories but tell them too. Dan Baum drove this point home when he took to Twitter to tell his tale of being fired from The New Yorker. If that wasn’t enough, there was always coverage of the plane landing in the Hudson, the Iranian election protests and Michael Jackson’s death to convince you Twitter had arrived as a news source.
Takeaway for freelancers: If you haven’t hopped on Twitter yet, now’s the time. Don’t worry about how you’ll use it, at least not at first. Give yourself some time to play around with it and see how things work. Then come up with a plan that fits into your writing business. You read more of my advice on how writers can use Twitter on this blog post and this one.

Other trends: the wave of online-only startup publications on all matter of subjects will increase; blogging will remain big; more publications and writers will experiment with mobile apps; and writers will see publications’ freelance budgets increase, though not all will return to pre-2008 levels.

Got your own picks for the major media industry trends of the past year?