Personal essays are fun to write and hard to sell. For every freelancer who places an essay in O, The Oprah Magazine or the Washington Post’s Style section or the New York Times’ Modern Love column, there are dozens with essay manuscripts sitting on their computer hard drives, waiting to make a sale. Which brings […]
Blog
Link your WordPress, Six Apart blog to your LinkedIn profile
Ever since LinkedIn added a status update feature, the online business network’s members who blog – including lots of writers – have used it to let people know when they put new material online. Now LinkedIn’s made it even easier for bloggers to flag friends and acquaintances about new posts. The networking company has partnered […]
Tech tools for writers
It’s hard to keep up with all the online tools that make the lives of freelance writers more productive, more organized or more fulfilling. But in recent weeks, I’ve discovered two Websites that do a good job of finding and explaining new software and other technologies that are either specifically intended for writers or that […]
Journalism awards add online categories
As news moves online, it’s begetting new forms of interactive story telling and causing professional journalism groups that run annual awards programs to expand their definition of excellence to include them. In the latest instance, the Association of Health Care Journalists is adding an online category to their four-year-old Excellence in Health Care Journalism awards. […]
How to squeeze more out of your freelance work day
Everyone has their own secrets for squeezing more productivity out of their freelance work day. My personal favorite is getting up early – today it was 4 a.m. – to work sans interruption before the rest of the world is awake. I know other writers who stay up late to write or work in coffee […]
Prep work is key to conducting good phone interviews
An interview is only as good as the prep work you put into it. Have you ever picked up the phone without having done any background research on your source, thought of questions or figured out how the person will fit into your story? Sometimes it happens, especially if you’re covering breaking news. But more […]