It happened. Earlier this week, the editor of a magazine I’ve been writing for told me she can’t buy more freelance pieces until summer because of budget cuts. It’s the first time in years that economic cutbacks have directly affected my business. It’s also bad news because I’d just pitched a story I thought was […]
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Freelancers' Strategies for Prospering in Bad Times
I recently shared a marketing expert’s advice for freelancer writers and other self-employed creative types to stay happy and solvent during shaky economic times. His suggestions boiled down to a few simple maxims: cultivate existing client relationships, specialize, learn new skills and network. Reality check time. Do freelancers heed such advice? Or do they use […]
WordCount Q&A: Marketing your freelance business in bad times
The publishing industry is in tumult. Publications are trying to do more with less – less advertising revenue, editorial staff and readers. Throw worries about a recession into the mix, and it means trouble for freelance writers who depend on magazines, newspapers and customer publishers for their livelihoods. Or does it? Not necessarily. Hard times […]
10 Reasons Every Freelance Writer Should Have a Blog
I took to blogging fairly quickly and I finally figured out why. I wrote a weekly newspaper column for more than five years. After that, I wrote a weekly column for Reuters, the financial wire service, for seven years. After a dozen years, writing something once a week – or more – was so second […]
By Naming Stanton Editor, LA Times Bets Big on Digital
The Los Angeles Times today named Russ Stanton editor. Depending on how you feel about the present state of the newspaper business, this is either really good or really bad news, and for Stanton, a really good or a really bad job. I’m of the mind that it’s good on both counts, and not just […]
Best Blogs for Writers
When writers aren’t writing, they’re reading about how to be a better writer, or be a better marketer of their writing, or about who else they could be writing for. That’s what I found when I asked freelance, newspaper and magazine writers and editors to name some of their favorite blogs for writers. It’s an […]