A Guide to Freelance Journalism
By: Sruthi Korlakunta
Tags: Writers On Writing, Careers, Freelance, Journalism, Writing

A Guide to Freelance Journalism

Write what people want to read. Photo by Nicholas Green on Unsplash

Writers see the world through their eyes, journalists through the eyes of others.

I recently came across a guide published by the London School of Journalism on getting started with professional Freelance writing. I thought I already knew enough to be a freelance writer but some lessons from this textbook really lit up my day. Most of the lessons from this article are specific to the field of writing for journalism. But the format of thinking and the “formula” for developing a piece of work can be applied to other forms of writing as well.

Here are some condensed notes on what professional journalists say about Freelance writing. This article is divided into the following sub-sections.

Why you write (and should write if you want to get paid) For whom you write Profiling your readers and editors Pitching How not to write

Why do you write?

You can tell yourself that you want to write for passion. Because you care about the art form, because for writing itself. You might find it deplorable to write for money, like some sort of cheating on your art.

Say what you want, unless someone is willing to pay for what you write, it is of little consequence.

And just like in any other business, the customer is always right. Writing might have many causes, but the largest of them is to be read.

Difficult as it is to admit, it is the job of the writer to make himself be read, liked, and paid. It is all in a package. Not one of the above three conditions suffices to make a writer, you need all three of them.

Where do you get started, if you want to be read, liked, and paid? Here you go.

Understand what you like to write about

Broadly speaking, there are three types of writing in journalism. News reporting, feature writing, and sport. As you read these three titles, you already know what your area of love is.

If you are a writer on Medium, I assume that you are at least kind-of into feature writing. Each of these three goals asks for a different style of writing.

Feature writing can either be about a vast array of topics, or in a specific niche. Each of these two styles come with their own pros and cons.

If you are a generic writer, such as a writer of fiction, you have a large audience base. There is clearly a lot of market for fiction and fantasy. At the same time, it comes with a lot of competition to make your voice heard.

On the other hand, if you are a writer of niche topics of esoteric interests, you have a much smaller but specific market. Competition is relatively low, but of higher quality. Understand your market and your competition.

Understand what the readers want

It is about them, not you. Photo by Matthew Henry on Unsplash

If you are going to be either a mainstream journalist, or a feature writer on niche topics, don't limit yourself to reporting stories from your own back-yard. there is one thing you have to bear in mind more than anything else:

Journalism is about people.

It is not about you, it is not about your personal experiences, it is not about your grandmother and it is not about what your boss thinks. It is an objective, impartial piece of research work and it needs to be written like that.

You have to work on keeping your work about the interviews, facts and figures, balance and impartiality. Your job is to identify the sources and put perspectives on it. The story on the other hand, tells itself.

Understand what your editor wants

If you are looking to be paid, you want to write for a major commercial publication or a media outlet. Every newspaper, publication, TV channel, or radio broadcast has its own voice. It has its own style, called the “house-style”. This includes design, language, content, and perspective.

Each source of information has its own target demographic to which the content and style are tailored.

Do some research and understand what the publication wants.

Are their readers rich, young, middle-aged, unemployed?

If your pitch and your sample article hit all the right spots, it is difficult for the editor to not ask you to shut up and take his money.

Where is your market?

A freelancer by definition is paid for exactly the amount of work done for the employer. He is not bound by the employer per hour, neither is he exclusive. For a freelance journalist, the internet is the oyster. A lot of what you read on the internet, starting from Buzzfeed and pop-sugar to Huffington post, might be written by freelance journalists.

It is a part of your job as a freelance writer to hunt for the correct market and not just shoot blinds and hope there will be a hit.

Google for newspapers, glossy magazines, and other small and big publications in an online media directory if you want to get your work published.

Then find out what the subscription costs, get some editions as a sample, get a feel for the target reader base. Look for the sponsors, do you see any big names? If it is an expensive publication, expect that the readership also differs from that of a publication for pennies.

At the beginning, especially target those publications which are small and have a dedicated space for your niche topic of writing. It is not the worst idea to look overseas in English speaking countries to find willing editors who publish pieces from abroad.

Choose a publication that you read, know, and relate with instead of directly aiming for the big fish whose inboxes are probably full. This will give you leverage when you apply bigger and also some experience as a novice writer. Don’t ever send a pitch without knowing what the publication habits of the publisher are. Else you are just waiting for an automated reject.

Prepare your pitch

Photo by William Iven on Unsplash

Take extreme care of how your email package looks. Take care to see that your article has the same tone and tenor which the publication usually assumes. Include pictures where necessary. Keep it under the word limit.

Be professional and keep your reporting accurate and entertaining.

Brownie points if your article is timely and focuses on current affairs with a new perspective.

The most important task is to be persistent. Keep sending in your pitches and well-timed articles on time. A large part of being a journalist is to be timely and to produce quick publish-ready wonders in small amounts of time. Here are some things you can check right off the bat:

Keep your formatting simple and don't go overboard with colors and fonts.

Keep it in size 12 pt. on MS.Word and in a common font like Calibri.

Don't have awkward spacing gaps.

Include your contact information on the top right and number the papers. Write “end” at the end and “more…” on other papers.

Every paper should contain your catchline in under 10 words on the top right. (eg. Women’s team brings home Gold).

Check-in in advance what formats of documents and image resolutions are required by your publisher.

Ask for a publication style guide if possible, here is an example of the Guardian-style guide. Feel free to use it for your draft if you don't know the style of the house.

Thus you will remove all fore-seeable hassles.

If you have issues with grammar or some doubts about the use of a certain comma or a certain word, don't be shy to go back to the basics once in a while. Mistakes are not uncommon among the most experienced journalists. Get tools like Grammarly, if you can.

How not to write

Photo by Sigmund on Unsplash

If the reader has to read any, ANY, sentence twice, it is a bad article. If there are loose ends and open questions, it is a bad article. If there is a logical flaw, or if the reader has to look away for a minute to see if there is logic to the flow, it is a bad article.

That said, the newspaper, as opposed to a work of science has the need to be entertaining. Don't dot it with savant jargon, don't show off your skills and knowledge, explain like to a child.

Be clear, edit until the removal of one more word makes the article meaningless. Most of all,

Be entertaining.

There was a time in the past where reading was reserved for an elite few. Those days are now gone. Writing must be understood by everybody. keep it simple, clear, and unambiguous. If someone reads and gives you feedback that they didn't understand a sentence or a part of the story, take it seriously.