3 necessary steps to become a freelance fashion writer
By: Glam Observer, Giada Graziano
Tags: Fashion, Freelance Fashion, Freelance Writing, Career Advice, Fashion Jobs

Writing for fashion magazines is a dream of many fashion enthusiasts who want to work in this industry. In a survey I did on Instagram last week, more than 20% of the people who viewed the stories expressed that they want to write for a fashion magazine and most of them prefer to become a freelance fashion writer whether it’s full-time or on the side.

In this article, I talked about how writing fashion articles is beneficial not only if you want to become a fashion journalist, but also if you want to pursue another career such as stylist, buyer, in marketing … Writing articles is either a full-time job for those who want to choose this career path but also an additional source of income or even just as a passion to accompany to a full-time or part-time job. For example, it is not uncommon for many stylists to be freelance writers as well. But even those who work in PR and marketing just to mention a few, write fashion articles. In fact, writing fashion articles and being a freelance writer does not only mean sharing style tips. Anyone could write about fashion sustainability, business, communication, influencer marketing… there are many different topics anyone could cover and in fact, there are many different freelance writers: those focused on giving styling tips, those who do beauty reviews, catwalks reviews, those who write about the business side, the critics and also those who mix everything up!

Writing fashion articles is also an option that considers who is at the beginning of their career in fashion, given that even those who are still in school or just graduated can publish articles even just to add some experience to their CV.

I did this as well, even though unconsciously. When I applied for my first internship in fashion, I had already started Glam Observer and published some articles on careers and the business side of fashion. Being able to add Glam Observer to my CV even though it was only a blog read by a few at the time, gave me more confidence in the application phase even though I wasn’t applying for a job that was related to publications (in fact I applied for a fashion e-commerce internship). Having my own fashion site has allowed me to be able to add some experience to my CV as well as different skills such as the use of WordPress, Google Analytics, content management, and of course writing. Even though it wasn’t the reason why they hired me, it for sure helped and they asked about my experience with my blog during the job interviews. That’s why writing articles is a perfect experience for those who are starting their careers. You don’t have to write about careers and business like I was doing but write about anything you are passionate about helps. For me, it worked because I was passionate about that topic (in fact, I do this full-time now 😉 ).

Obviously, if you want to write for fashion publications full-time it is absolutely necessary to write articles, but as in my case, having some articles published even if just on your personal website/blog can help you with your career even if it’s not related to working full-time at magazines.

Being a freelance fashion writer is also the most common (and easy) option for those who want to work in fashion remotely from their home.

So as you can see the benefits of becoming a freelance fashion writer are multiple.

But let’s get to the point and see what are the 3 absolutely necessary steps to become a freelance fashion writer and work with fashion magazines.

1.An Outstanding Writing Portfolio

Many believe that it’s absolutely necessary to take a fashion journalism course to become a freelance fashion writer. The truth is that the #1 thing you really need to become a freelance fashion writer is an excellent writing portfolio. Your writing portfolio is a collection of your articles, which in technical jargon are called clips, to be sent to magazines and editors to show your writing skills. It doesn’t matter if your articles have been published on Vogue or only on your personal blog or they are still only on your desktop, an excellent article is an excellent article and an editor knows it, so a properly done writing portfolio beats any course, qualification and previous experience. Even if you have never published any article because you are still at the beginning of your career and you are starting from scratch, it is absolutely necessary that you start writing the articles to be included in your writing portfolio because it is the thing that will allow you to be able to publish your articles and work with magazines.

You can send your articles to publications through simple google doc links, but the most professional freelance writers have their own website / digital portfolio where they publish their articles. Your website doesn’t have to be anything complicated, but having just a simple one can really make the difference.

2. The art of Pitching

The most common mistake of those who want to become freelance fashion writers is to apply only for the job vacancies published on the various freelance and job websites. This is not profitable not only because the best freelance writing jobs are rarely posted on these sites, but also because the jobs that you found on these platforms are generally not well paid and the competition is higher because everyone has access to these published offers. The most effective way to work as a freelance writer is pitching /cold-emailing directly all the fashion publications for which you would like to write for. This is what makes or breaks your freelance career. Pitching is crucial. It doesn’t matter if you write amazing articles, if you don’t pitch correctly, no one will publish them. When pitching publications don’t just consider the big names such as Vogue, Glamour, but reach out also to niche magazines and blogs.

3. Writing is just 30% of the work

The most successful freelance fashion writers don’t spend their entire days just writing. You have to start considering your writing career as a business (you are a fashion boss) where your writing is your product and editors are your customers. Being a freelance fashion writer, in fact, is much more than writing articles. To get your work published in a fashion magazine, you have to learn how to sell your articles to the publications. The difference between making a full living from it or treat it just as an extra income depends on how hard you work to get clients. You decide if you want to get clients to make up to six figures per year (yes because if you learn to do it the right way you could be one of the freelance writers who make SIX-FIGURES PER YEAR! 💰💰💰) or if you want to just publish a couple of articles per month. As a freelance, it’s all up to you. You are responsible for how much money you make. The more clients you get the more money you make. So this means that of course you can’t spend your days just writing. Especially at the beginning of your career, you have to deal with lots of pitches, sample articles, emails… The more you go ahead and acquire clients, the more you’ll spend on writing and less on these other things.

Ok so now that you know WHAT are the 3 fundamental things, you should know HOW are you going to implement these things. HOW you can create a writing portfolio, HOW to choose what articles to add in there to grow your chances to get the job, HOW to create your own fashion website (even if you’re not tech-savvy), HOW to pitch correctly publications and editors and what to write in these pitch emails, HOW to learn the business side so you could get your work published in more magazines and make more money, HOW to find publications to pitch.

And if you might be wondering if together with these 3 things you need to know something else, the answer is YES! There is a lot more you need to start a successful freelance writing career.

But don’t worry because I do have everything ready for you so within a week you have already started pitching publications, created your sample articles and fashion website and if you work hard, probably you could be already working for some publications!

I have just opened the doors to my brand new online course on how to become a freelance fashion writer available now for pre-sale for a super special price until May 10th (you save $100 from the regular price when it launches on Monday!) Click here to read all the details because it’s everything you need to start a successful freelance writing career and the price is sooo good now!

PS: you can get the course now and start it later just to take advantage of this super offer! It will never be as low as it’s now in the pre-launch phase.