Marketing and sales people will tell you it’s all about making the contacts. Freelance writers, too, are often told it’s all a numbers game: the more queries you send out, the better chance you have of nabbing a writing job.
I call this sending out ships. And yes, it is difficult to do. But if you don’t send out any ships, you won’t get any back.
The problem with writers is that we take our work so personally. Believe me, I think it’s a good thing to take your work personally. The best writing (unless …read more

Initially, I tried to resist joining writers’ forums. Shouldn’t I be focusing on writing for money? I thought. How would this get me more assignments or pay? But once I gave in, I discovered that writers’ forums can be incredibly useful (as long as you’re able to close the browser window and get work to work when you necessary).

Trading leads. I’ve found a lot of writers who are willing to share editorial contacts provided you don’t use their name (and some who will actually encourage you to “tell Editor X I said hello”). If you return the favor, then …read more