Freelance Writing & Business Communication

What do editors want from freelance writers?

Ask editors what they want from freelance writers and their top-ten list might look something like this:
1. Develop great ideas appropriate to my audience
2. Pitch me using clear, concise, focused query letters
3. Follow up, and then leave me alone
4. Be open to negotiating the article’s slant
5. Conduct great research
6. Conduct stellar interviews
7. Deliver solid, focused, clean copy
8. Meet your deadline
9. Meet your word count
10. Be open to discussing edits and revisions.

Let’s look at points 1 to 3 in a bit more detail.

1. Develop great ideas appropriate to my audience
Freelance writers bring energy to publications. It is your job to understand the audience the publication is aimed at and to determine what issues or opportunities the publication’s readers are interested in. Then you have to turn those issues or opportunities into focused article ideas.
- See Ideas, Inspiration and Dogs to read about one of the ways I discover article ideas.

2. Pitch me using clear, concise, focused query letters
So what do you do with those focused article ideas? You shape them into stellar query letters.
- See the following blog posts for much more on query letters:
+ 21 rules for writing stellar query letters
+ The art of the query – how to sell article to magazines and newspapers
+ Sample Query Letters from “Nuts & Bolts of Freelance Writing”

3. Follow up, and then leave me alone
Editors are busy people. They receive dozens (or more) queries a week. They don’t always get back to you in what you might think is a “reasonable” time. While you don’t want to hassle editors, it is reasonable to follow up once on your pitch by email. Then wait a week and follow up by phone. If you pitch a section editor of a daily newspaper follow up about two weeks after you submit your query. If you pitch the editor of a monthly magazine, follow up once about 4 to 6 weeks later. You might try a third follow up, but generally if you don’t hear back within a week or two, feel free to submit your pitch elsewhere. The key here is to be polite and professional in your persistence.

Paul Lima is the author of The Business of Freelance Writing: How to Develop Article Ideas and Sell Them to Newspapers and Magazines

“I have had two out of my first four queries accepted. Before taking your course, it was more like one in ten. Now all I have to do is write the articles!”
- Sarah Filmore

“My very first [query] effort following your advice yielded a sale. Canadian Business bought my story. I took your query writing advice: ‘Start right into the story and hope they want more,’ followed by a casual segue into why they should run the story and why I should write it for them. And it worked!”
- Roger Tarlington