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As freelance writers, we struggle to find markets that suit our interests. Even sites dedicated to providing freelance listings, while excellent for the most part, can’t list every available market. Often, the smaller niche publishers aren’t even included in listings, but with some effort there are ways to find them. Search Medium for [Subject] Writers’ Guidelines or Article Submissions Medium is widely known as an online home where writers can create their own home for their stories and content. However, it has become much more than that, having also evolved into a search engine and a powerful tool to find markets you never even knew existed. By searching for your subject, you can also narrow the returns for those journals and/or sites. For example, I searched for “lifestyle writers guidelines,” and the guidelines for Cosmopolitan Magazine showed up alongside The Lifestyle Café which had a listing for “Writers Wanted.” A little further down in the search I found more guidelines for Wellness Travel Adventures and for a site called Ice Cream. There were also articles with publications that paid lifestyle and health writers. While some Medium content is behind a paywall, there is still enough available to make this worth your time to search. Magazine More

Believe it or not, online sites and magazines are seeking freelance writers they can rely upon. And if they develop a reliable relationship with them, they’ll use those writers as long as they can. The reason? Reliable writers who can follow direction, think intelligently, and write well without AI are few and far between. I am one of those editors. I just received a submission from someone new. Oh my goodness, her work was well written, all guidelines followed, and the thought well presented. I bought the article and extended an invitation to submit again. People, those invitations are worth their weight in gold. 1) Look for guidelines first, then follow them to the letter. 2) Never ask an editor is they are looking for writers. Why do you think the guidelines are out there? Don’t make the editor answer because you are too lazy to. Asking me that earns you instant rejection. . . or no reply. 3) Respect the market by knowing it well. Respect the editor by not asking if you can pitch, telling them how reliable you are, or asking for ideas. Editors are strung out and juggling a lot of balls. They don’t need anymore More

A week doesn’t pass that someone doesn’t write me and ask what books I recommend on learning how to write well. And I never fail to go to a conference and not meet a writer who thrives on how-to-write books, with a library of two dozen or more. To them all, I preach this: The best book to learn from is one already published, successful in its own right, in the genre you wish to pursue. Take that baby and read it. Then start over and dissect it. Underline, highlight, write in the margins, and dog-ear those pages. Cross through what you didn’t like. Circle the breath-catching phrases. Underline and star the sentences you wish you’d written. Nothing beats the doing. Nothing beats learning from those who have gone before you. Nothing beats seeing greatness and backing into how it came to be. Your best instruction book isn’t a how-to book. It’s a how-it-was-done book. And any author worth their clout can’t recall a how-to book that shaped their writing more than having read the classics, the best-sellers, and the popular books that made them go WOW in reading them. That said, I am reading How to Write a Sentence-and How More

Launching a book as an indie author can feel overwhelming, but with a clear schedule and targeted strategies, it can also be a source of income, reviews, and long-term visibility. I learned this while preparing my travel memoir Stray: Breaking Free, Falling Hard and Growing Stronger, and I want to share the exact steps that helped me monetize my launch. Start Early: Build Your Assets Five months before launch, I focused on the foundation: creating an author bio, back-cover blurb, and a polished book cover. I found an editor I trusted through Reedsy. To help craft my back-cover blurb, I relied on Book Blurb Magic, whose free downloadable PDF “Unlock the Hidden Formula of Bestselling Blurbs” offered practical guidance for creating an attention-grabbing summary. To design the cover, I used 100Covers. I was impressed by their fast response time and flexibility. I went back and forth dozens of times until I found a design I loved, all at an affordable price. For formatting, I used Vellum, and I was amazed at how easy it was, even though I’m not tech-savvy! (Be aware: Vellum only works on Mac. If you’re not a Mac user, Atticus has great reviews as an alternative.) I used Canva to create shareable graphics featuring quotes More

Last year, I made more money from my writing than I ever had before, and it came from one change: submitting to writing contests. I don’t pretend contest winnings can replace a full-time income, and they haven’t for me. But contest money has helped in concrete ways, and it gave me a takeaway even more useful than a check: momentum. I won $1,000 from The Saturday Evening Post’s Great American Fiction Contest. I also won $500 from Blue Earth Review’s Flash Fiction Contest over the summer. Those two wins did not solve everything, but they paid bills, funded entry fees, and proved to me that my work could earn. If contests have always felt like a long shot, here’s what worked for me once I started treating them less like a lottery and more like a targeted submission strategy. Step 1: Put finding contest leads on autopilot I stopped relying on random scrolling and started subscribing to newsletters and databases that routinely post contest calls. I use these often: •    Chill Subs: https://www.chillsubs.com/ •    Authors Publish: https://authorspublish.com/ •    FundsforWriters: https://fundsforwriters.com/ The goal is simple: I want a steady flow of contest opportunities coming to me, so I’m not reinventing the wheel by searching from scratch every time I’m ready to More

LinkedIn attracts people who make money from writing and language – content creators, ad copywriters, seo and marcoms writers, brand voice specialists and all the rest. It’s a place to network, debate industry topics, and subtly showcase skills. Recently these wordy people are posting more obsessively about two things – AI and ‘grammar’ or writing advice. On the AI side, they talk about how AI can’t deliver some essential ingredient such as humour or character. They talk about how to spot the difference between AI and human writing, as if businesses cared (it’s more often a combo of AI + human, I’ve found, as I wrote about here). A few clients want writers to run their copy through AI checkers, which makes for a lot of posting and talk about things to avoid so you don’t sound like AI. At the same time, however, many clients have no problem with AI and expect writers to be au fait with prompts and tools. So the writers tie themselves in knots explaining how AI can’t replicate humans but how they also use AI as a ‘collaborative co-writing tool’ because it makes sense to stay ahead of the curve. In short: we’ll be More

It can be reassuring for a freelance writer to maintain steady clients to fill their workdays. Work keeps flowing, and paychecks keep arriving. Until savings decrease, or bills rise, and profits aren’t what they once were. Not that you aren’t working hard, but your pay may not be keeping up with financial needs. Now comes the tricky part – how do you raise rates on tried-and-true clients? I’ve been freelancing for over 20 years. Many clients have come and gone, while several have provided steadfast business for years. Not one, however, is paying the same rate as when I first put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) for them. Every time I’ve asked these residual clients, I’ve successfully negotiated an increase with no work lost. There are five factors every freelancer should consider for a pay raise discussion with their clients, no matter the pay level or work type.   Have History You must have history with a client before pursuing a raise. You must have established yourself with them in terms of reliability and consistent deadlines. Just how much history you have will vary. Maybe you’ve only done a few projects, but they’ve been intense. Or perhaps you More

Writing when you’re down Over the last two years I’ve experienced a series of setbacks that have taken quite a toll personally and professionally – bereavements, illness and accidents in the family, caring for ageing relatives, plus losing my job, ample pitch rejections, and all the rest. In recent months, unfortunately, this has led to low-level depression, and with it a lack of energy, self-esteem, and motivation. I work alone and rely on myself to keep motivated, disciplined, and endowed with work. I used to spring out of bed at 5am to novelise for an hour before the kids got up and the day job started. Recently, however, I’ve gone weeks without writing a word of fiction and contemplated giving up altogether. I used to pride myself on writing 1000 words of content in an hour, while lately it’s taken me till midday to nail a sentence. Slowly, however, I’m climbing out of the tunnel, and feeling a bit more positive and productive. I want to share what kept me going and writing through this low time. Prioritising paid work over speculative work Despite slaving away at fiction for over a decade, with an agent and several books published, the More

A beta reader is a reader who reviews a book before published to provide constructive feedback. There are lots of versions of beta readers, but they are good tools to have for any book-length manuscript, and even for those in freelance, nonfiction material. It’s another set of eyes on the near-finished product. What do they do? 1) They respond as to whether the piece works for a reader. 2) They look at the big picture. 3) They might throw in copyediting. Do they get paid? Depends on how much you want done. Most review just for the joy of reading it ahead of the general public. Others wish some sort of compensation, but not on the level of a professional editor. But payment is a one-on-one discussion, not an advertisement. How many do you need? Up to you. However, too many and you can confuse yourself and make too many changes in too many directions. A good number is four, but that’s after you’ve culled through enough of them to find those you appreciate and trust. Where do you find them? Anywhere. Friends, family, acquaintances, social media. However, I don’t use family and close friends. I want people who are More

You’re a proven novelist with one or more published books to your name. You clearly know story, plot, conflict and character. You’re riding high on accolades from readers who are eagerly anticipating your next literary masterpiece, but you’re also hungry to try something new. That’s when a friend casually says, “Have you ever thought about adapting your novel for the screen?” A light bulb goes off. “Yeah, why not?” you think. “It would make a great movie.” Let’s assume that’s true. The next question you should ask yourself is, “Do I adapt it myself?” To answer that, you should first assess the pros and cons. THE PROS Underlying Rights You already own the copyright to the source material, and adapting the screenplay yourself creates a very clear chain of title that mitigates the possibility of legal quandaries. It also negates the need for lawyers to draft a lengthy writer-for-hire agreement. Full Access You already have immediate access to all the intellectual property – not just the novel itself, but the research, early drafts, character breakdowns and other world-building materials. There’s no need to spend time watermarking, copying and/or delivering material to others, some of which you might not want shared More