Do you Have an LOI in your Arsenal?

If you freelance for magazines, you're already familiar with pitching via a query letter. Ideally a query letter catches the editor's attention, describes why her readers will be interested in the story, provides details about your approach to the piece, and convinces the editor to give you the assignment.

But there's another way to get your foot in the door with editors—by sending a letter of introduction, or LOI. LOIs offer another method of snagging assignments from a variety of publications, and can be used to pitch your writing skills to corporations, nonprofits, and other organizations which hire writers. I've used LOIs to break in with trade magazines, custom publishers, corporations, and book packagers, so I can tell you they work.

Query Versus LOI

It's true that most consumer magazine editors want to receive queries from freelancers, especially those who are new to them. But many editors at custom publications and trade magazines prefer LOIs over queries. They're not necessarily looking for story ideas--they probably already know what they’re going to assign and are looking for writers who can handle their subject matter. Rather than using your letter to describe one story idea and how you'll approach it, an LOI gives you more space to describe your unique qualifications to report and write about the publication's subject area.

Write your own LOI

When approaching a custom or trade magazine editor with an LOI, tailor your letter for that person. What sets you apart from other writers? Do you have inside knowledge of the subject matter of her publication, or have you worked in a related field? With an LOI, you get your foot in the door not through an intriguing article idea, but with your unique background, skills, and ability to give the editor what she wants. And make sure you let the editor know you’ve studied her magazine—tell her what sections of the publication you’d like to write for, for example, or compliment a recent story. (Hey, who doesn't like to hear some genuine praise?)

If you have an "in" with an editor (say, you know a writer who's worked with him), use it. I typically send an LOI via email unless I know the editor prefers snail mail. If you do choose the former, direct the editor to online clips or offer to send hard copies of your clips by snail mail. (Don't send attachments with any email unless an editor specifically requests them.) Follow up a few weeks later by email or phone, and you may find that LOIs are just as effective as queries.

Ready to write your own LOI? Excellent. Next post, I'll give you a template to help get you started.

How to Fail in your New Freelance Business

Here’s what no one tells you about starting a freelance business. At the onset--and for some time thereafter--you're going to spend the majority of your time marketing, whether that means researching and writing query letters, making cold calls to potential corporate clients, sending LOIs (letters of introduction) to trade or specialty magazines, and/or contacting book packagers or other potential ghostwriting clients. And that marketing time never pays off…unless it turns into assignments.

Hey, I don't want to have to market myself. I’d be a happy little clam if I never had to write another query, LOI, or book proposal. I’d just sit at my desk (better yet, play basketball outside with my son) and field offers of work on my Iphone. And some work does come to me…a lot, actually. But even today, the majority of my work still comes as a result of me selling me, and marketing my business to potential clients. It's time I have to put in to remain busy and successful.

What about you? Remember that marketing yourself is only one aspect of your business that doesn’t produce income. There’s also business management tasks like sending invoices, following up on late payments, filing, organizing giant piles of papers on your desk (maybe that's just me), tracking expenses, keeping up on email, doing online networking (like this blog), replacing office supplies, you name it. My point is that when you launch a freelance career, only a small percentage of your time will be actually writing for money, so you need to market yourself as efficiently as possible.

My first six months of my writing career, my time broke down like this:

Marketing (including research, writing queries, cold calls) 75–90 %
Writing for pay (including research/interviews/writing) 10–20 %
Business management tasks 5–10%

Get the idea? The vast majority of my time was spent marketing, but once I started getting assignments and developing regular clients, that percentage started to drop as the percentage of time I spent writing for money went up.

Within 18 months, I had a handful of steady clients, which significantly reduced the amount of time I spent looking for new markets and researching and writing queries. Plus, my queries were more likely to result in sales. All good news.

Now my time broke down like this:

Marketing (including research, writing queries, cold calls) 10–20%
Writing for pay (including research/interviews/writing) 60–80%
Business management tasks 5–10%
Speaking/teaching 5–10%

If your marketing never results in assignments, or doesn’t result in enough assignments, your freelance writing business will tank before it ever gets going. That’s why you have to make the most of your marketing time—and next post I’ll talk about how to write queries that will boost your chance of getting paying work.