Hot Freelance Tip of the Day: Market Many Ways

Consider how to market yourself as a freelancer and you likely think of the query letter. Makes sense--after all, that's often a writer's first weapon of attack when it comes to selling your work to print and online publications. It's also typically the way you approach an agent or editor about a book project.

But there's a world of marketing possibilities beyond the query letter. What about a letter of introduction, or LOI? Attending writers' conferences and signing up for one-on-one sessions, where you have a chance to pitch your project face-to-face? Crafting a well-written cover letter to send with an essay? Or advertising your work through your email signature, website, blog, Twitter bio, you name it?

My latest marketing technique is simple. I bought a couple of T-shirts that say, "Ask me about my novel." And I wear them several days a week, when I'm planning to be out in the world--whether that means running errands, working at my local Caribou, picking my son up from school, or heading to the Y to work out. It may seem like an unusual way to market The Honesty Index, but you know what? I'm willing to experiment with new tactics, especially today where my novel and my new book on freelancing, Writer for Hire: 101 Secrets to Freelance Success, are competing against more than 3,300,000 books that were published in 2011 alone.

So my Hot Freelance Tip of the Day is this: Market many ways.

Send queries. Create LOIs. Market yourself through your email sig, blog, or website--or hopefully all three. Mention your expertise on LinkedIn. Ask current or prior clients to recommend you to potential clients (almost all of my ghostwriting work now comes through word of mouth.) Wear a T-shirt. Consider all of the ways you can market your freelance work to potential clients, and add more marketing tools to your freelance arsenal. The more you use, the more likely you are to get work.

***Only seven people have entered my giveaway--good news for them, odds-wise, but bad news for you if you'd love a free signed copy of my new book! Visit here to enter the giveaway and stay tuned. I'll announce the winner next week, after I return from ASJA's annual conference in NYC. It should be a great event--I'm moderating a session on making more money as a freelancer. Hope to see you there!

A Month of Templates: The Cover Letter

Sure, you know by now that I believe in queries, even for short, FOB pieces. (And before you send one, make sure you ask these ten questions!) But as with most things in life, there is an exception to the rule--and for nonfiction writers, that exception is submitting essays.

With an essay, you send the manuscript itself but you still need to include a brief cover letter. Go beyond the standard "EPF" ("enclosed please find") letter; catch the editor's attention and give a little background about yourself. The essay itself will sell (or not) on its own merits, but your cover letter is what intrigues the editor to actually read it.

Here's a quick example of a good one; my comments are in blue:

Dear Ms. West:

I’m writing to submit an essay, “A Taste for Sex,” for your “First Person” section. It explores the chasm between lovemaking and baby-making, and I think women will enjoy the piece. And with one in seven couples experiencing infertility, it's likely to resonate with many of your readers. [This was pitched to the now defunct "WomanNews" section of The Chicago Tribune. Note that I've let the editor know that I read her newspaper by suggesting where it belongs, and provided a little detail about the piece as well as provided a statistic to support that readers will be interested in it.]

I’m a fulltime freelancer and author who’s written for more than forty national magazines including Woman’s Day, Redbook, Parents, Marie Claire, Family Circle, Fitness, Self, Shape, Oxygen, and Energy for Women. If you have any questions about the essay, please let me know. [I've included a brief rundown on my experience and clips. However, I should have mentioned that I was well-versed in the difference between lovemaking and baby-making (my husband and I were trying to conceive at the time) to bolster my ISG.]

Thank you very much for your time. I look forward to hearing from you soon. [Standard closing language. If I were sending this today, I'd tell her I'd follow up on the piece in four to six weeks.]

Sincerely,
Kelly James-Enger

***
This cover letter, which I've tweaked here, led to my first essay sale, and the most "reader mail" I've ever had from a piece. I've also used cover letters to offer reprint rights to a story that has already been published, though I prefer now to send a letter listing all of my relevant stories and letting the editor choose the ones he/she would like to see.

Readers, what do you think? If you sell essays, do you use a cover letter? Why or why not?

And what do you think of my month's worth of templates so far? Stay tuned for more!