Another Worry of New Freelancers: Do Editors Steal Ideas? (and How to Prevent it!)

I'm revisiting some classic freelancing topics over the next few weeks. Every time I speak about freelancing, I hear from at least one writer who is afraid to pitch an idea to a magazine--because the editor will steal his or her idea. 

Here's the thing. It happens less than you might think. Magazines tend to run the same types of stories over and over. Parenting publications run stories on discipline, sleep, and children's health, for example while fitness magazines run workout and diet stories every month. So just because you pitched a piece about ways to work out on the beach to a magazine like Fitness and the editor rejects your query (or you never hear from her) and then you see a beach workout a few months later, that doesn't mean she stole your idea. (Now, if you had pitched a piece on a new cutting-edge workout that no one has heard of, and the same thing occurred, then maybe, yeah, she took your idea.) 

Here's what I mean. Early in my freelance career, I was pitching dozens of different markets. I was thrilled when one editor took the time to call me and ask for story ideas. I spent a lot time coming up with a specific idea, researched it, and mailed the query. I didn't hear anything from her, so I followed up on the query. Still, no response. Still, I sent her another idea...and then months later, I saw “my” idea in the magazine, right down to the specific sidebar I’d suggested. A little strange, huh? 

Wondering how I handled this? I stewed about it for a while, then decided to send her a new query. I opened with language like "I was delighted to see you included a piece on aquatic fitness in the August issue, an idea I'd pitched you back in January. This lets me know I'm on the right track, and I have another idea for you to consider." She never responded. Here's the thing. I'm 99 percent sure she stole my idea. Remember this was an editor who contacted me personally, asking for ideas...and then never responded to me. I didn't even want to write for her at this point or accuse her of anything, but I did want to let her know that I knew  what had happened. And no, I never heard from her. (Footnote--the magazine folded a year or so later.) 

So, how do you prevent an editor from taking your idea and assigning it to another writer? YOu write the best query you can--it's your only opportunity to make a first impression. Your query should demonstrate that you’re already researched the story idea. If you’ve already spoken to possible expert sources, quote them in the query. Cite statistics or recent studies if relevant. If you're pitching a profile and you’re received the subject’s permission to write about him, include that information. And highlight your unique qualifications in your ISG. Your goal is to convince the editor to let you write the story. A detailed, professional query that demonstrates why you’re uniquely qualified to do so is the most effective weapon you have as a new writer.

Readers, what about you? Has an editor ever "stolen" your idea? How did you handle it? 

***Are you a new freelancer who stumbled onto my blog? Welcome. If you want to make the jump from unpublished to published (and it's a big one), check out my new ebook, Dollars and Deadlines Guide to: Selling your First Article. You'll find everything you need to know to get to published and paid! :)     

Attention: Would-be Ghostwriters and Writers in the Milwaukee/Chicago Area

Want to get into the lucrative field of ghostwriting? I'm teaching my online class, Ghostwriting 101,  through Writer's Digest later this month. It starts on February 23, 2012. Based on Goodbye Byline, Hello Big Bucks: The Writer's Guide to Making Money Ghostwriting and Coauthoring Books, you'll come away from the class with a clear idea of the types of work and clients you should pursue along with a marketing plan and a letter of introduction, or LOI, to use with new clients.

And if you're in the Milwaukee/Madison/Chicago area and are serious about your writing career, check out the 10th Annual Writers' Fest, held March 9-11, 2012. I'll be presenting sessions on the benefits of specializing and on today's book publishing options; there are also sessions on everything from developing your platform to writing book proposals to memoir writing to social media. I'm looking forward to attending many of the sessions myself, and hope to see some of you there!

Dear Writer: Proving Yourself as a New Freelancer

From day one of my freelance career, my focus was on making money--not because I'm greedy, but because I wanted to sustain a successful career and I knew I had to take a businesslike approach to my new career. (If you're a regular reader of my blog or books, you probably know I was an unhappy lawyer for years, and once I ditched that career, I didn't want to have to go back to it.) 

Well, since then I've written dozens of articles for publications like The Writer and Writer's Digest. I realize that many of the articles I wrote even a decade before are still timely today. So here's a "blast from the past" from a column called "Dear Writer," where I used to answer reader questions for The Writer. (This was back in the days before blogs!) Note that the advice I offered more than a decade before is still good advice today! 

Question: How do you convey to a magazine editor that you’re qualified to write a particular article? If you have personal experience with the subject, it seems easy. But what if you’ve conducted research, interviewed people or done other legwork as you put together your query or proposal? Is this enough to qualify yourself as an “expert” in the eyes of an editor? 

Answer: Good question. When starting out, many writers focus on subjects that they have firsthand knowledge of or have personally experienced. In fact, this is a good way to get your foot in the door as a new or relatively inexperienced writer. For example, if you’ve successfully changed careers, you might pitch an article about the steps to take when considering switching jobs. If you’ve managed to save 30 percent of your income—while raising a family—you might use that experience to query an article on simple but effective ways to reduce your expenses. 

That being said, though, it’s probably impossible to have personal knowledge of all of the subjects you may want to write about, but you can still demonstrate that you know more about the topic than the average person. The way you do that is with your query letter, which should let the editor know that you’ve done your homework ahead of time. 

Consider a query for a diet story that starts out with “Americans are overweight. They eat too much and exercise too little” compared with a query that starts off with: “According to recent statistics from the Centers for Disease Control, 55 percent of the U.S. adult population is overweight.” Which query is more compelling? Which proves to the editor that you’ve done some background research?

As you develop the story idea, include relevant facts, statistics or other pieces of information that reveal your knowledge of the subject. Then, in the final paragraph (what I call the “I-am-so-great” paragraph), highlight your qualifications and demonstrate to the editor why you are the best writer for this particular story. 

If you have personal experience with the subject matter, mention that, but if you don’t, emphasize what you’re bringing to the piece—that you’ve already done a lot of background research or have received permission from the person you want to profile to write about him or her. By reminding the editor of these facts, you can convince her that you are an “expert” of sorts—which will help you nail the assignment.    

***Are you a new freelancer? Then check out my new ebook, Dollars and Deadlines' Guide to Selling your First Article, which provides a simple, proven process for getting into print, or Dollars and Deadlines' 10 Essential Freelance Templates.

Can you Specialize and Diversify at the Same Time? Sure!

I've been sharing the results of the 2012 Freelance Income Survey the last couple of posts (how much money freelancers made and the types of work freelancers are doing), and something occurred to me. Especially in today's changing freelance market, it makes sense to diversify the types of work you're doing. That doesn't mean you can't continue to specialize, though.

Here's what I mean. Very early in my freelance career I realized that most of the writers I knew who making a good living weren't generalists. They chose to specialize, whether it was writing about business and technology; health and parenting; parenting and technology; or health and fitness. When I consciously chose to specialize (in health, fitness, and nutrition), my business took off. Even today, I find it easier to navigate the freelance world as a specialist with a depth of knowledge in several popular subjects.

That doesn't mean, though, that I don't diversify the type of work I do. In the last couple of years, my work has included:

• Writing original consumer magazine and trade magazine articles
• Writing original online magazine articles and blog posts
• Selling reprint rights to previously-published articles to U.S. markets
• Selling reprint rights to previously-published articles to non-U.S. markets
• Public speaking at a variety of events and venues
• Teaching online classes and leading Webinars for pay
• Collecting royalties from traditionally-published books
• Collecting royalties from POD and e-books (both fiction and nonfiction)
• Ghostwriting books and book proposals
• Editing books 
• Ghostwriting articles 
• Consulting with/coaching potential book authors and freelance writers 

While the overwhelming majority of my work falls into the health/wellness/fitness/nutrition area (or my other niche, successful freelancing), you can see that the type of work I do varies. My point? Yes, I suggest you specialize, but that you perform a variety of different kinds of writing about your specialty as well. You'll stay more flexible in a challenging economy, and help boost your overall freelance income.

***Freelancers, what do you think? Two questions--number one, do you agree with my idea of specializing while diversifying? And number two, what topics do you want to know more about? I've been getting hundreds of hits on the blog lately but few comments. If you find this blog valuable, please chime in and tell me so...and what else you want to know about, freelance-wise. Thank you!

So Where's the Money Coming From? What Freelancers are Working On

Last post, I shared the income results from the 2012 Freelance Income Survey. Now let's take a closer look at what types of work freelancers are doing to produce their income.

Here are the results to question #5, which asked what kinds of work you performed for pay in 2011:

What types of work were you paid to perform during 2011? (Select all that apply.) 

Consumer magazine articles.   110   11.43%   Trade magazine articles.   79   8.21%   Custom magazine articles.   88   9.15%   Academic magazine articles.   18   1.87%   Newspaper articles.   59   6.13%   Online/Web articles.   133   13.83%   Reprinting/reselling previously published work.   32   3.33%   Writing your own books (for traditional publishers.)   24   2.49%   Publishing your own books (for POD publishers or as ebooks).   8   0.83%   Ghostwriting/coauthoring books/book proposals for clients.   30   3.12%   Blogging.   85   8.84%   Speaking/teaching (any kind--in person tele seminars Webinars etc.)   39   4.05%   Editing (any kind).   79   8.21%   Copywriting/writing for corporations/businesses.   71   7.38%   Writing for nonprofit organizations.   33   3.43%   Consulting.   29   3.01%   PR/media relations work.   21   2.18%   Other (please specify in comment field.)   24   2.49%

But are the most common types of work paying off? Yes, according to the answers to question 6, where I asked respondents to list their top five sources of income, by work type:

Trade magazine articles.   41   9.86%   Custom magazine articles.   30   7.21%   Academic magazine articles.   8   1.92%   Newspaper articles.   15   3.61%   Online/Web articles.   64   15.38%   Reprinting/reselling previously published work.   2   0.48%   Writing your own books (for traditional publishers.)   5   1.20%   Publishing your own books (for POD publishers or as ebooks).   3   0.72%   Ghostwriting/coauthoring books/book proposals for clients.   17   4.09%   Blogging.   38   9.13%   Speaking/teaching (any kind--in person tele seminars Webinars etc.)   17   4.09%   Editing (any kind).   41   9.86%   Copywriting/writing for corporations/businesses.   39   9.38%   Writing for nonprofit organizations.   16   3.85%   Consulting.   11   2.64%   PR/media relations work.   6   1.44%   Other (please specify in comment field.)   9   2.16%

So, more respondents are making money from writing online articles (15.50 percent) than any other one specific type of writing, followed by consumer magazine articles (12.83 percent), trade magazine articles and editing (tied at 9.69 percent), copywriting/writing for corporations and businesses (9.44 percent), blogging (9.20 percent). 

I'm sharing the complete answers to these questions so you can see what type of work your fellow freelancers are doing and determine whether it's time to add it (or more of it) to your repertoire. If one in ten freelancers are making money blogging, and you're not, that may be an area to explore. But the opposite is true, too--if less than 1 percent of freelancers are making money publishing their own books (whether POD or ebooks), that may mean there's an opportunity that not many writers are currently pursuing. 

Regardless, I hope you find these results thought-provoking, and helpful. I know it will be for me as I plan future blog posts; after all, the primary purpose of this blog is to help my readers. Let me know if I'm doing my job. :)

***Are you a full-time freelancer who's constantly pestered by people who want to know how to get started in the business? :) Or are you new to freelancing, and want to make the jump from unpublished newbie to published writer? Check out my new ebooks, Dollars and Deadlines' Guide to: Selling your First Article and Dollars and Deadlines' 10 Essential Freelance Templates. Each is designed for writers who are new to freelancing, and will help you transition from unpublished to published writer.