by Stephanie A. Smith

Created on: March 31, 2009

Unless you write purely as a hobby and do not care about money for your work, you will eventually need to sell your writings. Selling your writing is a business and you will have to keep detailed records of everything you make and spend, be professional, and-of course-get your work sold. Here is everything that I have learned about the business of freelance writing-from figuring out who to write for, and what to write about to tax time and even how to get your work sold.

Choosing what to write and who to write for can be a difficult thing to do-or it can be the easiest thing about Freelance writing, depending on your skill level and how established you are. There are two main ways to decide. You can write your piece, and then look for a market for it, or you can find a market that you think you can fit into, and then write your piece tailored to that market. Either way is fine, but editors usually take notice if you have tailored your writing to their market. I have been trying a new tactic where I use my copy of Writer's Market to give me ideas. When I have figured out what I want to write, I usually go ahead and write it. While I'm waiting on the query to get back, I can edit the work to make it sound better (Tip: a fresh article always sounds good, leave it set for a week, and if it still sounds good after it has been left alone, it is ready to send out). If I cannot sell the article to the place where I originally wanted to sell it, there is always another market to try out or the article can be slanted a different way to conform to what the editor wants.

Most editors do not accept unsolicited manuscripts, so it is best to send a query and wait for the reply before you send out any manuscripts. Even those markets that will accept an unsolicited manuscript appreciate a query. Do a little bit of research before you send a query in, you will need the following information to send a decent query: the name of the editor that handles queries and submissions, the address to send the query to (or email address for those who accept email queries), what department (if any) you should address your query to, what the editor wants, and what the market has recently published. Never send a query to a magazine that has covered the topic of your article within the last year. Always include a SASE (self-addressed stamped envelope) with your query and relevant clips if you have any. Do not make your query sound unprofessional in any way; write to the editor as if he/she were

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