Starting Your Career As a Freelance Writer - Softcover

Moira Anderson Allen

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140 ratings by Goodreads

9781581153040: Starting Your Career As a Freelance Writer

Softcover

ISBN 10: 158115304X ISBN 13: 9781581153040

Publisher: Allworth Pr, 2003

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Whether you are looking to freelance while working in another field, or support yourself as a full-time writer, here is a tried-and-true blueprint to success! Covering everything from knowing when to take the plunge to negotiating publishing contracts, aspiring freelance writers will discover proven guidance and inside information for finding appropriate markets, developing outlines and first drafts, writing effective queries, creating properly formatted manuscripts, breaking into business writing, developing marketable ideas, and much more. The ultimate guide for anyone who wishes to make money from writing!
� Author is a 25-year writing veteran with a strong presence in the writing world

� The interest in freelance writing is a growing topic among beginning writers

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About the Author:

Moira Allen hosts the popular Website for writers called writing-world.com. She is the author of several books, including writing.com and The Writer’s Guide to Queries, Pitches, and Proposals. A longtime instructor of freelance and creative writing, she lives in Chesapeake, VA.

(From Chapter 5: Coping With Rejection)

It Sank. Get Over It.

Someone created a T-shirt with a picture of the Titanic on the front and, on the back, the words: “It sank. Get over it.” The same can be said of rejection.
     “Getting used to” rejection doesn’t mean that rejection loses its sting. It doesn’t. Nor is that a bad thing: I suspect that the day rejection ceases to hurt is the day one has lost one’s passion for writing. Pain isn’t a bad thing. Pain simply means we care.
     At the same time, there are things you can do to ease the sting. The next time your material comes back with one of those awful slips, try one of these:
[begin bulleted list]
�       Have a rejection party. “Celebrate” your rejection with a pizza, a dish of ice cream, a trip to the movies. You have a right to celebrate: You have to be a writer to be rejected.
�       Start a rejection slip file. Besides being useful for taxes (it proves to the IRS that you’re conducting a business), it can come in handy down the line, when you’re famous. Then you’ll be able to say, with a smug flourish, “Well, I was rejected 48 times before my story/novel/article was accepted by Megabucks Publishing...”
�       Send your material to the next publisher on your list.
�       Write something else. Better yet, start writing something else the minute your last piece is finished and out the door. Rejection stings less when your mind is occupied with a newer, and therefore more interesting, project.
[end bulleted list]
     Remember, there is something worse than rejection, and that’s never writing (or submitting) anything to be rejected in the first place.

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