Question from a newbie

If it were easy, everyone would be doing it. It takes a while to graduate from the lower paying markets to the higher paying ones, and even then it's tough to make a living from magazine articles alone.

I'm not just writing magazine articles, I'm doing business writing as well--website copy, newsletters, white papers, ghost blogging for businesses, etc. Really, that's the only way I can see myself making a living. For other people, it may be a different story, but for me, this is the reality.

If you are making $300 to $500 an article, that is great. But regardless of pay, you are always working on more than one thing at a time.

Writing is not exactly a lucrative gig at first. It's the curse of the arts, alas.

There are several valid paths to making a living. One is to work, essentially as an intern, in the lower markets and work your way up to the bigger markets and hope eventually they pay enough.

Another is to write and publish a good book. This opens a lot of doors, but it doesn't exactly pay the bills at first and maybe not ever. It's a big risk out of the gate.

The quicker and more-sure (though nothing in life and certainly NOTHING in self-employment is truly "sure") route is through marketing copy. Businesses pay much higher rates for good, on-target writing. And the timing is right: The rise of content marketing means good freelancers are in high demand.

However, a few caveats. The first is that you won't be writing about whatever the heck you please. It will be what the client wants and/or needs. The second is that working for yourself is just a hard gig and there's a huge learning curve before it starts to pay off. Oh, and the third is that writing marketing copy is not the same as just telling a good story. Good marketing copy is copy that sells... which is its own whole art. Storytelling plays a role, though, so there is that.

On the other hand, everything you learn about marketing will apply to selling yourself as an author. My path has been: Freelance writer to content marketing officer (i.e., I sell the content service, recruit & train the writers, and manage the business and the clients and the projects but don't actually do much of the writing myself) to novelist in not-quite-precisely-that-tidy order.

My novel is not yet sold. Heck, it's not even yet done with its first round of revisions. I'm not worried, though, because my business career pays the bills so I can afford to wait.

And everything I have learned in my freelance then business career absolutely applies to my novel. I feel I'm a better novelist for waiting until almost-40 to get serious about it.

By the way, I did always want to work in magazines. I even sold a few pieces into national markets. But like you, I figured out quick that the ratio of pay to effort was tiny, and channeled my energies elsewhere.

Best of luck to you!

Wow, I wish I were making $300 on an article. I make $30 tops and that is ghost writing so my name doesn't get out there at all. I think the key to making a living is to suck it up and work your butt off. I'm lucky to get a few hours on a Saturday off for personal time. It's a long road, that's for sure, and there's a whole lot of cracks to stumble in.

The market for small business writing is huge. Like Melina said, web copy, blog posts, sales letters, flyers, brochures, etc. There is a lot of demand. Once you establish yourself as a good writer who is reliable and professional, you can ramp up your career pretty quickly. I was able to quit my full-time job after 3 months.

It may or may not be what you're looking for, but it's actually quite fun for me. My clients are awesome and I love the diversity. I do work my butt off but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Making $100+ per article isn't hard...

Establishing yourself and finding the work is though.

With that being said, if you're willing to work full-time hours...

You know, 40 hours a week, Mon-Fri....

You can most definitely make a full time income.

I work Mon-Fri, 7AM to 3PM from home...

I make anywhere from $500 to $1,000 a week.

Some days I can make $500 in a day....others I make $50.

I'd recommend starting out on a site such as eLance...

Get going there and then get yourself a domain + hosting.

Then you can try to start securing your own clients.

$25 per 500 word article is pretty normal nowadays for web content.

Do 2-3 an hour and you are making $75 an hour.

$1,000-ish for an eBook that will take you a week to do is normal as well.

It may take you a few months to build consistent work BUT...

It is definitely worth it if it's what you wanna do.

Anyone that tells you it is "hard" is entirely wrong.

It's hard for people that don't want to put in the work.

Umgowa said:

How do people support themselves trying to make a living by freelance writing? I was looking through Writers Market and was struck by the low rates most publications pay. The average is between $300 to a max of $500. Only a select few pay a thousand or more, and they look like they'd highly selective. At the average $300 to $500 rate, you'd have to publish at least one article a week to even get by. You factor in the time it takes to send in queries, get a few rejections and query some more, then the time to research and actually write the articles . . . . The math just doesn't add up. Can someone tell me where I'm going wrong? Please help me see how people can actually make a living at this. Thanks.

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Freelance writing isn't just about writing for magazines. Businesses also need freelancers, and the pay there can be highly lucrative.

But you're drastically underestimating how many magazines pay one heck of a lot more than five hundred dollars for a feature article. Three to five hundred is department and column pay at a great many magazines, and features can easily run into the thousands.

And how long does it take you to write a query, and then research and write an article? I used to send out a dozen queries a week, and know a pretty fair number of freelancers who doubled this. I could research and write some types of articles in a day, others in two or three days, at most. When one took longer to research, I was paid accordingly.

On the downside, most of those three to five hundred dollar markets are just as selective as the higher paying ones.

FantasticF said:

Making $100+ per article isn't hard...

Establishing yourself and finding the work is though.

With that being said, if you're willing to work full-time hours...

You know, 40 hours a week, Mon-Fri....

You can most definitely make a full time income.

I work Mon-Fri, 7AM to 3PM from home...

I make anywhere from $500 to $1,000 a week.

Some days I can make $500 in a day....others I make $50.

I'd recommend starting out on a site such as eLance...

Get going there and then get yourself a domain + hosting.

Then you can try to start securing your own clients.

$25 per 500 word article is pretty normal nowadays for web content.

Do 2-3 an hour and you are making $75 an hour.

$1,000-ish for an eBook that will take you a week to do is normal as well.

It may take you a few months to build consistent work BUT...

It is definitely worth it if it's what you wanna do.

Anyone that tells you it is "hard" is entirely wrong.

It's hard for people that don't want to put in the work.

Click to expand...

Yeah, right.

Just as a point of clarification, freelance writing does NOT apply just to writing magazine and newspaper articles. All freelance means is that you are not anyone's employee. So if you're making a living by writing for other people as an independent contractor, you're a freelance writer.

There are many ways of making a living as a freelance writer. A lot of people do it by finding a field to specialize in. Some people write grants. Some people do technical writing. Some people specialize in medical writing. I happen to specialize in textbooks, assessment, and other educational materials.

People who work in all those fields are making a living as freelance writers. And each of those fields takes specialized knowledge and skill.

So to answer your original question, finding a writing specialty and doing anonymous work-for-hire is the way a lot of freelancers support themselves.

If your real question is how to make it writing articles, I can't help you because that's not my thing.

ralf58 said:

Just as a point of clarification, freelance writing does NOT apply just to writing magazine and newspaper articles. All freelance means is that you are not anyone's employee. So if you're making a living by writing for other people as an independent contractor, you're a freelance writer.

There are many ways of making a living as a freelance writer. A lot of people do it by finding a field to specialize in. Some people write grants. Some people do technical writing. Some people specialize in medical writing. I happen to specialize in textbooks, assessment, and other educational materials.

People who work in all those fields are making a living as freelance writers. And each of those fields takes specialized knowledge and skill.

So to answer your original question, finding a writing specialty and doing anonymous work-for-hire is the way a lot of freelancers support themselves.

If your real question is how to make it writing articles, I can't help you because that's not my thing.

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Very good point! Thanks for bringing that up.

I started out doing copy writing (sales pages, squeeze pages, etc).

It is REALLY good money but just something I'm not interested in anymore.

Now, I do strictly web content and eBooks (mostly web content).

Mainly because it is quick, pays well, and there's ALWAYS work.

How is the education market as far as freelance writing?

Just curious. Thanks again for bringing this up!

FantasticF said:

How is the education market as far as freelance writing?

Just curious. Thanks again for bringing this up!

Click to expand...

It used to be great--satisfying work for good money--but the industry is going through a lot of changes. Everything's going to e-books, and the pay rates are dropping. Big publishers are reducing their staffs and hiring development houses, which hire freelancers like me. They expect more work for less money, and there are lots of people competing for the jobs. I usually don't have much trouble getting assignments because I have a lot of contacts, but it's a tough field to break into now because there are a lot of laid-off editors in the job market.

How did you get started on textbook assessment? This would be a fairly interesting job I think. I'd also like to work with more magazines, but right now it seems I am spending too much time working on low paying work and not enough time look for new ways to make money.

I had teaching experience and some editorial experience, and Igot an entry level job with a publisher, where I worked as an editor for almost 17 years before going freelance.