I recently had a mentoring client ask my reasoning behind sending a sales letter to prospects asking them to request a full information kit — rather than just sending them the full kit right off the bat. You want to wow them with your great samples, right?

And I’ve had other clients who send out letters of introduction (LOIs) and are upset when they don’t get assignments — just editors saying they’ll put the writer in their files, or they’ll get back to her in a few months, or “We don’t have anything right now but please keep in touch.”

I think this stems from a misunderstanding of the purpose of LOIs and sales letters.

LOIs and sales letters do not exist to get you assignments.

They exist to help you build a relationships with people who may buy your stuff.

These marketing efforts are not about trying to entice the prospect to give you an assignment right off the bat, because that probably won’t happen, even if your samples are awesome. Only a very small percentage of prospects will happen to have a writing need right then.

So your goal is to start a relationship with them so you can get in touch every once in a while and be top of mind when they do have an assignment. Wowing the prospect with your sales letter and convincing them to get back to you to ask for your info kit is the start of that relationship…they’ve now reached out to you.

In the case of the sales letter vs. the full info kit, you want to use your sales letter to start a communication with the prospect — to build a relationship — and a great way to do that is to have them get back to you to ask you for something. Then the door is open to send them your kit, follow up, and generally get to know the prospect. If you send your whole thing right off, you’ll have no way to create that opening — many prospects will just file you away or even toss your stuff and then forget about you.

(Not to mention, it’s not very cost-effective to mail big envelopes out blindly.)

In the case of an LOI, you want the editor to request your clips or ask you to stay in touch so you now have an opening to follow up and start building that all-important relationship that can lead to assignments down the line.

When an editor or prospect asks for clips or more information — you win.

So keep sending, and do the happy dance when someone gets back to you to request info. Follow up every couple of months, and you’ll do an even wilder happy dance when you’ve turned that contact into a loyal client. [lf]

By Kinya Shelley.

Recently, I discovered freelance writing marketing tactic that many professional freelance writers have been using for years:

I went to my local Chamber of Commerce to meet my potential clients face to face.

In this setting I had no competition. The marketing was far less frustrating than the scattershot approach, because I knew what my clients needed, and I was prepared to offer it to them.

That’s how I landed ten new clients in a month. My first client paid me $800 up front for two hours of consulting. I didn’t even write anything. I just pointed him in the right direction.

What I did wasn’t special. In fact, anyone can do it. All it takes is a little common sense and courage. Here’s the step-by-step process I used to land ten new clients in thirty days.

Step 1: Research

I Googled my local Chamber of Commerce by typing in the name of my town and state, followed by “Chamber of Commerce.” My local Chamber popped up on the first page. As soon as I was on the website, I did a little browsing around. I wasn’t just mindlessly looking though. I had an agenda:

I dug up information about the Chamber of Commerce.

I needed to answer these specific questions: How does it operate? How old is it? How many members are there? What are the fees to join? How often do you pay?

By being informed about the Commerce itself, I knew what to expect out of its members as well as the Board of Directors. It would also help me tailor my marketing.

I thoroughly searched through the list of members.

I needed to know which local businesses had joined the Chamber. The owners of these businesses know how important it is to market and get new customers, so they’d be more willing to hire a writer. Those are the people I wanted to talk to.

I went through the list carefully from A to Z. I took note of which businesses had websites, and which businesses offered discounts to other Chamber of Commerce members. I also researched the types of businesses on the list. There were dentists, gourmet popcorn shops, even movie theaters. I wanted to find out what these businesses offered to the community, how they stood out from their competition, and what I could do for them. Then I wrote down questions that I wanted to ask each owner that I met.

I had 98 businesses to research. It took me two days to go through them all.

But my local Chamber has a small members list compared to other places. If your Chamber has a really big list, here’s a tip: Narrow down who you want to talk to by searching through each category of businesses and picking out ones that can afford to pay you what you’re worth. For example, if you charge $100 for a one-page ad, you want to look at companies that make enough money so that $100 a page doesn’t seem like a big deal. You may not land them as a client, but you could get a referral to another business in the same earnings bracket – or even higher.

I found out out if non-members can attend events as guests of the Chamber.

My local Chamber of Commerce allows non-members to attend three events a year, but there’s a $10 fee to get in. To me that fee was worth it. It’s nominal compared to how much money new clients could potentially bring in.

Find out if your Chamber does something similar. If they don’t, search the schedule to see if any of the events are open house. Those types of events let potential members mingle with current members, making it a great way to network.

I looked at the list of scheduled events.

I took note of which ones are more likely to draw a bigger crowd. Those are the events I want to attend.

I chose three events, two on the weekend and one charity event. I reasoned that business owners would set aside time on a weekend to go to a Chamber of Commerce event, even if it was just for an hour or so. Of course, everyone loves supporting a charity, and in supporting a cause I would show that I’m willing to use part of what I earned as a writer to give back to the community. Everyone loves hiring a humanitarian.

Step 2: Preparation

Once I had done my research it was time for me to prepare for the events I was going to attend. The first thing I did was make a list of what I needed in order to market myself effectively. It read something like this:

• Website
• Business cards
• Letter of introduction
• Writing samples
• Reply cards
• Postage stamps
• Envelopes
• Clothes

I had a website, but was – and still is – currently under construction. I didn’t want that fact to deter anyone from requesting information from me. So I put up a contact form on my landing page so that they could request an information packet from me, either through snail mail or email, and ask me questions.

Once I had my business cards made, I put together my letter of introduction and writing samples. My samples had to be diverse. I made sure to include a mock-up of a one-page ad, a newsletter, some informational articles, and a few other pieces of marketing material.

The reply cards I had were simply postcards with postage affixed to them. These are easy to use as reply cards because the person can simply fill in their information and drop it in the mail. It eliminates delayed reactions for mailing; if the postage is already there, the person doesn’t have to set aside mailing it due to a lack of postage.

The envelopes I bought were large manila envelopes. I fixed together five information packets to start out with; I wasn’t expecting a huge response. I put a letter of introduction, copies of my samples, a business card and a reply card in each envelope. I wrote my return address in the corner in the neatest, most legible handwriting I could muster. This was one of those moments I wished I had return address labels, but I made do with what I had.

The last thing I did was pick out my clothes for each event. You may think this is silly, but I wanted to dress for the job I wanted, not the job I had. I was very careful and meticulous when picking out my clothes. I made sure that I was modestly dressed: no cleavage showing, no short skirts, no tight pants, and no extremely high heels. I wanted to leave a positive impression. I wanted people to remember me, not my shoes or what I was wearing. I also made sure my accessories, makeup and hair weren’t flashy, gaudy or inappropriate.

I ran the outfits by my mother. She’s a legal secretary and office manager for a non-profit law firm. They have a set of rules at her job for clothing. She’s in charge of telling people whether their clothing is inappropriate in the workplace. By running the outfits by her, I knew that I’d be dressed to impress.

If you’ve got someone that works in an office environment, you can do the same thing. That became my rule of thumb for these events: If you can’t wear it in a law office, you can’t wear it to a client meeting.

Step 3: Take Action

I’m a natural wallflower. I don’t like to mingle at gatherings, even if the place is full of people that I’ve known for years. But I had to break out of that routine if I wanted to get some clients. For each event, I arrived ten to fifteen minutes early. As soon as I stepped into the door I took the initiative to talk to the first person I saw. I just said “Hi, my name is Kinya.” It never failed to start a conversation.

When people asked me what I did for a living, I told them, “I help businesses communicate with their current and future customers and clients.” They were always eager to learn how.

I didn’t keep the conversation focused on me; I always switched the topic back to their business. This is where the research came in handy. I was already prepared for all the members there, so I asked them questions pertaining to their individual businesses. They were impressed that I knew so much. Many of my conversations lasted ten minutes or more.

At the end of the conversations, I always asked if we could exchange information. Usually we would swap business cards, but if the other person didn’t have a business card I put their name, business name and telephone number in my cell phone.

Step 4: Follow Through

I waited a minimum of three days before I followed up with those I met. If I had their business cards, I went into their place of business to see if they were working. If they were, I told them that it was nice meeting them at the event, and I looked forward to seeing them at the next one. I also told them if they needed anything – anything at all – to just call me.

One person actually called me and asked me if I had “an epic brownie recipe” they could have for a family reunion. I passed along something spectacular with a caramel center and an ice cream topping. She was ever so grateful, and promised to pass my information along to other business owners.

If no one was there, I left a message with the manager on staff. For the ones who hadn’t given me their business cards, I followed up with them on the phone. If they didn’t answer, I left them a brief message.

The results were overwhelming to me: I’ve sent out over forty information packets and gained ten new clients. Two of these clients were referrals.

And I didn’t have to lowball my pricing for anyone. Everyone immediately thought my fees were reasonable, because they recognized how valuable my services were. And, perhaps best of all, I’m the only copywriter they know in the area. By taking these simple steps, I’ve set myself up to not only get new clients, but expand my business.

How about you — have you landed any gigs from attending Chamber events or other networking events? Do you have additional tips on how to make the most of these events? Share your insights in the Comments!

Kinya is a freelance copywriter and public speaker. She enjoys baking, writing fantasy novels , watching cartoons and brushing up on her Latin. Her blog, Nom de Plume Ink, talks about things she’s learning and discovering on the journey to reaching her career goals.

I get a lot of questions from writers on how to use Help a Reporter Out, a.k.a. HARO — the free service that helps journalists find sources for their assignments. So I interviewed HARO founder Peter Shankman to answer all your need-to-knows. Enjoy!

How many people subscribe to HARO e-mails?

Somewhere between 200,000 and 250,000 sources, including pass-alongs — and hundreds of thousands of journalists have used the service at one point or another.

Have you ever done a breakdown of what kind of experts or other people are subscribed to HARO?

No, but we’ve found that it’s almost 75 percent small businesses now.

A lot of writers are e-mailing me because they’re confused about the requirement that your website needs to have an Alexa ranking of under one million for you to be able to send a request for sources. They think that their personal writer site needs to have this ranking. Can you explain that a little bit?

The way it works is, if you’re writing for a traditional or understood media outlet, like cosmopolitan.com or Washington Post online, our goal is not to exclude anyone. Unfortunately, what happens occasionally is that people join HARO and say, “I have to do a story for my blog that has two readers.” Journalists writing for Forbes, or any outlet that has a good quality base and quality readership, we have no problem. Use HARO and we love you. We just don’t want to waste sources’ time if it’s for Joan’s House of Blog, you know?

Another question I often get is whether a writer can use HARO if she’s working on a pitch but doesn’t have an assignment in hand and, if so, how to do that.

It’s a tough question. If you’ve used HARO before and we see that and we recognize your e-mail address as having written for traditional or recognizable outlets in the past, you are more than welcome to use HARO for a pitch.

There are no other requirements for posting a request on there except that your media outlet has to be lower than one million in Alexa, right?

Correct.

Can you offer us some tips on how to write a HARO query that gets results?

The best thing you can do is be as specific as humanly possible. If you want sources in West Philadelphia, make damn sure you put “West Philadelphia.” If you only want sources who know about bridge building and have one arm, make that clear.

Any other tips?

The biggest thing I can recommend is make sure you put your deadline at least a week before your actual deadline. We base HARO on when your deadline is. So if your deadline is Thursday and you put Thursday down as your deadline, HARO is going to most likely run your inquiry Wednesday night.

What else can writers do to make sure they get the best sources?

Keep it short. Keep it simple. That usually works well.

Do you change the titles of the requests or do they go up just as the writer writes them?

No, it’s actually as you write them. We don’t change them at all.

Any tips on writing a title that gets attention?

“Need experts in blank.”

A blessing and a curse of HARO is that writers will put out a request and get 100 responses. What can writers do about that besides make sure they’re specific in their requests?

Start reading the answers. If you get everything you need in the first five replies, just click a filter that sends all the rest of them to a folder so you don’t h

By Steve Maurer.

Yeah, I know. That’s not the most grammatically perfect headline you’ve ever read. In fact, I’m sure that my high school English teacher would be rolling her eyes and throwing her hands up in disbelief, thinking she’d taught me better. Bless her heart! Nevertheless, if you’ve read this far, then that horrid headline has done its primary job: getting your attention.

The three power tips in this article are not concerned so much with improving your writing skills as they are with refining your abilities as a writer. Confused yet? There are boatloads of resources out there to turn you into a perfect punctuationalist or a proficient grammaratician. Some are listed below.

However, this article doesn’t deal with syntax and structure, adverbial clauses, comma splices or even the dreaded dangling marsupial, uh, participle. These tips are meant to improve your confidence level as a writer and, consequently, to transform you into a better one.

The Power of Association

John Donne, the English clergyman and poet, wrote this about the human condition in his work, Meditation XVII:

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less . . .

The entire passage, written in 1624, tells of the interconnectedness of people, the idea that each of us has an integral part in the overall community that is humanity. Even you!

Heavy stuff, huh?

Interconnectedness spills over into the world of freelance writing as well. We aren’t monks sequestered away in our candlelit cubicles, slaving away with parchment, quill and ink, feverishly hand-crafting some obscure tome.

Unfortunately, many new writers feel that they must work alone, devoid of human contact, as they attempt to master their craft. Nothing could be further from the truth.

It’s time to get off the island, my friend.

Successful writers know that association with other writers is vital to growth. No one person knows it all, but we can all grow together by hanging out with others of our own ilk. In the classic 1937 book, Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill outlines the Master-Mind principle used by Andrew Carnegie.

In a nutshell, the melding of minds and sharing of ideas leads to an entity that is greater and more powerful than the individuals alone. Each person’s talents and knowledge contributes to the whole of the experience.

Man, heavy stuff again!

As a new writer, you should start associating with other writers. You can learn from both their successes and their challenges, get some counseling and ask them your burning questions. In fact, you’ll have a great opportunity to do that in a few minutes. At the end of this article there will be a place to make comments.

Many new writers never add a comment, often afraid of looking stupid or uninformed. Understand that the comments section is a safe haven in which to ask questions, request clarification and share your own experiences. Really, you need to write a comment! We need to hear from you!

Remember that you are a piece of the continent too.

I’d suggest that you become part of a writers’ group as well. Three that I belong to and recommend are:

• The Freelance Writers Den This a group geared toward helping freelancers perfect th
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Writers have been asking when Carol Tice and I are going to offer another Audit of our two popular e-courses: Freelance Writers Blast Off and 4-Week J-School.

So we decided to offer the Audits again right now, until August 21.

We normally charge $97 for these classes, but for this session we’re letting you pay whatever you want (with a minimum of $30). (Crazy, I know!)

Here’s a little more detail on what you’ll get:

4-Week J-School

Do you feel you’re earning less than you should because you didn’t go to journalism school — but you don’t want to shell out $30k to attend?

We heard you — and that’s why we created a course that will help you become a more confident writer – fast – and earn big as a freelancer.

• Week one: Story Ideas That Sell. You’ll leave this audio with dozens of strategies and sources for finding story ideas and slanting them to fit specific publications.
• Week two: Newsgathering 101. Watch the webinar as we review writer’s websites and demonstrate the features that make sites attract great clients and want to hire you.
• Week three: Article writing intensive. In this 1-hour webinar presentation, Carol and I share all our best tips for delivering well-written pieces your editor will love.
• Week four: Journalism ethics 101. Worried about getting sued? Don’t know if you’re writing things that could get you in trouble? We go over what you need to know in dealing with sources, quotes, and citing existing materials.

What you’ll get with the 4-Week J-School:

• Each week for 4 weeks, you’ll get a new recording covering all the journalism basics, from finding story ideas to interviewing sources, writing a compelling article and avoiding getting sued
• More than 40 pages of worksheets, tips, and resource links to reinforce your training
• Complete transcripts of each live event
• Bonus 1-hour podcast: Query letters and letters of introduction
• The option to join the Freelance Writers Den separately and use our exclusive mentoring forum to post homework, get feedback — and get your questions answered. (We’ve got the Den open to new members for this Audit enrollment period.)

Freelance Writers Blast Off

Learn how to match your talents and life experience to lucrative writing assignments.

Discover how to find good-paying clients, pitch them, and get the gig.

Study at your own pace.

Skyrocket your income.

• Week one: Matching interests to markets. Listen in as we coach more than a dozen writers
• Week two: Elements of an excellent writer website. Watch as we review writer’s websites and demonstrate the features that make sites attract great clients and want to hire you.
• Week three: All about markets. In this 1-hour webinar, we discuss all of the types of writing gigs available, and the differences between various publication and website types.
• Week four: Smart marketing. In this 1-hour webinar, you’ll get a primer on all of the marketing strategies that get good results, and co
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By Rosella Eleanor LaFevre

My first attempt at making a magazine was in sixth grade. My friend and I wrote articles and compiled visuals that we glued to sheets of Xerox paper.

One Sunday I sat at my family’s copier and manually assembled ten double-sided copies of my 30+ page magazine, called RoZgIrl, that I passed out to my classmates the next day at school. I got a rush sharing my work with other people.

Then, as a sophomore in journalism school, I decided to start my own magazine for real. I’d watched magazines succeed and fall apart in my various internships and decided I could do this for real.

M.L.T.S. Magazine, a quarterly online publication that covers lifestyle, education and career topics for young women in college, was launched in June 2011.

It’s been the greatest challenge of my life and the rewards are addictive (being profiled on the Huffington Post was the coolest honor!). Among the many things I’ve learned from starting my own magazine are a few that have informed my interaction with editors at other magazines.

1. Editors are always looking for new writers.

Honestly, I get a little giddy every time a new writer contacts me saying they want to write for M.L.T.S. When I set out to create a magazine, I knew that I couldn’t write all of the articles, gather all the artwork, do the layout and promote the publication and so I did a big recruiting push – contacting j-school listservs and Ed2010 – and I got a lot of nibbles but very few writers stuck around.

Writers are a crucial part of the team and yet no matter how many writers I have, I’m always looking for new ones. I’ve had several writers back out at the last minute so I prefer having lots of writers on tap.

The takeaway: Even if you think there’s no way in heck that you’ll get a response, send that pitch or LOI!

2. Editors love controversy and shock-factor.

When I made that first magazine in sixth grade, I wrote a piece for the FOB fashion section about a classmate who anointed herself chief of the fashion police and made declarative statements about what the girls wore to school. I never used her name but my classmates knew who I meant. As my peers all turned to the same page and I heard whispers, I realized how important controversy can be for getting people interested in your magazine.

After starting M.L.T.S. my focus shifted toward page views and Facebook likes and my boyfriend kept saying, “Publish controversial stuff. Pick an unpopular view and write about it. Get people to notice you.” And he’s right. I need to publish stuff that will get people reading, responding and sharing if I want people to notice my magazine.

The takeaway: Writers might have an easier time breaking into a market if they pitch stories that are controversial or have great shock factor.

3. Editors sometimes need to be reminded that you sent that awesome pitch.

I get a lot of emails on my Android phone and sometimes, I just don’t feel like typing up a long response on its little screen or I want to read your resume and sample clips on my big computer… Then I forget to do those things when I’m next in front of a computer. Lots of times, it takes me a week to get back to writers.

Every now and then, a writer who has emailed me once will

By Barbara A. Tyler

When targeting markets for your queries, do you review their media kits?

You should.

Magazines spend time and money defining their audiences and creating a package to attract advertisers. With a little know-how, you can put that research to use and sell your ideas.

To get started, find the “media kit” link on your target market’s website. Most of the time you’ll spot one right away–after all, the magazines want it to be easy for advertisers to find it. If you come up empty on the main page, look under “Advertising,” or less frequently, in “Contact Us.” You can also type the name of the magazine and the words “media kit” (with quotes) into a search engine.

Once you have the kit in front of you, examine these three features before you write your query:

1. MISSION STATEMENT (a.k.a. “Positioning statement”)

What it is: A brief statement that defines the style and tone of the magazine. Editors use the mission statement to keep the editorial focused.

How to use it: Tailor your query to fit their mission.

Consider the opening line from the mission statement for Ladies’ Home Journal: “Ladies’ Home Journal is for women who recognize the importance of taking time for themselves.” Now, compare it to the opening line of Family Circle’s mission statement: “Family Circle celebrates today’s family and champions the women at its center.”

Though both magazines serve women with families, each wants a slightly different spin on the material they publish. For example, your pitch about a spa getaway would be better received at Ladies’ Home Journal, while a query about a round-up of historic destinations for families is better suited for Family Circle.

2. DEMOGRAPHICS (a.k.a. “Audience”)

What it is: A snapshot of the magazine’s readers.

How to use it: Slant your query to match the audience.

A publication’s demographics might pinpoint the basics about their audience. You’ll find Taste of Home’s audience defined in terms of age, marital status, college education, employment, etc. Other publications provide much more detail. For example, The Onion knows 52% of their readers drank beer in the last seven days, and roughly a third of them plan to buy a new computer in the next year.

Let’s say you have a fantastic snack recipe. If the magazine has a large percentage of readers with school-aged children, you might pitch your idea as “Easy Afterschool Snacks.” On the flip side, if your target publication has a readership made up of single women with high-powered jobs, you’d pitch “Quick Snacks to Go.”

3. EDITORIAL CALENDAR

What it is: A monthly breakdown of upcoming features and themes.

How to use it: Pitch them what they want AND need.

The editorial calendar is the freelance writer’s crystal ball when it comes to writing pitches. It tells you what the editor needs and when he plans to use it. A quick scan of Reader’s Digest’s editorial calendar shows planned issues about brain power, food, and miracles.

Queries fitting those themes w

Last week Carol Tice of the Freelance Writers Den and I ran a contest…entrants wrote blog posts on what they would do with a free year in the Den.

We got over 40 entries, and they were so good it was hard to pick the winners. We looked for a clear vision, good writing, interesting presentation, personality, and drive.

Here are the winners (you can check out the original post to see the details on all the prizes, including mentoring from me and Carol, the Audit of 4-Week Journalism School (open now for new students!) and our Freelance Writers Blast-Off Class (also open now!), and the basic level of my Write for Magazines course). Congrats to all — and enjoy reading their entries.

1st Place Winners: Tom Bentley of The Write Word (check out the visual funny Tom did, too!) and Jennifer Hawkins of Slashing My Way into Freelance Writing.

1st Runner up: Kasie Whitener of Life on Clemson Road

2nd Runner up: Lynette of ADD Ranger Ramblings

3rd Runner up: Bree Normandin of Black Feathers

Honorable mentions (win a copy of Make a Living Writing: The 21st Century Guide):
Glori Surban of The Not-So-Crazy Introvert, Rosella LaFevre of The Happy Millenial and Megan Harris of MeganWrites.

Congrats again!

Speaking of the Freelance Writers Den…it’s open for new members as of today, for just a few days — this will be your last chance to get in before fall. Get access to the forum where Carol, myself, and the skilled mods will answer your pressing freelance writing questions; free entry into weekly webinars; free resources like e-courses and recordings of past webinars; and more.

A couple of weeks ago I ran a Renegade Writer contest exclusively for members of my mailing list:

Five readers who bought a copy of my new e-book — A Renegade Writer Kick in the Ass: 30 Riffs from the Renegade Writer Blog to Help You Bust Your Excuses, Light a Fire Under Your Butt, and Become a More Motivated & Productive Freelance Writer — would win free entry into the Basic version of my Write for Magazines 8-week e-course.

I used random.org to pick the winners, and they are:

Rebecca McCormick
Rosemary Wolbert
Brian Mann
J Stewart-Jones
Kate Maas

Congratulations! Winners, please e-mail me to claim your prize.

Interested in my e-course, but didn’t win the contest? The next Write for Magazines session starts on September 3, and you can learn how to craft a kick-butt query letter for whatever you want to pay, with a minimum of just $30.

Students of my course have landed assignments from magazines like Yankee, GRIT, Washington Parent, Woman’s Day, Spirituality & Health, E: The Environmental Magazine, Wines & Vines, Cottage Living, and more.

Here’s the class schedule:

1. Generating Ideas (assignment: come up with three salable ideas)
2. Finding Markets (assignment: choose one of your three ideas to run with for the rest of the course, and find five magazines to send your idea to)
3. Finding Editors (assignment: find out which editor to pitch at each magazine, plus their contact info)
4. Doing Interviews Part I (assignment: set up as many expert interviews as you need – generally 1 to 3)
5. Doing Interviews Part II (assignment: do the interviews)
6. Writing the Title and Lede (assignment: guess what? ;-> Write the title and lede of your query letter)
7. Writing the Body and Closing (assignment: write the body and “why I am so great” paragraph of your query)
8. Sending Your Query (assignment: get that thing out the door!)

Each lesson comes with additional helpful reading, and you’ll also get twice-weekly motivational e-mails to help you stay on track.

Students keep telling me this is the best $30 they’ve ever spent!

Want to kick-start your freelance writing career, break into your favorite market, or reach the next income level? Read the testimonials, download the FAQ, and sign up for Write for Magazines on the Renegade Writer e-course page.

Thanks, and I look forward to helping you reach your writing dreams!

By Tania Dakka.

After staring at a blank screen for the last 20 minutes, trying to write your next viral post (next, right?), you give in and give up. It pains you to let the blankness win, but you concede.

Next stop. Shower. No sooner does the steaming hot liquid permeates your pore than an idea flits into your head.

Dang.

No paper. No pen. No help.

And there she goes. Too bad because it was a good one, too!

It Never Fails

Don’t you hate that? You stress and worry over ideas. You waste precious time searching through Facebook and flipping through your lists on Twitter (pretending that you’re going to actually come up with an idea). Then, you look up and the 15 minutes you intended to spend has turned into an hour.

Productivity averted – again.

Trying to generate ideas online is an occupational no-no. You know that.

So you leave your post to “relax” doing something else. And it never fails that as soon as you’re occupied, that great idea pops into your head. But you’re busy so you let it flit on through because you’re – well – busy.

You’re Out of Focus

You’re geared to work when you’re at your laptop. And you spend so much time at it that you just want a break when you’re away from it.

Don’t get me wrong.

We all love freelancing (as much as a piping hot pizza on a Friday night with our favorite beverage of choice). But, the fact remains, as workaholics, we sabotage ourselves by forcing productivity instead of enabling creativity.

That forced focus time creates the habit of letting go precisely when you should be holding on, but we’re too tired to focus when we’re not supposed to be “focusing.”

Learn To Focus Even When You Let Go

Letting go of the plug is the one thing that your brain needs to release all the greatness packed between your ears.

That’s why your shower is your number one idea generator. Not sitting in front your creativity’s arch-nemesis and standing under a stream of bliss loosens the hold that fear and anxiety have on your psyche.

And by forcing yourself away from your desk or laptop and forgetting what you need to do, you’ll release your Inner Creative Beast.

But beware. Releasing the Beast means you have to be ready to capture whatever ideas flow.

I said capture. Not capture and edit – did you catch that?

You’ll be tempted to critique and edit said greatness. Resist. Resist with all you have. Because your perfectionism is going to let that awesomeness fly right past your ears.

Trap your ideas as they happen. Yes, even in the shower.

Create The Habit Of Capturing Creativity Wherever You Are

With the right tools, you can take hold of your most creative and powerful ideas and keep them for when you need them.

Where You Are: In the Shower

If you’re a technology lover, this won’t be the place that you want to use Evernote. Nor is paper and pen going to help you.

But this handy Scuba Slate is just what you need. And at less than $10, it’s a powerful little investment. Hang it on the wall in the shower. And start writing as soon as any idea hits you. Hang up your editor until you towel off.

Another way not to lose any shower gold is recording your shower. Okay, yeah, it’s not for everybody. But it works. I simply turn on the recorder before stepping in and I start talking as soon as the ideas hit. (Warning: let others k

By Aubre Andrus.

When I began researching freelance writing and analyzing what it would really take to leave the comfort of the cube, I was astounded at the number of articles, books, and blog posts about jumpstarting a full-time freelance career.

I started to get really nervous – do freelance writers only write about freelance writing? Are there no gigs out there beyond writing about writing?

One year after I launched my full-time freelance writing business, it hit me: Everyone else is just too chicken shit to pull the trigger. That’s why there is so much writing about freelance writing.

It’s really no different from exercising. People subscribe to health magazines and read about new workouts and diet fads in hopes of losing weight. Many of those people will never commit to getting in shape or eating right. They think they’ll lose weight by inhaling words instead of food. That first trip to the gym or down the healthy aisle of the grocery store never happens.

And I think writers are no different.

Even the talented ones who are likely to be very successful as a freelancer prefer to dawdle and over-research what it takes to go out on their own. They dream instead of do. But your dreams will not come true until you step over that first hurdle. Take that first leap. Bust your excuses. Start taking action instead of thinking about it.

Let’s be honest – that first step can be a very scary proposition.

If my fiancé and I weren’t planning on moving a few states away for his new job, I may have never quit my desk job and launched my own writing business. It was the kick in the butt I needed.

I started doing instead of thinking. Gathering clients. Pitching businesses. Applying for gigs online. All I could think was, Drum up enough clients by April or your bank account is toast! All those small steps paid off and I had enough work to go solo by mid April.

After a little over one year of full-time freelance writing, I’m still a bit of a chicken. I started to get comfortable doing projects like social media consulting and getting away from the original goals I had set for myself: writing more books and breaking into travel writing. When I realized this about eight months in, it was the next kick in the butt I needed.

It took me too long to gather the confidence I needed, but I finally pitched my dream magazine: National Geographic Traveler. Lucky me, the pitch was accepted and it was published in this month’s issue. BAM. That felt pretty good. One more hurdle down.

But the hurdles will never stop coming.

At a writer’s conference in New York in January, four (FOUR!) agents told me to send them the book idea I pitched. It’s now June and I haven’t even started the manuscript.

Why? Because I’m afraid! Why am I afraid? I don’t believe that most writers are afraid of failure — I think they’re afraid of success. What if life went exactly your way? What if you had a dream job and got to work on exciting projects that you loved?

The thought is so overwhelming that it’s just easier to dream about it instead of laying the groundwork for it. And it’s hard to imagine that overcoming these small hurdles that lay ahead of us now could yield such big results in the long run. But they can.

There’s an Eleanor Roosevelt quote I like: “You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear

We writing bloggers are always telling you what to do: Study your markets. Build relationships with editors. Market, market, market.

But it can be even more important to talk about what not to do — and how to subtract career-damaging attitudes and practices from your life.

Stop doing this: Over-analyzing.

I recently had a mentoring client who wondered why an editor had rewritten her piece. Was the article that bad? Was the tone not right? The editor asked her to interview one source, but should she have included two just in case?

From the book Women Who Think Too Much, I learned that women especially tend to try to think their way out of situations, which in reality just keeps them mired in the muck of their overactive minds.

Instead of getting stuck in analysis paralysis, take action: Pick up the phone and call the editor to find out why she rewrote your piece, asked you to do something in a certain way you don’t understand, or made a comment you’re just not getting. It’s the only way to find out the truth of the situation.

Stop doing this: Sending LOIs to national publications.

Yes, I extol the virtues of the Letter of Introduction (LOI). They’re great for breaking into trade and custom magazines.

But sadly, they’re not so great at getting your foot in the door at Cosmopolitan, Esquire, Psychology Today, Parenting, or the rest of the glossy consumer magazines — unless you’re über famous.

These publications have hundreds of writers contacting them each week with well thought-out pitches, so if all you have to offer is “Here I am, don’t I rock?” then you’re going to look shabby next to the writers who approach the editors with stellar queries.

Not sure how to write a query letter? The next session of my 8-week Write for Magazines e-course starts in September 3, 2012, and the Basic version is Pay What You Want with a minimum payment of just $30. And…join my mailing list to get a free packet of 10 queries that rocked.

Stop doing this: Complaining about the writing business.

These days, editors who aren’t interested in your idea often don’t respond, even to send a rejection. Content mills pay pennies per word, if that. Some magazines are using citizen (read: free) journalists and bloggers to write their articles. Magazines are going under.

Suck it up.

Smart writers are using these difficult times to their advantage, riding the wave of exciting changes to build their bank accounts.

For example, I make a lot of my living mentoring and teaching writers who are sick of the content mills how to break out of that box and make a living freelancing. I also have mostly stopped pitching newsstand magazines and make most of my writing income from trade and custom publications.

Other writers are finding ways to earn income through their blogs by selling e-books and other products, finding underserved niches for their copywriting, and offering clients new media consulting and services.

The writers I hear complaining the most about the state of writing are the ones who are stuck in the past, mourning the way things used to be.

Ditch the negative and embrace the exhilarating changes that are taking place all around you in this industry.

Stop doing this: Apologizing for