1192. How do you get your first writing jobs when you don’t have much experience? Grammar Girl shares stories from her own early career and offers advice on finding a niche, spotting opportunities, making industry connections, timing your outreach, and building a reputation as a reliable hire.
1192. How do you get your first writing jobs when you don’t have much experience? Grammar Girl shares stories from her own early career and offers advice on finding a niche, spotting opportunities, making industry connections, timing your outreach, and building a reputation as a reliable hire.
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| HOST: Mignon Fogarty
| Grammar Girl is part of the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network.
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Grammar Girl here. I'm Mignon Fogarty, and before we get started, I have two quick announcements.
First, we're switching to a summer schedule, which means the Tuesday show will have just one topic for a few months instead of two. That's how the show actually started and ran for many years, so you could say I'm getting back to my roots!
And second, this episode is part of a "Life After Graduation" series we're doing at the QDT network, so if you know of students or families in that phase of life, tell your friends and check out all the episodes. We have themed shows this week on nutrition, mental health, money, and first jobs. There's a link to the series in the show notes.
Around this time of year — as new college graduates are hitting the cold reality of the working world — I start getting questions about how to find work as a writer. How did I get started? What advice can I share?
Well, when I got my undergraduate degree in English, I had no idea how to get a job. None. I was the first person in my family to graduate from college, so getting a degree was the big goal for me. Nobody gave me much career counseling, and I didn’t know enough to look for it myself.
So I struggled to find a job, and I was really close to having to move back home to live with my parents. I worked in direct sales for a while selling signs, and it was awful. I went home and cried every night. But then I landed a job at an insurance brokerage owned by a friend’s father. They were really nice people, and I was incredibly grateful to have a job. And I liked working there … but it wasn’t what I wanted to do forever.
At the same time, I had a friend who had just graduated with a political science degree and had started working for political groups, writing pieces that were getting placed in newspapers. I was astonished. I mean, I was the writer. I was the English major who had written for the school paper in high school and college.
So I thought about it and realized that what he had that I didn't have was a niche: politics. He had something to write about, and I didn’t.
It took me many more years and a roundabout path, but I finally ended up with a master's in biology and as much work as I could handle as a science writer and editor. Learning to write about something complicated turned out to be an especially great edge because not many people can understand medicine and biology and write well.
And you actually don’t need an advanced degree to become a science writer or, I imagine, a writer in any complicated field, but if you’re just starting out, immersing yourself in a difficult field so you can write about it intelligently and with insight is what I recommend. You will have less competition, and these tend to be smaller universes, so once you get a little experience, it will be easier to network.
So when you’re just getting started, you need to look for an opening. For me, a laboratory fire at UC Santa Cruz was my first big break — it got me my first freelance writing assignment for the magazine “The Scientist.”
I heard about the fire from a friend on campus, and I immediately cold-called the editorial offices. Because I already read the magazine, I was pretty sure it’d be the kind of thing they’d run. My main pitching point was that I was physically in Santa Cruz — that I could go up to campus right away, see what was going on, interview people, take pictures, and write about it quickly. They said yes and didn’t even ask about my experience, and because I did a good job, my next pitches were welcome, and writing for “The Scientist” became my first regular gig.
So one implied tip in that story is that you should be regularly reading the publications you want to write for. You have to know what they’ve already covered so you don’t look clueless pitching something they just ran, and you have to be familiar with the tone and scope of the stories so you pitch pieces that are appropriate.
Another strategy that’s tied to geography is to offer to cover conferences in your hometown or that you’ll be attending anyway. This works especially well for trade magazines that may be interested in the event but not have the budget to send someone. If you’re going to be there anyway, it’s a good way to get your foot in the door without a lot of experience.
Next, joining writing and trade associations is another way to find out about opportunities. When I was starting out as a science writer, I joined the National Association of Science Writers, and later the American Medical Writers Association. You should engage in the discussion groups or social media pages and go to the events and meet people. A large part of getting a job or getting new clients or assignments is who you know because a lot of freelance opportunities are never posted anywhere.
If you’re shy and have a hard time making small talk, volunteer to help in some way. You could set up the room or offer to contact potential speakers — anything that gives you a reason to talk to people.
Also, I know a lot of people don't do business cards anymore, but I still like them. When you give someone a physical card, it makes you harder to forget. At the very least, people will probably put your card in their pocket or bag and think of you again when they take it out after the event, and you never know: they might follow you on social media or even keep the card and see it on their desk or in a drawer when they need help in the future. It's a really affordable way to get in front of people at least one more time after you've met.
And speaking of social media, I think the minimum is having a complete profile on LinkedIn, and I think it can help you even more if you write posts somewhere online about your industry. I always check people's social media posts before I do any hiring, so think about whether what people see will make them want to hire you.
Another way to get your foot in the door is to write when nobody else wants to. Look hard for work around the holidays. Many established writers will turn down work in December, but businesses still need things written.
One part of finding new clients as a freelancer is just being in the right place when someone desperately needs help and is willing to take a chance on a new writer, so a well-timed "just checking in" message can work wonders. These days, I would definitely turn down work because of the holidays, but when I was just getting started, I picked up a lot of new assignments and clients in November and December.
Another good time of year to put your search in overdrive is at the end of a fiscal year. Big companies and government agencies often have money left at the end of the fiscal year, and if they don’t spend it, they lose it. Find out when the fiscal year ends for people you want to work for, and drop them a line or call them to say hello around that time.
Many companies end their fiscal year December 31, but not all. The U.S. government ends its fiscal year September 30, and Investopedia says Microsoft ends its fiscal year on the last day of June, and Walmart ends its fiscal year at the end of January.
If your dream client is a public company, you can check its SEC filings to figure out when it ends its fiscal year, and it can be worth it. I picked up lots of work from people who found themselves with money to spend and only a couple of weeks to spend it. I even had a client who prepaid me for work a couple of times so she wouldn't lose the money.
Also, when you’re just getting started, don’t be afraid to ask for help and advice; you have nothing to lose but a little dignity, and you’ll probably even get to keep it. Right after I graduated, I met a couple of people at a party who freelanced for the local newspaper, and I wanted to ask them for introductions and advice, but I was too afraid, and I was being ridiculous. What did I have to lose? Maybe they would have thought I was annoying, but I never saw them again anyway.
More likely, they would have loved to talk about their jobs and pass on bits of useful information. Most people love to talk about their work, and if you’re not pressuring them to give you a job or an introduction immediately, they’re usually happy to give you advice, which can start out as general advice but become more specific if they like you. Just make friends. If they work in the industry you want to be in, you probably have a lot in common anyway.
Finally, once you get assignments, move heaven and earth to do a good job. It’s absolutely shocking how many writers miss their deadlines. Make your deadlines. Author Mur Lafferty said this best on a panel at the WorldCon conference about writing games, but it applies to all writing situations: If you get a reputation for being dependable, you’re more likely to get work. Even if you’re not the most brilliant writer editors know, if they know you’ll turn in decent work on time, you are much more likely to get hired than the brilliant writer who is always late.
And if you've been given a word-count target — hit it. Don't turn in something really long and tell the editor you'll leave it for them to cut it down. If you really can't decide what they'd like, at least highlight parts that could be deleted; but in general, the person who's giving you an assignment is hoping it comes in needing as little work as possible. And if your work comes in clean and finished, they're more likely to hire you again.
In the end, it still comes back to who you know, and that can work for or against you. So build a reputation as a solid, dependable writer who's easy to work with, and after a few years, work will be a lot easier to find.
And finally, I came across a great book about freelancing a few years ago called “The Essential Guide to Freelance Writing” by Zachary Petit. I never taught freelancing when I was a college professor, but if I had, it’s the book I would have used, because it’s full of advice like I just gave you from my own experience and more.
So happy graduation to those of you who are just leaving school, and good luck to you and those who are a little more experienced but also looking for freelance work.
And don't forget to check out our other shows this week for new graduates. Money Girl, Nutrition Diva, Modern Mentor, and the Savvy Psychologist all have special shows for you.
Next, before we get to the familect, Glenda had another fun "bee's knees"-type saying to share.
Hi, Grammar Girl, this is Glenda. I was just finishing listening to your "bee's knees" podcast, when it made me think of one of my favorite books, "Have His Carcase" by Dorothy L. Sayers. And when Lord Peter Wimsey, her sleuth, is talking to someone about the case — a former girlfriend of the deceased — and the young woman's current love interest says, "Ain't she just the snail's ankles?" Anyway, I got a kick out of the "bee's knees" explanation. Have a great day; really love the podcast. Bye.
Thanks, Glenda! You made me curious about the book, so I looked it up. Wikipedia says it's a locked-door mystery from 1932, and the title appears in William Cowper's translation of Book II of Homer's "Iliad": "The vulture's maw / Shall have his carcase, and the dogs his bones," and the phrase also appears in "The Pickwick Papers" by Charles Dickens as a play on the phrase "habeas corpus." And it ties into a big part of the book, which is a missing body.
As for the word itself, "carcase" is an older spelling of "carcass," meaning a body, and the Oxford English Dictionary says "carcass" is a borrowing from French, and the "carcase" spelling is from Middle English in the 1500s. It looks weird to me as a modern American, but from about 1840 to 1970, the "carcase" spelling was the most common spelling in British English, so Sayers wasn't doing anything tricky with the title — no automobile pun that ties into the plot or anything like that. And I'm not sure how that spelling was pronounced; it might have sounded just like "carcass" … but I don't know.
Thanks for the call!
Finally, I have a familect story from Carolina.
Hi, Mignon. I'm Carolina, and I have a familect for you, as well as a question.
So my familect came about before I was born. My mom was a little girl eating supper, and my grandma asked my grandpa whether he wanted cake or pie for dessert. My grandpa simply replied, "Yes."
And so my grandma cut him a small slice of cake and a small slice of pie, and he had a bit of both. My family now carries this tradition on every time we have two desserts or more for holidays, or parties, or events. And we will declare, "I'm having a yes," and then we will sample a bit of each dessert.
So, when we use "yes" in this context, we are treating it like a noun. But it made me realize that I don't actually know what part of speech "yes" is supposed to be.
If I say, "He said, 'yes'," then "yes" is the noun and object of "said." It's part of the verb phrase, right? There's also a verse I thought of—it's 2 Corinthians 1:20 and it says, "For all the promises of God find their 'yes' in Jesus." This verse is also using "yes" as a noun.
But if someone asks me if I like the blue wallpaper and I say, "Yes," what part of speech is that?
Regardless, my family will continue using "yes" to mean we'd like to sample all the desserts. So, if you're having to choose between apple pie or chocolate cake, simply have a "yes." Thank you, Mignon.
Thanks, Carolina. I love the story, and I actually had to look up "yes" to be sure. Both Merriam-Webster and the Oxford English Dictionary say "yes" is an adverb when you use it to answer a question.
Grammar Girl is a Quick and Dirty Tips podcast. Thanks to Morgan Christianson; Rebekah Sebastian; Maram Elnagheeb; Steven Schapansky; Holly Hutchings; Dan Feierabend; and Nat Hoopes, who couldn’t say his R's until 4th grade.
And I'm Mignon Fogarty, better known as Grammar Girl.
That's all. Thanks for listening.