Customer Reviews

Make a Real Living as a Freelance Writer: How to Win Top Writing Assignments

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If Jenna's book was around when I went full-time a few months ago, I would probably have more work than I know what to do with. As it is I have tripled my response rate on queries and my productivity has skyrocketed.

How? Simple. This book is like camping out in the personal office of a professional freelancer.

Jenna offers invaluable insights about queries, markets, resources and how to maximize on your time. Sidebars filled with websites that all freelancers should be privy to are peppered throughout each chapter. Real life scenarios play out between the pages and you learn what works and what doesn't with supermarket publications like Family Circle and Woman's Day. Interviews with successful writers and seasoned editors reveal the keys to making it into the acceptance pile.

Queries? Jenna answers all the questions by disclosing her personal methods. Simultaneous Submissions? Always. Email pitches? You Bet. Multiple ideas queries? Why Not?

She delves into interviewing, syndication, contracts, copyrights, and everything else that a newbie and even pros should brush up on.

Even if your shelves are filled with other books on the business of writing and even if you subscribe to all the best newsletters, you still need this book.

Barbra Annino
www.barbraannino.com

Book Review by Maryanne Raphael, Writers World

Sustain a Lucrative Career while Wearing Pajamas
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MAKE A REAL LIVING AS A FREELANCE WRITER explains how to be successful "in today's publishing climate where the Internet rules and stamps are nearly obsolete and the articles that earned front-page headlines last decade wouldn't even get short blurbs today." The book shows how to earn top dollars writing for magazines, how to write a marketable story, how to know what sections of a magazine welcome freelancers, how to market reprints, and how to become an expert in your chosen field.
Author Jenna Glatzer is the editor-in-chief of Absolute Write and author of Outwitting Writer's Block. She is a full time writer from NYC who has published 9 books and hundreds of articles. Her style makes reading fun with her quick wit, vast experience, knowledge of her subject and her use of meaningful quotes, relevant anecdotes and helpful resources.
She says, "You'll have to learn where to find writing markets and how to study them, write irresistible query letters, make editors fall in love with you, get regular assignments, negotiate, make deadbeats pay up and more." She helps discover your strengths and how to use them.,, shows you how to set goals, see writing as a business and get started.
"You must find something worth telling to a mass audience," she says, "and convince the `powers that be' that you're the right person to tell it."
She even tells how to make the most of rejection slips, how to network, write a column, interview, write for the Internet, have a Web Site, and make your article timely. She shows how to become your editor's favorite by being "reliable, accurate, nice, respectful of the editor's time and by proposing plenty of new ideas with regularity."
Author Glatzer helps readers learn from her mistakes as well as her achievements. After stating that big magazines do not want stories that have appeared elsewhere, she tells how she goofed once . "You shouldn't be a dummy like me and actually emphasize this as a selling point in your query."
The book tells everything you need to know about taxes once you start earning money from your writing. By the time you finish this book, according to the author, "You'll have the insider knowledge you need to figure out what sells to whom and how to build up and sustain a lucrative career while wearing pajamas." I'd recommend the book to anyone who wants to try freelance writing.

This was an easy-to-read book written with a "you can do it" attitude - good for writers who are new to the field or are trying to break into bigger markets.

The book is a good mix of the author's experience (what worked and what she learned from mistakes she made), and quotes from editors and other established writers.

Very helpful were the websites with additional helpful information, like a fax site where you can receive your faxes by e-mail at no cost (i.e. no need for a fax machine), websites for writers, websites for finding sources, etc.

Also helpful were sections on negotiating contracts, how to pitch a story, how to study the market for your work (and the importance in doing so), how fact checking works, and how to find story ideas (and spin them off into even more ideas).

If you're the type who does well with assignments, the book has assignments you can do like one on coming up with ideas.

The book is less how to write, than the mechanics behind getting assignments and following through on them. It takes the mystique out of the process. I ended up earmarking a bunch of pages to go back to, and have already used some of the information (mainly websites) to further my own writing.

You could easily finish this book in one sitting; Glatzer's tone is amicable and the information is very accessible. My favorite aspect is that there are many quotes from editors of the most popular magazines (Woman's Day, etc.), as well as lots of other tips specific to magazines that are in my chosen women's genre.
Glatzer uses a great method of coming up with story ideas; you take a very general concept - she used cats as her example, and then she suggests categories pertaining to cats (or whatever your general concept may be) that are a bit more specific. Fill out her chart completely and you'll arrive at 10+ different article topics. I've alread made a spreadsheet mimicing her chart and plan to use this once a week to brainstorm article ideas.
For the aspiring freelance magazine writer, this book is extremely useful!

Most books on writing should be "evergreen" and able to last throughout the ages. Well, unfortunately Jenna Glatzer's "Make A Real Living as a Freelance Writer" is not one of them. Here's my main peeves with this book, which promised a whole lot from previous reviews but just did not deliver much to me:

1) A number of the links are outdated, especially regarding writing classes.

2) A lot of what she says anyone who has ever owned a copy of the "Writer's Market" or read even one issue of a magazine such as "Writer's Digest" should already know.

This book may work for total beginners, but for anyone who has freelance experience, this book is a really serious disappointment. I wish I had not purchased this book, and I rarely say that about any work - let alone a writing book.

MAKE A REAL LIVING AS A FREELANCE WRITER is a definitive guide for
individuals seeking a career in this arena. Jenna Glatzer shares that
when she began freelancing she made numerous mistakes. And although
she had taken a few writing courses, no one taught her how to sell
articles or columns. Additionally, the library offered very little
assistance; most of the material was outdated, or, if current it did
not offer good business advice. So she saw a need for this book.

Because writing is such a volatile market, in 2001, the writer's union
conducted a study to see how the market, for freelance writers, has
changed over four decades. In real dollars, freelance rates have declined
more than fifty percent since the sixties. Major magazines offered one
dollar per word in 1966 and in 1998 the rate was the same. She stresses
one key point: to make a living as a freelance writer you must be more
knowledgeable than eighty-four percent of the writers in the business
and you must be be properly armed to compete with the remaining sixteen
percent.

Jeanna Glatzer, now in the top sixteen percent of freelancers, is the
editor and chief of AbsoluteWrite.com, one of the most poplar online
magazines for writers, and has published nine books on the subject.
MAKE A REAL LIVING AS A FREELANCE WRITER consists of 17 chapters which
share some important steps to gain success in one of the hardest literary
arenas to earn a living. Glatzer feels confident that by the time you
finish this book you will have the necessary ingredients to compete
with established writers and win top writing assignments. If you aspire
to enter the world of freelance writers this book is a great investment.

Reviewed by aNN
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

I have many books on freelance writing. And I have had some luke-warm results in my relatively new freelance career. But, the books I have read in the past were either written too text-booky- or were filled with things that every other book contained- it just had a different title!

However, reading Glatzer's book was a great change of pace. It was not even the content- but her voice that made it such a great read. She is a passionate freelancer with wonderful success- yet in reading her words, I realize that she once was just like me. It was personal and uplifting and tongue-in-cheek at times- her style matches mine. So this book meshed well with my personality, and therefore, it has rejuvanated my spirits that my work can one day be in major magazines.

Her book told real stories- real successes and real roadblocks. Seeing real magazine names and all her other true stories gives her an immense amount of credibility. Her willingness to share is wonderful.

Look at some other freelance books- are they from successful writers that you have heard of, or can easily find clips of? Not really- they are from someone who wants to write- and therefore tells others how-- not with Glatzer.

I am actually taking a magazines class now, and I gave the book to my profressors- I think it should be demanded by journalism professors everywhere to open students to the world of freelancing!

Listen up all you hopeful magazine writers: YOU MUST BUY THIS BOOK!

And NO, borrowing it from the library is not going to cut it. Why? Because you'll get frustrated that you won't be able to dog-ear and mark up the pages that are loaded with insider tips. I have been a freelance writer for four years. I know that if you'll follow Jenna's advice, particularly her guidance on query letters, you will soon have the confidence to bang on the doors of your dream markets -- and start getting assignments. Unfortunately, there's no magic wand, as editors frequently nix ideas they simply doesn't like -- but the rejections won't be because your queries lack focus or interest. As well, your income will quickly grow if you complete Jenna's worksheets, and crystalize your short and long term goals. Perhaps the best thing about Jenna's book is its contagious enthusiasm. You CAN have the writing career you want.


Sheri Bell-Rehwoldt
www.Bell-Rehwoldt.com

I just finished reading this book and I found it worthy enough for review. Glatzer's book is full of tips, secrets, and exercises to jump start your freelance writing career.

I found myself marking important advice that the author offers. By the end I had a custom copy of the book with the parts most relevant to me highlighted. Now with one glance, I can check whether my query letters are up to snuff or when I should check back with an editor.

Somehow the author has created a work which serves as both a guide to the new freelancer and a reference to the seasoned one. The real value here is the further you get into your career, the less important the guide aspect of the book becomes.

I was considering giving it four stars because I'm a technology writer and the author writes for more mainstream, national magazines. This isn't her fault, of course. Any writer can gain a lot from this book.

Perhaps the best way to sum up the review is if you are an aspiring, 21st century writer who wants to make real money freelancing, buy this book.

This book is an absolute must for any writer who is serious about making a real living through freelancing. Jenna Glatzer is a freelancer who has been there and back, and she freely shares her experiences in painstaking detail. The reader will learn the business from A to Z, including how to select a topic, how to indentify and approach markets, how to query properly, and how to ingratiate oneself with finicky editors. There's even sound advice on how to manage one's writing business, and it's all written in Glatzer's down-to-earth, conversational style. A wonderful road map for the highway to writing success!