Writing Outside the Profession
When you're looking for ways to boost your professional visibility, writing for the profession should be high on your list of action items. This lets you demonstrate your expertise, your interest in key issues within the LIS community, and your ability to organize your ideas and express them effectively — all important to prospective employers.
However, if you can write for the LIS profession, you can also probably write for venues outside of it (and possibly pick up some additional income in the process). Writing for multiple venues also allows you to explore a broader range of personal and professional interests — and writing voices — than might otherwise be possible within the more formal expectations of LIS publications.
Writing and Your Career: A Great Transferable Skill
From a career development standpoint, the ability to write well and for a diverse range of audiences is one of the most effective transferable skills you can possess. If you can write for a business publication, you can probably write well in any business setting. If you can translate your research on a topic into an engaging consumer-focus article, you can most likely write well for the web.
If you can write a good how-to article, you can quickly learn how to write understandable product or process documentation, online tutorials, and instructional design pieces. And, if you can create a fun, upbeat article on a topic that interests you, you may have an aptitude for all types of marketing writing.
Writing for non-LIS publications gives you an opportunity to practice your "diverse range of audiences" skills, while combining your LIS knowledge with other areas of interest. Good at reference and research? Think about writing an article for the local business publication (or chamber of commerce newsletter) about funding resources available to women starting their own businesses. Teach your library's web-tutorial courses for seniors? How about writing an article for a seniors publication about helping your grandkids find scholarship resources on the web? Are you a cataloger who loves music? Perhaps you could write an article about ways to organize a large personal music collection, evaluating the available software options.
Because LIS professionals know how to find and organize information, they can write on a vast range of topics, for all sorts of audiences. It's a great way to practice your writing skills, develop and refine multiple writing "voices," and pick up some extra money, to boot.
What to Consider First
The best way to think about your writing options is first to figure out what you have to offer.
What do you know about, or what interests you enough to learn about? This might be contemporary jazz, quilting, American history, grandparenting, women entrepreneurs, or any of hundreds of other topics. The point here is to identify those things that engage you enough that you'd enjoy writing about them.
Next, how many "voices" can you — or would you like to be able to — write in? After graduate school, most of us have "academic" down cold, but how about writing humorous, how-to, or thought pieces, for kids, for business, or for a specific demographic (e.g., seniors or people with disabilities)? This will help you determine the types of publications you might want to target.
Last, do some brainstorming about what topics you might want to write about within the subject areas you identified. For example, if you've decided you're interested in women entrepreneurs, you might want to consider articles on organizations and online resources for women entrepreneurs, how to land government contracts for women entrepreneurs, or a profile of an interesting women entrepreneur in your city.
Explore Your Options
Once you've got some ideas in mind, the next step is to figure out who might be interested in publishing your work. The annual Writer's Market is a good first start for getting an overall sense of what publications exist in your area of interest, their requirements, and often what they pay. This well-known resource also covers query letters and tips and advice. (The accompanying website provides even more information if you decide to do a lot of writing; $3.99/month).
Mediabistro is another good resource for finding writing gigs and exploring the entire spectrum of writing opportunities. It's fun to read about the new types of opportunities popping up, and to check out their freelance resources and information-sharing.
But also look around your local scene. Are there publications that accept articles from less-experienced writers, or ones that specifically solicit writing from the community? These can be great places to start your writing activities.
Consider also writing for websites that feature online articles; do a web search on your topic to determine the leading sites. Advertiser-supported websites often purchase articles in exactly the same way as do print publications. Their goal is to bring people to their sites as often as possible, and keep them there as long as possible.
Content is King
Content needs to change often, and is considered key to creating a "sticky" website. So a well-written, engaging, and/or informative 250-500 word article is often just what the editorial director is looking for. And if you can accompany that article with a good digital photograph? Excellent!
Whether print or online, think about all the different "markets" for written content: traditional commercial/consumer magazines; business publications; associations and non-profits that do member magazines, newsletters, or online content; ad-supported special-interest websites; and e-magazines. And don't dismiss blogs — I've recently learned that people who have high visibility as bloggers in specific market niches are often paid to blog on commercial websites because of the following they bring to the site.
Who Pays What
Generally, ad-supported publications (print or online) are more likely to pay for content, anywhere from 5 cents to 50 cents per word, with an additional small amount for a good-quality digital photo to accompany your article. Some pay on receipt of an approved article, others when the article is published or goes online.
But don't hesitate to approach other groups — trade associations, non-profits, foundations, cultural institutions, and publishers of government agency newsletters, for example — to determine whether they might pay for articles also.
The more established a writer you are (the more articles you've had published), the more likely you'll be able to bump the per-word rate up a bit. But if you're just starting out, assume you'll be at the lower end of the scale.
Starting Your Freelance Writing Life
If you're convinced that this type of writing might be for you, one of your biggest questions will be how to find time to write. How will you fit this into your day-to-day life — you know, the one with a full-time job, friends, family commitments, picking up the drycleaning, getting the oil changed?
The good news is there are some pretty easy strategies you can use to get started and continue the momentum, and that's what we'll cover in the next column.