The Beginner's Guide to Freelance Writing
Table of Contents
- The Big Idea: Becoming an expert
- Researching the markets
- The Killer Query
- Interviews and Profiles
- The Sales
- To Spec or Not to Spec
- The Right To Write
- Recycling your Big Ideas!
- Professional “Extras”
8. Recycling Your Big Ideas
This is the bread and butter of freelance writing. It’s also called re-slanting. Once you’ve got the Big Idea, don’t waste it by only using it once. Use the information you’ve gathered and come up with off-shoot ideas. Slant it to appeal to different markets.
You’re afraid because of the issue of “rights” that we just discussed, right? (No pun intended.) Well, you have nothing to fear, provided the new article is sufficiently different in content and intended audience. If you’ve managed to sell your article to a major national magazine, it is considered poor form to try to sell a re-slanted version to another national magazine.
However, if you’re dealing with regional, specialized, or small publications, there should be very little overlap of intended audience. Therefore, an editor from Alabama Aristocrats would probably never know if you sold a re-slanted version of your piece to Guitarists Today. Even if they did know, they almost certainly would not care.
It is standard and accepted practice, for the simple reason that it is darn difficult to make a living as a writer. If you have the choice between making $100 for selling your piece to one small publication, or making $1000 by selling altered versions to eight different small publications, which would you choose?
Re-slanting an article is easy, since you’ve already done the bulk of the research. Scrounge up a few new quotes, and use the information you left out of the first article. Focus it on the new desired market.
For example, I could sell an article about the health benefits of meditation to a fitness magazine. A few alterations, and that same article becomes “Religions Encouraging Meditation” for my local newspaper’s “Society” pages. Then it becomes “Meditation Makes You Smarter” for the college market. Then, “Meditate Your Stress Away” for a working woman’s magazine. And I didn’t even mention all those new age/holistic publications. What a field day!
With just a few more questions posed to your trusted “experts,” you’ve got a whole new article. And, look! You’re becoming an expert yourself. This is how you begin to find your niche—a few specific subjects that you feel comfortable writing about. Ah, soon those journalists will be coming to YOU with their questions.
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Copyright © 1999-2003 by Jenna Glatzer
Jenna Glatzer is the editor-in-chief of www.absolutewrite.com. She is a full-time writer with hundreds of national and online credits, recently including Prevention, Physical, Contemporary Bride, Woman's World, Woman's Own, Writer's Digest, Match.com, and Salon.com. She is the author of Outwitting Writer's Block and Other Problems of the Pen and several other books that you can find here: http://www.absolutewrite.com/jenna/books.htm.
This document last modified Sunday, 02-Mar-2008 21:21:43 EST
Tidbits & Stuff was born on Thursday, March 9, 2006
© 2006, 2007, 2008 Felicia A. Williams
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