If you are in need of a reliable freelance writer, contact me and let’s talk about how I can help you with your feature article, speech, book, or marketing materials. My rates are competitive and I don’t miss deadlines. Rush jobs are usually okay, but sometimes require an additional fee. All consultations are free of charge.

My goal is to inspire the reader and send them away with additional knowledge and awareness. The written word has the power to move people to feel, act, learn and grow. Expressive, creative communication is a must even in today’s technology-driven world.

Let me help you reach your communication goals.

At some point I will provide small excerpts of my work on my website, but due to plagiarism concerns and contracts with my clients, I will not be able to post my entire portfolio for public viewing. Until I work through what I can and cannot publish here, please contact me to see examples of my work.

When I got the idea to write an article on how to get started in freelancing, I was eager to begin. So thrilled, in fact, that I promptly went to my desk, turned on my computer, and went right to work — reading The Onion.

We all know what a big time waster surfing the Internet can be. But did you think about all the other distractions in your life that are keeping you from having a prolific and successful writing career? With a little preparation and dedication to your craft, you, too, can find your name on a byline – the next time you do a “Google” search on yourself.

Here, step by step, are the things you need to do beginning right now, to start your career as a freelance writer. Do all of them, and I promise you your work will be published somewhere by this time next year. (And you can email me if it isn’t – really).

GETTING STARTED

The first hurdle to beginning a writing career is, oddly enough, not the actual writing. It’s convincing those in your life — including yourself — that you have a job, and that job requires you to put in work hours that actually count, not ones where you’re simultaneously holding a child, making dinner and folding towels, all while talking on the telephone. If you want to have a writing career, you have to run your work like an actual business.

MAKE AN INVESTMENT … Let’s say you decide to open a frozen yogurt shop. You’d probably need to visit a bank for some investment money, and then you’d do everything you could in that first year to recoup your investment. Since you’re building a writing career, you’ll need motivation to keep going, and recoup the investment of time (and some expense) you’ll be throwing into your work. So, decide on an investment amount, and work towards it. It can be an arbitrary number, or a goal of three bylines by next Fall.

GET PROFESSIONAL …Get a good computer, high speed Internet access if you can, fax capability, a printer, stationery, business cards, and the like. Decide on a look and feel for your writing career. Build a website. Make everything integrated and make your business your own color. Decide on a name, even if it’s just your name.

FIND SPACE …Whether it’s the second floor study in your million-dollar mansion, or a card table in the corner of your studio apartment, find a place for your stuff and make it your office. You need an area that is all yours, used only by you, for writing. Stephen King used to write out of his laundry room.

MAKE A SCHEDULE … If you are building a writing career on the heels of another one, you might work in the evenings or on weekends. Some of you may work while the kids are at school, and others may craft out a more traditional workweek. Whatever your situation, decide how many hours a week you are going to devote to writing, then schedule the exact time you will work on a calendar. Distribute this calendar to family members and make it clear that during these times, you will be working, and you are not to be disturbed unless the house is on fire. (And even then, if you’re in the middle of a really good paragraph, you might need to be left alone)

SPREAD THE WORD … Inform friends, family, acquaintances and strangers of your new writing venture. Practice saying, “I’m a writer.” “I’m writing now.” “If you ever need a writer…” You’d be surprised at the number of leads this can generate once you’ve gotten the word out.

WHAT TO WRITE?

The writing community is split on whether writers should take assignments for no pay or not. Some people feel it gives them the all-important clips for the portfolio, and sometimes it opens the door to a relationship with an editor. Others say it’s outrageous to expect someone to lend their talents for free, and advocate going only to paying markets. I fall somewhere in the middle. Let me tell you how.

There are plenty of markets out there that pay a very low amount for articles and sidebars. For a beginning writer, these places can be very useful, but with one caveat: don’t take on an article that requires a lot of time and research. If you write about what you know, you can knock out a project or two, get the clips you want, and you’re not out a lot of time in the process (you might even have earned a few bucks along the way). For instance, if you are a lifelong lover of African violets and have always grown this kind of plant, you might be able to get an article in a gardening magazine or community newspaper about “How to Grow African Violets.” You’d want to do a little fact-checking, of course, but you could write the article quickly for the most part, just based on your own expertise in this area. But you wouldn’t want to accept an assignment for a small publication that doesn’t pay much if it requires you to write 2,000 words on the pros and cons of interstate bridge reconstruction. It just wouldn’t pay.

Another place to look for low and non-paying assignments is the Internet. E-zines and content sites are always on the lookout for articles, and there’s another benefit to your byline: when prospective editors or clients do a Google search on your name to find out about you (and they surely will), your byline will come up on various sites as having written something. Your website will also pop up, we hope, and you’ll seem much more credible even if you haven’t done very much large circulation work.

As a general rule, I wouldn’t encourage any writer – beginning or otherwise – to take on a low or no-pay assignment if it required them to spend a lot of time working on it. Imagine if you were a plumber, and someone asked you to come unclog their sink … for FREE … or, for a small fee of say, five dollars. How offensive! There are plenty of places who are open to working with unpublished writers, and many of them pay. Therefore, I don’t believe it’s worth your time to crawl on the bottom when you should be floating/swimming to the top.

Also, as long as you write for a non-paying market that doesn’t buy all rights, you can always submit the article to a paying publication, with appropriate readership changes. So just because you did all that work at first for very little pay, does not mean it won’t pay off at some other time in some other publication.

GETTING PUBLISHED

Ah, there’s the rub. You can’t get clips without being published, but you can’t get published without clips. Actually, it’s not so bad.

You read every day — that means someone is providing that content. When you are first starting out, I advocate hitting smaller publications while at the same time, knocking on the doors of some larger outfits, as well. It never hurts. The worst they can do is say no…or, as is the case in this business all too often, nothing…and you are no worse off than you would be had you not asked.

Consider sending queries to:

* High School and College Alumnae Publications
* Regional Magazines
* Op/Ed Pieces and Personal Essays in Newspapers and Magazines
* Shorts in Mid-Size and Larger Publications
* Neighborhood and Local Association Newsletters
* Business Trade Publications

Publications are always on the lookout for good, reliable writers. They can’t exist without them. But the key word here is, “good.” Editors have an arsenal of cocktail party conversation about flaky writers who were given assignments and just didn’t complete them; or, who just didn’t turn in what the editor was looking for. It seems like a no-brainer, but if you are smart, dependable and easy to work with, editors will keep you on their speed dial.

Good luck starting your writing career!

After 4 years, Carol moved to Dallas, Texas where she worked in human resources and organizational culture, helping a Fortune 500 company revitalize their workforce and introduce work/life programs to the corporate environment. Although it was rewarding to implement culture changes and watch a company transform from the “old way” of doing business to a much more enlightened way, Carol realized that writing was really what she wanted to do, so she launched her freelance writing career in 1997.

She worked as a Guide for About.com, and then the opportunity to write newspaper features and magazine articles soon followed. Soon, Carol found her niche in writing pieces “from the heart” about current events, politics, and everyday life. In the Fall of 2003 she was asked to co-author the book “Bossholes: Bosses Behaving Badly,” a humorous look at toxic bosses in the workplace and the effect it has on employees and ultimately, the bottom line.

Carol is currently providing copywriting content to a political consulting firm and contributing articles to national magazines. She used to frequently provide content to Fusion Magazine, published by Glenn Beck and Mercury Radio Arts. She provided content to Beck’s book, “Arguing With Idiots” (September, 2009) and “An Inconvenient Book: Real Solutions to the World’s Biggest Problems,” (November, 2007). She has provided on-air essays to a national radio show and scripts for video presentations during stage shows. Her independent projects include adapting a screenplay, compiling a series of essays for syndication, and assisting others in completing their book projects.

One of the most exciting benefits to being a writer is being able to meet a variety of people and explore interesting topics. Carol is infinitely curious and is an avid researcher. She often writes sentimental and emotional essays that explore common human elements, and enjoys teaching her readers as she brings them along on her own journey of discovery.