How to be a good freelance journalist
Shane Hegarty
Via Lifehacker comes a useful link to a page on the 10 Biggest Mistakes Freelancers Make. It’s for an American freelancer, rather than the Irish hack trying to make his/her way in the small pond of Irish journalism. But Irish newspapers and magazines increasingly rely on freelancers, and will never ignore good ones.
Among this article’s ‘things to avoid’, perhaps the best are “Missing deadlines” and the less obvious “Not having multiple income streams” – in other words, a freelancer has to be reliable, but they can’t rely on the publication to be the same.
From my experience as a commissioning editor, here are some extra tips on becoming a good Irish freelancer. Read it, remember it, and I’ll be handing out certificates at the end of semester.
- The best are those who file on time, to word length, and without fuss. To work for a variety of publications, you really have to be regimented and disciplined.
- It’s helps to have a speciality. Every second journalism student wants to write about music or movies, but it’s a crowded market. There aren’t a hell of a lot of people keen to become, say, an industry correspondent, but it’s a more open field.
- Good freelancers make it as easy as possible for an editor to commission a piece. They give them a good idea, with plenty of background, a time, deadline, photo opportunities.
- Those starting off should write the piece first. An idea is a start, but many editors are reluctant to commission someone unless they know that they can write well.
- Which leads us, neatly, to the most obvious thing about good freelancers: It helps if a freelancer can write.
2:22 pm
Do blog comments count towards convincing prospective commissioning editors of a freechancer’s ability to write?
Comment by markg