By Ruth E. Thaler-Carter © 2005

Figuring out how to present a patchwork quilt of projects in a resume is a challenge for many editorial freelancers, especially those who offer a variety of services or work on several projects at once. The solution is to “develop a skills-based resume, also sometimes called a functional resume, instead of the traditional reverse-chronology, employment-based model,” said medical writer Sheila Buff in her presentation on “Selling Yourself on Paper” during the 2005 EFA national conference. “The skills-based version is more appropriate for freelancers, because freelancers are looking for gigs from managing editors, not staff positions from the HR department. The skills-based resume lets a client see at a glance whether you're the right freelancer or not.”

Buff compared and contrasted different versions of the same individual's resume to show the basic concepts of such less-than-traditional resume formats. She advised participants to “analyze your career for appropriate skills; target your skills-based resume to the person who will make the hiring decision; and find other ways of presenting yourself on paper, such as business cards – which are especially important for freelancers to have – and brochures.” The caveat for brochures, she noted, is that they must look professional, which can be expensive, and may not be what a potential client is looking for, which makes even a nontraditional resume that much more important.

Katharine "Kat" Nagel -
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Websites

 

 

 

By Ruth E. Thaler-Carter © 2006

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In her 2005 conference session on “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Web Sites,” Katharine “Kat” Nagel outlined ways for editorial freelancers to make their sites work for them rather than against them.

“Web sites are good because they avoid bad stuff and use good stuff,” said Nagel, a tech writer/editor and owner of MasterWork Consulting, Rochester, NY, who designs and critiques Web sites.

The “bad” stuff includes irrelevant content and images, clutter, and lack of clear purpose; the “ugly”: “poor color choices, unreadable text, fuzzy images.”

The “good stuff” includes a strong headline that “grabs attention, describes your most important services, and persuades visitors to stick around,” Nagel said. “Headlines are the most important elements of your site. They must be well-written, memorable, focused on benefits, and formatted properly.”

Navigation – the way visitors move around and use a site – must be “clear, consistent, and obvious,” said Nagel. “Images should be chosen carefully, help prospective clients visualize your products and services, load quickly, and make intangible services feel real.”

An “About Us” page with the freelancer’s background information and photo, certifications and educational qualifications, and client list, creates “credentials” and helps a Web site “build credibility and trust for its owner,” Nagel said. A privacy statement, portfolio samples, and testimonials all help enhance this aspect.

The “good” also includes “a clear call to action that tells prospective clients what you want them to do and gives them an easy way to do it,” Nagel said. Make it easy to get in touch: “Contact information should be on every page and on a dedicated ‘contact’ page, with your real name, real address, business phone number, and business e-mail address.”

(For help with your website, contact Nagel at kat@masterworkconsulting.com.)

Katharine "Kat" Nagel -
Making Your Website Work for You

By Claire Meirowitz, Professional Editing Services © 2005

Katherine “Kat” Nagel, owner of MasterWork Consulting Services (www.masterworkconsulting.com, Rochester, NY), kept participants thoroughly involved in her 2005 EFA national conference session on “Making Your Website Work for You.”

While websites are “hot” marketing tools these days, freelancers should consider a site as only one element in a marketing program, Nagel stressed: “If your website is the only piece in your marketing strategy, it won’t work.”

Six basic principles, are vital for your website to work as a marketing tool, Nagel said: knowledge – knowing what you want your site to achieve; understanding – realizing what your clients need, want and expect to see; responsiveness – giving your clients what they need; readability – making it easily viewed and understood; navigation – making it easy for clients to find things on; and freshness – constantly updating with new content, so visitors will want to return to it.

Nagel estimated that three to five hours per month would be the norm for keeping a site up-to-date and attractive to visitors, with more time needed when creating new content.

Getting found is all in the wording, Nagel said. That means taking advantage of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), which depends heavily on keywords. “If it’s important to your business, make it a link,” she said.

Probably the most important lesson from this useful session was: “Test, test, test!” Designs, colors and fonts can display differently on people’s screens, depending on operating systems, browsers, screen configurations, and other factors. Without testing your website on a variety of setups, you will never know how your site looks to others.

 

Hilary Powers - Macros/
Making Friends with Word, Part 1

By Ruth E. Thaler-Carter © 2005

Using the ubiquitous MicrosoftWord software program for editing, proofreading, and writing is a fact of life for most editorial freelancers these days. In two sessions at “Be a Better Freelancer – Take Your Business to New Heights,” the EFA 2005 national conference on October 8, “Word guru” Hilary Powers gave conference participants some invaluable tools for “Making Friends with Word.”

Here are highlights from the handout for Powers’s first session, “Macro Clinic” (based on using a PC running Windows XP and Word 2003, although most references should work in other platforms and versions).

• “Word doesn’t care if you like it or hate it.”

• “Word offers a variety of schools for getting any given effect; if you don’t like the menus, you can use hot keys; if you don’t like hot keys, you can use the mouse.”

• Macros – essentially keyboard shortcuts for frequently performed tasks – “are the way to eliminate much of the dog work of editing” – one example coded seven different chapter-opening elements at once; another put real numbers and bullets on Word automated lists. “Macros can be recorded, found, cannibalized, purchased, or written from scratch. For further assistance, go to www.editorium.com and look for MacroSupplement.doc.”

• To set up, start Word and open a file called Junk.doc by double-clicking on it. Fix the menu and toolbars display by opening the Tools menu, clicking on Customize, and clicking on Options. Make sure all first-level check boxes are checked; close dialog box.

• To record a macro, press Ctrl+End to get to the bottom of the Junk.doc file. Double-click REC in the Word State bar, the line at the bottom of the screen that starts with a page number. Type “test” in the Macro Name box that appears, then Enter. Type “What? Me make friends with word?!” and then Enter. Press Ctrl+Up arrow. Press the Ctrl+Right arrow four times. Press Press Ctrl+Shift+Right Arrow. Press Shift+Left Arrow. Press Ctrl+B. Press End, then Enter. Doubleclick REC in the Word Status Bar.

• To play the macro, press Alt+F8, which opens Tools/Macro/Macros. Highlight “test” and press Enter.

• To give the macro a hot key, press Alt+T, C, K, which opens Tools/Customize/Keyboard. Keep the Default setting of “Save changes in” Normal.dot. Scroll down the Macros list and highlight “test.” Type in a hot-key combination in the Press New Shortcut Key box. Click on Assign, then Close, and Close the customize dialog.

• To build a menu for the macro, press Alt+T, C, C, which brings up the Commands options. Go to the end of the Categories list, highlight New Menu, and drag it up to the menu bar. Right-click on the New Menu, then click in the Name Box. Type “Tric&ks” over “New Menu” to rename it; the “&” will make the “k” into a hot key.

• To put the macro on the menu, press Alt+T, C to go back to Tools, Customize. Highlight Macros in the Categories list. Highlight “test” and drag it up to the Tricks menu, let the mouse hover over the menu until it opens, and drop the macro inside. Right-click on the mace and click in the Name box and type, “&Garbage” there to overwrite current contents. Close all dialog boxes. Press Alt+K, G to exercise the new menu and the Garbage item. Press Alt+K, Enter to see how the first item works.

Hilary Powers - Templates/
Making Friends with Word, Part 2

By Claire Meirowitz and Ruth E. Thaler-Carter © 2006

In her second EFA 2005 national conference session on “Making Friends with Word,” “Word guru” Hilary Powers provided guidelines for creating templates, which she called “the tools that make the difference between a computer and a typewriter hardwired to a TV set.”

“Templates can dramatically change the appearance of a document or the behavior of hot keys (shortcuts) and menus,” Powers said. “Word uses templates all the time, whether you know it or not, so you might as well go along for the ride.” She suggested taking “a literal-minded approach to doing exactly what Word says.”

In both of the Word sessions, participants had widely varying levels of computer expertise, and several were unfamiliar with the laptops provided by the conference center; the projector screen was hard to read; and room acoustics were poor. A bright spot was that several participants served as ad hoc assistants and helped others who were struggling to understand. Participants found that an hour-and-a-half session was only a starting point and have suggested that future conferences should consider half-day or even full-day sessions on this topic.

Specific macro and template tips may still be available from Powers at: http://www.powersedit.com/ftp/macrofiles.zip and http://www.powersedit.com/ftp/templatefiles.zip.

(Please note that Hilary invested a great deal of effort in creating these handouts and would appreciate their being treated as "shareware." That is, if you did not attend the conference and you download either of them, please consider sending her something via PayPal.)

Lunch roundtable -
Custom Publishing

(Note: Rather than a formal speaker, the 2005 EFA national conference featured about a dozen "table topics" during lunch. Here are highlights of the discussion at one of the tables. - ret-c)

By Claire Meirowitz, Professional Editing Services, Table Captain © 2005

Eight EFA writers and editors took the idea of “learning while lunching” to new heights at the 2005 EFA National Conference’s Custom Publishing table.

The table participants said they had written and/or edited for travel, health care, architecture, technology and business publications, but not for custom publications. One woman has developed a type of matchmaking service, bringing together writers and publications for the Latino market, which she described as large and growing quickly.

As table captain, I passed around samples of custom-published advertorials and magazines on which I’ve worked. This type of publishing, I explained, is a niche field that includes material dealing with health care, travel, real estate, finance/banking, information technology and other areas, and it’s a growing opportunity for editorial freelancers.

What is it?

The key to differentiating custom publishing from regular publishing is that an advertiser or a group of related advertisers pays for production of the material. As I emphasized, custom publishing is more closely related to PR than to journalism and is identified as a “special advertising section” or words to that effect.

Special advertising sections include pages such as those bound into the pages of the New York Times Magazine; free-standing sections such as wedding planners that are inserted into and delivered with newspapers; individual pages that are published in trade mags as run-of-the-publication (ROP) or are “tipped in” [inserted as a separate publication]; and entire magazines that advertisers contract out to a publisher. An example of the latter is a four-color, glossy magazine called EdTech, which is geared to teachers and school administrators at the K-12 level.

Custom publishing these days extends to the Web, with many sites featuring content that’s written for a specific advertiser or the sponsoring company.

Business expos, trade fairs and conferences also use materials that may be considered custom publishing. The content includes invitations, promo materials, conference schedules and related collateral — all of which need to be written, edited and proofread.

Where to begin?

Getting started in custom publishing can be difficult. The usual routes work, albeit slowly: networking, temping and answering ads. Probably the best advice for editorial freelancers is to look for published “special sections” and check the name of the ad agency or other group that produced the section, and then contact them to offer your writing, editing or proofreading services. Experience in the specific field you’re seeking to enter or one closely related is vital.

Claire Meirowitz can be reached at: claire-m@att.net.

 

 

 

 

 

By Ruth E. Thaler-Carter © 2005

NOTE: I usually spend ages on organizing my presentations and tailoring handouts for each one. Perhaps because I was so involved in overseeing the conference as a whole, I completely forgot to prepare for my own session at "Be a Better Freelancer"! I did my whole presentation totally off the cuff, on the wing, whatever; an exhilarating but terrifying experience. Judging from responses at the time and the positive evaluations after the event, everyone seemed to enjoy the session anyhow, although I have no recollection of what I said. I've done my best to recreate what I meant to say and think I said. Enjoy!

One reason I’ve had a successful freelance career is that I do more than one thing: In addition to writing about a wide range of topics, I also provide editing, proofreading and – probably most important for me – desktop publishing; layout and production of entire publications. If one area is slow, another is usually keeping me going – if I don’t have an article to write, I usually have a newsletter to finish, a manuscript to proof, etc. I also look for varying deadlines, again to keep a regular flow of work. I’ve picked up many of these skills by working initially in smaller organizations where everyone had to pitch in on almost everything. I joined professional groups – not just writers’ groups but ones of potential clients as well – and volunteered on projects that gave me a chance to learn new skills or about new topics. I watched and listened to my elders, to people in print shops and production, and to colleagues in professional associations.

There are essentially three ways to expand your markets: Cover new topics, Learn and offer new skills, Enter a new genre. An important caveat/reality check: You may have to work for less than usual, or even briefly for free, to learn necessary skills and establish yourself in a new market.

As a general strategy, if you decide to embark on new editorial areas, get the word out. Let friends, family, and colleagues know that you are interested in new assignments in new fields. You might be pleasantly surprised at what they bring you in both leads and actual projects, and they might make the best – that is, most forgiving! - guinea pigs for trying out your new wings.

Start out by looking at work already done and see where you can connect it to the new areas you want to enter. Some skills and most contacts will transfer to new areas. Have confidence in your existing skills; confidence speaks for itself.

Covering new topics

As a writer, you can always expand your markets and enhance your income by writing about new subjects; in fact, assuming you can write well, that’s probably the easiest way to expand your markets.

You don’t necessarily have to have written about a new topic to get a first assignment in that subject. You do have to have a passion for that topic, the ability to find good sources to quote about it, a desire to get your ideas into print, and a willingness to – perhaps – start with lower fees than you would receive if you were established in that field, by writing the first couple pieces “on spec” – without a contract but with pay for anything accepted, or even for free – to prove yourself. Editors want new writers who can come up with interesting ideas and write them up accurately, on time, and in a voice that works for that publication. Clips of things you’ve published on other topics might help sell you to a new market, but if you can write a persuasive query letter with an appropriate idea, you might not even need any writing clips.

Whatever you’re interested in, there’s a publication that covers it – and probably an association for it that has publications of its own - and many need good writers, as well as good proofreaders and editors. Hobby groups and publications may not pay as much as industry ones, but they do offer a wealth of opportunity to write about anything in which you may be interested.

Start by making a list of what you’d like to write about, using your hobbies, personal causes, academic background or major, previous jobs (the ones you liked!), experiences, and natural curiosity as starting points. With that list in hand, hie thee to the nearest library. Go through the National Directory of Trade & Professional Associations to find organizations in the areas that interest you and their publications. If there’s a hobby, religious faith, family structure, health concern, trade or profession, a collectible, an academic specialty, a product, a location, a cause or trend, there’s at least one association or organization for it, and that organization publishes something – magazines, newsletters, websites, journals, newspapers, websites; sometimes all of the above.

Other sources of listings of organizations dedicated to various topics include the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE), the Foundation Center, and Independent Sector. Google and other Internet searches also can help, although the results could be overwhelming.

Outside the association/organization world, there is yet another layer of independent publications covering anything and everything you can imagine, often with several magazines, newsletters, and newspapers – not to mention books – for each topic. Pick up a copy of Writer’s Market and Literary Marketplace at your nearest bookstore as permanent references, and start looking for the publications and publishers in the areas you want to cover. You can even subscribe to Writer’s Market online and get updates to listings, rather than wait until the next issue comes out every year. Devote a day or two to scanning the racks at your neighborhood newsstand or library to see just what is being published – you’ll be amazed at the range of topics, and at how many publications there can be in one subject area.

http://www.woodenhorsepub.com is a well-respected website that tracks magazines – launches, cessations, editorial changes, practices, etc. It’s a subscription service and has a newsletter for disseminating alerts and advice. (PreditorsandEditors.com tracks publications and publishers who have a bad rep among writers.)

If all else fails, write letters to the editors and start a blog; the first shows you write well enough to get published, and the second gives you a platform. There are instances of people getting regular, paying writing work based on their writing styles and opinions in blogs.

Learning and offering new skills

A writer may have trouble finding high-enough paying places to sell his/her work, or simply be tired of the effort involved in the writing life per se – pitching stories, tracking down interviewees, waiting for publication so payment arrives, etc. An editor or proofreader may feel the urge to create work of his/her own, or to have more control over the final version of a project. You can add to your offerings (and income) if you have the skills for the new things you want to do.

Take a reality check: Do you really have the makings for offering other editorial skills that could make money? Not every editor or graphic artist can write; not every proofreader or writer can edit; not everyone can change their writing voice from formal to informal or vice-versa; not everyone can absorb the arcania of new subject areas or technical skills.

If you want to offer writing, start with some of the same resources mentioned above – Writer’s Market and Literary Marketplace. Spend time at either a good newsstand or your local library, to see what publications are out there. You’ll be amazed at the number of magazines alone, covering the oddest topics and interests! Subscribe to Writer’s Digest, The Writer, and Poets & Writers; all three provide tips on technique, marketing, style, etc., as well as news about new publications and insights into what editors (and agents) want.

Look for a local writers’ group to join, or a writing center – if your town doesn’t have an independent one, see if a local college or university offers some kind of writing forum or center. Bookstores, both independents and the big chains, often host not just book-discussion clubs but writing groups that are open to the public, both general and genre-based; call around to see what’s out there. Especially if you want to write fiction or a book in any genre, a writers’ group could become your best source of inspiration, encouragement, and improvement through critiquing.

If you want to add proofreading and editing to your repertoire, you’ll need to demonstrate skills in grammar, usage, punctuation, and style. Look for courses or workshops in those areas from local community and four-year colleges, writers’ centers, online sources, professional organizations (EFA, Society for Scholarly Publishing, Council of Biology Editors, American Medical Writers Association; EEI Communications, Copy Editor newsletter; USDA Graduate School – online and in person, George Washington University Publications Specialist Program, University of Baltimore publishing program, etc.).

Pick up your own copies of the (University of) Chicago Manual of Style, Associated Press Stylebook, Government Printing Office style manual, and American Psychological Association (for medical work, Dornand’s); start skimming them to note differences and highlights, but mainly, have them handy when needed. Prospective clients will expect you to have the manuals in your personal library.

Once you start looking for assignments, be prepared to take editing or proofreading tests; most publishers require such validation of skills from new freelancers. Don’t get huffy, but do consult colleagues in EFA and resources such as the EFAList archives, to get a sense of what is appropriate to accept as a test.

Similar caveats go for desktop publishing (DTP) – it can be a profitable new skill to offer, but it requires a certain level of skill and knowledge. It’s also cost-intensive: Layout programs (PageMaker, QuarkXPress, or InDesign) are expensive, and you need not only at least one of these but ones like Photoshop and/or Illustrator as well. A desktop publisher is expected to manipulate and include photos and other images in finished projects.

More importantly, if you want to offer desktop publishing, it takes more than buying a software program. You need to know something about layout, typography, graphics, and readability. Start looking at publications to gauge your reactions to them – which ones invite you to read them, which ones discourage your interest – and try to assess why. Read books by Robin Williams, Mark Beach, Roger Parker, and Jan V. White, all considered gurus of publication design and desktop publishing, to absorb the basics of good design and layout. Remember that just because the program can do it, that doesn’t mean you should do it – layout programs give you hundreds of typefaces, dozens of styles for lines and boxes, tons of clip art; that doesn’t mean you should use ‘em all in one publication.

Then you need to know how to use those major computer programs now common to publishing, and that doesn’t happen overnight. Owning a DTP program does not make you a graphic designer or even a layout pro, and they aren’t easy to learn. Look for classes and do some volunteer projects before trying to offer this service at a professional level. Few things are more frustrating to both editorial freelancer and client than committing to an exciting new DTP project and not being able to deliver because you don’t have the software at hand or the knowledge to use it properly.

If you have artistic talent, consider offering graphic arts. Find a nearby chapter of the Graphic Arts Guild, AIGA, Illustrators Club, or cartoonists’ association, and attend a few meetings. To develop samples to show prospective clients, offer to illustrate the newsletter of your neighborhood association, favorite charity, or church/temple/synagogue. Put some of your designs on your website (ideally using technology to “watermark” and otherwise protect them from unauthorized use).

Same with photography, which is more and more accessible these days, thanks to digital advances. Look for photo clubs, professional photographers’ associations, and the wide range of magazines about every aspect of this skill, many of which include tips on marketing and building a business, along with technical tips on what to buy and why, and how to use cameras and software.

Indexing is a specialty service that should appeal to anyone with a highly organized approach to life and work. Again, nowadays there’s a lot more on the technology front than there used to be; indexes are created with software rather than piles of, um, index cards. Check out the American Society of Indexers for guidance and train yourself in the basic software programs; then, go for it. You’ll probably end up working directly with authors as much as for publishers, so be prepared to polish those people skills along with the technical ones.

For corporate writing, look for a chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators, Chamber of Commerce, and business-networking groups. The Public Relations Society of America and American Marketing Association can be a way into not only those skills sets but business work itself, since so many corporations need effective PR and marketing. Ragan Communications in Chicago, IL, publishes several newsletters that track PR and business communications; Jack O’Dwyer’s PR Newsletter is another classic “bible” of that profession worth following.

There’s also the Corporate Annual Report newsletter for people interested in entering that niche, which has potential for working with both businesses and not-for-profit organizations – they all have to publish something, and the glossier the publication, the more profit potential for the freelancer.

Entering new genres

Developing expertise in a new genre is probably the most challenging way to expand your markets, because genres have complex rules and cultures of their own that can be difficult to assess and understand. Going from fiction to nonfiction, academic to popular, general to medical, etc. isn’t easy – but it can be done.

Again, look for a writers’ center, university and college courses, and associations in the genre you want to try. Writer’s Market and Literary Marketplace offer concise guidelines to various genres, and there are professional associations in several – romance, mystery and crime, Westerns and outdoors, science … Writer’s Digest Books has a vast array of books about different genres and the local library or bookstore should have even more.

Immerse yourself in your new area of interest – read as much as you can in the new genre, to get a better feel for its conventions and voice. If you have the Great American Novel burning a hole in your psyche, you'll need an agent for the best possible deal with a publisher, although these days of blogs, e-books, print-on-demand and self-publishing might mean agents are less necessary than in the past. In fact, a blog (a Web log or online diary) could be a great way to unleash the inner novelist, playwright, poet or journalist within and lead to new realms of publication.

Consider talking about it. If you aren’t terminally shy and reclusive, take your current specialty and look for places to offer speeches or training – community groups, schools, writers’ organizations and other professional associations, adult-ed programs. There’s something refreshing and gratifying – as well as potentially profitable - about sharing knowledge. Join a Toastmaster club to hone speaking skills, or at least test your presentations by addressing friends or family before doing a speech for pay. Be sure to provide a handout, or at least a resource list, with every presentation.

Increasing income

It isn’t a new market, of course, but if your main concern is to up your income, the best way to do so is to know what you’re worth and ask for it. If you’ve found your niche and just need to make more money in it, up your fees and burrow in more comfortably. Start tracking your time so you can set reasonable fees that reflect how much time you actually spend on an assignment or project. Raise your fees every year or so. Develop the confidence to say “no” to low-paying projects that don’t advance your entry into new areas of expertise.

Another aspect of this is to look into the specialties that pay more. Proofreading and editing in the pharmaceutical industry pays well; medical editing and writing usually pays more than general-assignment work; tech writing and editing also is a specialized skill that can command higher fees. Experts may work in more limited areas, but they tend to get paid more for the very nature of their expertise.

For pricing guidelines, check out the EFA website and JobList, and those of other professional organizations; confer with colleagues; assess Internet resources such as Craigslist, Elance, or Guru (with the caveat that many such sites expect freelancers to bid on projects, so their pricing offers tend to be minimal at best).

The options are out there; go forth, expand those markets, and prosper!