Breaking into Online Publications
Renee Schafer Horton asks:
"I've spent my life freelancing for print media. I'd like to break into the web, but I'm having a hard time figuring out the best way to approach editors of websites about working for them. Does anyone have any advice? I'm speaking of online sites that do not have a print counterpart, i.e. Huffington Post, Slate, etc. Thanks."
Renee,
Breaking into quality online publications is much like breaking into quality print publications. Your sales pitch, or your query, is going to determine whether you land the gig. What I do when I have set my sites on a couple of "dream markets" is study their content and make sure I know their departments and which accept freelance submissions - you can usually find this in the writers' guidelines. I come up with what I think are a few good ideas and I write a well-crafted query letter. Sometimes a little good old fashioned networking can help on writer's forums by asking if anyone has written for this market and getting tips from those in the know.
Something else you might consider to give you more of a platform if you're developing an expertise (i.e. political, social or environmental issues, for example) is to create a blog. While blogging for yourself doesn't make you much money, it could create a platform for you and land you future online and offline gigs if it is written well and managed properly. Be careful, though, if you're writing news, that writing opinion pieces on your blog on the same subject might actually not be good as potential editors will see a lack of objectivity.
-Kerri Fivecoat-Campbell
Anyone else have any advice for Renee?