I followed up my speech for the California Writers’ Club members in Sacramento last week by sending an article to be published in their newsletter or at their website. Since I spoke on freelance writing, I decided to continue with that theme. I thought you might be interested in my checklist for job hunters:
General Advice
• Subscribe to online writing-oriented newsletters and join online writing organizations that offer job listings for writers. Many of them also keep you current on publishing trends. Here are a few resources to get you started:
SPAWN http://www.spawn.org
Writer’s Weekly Newsletter and website http://www.writersweekly.com
Freelance Writer’s Report http://www.writers-editors.com
Writing-World http://www.writingworld.com
Working Writer http://www.workingwriter1.com
• Become familiar with job search sites for writers. These include,
http://www.sunoasis.com
http://www.writejobs.com
http://www.mockingbird.creighton.edu/ncw/jobs.htm
http://www.tjobs.com/new/writers.shtml
http://www.freelancewritinggigs.com
I often include new job boards and directories for writers in issues of the SPAWN Market Update. Join SPAWN at http://www.spawn.org
• Network constantly. Attend writers/publishers’ events and ask people how they got their jobs/assignments. Participate in interactive web sites for writers. Find local organizations through your library, bookstores and in the calendar section of the newspaper. Locate online sites using your favorite search engine. Type in “writers groups” or “writers,” for example.
• Volunteer your writing services. A little volunteer work might land you the job you seek. Offer to write the church bulletin, a company newsletter or a press release for a charity organization, for example. Not only are you gaining experience and adding to your portfolio, but you’re showing off your talent and skills to all of the right people.
• Read the classified employment ads every week and apply for every job that has “writing” in it. Post your resume on some of the major Internet recruiting sites such as monster.com. And search their databases for job opportunities.
• Create a portfolio and keep adding to it. Make copies of your published articles, brochures, etc. to show prospective employers/clients.
• Build a website and post your portfolio and resume there.
• Keep writing. Write every chance you get. Practice, practice, practice.
• Be open to all types of writing. You may have your heart set on becoming rich and famous writing your own novel or landing a job as the editor-in-chief for Reader’s Digest. In the meantime, however, accept the work that comes your way. Do some PR work for your neighbor, ghost write a book for a client, revise some technical manuals. Get paid and learn new skills.
Tomorrow I’ll continue by adding how to get a writing job in the corporate world or a newspaper and how to create your own writing job.
In the meantime, if you want to write articles for magazines, order my book, A Writer’s Guide to Magazine Articles. If you are thinking about writing a book, you’ve written a book for publication and/or you want to know more about how to promote your book by submitting articles and short stories to publications and the web, order my book, Publish Your Book, Proven Strategies and Resources for the Enterprising Author. Both are available at my website: http://www.matilijapres.com, at Amazon.com and other online and downtown bookstores.
And if you don’t think an author must be enterprising, that he or she does not need key resources and that he or she need not use or concern themselves with strategies, you are sorely mistaken.