What I’m reading downstairs: Spartina by John Casey
What’s on the iPod: Conductor by We Were Promised Jetpacks
If you haven’t read Jenn Mattern’s in-depth examination of Demand Studios, please take ten minutes to do so. She’s done an excellent job laying things out for writers to take what they want from it. And she’s gone beyond rates – just read it. It’s worth it.
After this week’s revelations that Demand Studio content was being picked up by two newspapers, I did what I do best – I whined to my husband about it. What transpired was a conversation that shed new light on freelancing and opportunity. All before 9 am, no less.
He said exactly what none of us want to say out loud – publishing is going the way of the LP, the eight track, and the Beta VCR (or any VCR for that matter). For someone who’s been happy selling articles to publications, I didn’t take it well, especially since I’ve been wearing the denial mask a little too tightly.
So what then for freelancers? Looking at my own business practices, I realized that I’m in good shape. What I do, as my husband pointed out, is too specialized to outsource on the cheap. (Little does he know, eh?) But in some cases, some of these client projects cannot be had for pennies. Can you think of anyone willing to proofread and reformat 300+ catalog pages for ten bucks? And who’s writing that brochure that’s going to draw in lots of members for the association for $20? Fact is we have a value to a dedicated, specific segment of the population. Demand Studios’ clients – even newspapers – are not our clients anyway.
And maybe that in itself makes a strong case for writers finding a niche or a specialty. That doesn’t mean we all have to run out and become experts in quantum mechanics or car repair, but having a concentration in web copy, marketing materials, or articles for specialized trade magazines or associations isn’t going to hurt the income potential one bit.
I specialize in risk management, insurance, finance, and all things considered technical writing (CPA stuff, nursing topics, sales, you name it). It started in those first two areas, which were combined in my full-time gig. But it’s amazing how easily you can transfer that same knowledge and approach to other technical areas.
Do you see the need to have a concentration? Do you have one already? I know at least one of you whose specialty is to not specialize, but I think even you specialize – just in several areas. I would say maybe specialization is too strong a commitment for the average freelance writer. Rather, find pockets of concentration that help you gain momentum and referral clients.
I JUST wrote about this a few weeks ago on AFW. My point was that low paying gigs help you differentiate between your client and clients you would never touch in a million years. Low paying gigs are not hurting our businesses. They are hurting Net content but not our businesses.
The first year I became a specialist, my income jumped 25%. Four years later, it has tripled. I was afraid to specialize, because I didn't want to get bored. That hasn't been a problem. About 2/3 of my work is in my specialty (alternative/natural health copywriting). A wide variety of other stuff trickles in, just enough to mix it up and keep me from getting bored. I've also found projects from related specialties coming my way, close enough to give me the "expert edge" but different enough to keep me engaged.
I think if you don't specialize these days, you have to work that much harder setting yourself apart from the crowd. If you're an insurance company who wants some risk management case studies written, you can go with a generalist who writes about many different things, a writer who just does case studies, or someone like Lori who specializes in insurance and risk management. The generalist just doesn't stand a chance.
I saw so many "specialists" around me crash and burn during the economic downturn. I did not. I don't consider myself a specialist. I write about anything that interests me.
If I specialize in anything, it's more the companies I refuse to work for — companies whose ideologies and corporate models I disagree with, and who I think do harm.
If something catches my interest, I research it, and then find someone to pay me to write about it.
There are "areas of specialized knowledge" that I accumulate, and if something crosses my desk where I have both the qualifications and the interest, I go for it. But the whole "niche" mentality rather than a "Renaissance" mentality, I think, hurts us in the long run.
The more versatile we are, the more places we can get hired.
See, that's what I mean, Devon. You have those pockets of concentration, and you don't have to promote them as specialties. Maybe that's what I meant to say – we all have areas we enjoy and are good at. They can be specialties if we want them to be. But they're certainly areas where we have a specialized expertise of sorts.
So true about versatility. I've got my hand in so many different things there's little chance of being bored. 🙂
Great minds think alike, Yo. 🙂 If we think about it in realistic terms, these jobs don't hurt us directly. Maybe in some cases we get rejections because of our prices (tough shit, I say – the price isn't coming down to basement levels EVER). But that's not our client if that's the deciding factor. SKILL and ABILITY should be the primary reasons to hire a writer, not how cheaply we can be had.
Eileen, I think on the surface your idea is good. But the generalist isn't going to want to write for risk management. I've seen their eyes glaze over at the mere mention of workers compensation. LOL Not that that's not everyone's reaction including mine…. 😉 Generalists do well, but generalists who lean toward pockets of specialization probably do much better.
I see the need to specialize in getting a new pair of reading glasses. I just noticed this morning that you've started adding the 'What I'm reading' part. Apparently, this started a few days ago. Where have I been? On second thought, I don't want to know.
I don't know about a 'need' to specialize, but I figured that by specializing in the personal development area I would have several options to market to.
I have 30+ years in the health care/employee benefits industry. When I first started freelancing, I feared, like Eileen, of getting bored of the niche. I was pretty fried from Corporate life.
While I have done some non-niche gigs, primarily it has been insurance/wellness-related.
In the beginning I got hooked up with gigs I really didn't enjoy. I have learned to be more selective and that has returned me to my love for my niche. I particularly like working on wellness gigs.
My 30+ years is definitely a plus. What I found is it's up to me to work smart and to pursue the gigs I like to do.
I'm still a work in progress. 🙂
P.S. I definitely second Lori's recommendation to read Jenn's post on DS. Even if you don't agree, it gives you information to make your own decisions-and that's always the best way. It's very comprehensive.
Love the idea of "pockets of concentration." That makes it seem less like an all or nothing kind of deal. Great info as always. Thanks!
I started writing nationally for a business trade. It covered seven or eight sub-categories and I quickly realized I enjoyed covering marketing/promotion and advertising. Why? They're more creative fields than sales and management.
Once I had some solid contacts, I spun off by writing what I called the "TV Upfront Psychic Reviews" for AdAge – basically asking media buyers and network execs how they thought the upfront sales would go each year. Next, I took one snippet of information I learned while writing one of those articles and generated a query for a major TV trade. I've been writing about TV ever since.
TV may be my area of specialty, but I still cover other things – and sometimes I break into markets by pitching something with a showbiz slant. For a dog magazine I did a piece on how "sniffer dogs" are being trained to seek out crates of pirated movies (and software). Or a piece on the real-life California Craftsman bungalow that inspired the Eppes' family home on NUMB3RS.
I also find ways to take subjects I love – knitting, cooking, pets – and sell ideas to the TV trades: Why are so many actresses knitting on set? How do TV shows and films earn the "no animals were harmed…" credit?
But I don't limit myself to writing about TV-centric topics. For the same dog magazine I wrote a lengthy article on helping your dog recover from surgery. (Something, sadly, my sister is coping with again this week – this time, though, the dog who inspired that article is the healthy one.)
Having an area of specialty can be a good thing. But like Devon said, sometimes it's not so wise. If you are going to specialize, try to choose a subject matter that's not at the mercy of the economy.
Wendy, it's pretty hidden up there, isn't it? Blogger lets me hit Enter, but it won't register on the blog itself. I might have to bust out some HTML.
I like that you're a work in progress, Cathy. 🙂 Aren't we all? And I love this – "work smart" – exactly.
Sarah, that's the idea. What works for some may not work for you or for me. And we tend to lean toward things we enjoy writing about anyway, so are those specialties? Probably not in the general sense. I think it's a mistake to put all your writing energy into just one area all the time. We all diversify – "concentration" doesn't hurt my head so much. 🙂
Paula, you're so diverse I can't keep up. You come close to Devon's myriad of experiences! But if we all look at what we love to do and what we write about, we'd probably see much more than a surface glance shows us. For instance, I like discussing vegetarian food, shoes (not for pay, but God willing some day!), car repair, fashion, fiction, meditation, the Civil War, football, hockey…. It's our nature to like a lot at once, right? I hope. Otherwise I'm just weird. 🙂
You've shown how you translate those passions into work. I think that's fantastic.
I think the key is simple brainstorming to find ways your area of expertise and your other interests overlap. With TV, that's pretty easy. There's a show – or channel – about pretty much everything you can imagine. And some magazines and websites love an occasional article that has a "famous" source or two.
One time I merged business TV and dogs when I learned the production company for my favorite show (of the time), Homicide: Life on the Street had a dog-friendly office. I turned it into a piece on pet-friendly work environments, using the show's Baltimore office as one of many examples.
Creative thinking – that's a big part of a writer's job.
I wouldn't count out traditional publishing completely just yet Lori. We tend to overlook the fact that some of the industry's issues aren't industry issues, but larger economic ones (affecting much more than publishing). And when the economy inevitably rebounds, I think at least some segments of traditional publishing will too.
Also keep in mind that this isn't the first time a content site ventured into print publishing. About.com did it with book publishing and Adams Media for a while. Unless something's changed, it didn't last. Nice thought though — have a ready supply of topic experts to churn out books. It's very similar to what DS is doing with papers and niche evergreen content (although I'm still trying to figure out why they had a health writer writing travel content for USA Today). So the fact that it's happening now doesn't mean it's going to be that forever (or even for long).
As for specializing, I'm a big fan. The simple truth is that companies pay big money not for the ability to string together sentences, but for the specialized knowledge you bring to the table. That doesn't have to mean specializing in a single niche though. You can certainly have more than one. At the same time, it doesn't have to mean specializing in a niche at all. It could be specializing in a specific style of writing, or a group of styles (for me that includes a range of business writing — press releases, business blogging, marketing copy, and white papers for example). It's only when you say "I'll do any type of writing in any topic" that you've really moved away from some level of specialization. And while it might sound appealing to the occasional buyer who doesn't really know what they want, it doesn't work that way with most — at least not those with the bigger budgets.