Authors Need To Seize The Initiative To Get Work

Most of us are familiar with the general process of finding a job. When a business has an opening, they post an offering. People interested in that position respond. The business then reviews applications, conducts interviews, and decides who they're going to hire. And despite what your parents might tell you, you should under no circumstances hang around to talk to the manager, call, or send any messages asking about your application. In today's job market that basically gets you written off as, "person who has no idea how to follow instructions," and that's not someone most businesses want to deal with.

Then there's being a writer, where that kind of behavior is basically a necessity if you're going to get anywhere. And for the purposes of this blog, I will refer to the practice of reaching out and contacting potential paymasters as seizing the initiative.

Yo! You need a writer?

Before we get into the nitty gritty this week, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Lastly, to be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree!

Seize The Initiative (It Gets You Way More Work)

One of my favorite stories to tell is how, while browsing the FAQ section for Paizo publishing I ended up sending a request to write for the company. I hadn't expected anything to come of it, but less than a week later I got a return email asking me what I was looking for in terms of writing assignments. This is how I wound up writing the short story The Irregulars for the Golarion setting, and it also led to me contributing to Blood of The Moon and Bastards of Golarion as well.

Seriously, check it out if you haven't yet!

This was far from the last time, either. I made contact with TPK Games at Gen Con basically by walking up to their booth, shaking the owner's hand, and offering him my business card. I got all of my jobs working for newspapers by sending emails or making phone calls, asking if there were positions for contributors open. Ditto for the few magazines and ezines I worked for which are now defunct (sadly for my bank account).

So why is it okay to do this when you're a writer, but not for any other kind of job? Well, it's generally because writers, by and large, aren't hired on full-time. A majority of writers, from the lowliest newspaper stringers to the highest-paid novelists, are hired as mercenary talent.

Do not attempt this strategy to get a staff writing position. I promise it will blow up in your face.

When a business is hiring on a regular part-or-full-time employee, there's a certain protocol that needs to be followed. There's proper channels to go through, and there's routine to be established. For freelancers and mercenaries, though, paymasters tend to be more concerned about drive, ideas, and their project record. This is particularly true for RPG companies (who do a majority of their work through freelancers), but it holds true for a lot of the serialized publishing industry. Whether you need fresh movie reviews on the company blog, new short stories for the monthly magazine, or just someone to put together a fresh list of weird encounters for a fresh DND supplement, everyone is always looking for another set of hands.

Lastly, though, most companies who use freelancers will want to keep as large a pool of talent on-hand as possible. Because unlike hiring people to fill salaried positions, freelancers get paid on commission. So it costs a business nothing to put someone new into the writing pool, as they're not going to have to pay anything until the writer has turned in an assignment and it's been selected for publication.

In short, they lose nothing by keeping you around.

Caveats

Now, there are some important caveats I'd add to the very broad statements I made above. So if you're psyched to start knocking on digital doors, wait until you've finished the briefing.

Hold your fire.

First and foremost, seizing the initiative works best when you are attempting to get assigned work from a company who needs a constant stream of material from writers. Newspapers, magazines, websites, RPG publishers, the idea is that you are looking to be assigned work to complete for them. If you already have something complete (a short story, a novel, a roleplaying game, an article, etc.) then you need to instead see if the publisher in question has a submission procedure for you to follow.

If you can't find the query procedure, then reach out and ask for it. That is going to be more helpful to you, and it will probably start things moving more smoothly if you're attempting to place something you've already finished.

Secondly, before you start reaching out to potential paymasters and asking if they have any assignments available, make sure you have a portfolio of previous work, as well as a list of potential pitches. Your portfolio can be made up of anything you're comfortable being judged on, but both it and your pitches should be geared toward the publisher you've reached out to in order to give them an understanding of what you're bringing to the table.

Why is this necessary, you might ask? Well, if you reach out to a short story magazine, they're going to want to have some idea of the kind of fiction you've written before. Ditto if you want to write articles for a newspaper, or mechanics for a game; your potential publisher is going to want to see some samples of your work to get a sense of what your output is like. As to the pitches, sometimes a publisher will test you by asking what you think would make for a good project. It's a backdoor way of testing your knowledge of a subject or area, and seeing how much supervision they'll need to put in. Sometimes the publisher will take you up on a particular pitch, sometimes not, but either way you should always have 2-3 in your back pocket just in case.

Eventually Work Comes To You

I'll be the first one to admit that when you're an author you end up chasing a lot of work. However, the more assignments you complete, and the more your name gets out there, the more people are going to recognize you. When that happens you're going to find that people will, eventually, start coming to you with offers. Whether it's because they saw your name in enough publications, you've made the right contacts who've bigged you up in their circles, or because you seem approachable on social media, people will seek you out sooner or later.

That doesn't mean every offer you get is going to be a banger, but eventually you'll get solid offers. Just keep your nose to the grindstone, and when in doubt consider sending an email and asking if there are currently openings for content creators.

Like, Follow, and Stay Tuned!

That's all for this week's Business of Writing!

If you'd like to see more of my work, take a look at my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife as well as my recent collection The Rejects!

If you'd like to help support my work, then consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page! Lastly, to keep up with my latest, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now on Pinterest as well!