FFJ Guest Voices: Why I gave up trying to find my specialism
And check out what we have coming up
In our Guest Voices slot, we’re on the look out for diverse and different takes, advice, tips and projects. If you have an interesting (and practical) idea there is a Google form for your pitches here.
This week’s contribution is from Laura Cooke, a freelance journalist based in Sussex. You can find out more about her work here.
Why I gave up trying to find my specialism (and how I feel happier for it)
As a reporter on a local newspaper, you find yourself writing about the most fascinatingly diverse subjects.
I’ve covered murders, busted cannabis factories with the police and interviewed people who lived through remarkable experiences, from the student who was kidnapped and tortured to the man who survived a lightning strike in his own home.
That said, I’ve also written an obituary for a cat.
After 19 years as a ‘Jack-of-all-trades’ reporter, 16 of those years in the same newsroom, I left the world of local news for a career as a freelance journalist.
With two decades of reporting under my belt, I think I could be described as an experienced journalist by anyone’s standards. But when I started freelancing, my lack of direction bothered me. I couldn’t decide what sort of journalist I wanted to be.
Was I a health writer? Some aspects of health interest me (mental health and fertility mainly) while others didn’t. What about parenting? I have a two and a four-year-old -is that enough of a qualification? All I knew is that I wasn’t a finance or a business journalist. My maths is terrible, I know nothing about mortgages and I still don’t understand what an NFT is. As far as I was concerned, I didn’t qualify.
So I felt at a bit of a loss as to how to market myself. I had convinced myself that I needed to specialise in ‘something’ in order to be successful. As a result, I pitched to a fairly narrow range of publications, ones which I felt were more ‘me’ and could help establish me as a health writer.
A throwaway comment from a friend alerted me to an unreported story about how the virtual assistant industry had really taken off due to Covid. There were strong figures to back it up, but let’s face it, it’s not the most exciting profession to write about.
So I proceeded to pitch the story. As the VA industry is female-dominated, I tried some women’s publications, spinning it as a career piece. News publications didn’t want it without an outstanding case study attached. In retrospect, I pitched it to some totally unsuitable publications while completely bypassing those which may actually be interested - business publications.
After six months, I finally sent a pitch to Business Insider and it was picked up. I felt surprised and, to be honest, a bit of a fraud because ‘I wasn’t a business journalist’.
But I have many years of interviewing experience, asking questions and writing stories about a wide range of topics. So why was I trying to deny this wealth of experience and pigeonhole myself? Had I pitched to Business Insider at the offset, I could have saved myself from six months of soul-destroying rejections and ghosting. It should have been my first port of call, not my last.
At the end of the day, who says I have to have a specialism? I felt under pressure to have one, and that I wouldn’t be taken seriously as a freelancer without one. But ultimately this pressure came from me and no one else. A few months into full-time freelancing, I know I have a strong and varied portfolio and people are coming to me with offers of work, which is a great feeling.
Of course I still have my favourite subjects to write about, and I’m even starting to develop a niche writing about fertility. But I’ve also embraced being a generalist and now don’t avoid pitching to publications just because they don’t fit in with what I feel I should be doing. In a tough industry, the last thing we need is to be creating unnecessary barriers for ourselves.
So would I pitch to a business publication again? Yes. Would I ever write about NFTs? Never say never.
You can follow Laura on Twitter @lauracooke21
What’s coming up
Two things to flag up this week. First up our four-week online course with journalism.co.uk on How to be a successful freelance journalist still has some slots. Laura Cooke completed this course with us before embarking on her freelance career and gave us this lovely feedback: “This course helped to boost my confidence, sharpen my news sense and reignite my passion for journalism. I would highly recommend this course to anyone, whether starting out in journalism or an experienced staff writer looking for a change of direction.”
The next course starts on the 7th March and its completely flexible and can be done in your own time, supported at every stage with Lily and Emma through our dedicated Slack group. We go through everything from finding opportunities, to developing ideas and pitching, to branding and networking. If you have any questions about it do get in touch.
The second thing this week is there are still some slots for the next round of our Journalism Work Experience Scheme. To access the scheme you need to sign up for the webinar on the 30th March (recordings are available) which then gives you 12 months of access to a database of remote work experience opportunities with experienced freelance journalists. Bursary places are available - just email us to find out more.
Triumph of the week
Filing 8,500 words. Need to go for a lie down now.
That feeling when
Interviewees start changing quotes and they’re not making any difference other than interrupting the flow of your carefully crafted article.
We love to hear your feedback on everything we do, so feel free to drop us an email anytime at freelancingforjournalists@gmail.com
Bye for now!
