Six months on: what I learned from FFJ
One freelancer explains how our online course led to a busy work schedule
In the spirit of full transparency this week’s newsletter is essentially an advertorial for our online training course run in partnership with Journalism.co.uk. After hearing about how busy she was, we commissioned one of our recent attendees, Sarah Sinclair to write about how the course has helped her grow her freelance journalism business over the past few months.
Everyone who comes to us is at a different stage and some have more journalism qualifications and training than others but we provide tailored advice to support and build confidence. To learn more about the four-week course, which starts again on 22nd April, click on the link is at the bottom of the piece. You can also ask us any questions at freelancingforjournalists@gmail.com
When Emma and Lily asked me to write about their Kickstart your freelance journalism career course, my first thought was how I would pinpoint exactly what I’d learned from the course itself, and what had been gleaned from the hours I’d spent listening to their podcast in those early days. Their voices in my ears became trusty companions on long walks, whilst pretending I didn’t feel completely lost at sea.
Freelance life can be lonely. I thought I would be immune to this, having worked from home since the pandemic and much preferring it that way. But suddenly I had no colleagues to confer with, no barometer for the strength of my ideas and no buffer when I began to think my emails were broken due to my empty inbox.
No one teaches you how to be a freelance journalist. I’ve completed a BA, an MA and an NCTJ course in journalism and can confirm it has not come up once. But the Kickstart Your Freelancing Career course does exactly this. Its practical format serves as a step-by-step guide for getting to grips with freelancing in a way that makes it seem possible.
For those of us outside of London, and with no connections at major publications, it is like a veil being lifted, giving a glimpse behind the glossy facade to the inner nuts and bolts of freelance journalism. And crucially, it answers the questions that will help you piece together the winning formula:
- How do you write a pitch?
- How do you know if it’s a good idea?
- How do you find the right editor to pitch to?
- How often should you chase them?
Not only did I get the reassurance that my emails were not in fact broken (around nine of 10 pitches won’t land when you first start out—a stat I found weirdly reassuring), I took away some tips which have become part of my daily routine as a freelancer. From how to find and keep track of ideas, to developing those ideas into a pitch that will win editors over (an ongoing work-in-progress!)
Emma and Lily’s feedback and pointers for further developments gave me enough confidence in my ideas not to be put off by the wall of silence. And their guidance helped me to see every response —even the rejections— as a crack through which I could further inch myself.
Here is an example of an exchange which turned into a regular contributing gig with a well-known media title.
An editor’s (also called Sarah) response to a pitch:
Hi Sarah,
Thank you for thinking of us! Because we work with contributors on a continued contribution model, we're unfortunately not in a position to accept one-off pitches. But I wish you the best of luck with this story!
My response:
Hi Sarah,
Thanks so much for taking the time to get back to me on this, that's really good to know for the future!
Out of interest, how would I go about applying to join the contributor model? Are you currently taking applications?
Many of the ideas I developed during the course are still (sadly) sitting in my rolling ‘ideas doc’ waiting for their rightful home. But I have secured regular bylines at two of my initial target publications and added a number of national editors to my contacts list.
While my imposter syndrome is reminding me daily that I haven’t done enough, the reason why these much-loved ideas haven’t come to life is largely due to being too busy with other work to pitch them. Six months into freelancing in the current media landscape, I recognise this to be a huge win in itself — and one which Kickstart your freelance journalism career helped lay the foundations for.
You can find out more about Sarah at https://www.sarahlsinclair.com/ and follow her on Twitter/X and Insta.
New podcast episode
This series is all about diversifying your income. In the podcast this week we discuss the world of copywriting and how freelance journalists can find work in this field. We chat to journalists Peter Ranscombe and Ella Delancey Jones about the difference between copywriting and content writing, and how to flit between writing for the audience and writing for a client.
Find us wherever you get your podcasts or click the link below!
Triumph of the week
Getting a commission just as the well was running dry
That feeling when
An editor sends corrections and when you open the document there are two minor queries - phew!
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!