Robyn Jackson

Freelancing for fun and profit

I've just completed my first year of self-employment as a freelance writer, and with newspapers laying off thousands of employees and even, in some cases, ceasing publication, I'm sure many of my fellow journalists are looking at becoming full-time freelancers, too. At least for a while, until we figure out what else to do with the rest of our lives.

I've learned a lot during my first year of freelancing. I've written for my old newspaper, a monthly national medical publication and a couple of local magazines, plus a couple of nonprofit organizations' newsletters. I thought I'd share some tips with anyone who might be contemplating becoming a freelancer.

1. Network, network, network. All of my work this first year came from networking. You remember that old saying, "It's not what you know, but who you know"? All of those editors and reporters and PR people that you've worked with in your old job can help you land freelance assignments, so if possible, before you leave your job, contact everyone and let them know you are leaving and that you're available to do some freelancing for them, or someone else that they might know. I sent e-mails to the people I had dealt with in my job during my last two weeks of employment. I wanted to say goodbye and thank them for their assistance during the years we were in contact, but I also wanted to let them know what I was doing, in case they could send any work my way.

2. If you know your departure is imminent, try to get some freelance assignments before you actually leave your job. There is often quite a lag time - anywhere from a month to a year - after you submit a story to some publications before you'll get paid, so you don't want to waste valuable time trying to line up assignments after you leave your job and don't have any income.

3. Pay off as many debts as you can while you still have a paycheck. If you think it's hard to make ends meet when you have a salary, try paying bills without any money coming in. The less debt you have, the better off you'll be. It'll be hard enough to pay the mortgage or rent and the utilities, plus buy groceries and gas for your car when you're trying to survive on freelance work. If you must refinance your mortgage or buy a new car, do it before you quit your job, because it'll be a lot harder when you have an unreliable income, but you should avoid any unnecessary expenses, if possible. You might have to drive that old clunker another year or two.

4. Have at least the equivalent of six months' income in savings. A year's worth would be even better because there will be unexpected expenses. As noted above, it often takes publications months to pay (and you might have to badger them to get your money) and you might be living off your savings for a while.

5. Be realistic about what you are going to be paid. My old newspaper only pays $25 per story, so I have to do a lot of stories for that to add up to anything, but I can't afford not to take every assignment I'm given. The best pay I've received for a single story was $700 for a university's alumni magazine. Most of my pay has been in the $50-200 range per story. If you're going to make enough to pay the bills, you have to get in with a publication that pays well.

6. Treat this like a job. Set regular hours for your freelancing. The good thing about working from home is the flexibility. If you have to take a day off during the week to take care of personal business, you can, but if you're going to get your stories done, you have to spend at least a few hours a day at the computer.

7. Meet deadlines. If you run up against a problem, let your editor know. Most of them are reasonable and can usually give you another day if necessary, but you don't want to develop a reputation for not meeting deadlines, or for being unreliable.

8. Keep good records. You will have to pay taxes on your freelance income, no matter how paltry it is, so keep check stubs and anything else that will help you at tax time. And be aware that you'll be hit with a hefty self-employment tax, even if you don't make much from freelancing.

9. Get organized. Set up an office somewhere in your home where you have space to work on the computer, spread out your research materials and have access to a phone. Keep a calendar handy so you can keep track of deadlines.

10. Get out of the house occasionally. It's easy to become a hermit when you work from home, but try to get out of the house a few times a week and get some fresh air and sunshine. Meet friends for lunch, take a morning or afternoon to go to the grocery store or pay the bills, take the dog for a walk, whatever, just don't stay locked inside. If you cut yourself off from the rest of the world, you'll become depressed and that'll just make it harder to work.

11. Constantly keep your eyes, ears and mind open for story ideas.

12. Enjoy this time of freedom, but have a Plan B in case freelancing just doesn't work out for you. Many of us old editors and reporters are going to have to change careers because there just doesn't seem to be much future in the newspaper business. You might want to freelance while going back to school to get a master's degree or a teaching certificate. Or this could be your opportunity to do something you've always wanted to do but never had the time for before, like write a novel or travel. I've enjoyed being a freelancer for the past year, after 25 years in a very stressful job, I needed to recharge my batteries. I plan to give it one more year, but I'm going to have to get a real job eventually. The one thing I really miss is a steady paycheck.

Wild about Harry

I recently attended the funeral of the first features editor I worked under. At 57, Ann was way too young to die. She had just taken early retirement from USA Today, where she had been a copy editor for more than a decade. She was looking forward to many years of travel and adventure. Sadly, while on her first vacation trip just a few weeks after retirng, she took ill and was diagnosed with stage four cancer. She died less than six months later after a brave fight for her life.
Ann's illness brought back a lot of memories of my early years as a journalist. Ann and I worked together for about 10 years. As a two-person features department during many of those years, we made quite a
team. We both enjoyed writing, editing and designing pages, so we took turns. One day I played reporter and Ann edited and laid out the next day's page. The next day I edited and Ann worked on a story.
I have a natural talent for writing and I had a college degree in journalism, so I thought I knew what I was doing. I was quite surprised when I would submit my stories to Ann for editing and she would send them back to me full of questions. That really bugged me, and I was determined to write stories so complete that Ann would not have any questions about them. I worked very hard to anticipate what Ann - and the reader - would ask about the story and I plugged those holes. It made me a better writer and reporter.
I often mentor young reporters and interns. They often chafe when their stories are edited because they are too inexperienced to see the holes in their stories and think every word they write is golden, but I always remind them that the only way to grow as a writer and reporter is to work for a demanding editor. I was lucky to find one early in my career in Ann.
If you are a writer and you don't have a mentor or editor, I urge you to find one. Join a local writers' group that offers critique sessions or that has established writers who would be willing to give you some feedback. Freelance for your local newspaper and work with a real editor. Hire a professional editor to go over your manuscript before you submit it to publishers. If nothing else, get your best friend to read your work and give you some honest criticism.
Having your writing criticized can hurt, so choose your critic carefully. You don't need someone who is going to crush your spirit and stop you from writing. What you want is someone who can push you to be a better writer, one who sets high standards and holds you to them.
Ann taught me a lot about writing and editing during the years we worked together. I have tried to use her approach as a model when dealing with my own reporters and columnists. I am always thrilled when one of them tells me how much they appreciate the help I gave them, and that they can see that they have grown and improved just by looking back at their own writing.
The only way to improve your writing is to challenge yourself to be better, and sometimes, a challenging editor is just the ticket. If you already have one, be sure to thank them.
Copyright 2006, Robyn Jackson

Hurricane Katrina hit the Mississippi Gulf Coast and South Louisiana on Aug. 29, 2005. Maybe you watched the coverage on TV. Here's what it was like covering the worst natural disaster to ever hit the United States from the middle of it.

Hattiesburg, Miss., where I live, was right in the path of Katrina. If you've never experienced a hurricane, you might think that only the coast is affected, that as soon as the winds cross land, they lose their strength. Hattiesburg is 60 miles inland, and we had winds in excess of 100 miles per hour for about 10 hours. Katrina made landfall in the marshes of South Louisiana in the dawn hours of that Monday morning and headed north. The storm was still very much intact when the eye passed a few miles to the west of Hattiesburg around midday.

I have been through many hurricanes in my life, including Hurricane Camille in 1969, which devastated the Mississippi Coast, but Katrina was the most frightening one I've ever been through. We did not have the storm surge threat like they did on the Coast, but it seemed like it would never end. I will never forget the shrill howling of the wind as it tried to lift the roof off my house and blow in my doors and windows.

I stayed home from work the day Katrina hit and watched pine trees uproot or snap in two from small tornados embedded in the swirling wind and rain. My house is on a concrete slab, and I remember at one point having my bare feet on the carpet and feeling the ground vibrating beneath them. That was caused by all the falling trees. I lost seven or eight trees in my yard but I was very blessed, none of them fell on the house, my roof stayed on, and no doors or windows blew in. Some of my neighbors did not fare so well, some received major damage and some houses were completely destroyed. I am not exaggerating when I say that every house in this city suffered some damage from Katrina.

On Tuesday, I managed to drive beneath drooping power lines and around fallen trees to get to the office. The newsroom of the Hattiesburg American was crowded with faces I had never seen before. Our parent company, Gannett, had sent in about a dozen "loaners" from Gannett News Service in Washington, D.C., and other Gannett newspapers in our region. These loaners, many of whom had experience covering hurricanes at the Florida papers, would be with us for the next three or four weeks, crews coming and going every few days.

We were operating on generator power, but there was air conditioning, a life-saver in the nearly 100-degree heat we would experience for the next few weeks. With no telephone land lines or cell phone towers standing, we had virtually no way to reach the outside world. A laptop computer was hooked up to a satellite dish in the USA Today room (the American is a regional print site for USA Today and the pages are sent via satellite) and that's how we were able to keep our Web site updated and to communicate with the rest of the world.

Our Web site received record hits and our forums became a lifeline for people desperate to know what was happening here. Our area was ignored by the national media.

My home's power was restored six days after Katrina struck, but it was the next week before downtown Hattiesburg had power. After a few days, the gas-powered generator at work began to fail and it had to be replaced with a larger one.

We were all grateful for that generator, though, because the heat was brutal and we were one of the few places in town that had air conditioning. The newspaper plant even became a makeshift shelter for employees and their families. Many people slept there for days or even weeks until power was restored to their homes. Conference rooms were filled with air mattresses. A day care center was set up in the breakroom to give the kids something to do and get them out of the workers' way.

Water, food and gasoline began to run out just a day after Katrina hit. No one was prepared for a storm of this magnitude, and no one had put aside enough non-perishable food or bottled water to last a week or two without electricity. City and county water systems failed, and people could not flush toilets or take showers. My home was without water for four days. Gasoline pumps could not work without electricity and people waited in line for hours at the few pumps that were working around town. Stores let people inside for a few minutes to buy whatever was left on the shelves. Restaurants cooked their frozen and perishable items the day after Katrina and sold them at the door. People began to panic when they started to run out of ice and water and gasoline. FEMA was nowhere to be seen. Thank God for the Red Cross and faith-based organizations, who had soup kitchens up within a couple of days and brought in emergency supplies. They saved a lot of lives.