Authorship and freelance gigs

[Dick Whitman]

Have heard before that authorship can lead to freelance magazine work (and, conversely, magazine work can lead to book deals ... but I digress).

I know we have a few authors on here, and I'm curious about that? I would like to leave newspapers behind, for industry-related reasons, obviously, but also because there just is too much grinding, not enough storytelling opportunity. In a nutshell, just tired of the daily deadlines - which is what the draw is, obviously, for a lot of people. Different strokes, though ...

Oh, and nice to be here. Not my first username, though.

 

[The Big Ragu]

I never thought it through, but maybe you are onto something. I have hired with more freelancers (for magazines and custom-published publications) than I can count because of what you are describing. I sometimes need something written about a specialized topic and I will do a quick search and see that a someone has written two books about it and then get in contact with him or her. It's great because it is often really easy work for them that they can do cost efficiently and I get something good by someone who has some expertise. In more than one case it has led to an ongoing column or steady work for someone I didn't know at all until I had need. I have rarely been let down by one of those kinds of finds.