Right now, I am contractually obligated to a job until August 2016. I don't have time to take on another job, nor do I want to. That being said, from time to time, I get ideas for articles I would like to write. Right now, I'm being plagued by a review for Penny Dreadful that I thought might be appropriate to publish shortly before season 3 begins airing in 2016. Honestly, what I would love is to just email the article to a website and if they like it, they can publish it. But, is that a possibility? Most of the online magazines and websites I have been reading seem to have only two options: readers and people who work for them and are hired on as full time. Does anyone know if emailing my article and proposal to these websites would be worth my time, or is it exceedingly rare for websites to publish a guest article? I'm new to publishing, although I've been writing for quite some time, so I was hoping I might find some guidance on here. Thanks!
What about the Helium Writers Network? I once did a written assessment of some software (riveting stuff) for my MD. I found, by chance, there was a review wanted on there that my article perfectly fulfilled, they snapped it up and paid me.
I once read an article on how to make writing your day job successfully - I wish I still had the link - anyway, as I remember, the woman was detailing how she made it herself, and the way she did it was to: 1. Always contact the relevant editor directly. Don't bother with the generic info. addresses - you won't get a response. 2. Make your proposal timely and succinct. If it's a good article idea, the editor won't pass on it, but you gotta convince them that that's the case and it's gotta be actually timely and relevant to their section of the magazine or website. 3. Be smart about it. She used her own example of how she managed to get an article published - she knew this particular editor would be interested in her piece, but she also knew the editor was due to go on holiday that very weekend. It was already Friday. Who wants to read a mega long email on a Friday afternoon? Nobody. So she kept it very short and to the point. She got a response pretty quickly. That's all I remember about the article I'm afraid. Hope it's of some help!
Freelance writing is pretty common. Not every website would be interested, but many of them are hungry for content, especially if you're offering it for free. Generally I've "guest posted" by sending an e-mail to the relevant person (you have to poke around the site a little to figure out who that would be) with a brief summary of what I want to write (or have written) - it's a form of query letter, really. Then if they're interested, I send them the article. Easy-peasy! (I've always done this just because I had something to say and wanted to get my name in front of the audience for my books - I assume it'll be a bit more challenging if you want them to pay you for your work).
