2    Getting organized

If you’re a staff writer much of the organizing that makes your work possible will be done for you and the necessary equipment will be at hand. But increasingly staff writers do some of their work at home and operate from two offices. Freelance writers have often worked as staff writers (and/or as editors/subeditors) before making the plunge.

Whether your interests are mainly as a staff writer or as a freelance, whether the freelance work is full time or part time, you need to be well organized at home (perhaps in a rented office away from home). You need to decide on the shape you have in mind for your career in journalism, your immediate and longer-term objectives. Then you will want those objectives to be reflected in the way you organize your time, equipment and all the business aspects.

BOOKS AND EQUIPMENT

A suggested list of reference books to start with is on pages 397–8. You will add to this according to the way your interests and commissions develop.

Publications vary in the way they want features to be submitted. By email (increasingly), on disk, by fax, by post? It’s best to be prepared, so make sure your desk or work station is large enough to accommodate your computer and other equipment. A telephone, answering machine, fax machine and photocopier can be all in one package if you prefer. It’s advisable to have broadband – a separate line for the Internet, making access much faster and allowing you to send and receive large files. Furthermore, although you can have an answering service on the line used for the Internet, editors don’t like leaving messages.

You need a mobile phone, through which you can access your answer-phone for messages when you’re on the move. When emailing files your system doesn’t have to be compatible with anyone else’s. But some publications may insist on your using particular software, usually Microsoft Word but perhaps Quark if you are doing any subbing.

If you do much work while on the move, you will consider buying a laptop computer or even a palm/hand-held computer. On the latter you can currently write your features, visit websites, access emails, keep records of contact, and so on. Accessories include a full-size folding keyboard that fits into your pocket, modems and hand-held scanners. Take a look: the technology is advancing fast.

Your desk should be large enough to spread papers out and have sufficient drawers for stationery, including headed notepaper, business cards if you find them useful, and other essentials. It’s a good idea to have a filing cabinet or two close at hand as well as shelves containing reference books.

Backing up

Losing important work on your computer (through a power cut for example) can be a disaster. Save on to your hard disk as you go. Then be prepared for any failure of your hard disk by archiving important work on floppy disks. You can be even more secure by using an online file storage service.

Have a tape recorder that you can connect to a telephone. You plug one end of a short cable into your tape recorder and at the other end is a rubber suction plug that you stick under the handset. For travelling use the telephone pickup (made by Olympus) consisting of a microphone that goes into your ear and records your interviewee and your own voice recycled through the handset. Ask permission before you tape people’s telephone conversations.

Much of your secretarial work, keeping lists of clients and contacts and of negotiations with editors, and so on, can be done on catalogue cards or in a filofax system. Two organizers, whether desk diaries or filofax systems, are used by some writers, one for their personal lives and one for their work. Other writers use their computers for lists or a pocket-sized digital diary. Keep a telephone log to record the results of telephone calls relating to work, being careful to make full notes of briefings and (for tax purposes) the duration of the calls. Confirm briefings and agreements in writing.

RUNNING A BUSINESS

In the freelance writing business, like any other, you have a product to sell. Your features won’t sell themselves. Unless you have been a staff writer and are starting off as a freelance with a regular contract or two you need to keep up a supply of ideas and features that are better than those of your competitors. True, the most important way to cultivate clients is to store up goodwill with editors by keeping to deadlines, working to the briefs, writing well and being accurate. But neglect the business aspects and you can watch lesser talents who don’t neglect them become far more successful. Invest in some basic business training, get well organized, and in the long run you will save precious time.

In this chapter I’m assuming that you have to be:

•  organizing your time

•  constantly finding work

•  keeping records

•  taking care of financial matters

•  making sure that you’re operating legally and professionally.

What follows are the basic techniques that will help you achieve these goals.

Keeping records

As a freelance you need to keep a record of time spent on producing features (not forgetting that spent on research), so that you can chart your earning power as the years go by. Record expenses that have been agreed with editors, which may include travel and hotel and restaurant bills. Such records I keep in a hardbacked exercise book spread over two pages, with columns for titles, the publications, the time spent, dates of starting and finishing, where published, fees paid. On 4 April each year I draw a line across and total up fees, etc., for the tax year.

A record of pitches can be kept on 6 in. × 4 in. cards, one for each article (or in a ring binder, with one page for each title). Cross-reference these with another set of cards or pages each devoted to a target publication, contains its contact names, phone numbers and email addresses (kept up to date). Look at the history of your dealings when about to make the next pitch. There are various programs of course for computerizing such information.

Finding work

Develop ideas and pitch them to publications you’ve studied, as described in Chapters 3 to 6. Before you’ve established an effective network of clients and contacts (see Chapter 1) you may find it useful to promote yourself in more general ways. Try advertising and look for feature writing jobs advertised. The Press Gazette is a good place. But advertising in the press can be expensive, so experiment with other methods. Try sending out a mailshot – a flier or a brochure – if you can refer to some features published.

Note that on the whole punters, in whichever way they’re pitching, emphasize what they specialize in, and most refer to websites where samples can be accessed. As described in Chapter 9, create your own website with a c.v. emphasizing journalistic experience and link it to articles published. It can also help to register with freelance directories online.

You may need to allocate a day or two weekly to finding work. Aim to get regular commissions from at least one or two clients. When one source of work dries up find another to replace it, diversify to keep up with current trends, and follow up a successful sale with new ideas.

Organizing your time

Schedule writing into the day first at a time when you’re freshest. Slot in the other activities round it: the market study, reading on your subjects, researching your features, interviewing, corresponding, telephoning, managing the business. When arranging deadlines, calculate the time likely to be required for the various tasks. For a complex feature the actual writing may take up about a fifth or less of the total time whereas some features may be written off the top of your head in an hour or two. Does the fee proposed reflect the work involved? Make sure you have a comfortable chair that keeps your back straight. Don’t spend too long at your desk in one session. Take breaks from your desk and find time for fresh air and exercise. Do some arm-stretching while still in your chair. Close your eyes for a minute or two occasionally. Circle your head slowly, drop your head on to your chest and raise it again several times. Do some deep breathing exercises.

A keyboard speed of 40 minutes is often recommended but somewhat less than this is adequate if you do your thinking as you work straight on to the keyboard. Touch typing will increase your speed but be careful to avoid back and neck strain, or even Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI). There’s good advice online from Patient UK (www.patient.co.uk) and RSI/UK (www.demon.co.uk/rsi).

Financial matters

For your freelance activities you need to keep a check on time spent on writing and money earned. Records of all expenses incurred in your freelance work are required for income tax purposes. Find a computer program to keep your accounts in order and consider using a tax accountant.

Negotiate payment for an article when commissioned, before writing it. Although you may be unfussy about fees early in your career, eager for the opportunities, demand the proper price for work accepted once you have something of a portfolio to show. The proper price means at least the minimum rate that the publication should be paying for features, which is based on the advertising rates per page. If you accept lower fees, you will be doing other freelances out of work. Give a fair estimate of any expenses that will be incurred and make sure that they will be covered.

The NUJ Freelance Guide lists varying minimum rates for feature articles, news reporting, casual subbing, book royalties, and radio and TV scripts. These are the rates agreed with various book publishers, newspapers, magazines, the BBC, the Association of Independent Radio Contractors (commercial radio) and Independent TV Contractors Association (commercial TV). Most freelance work is negotiated directly with editors, and once you are established, you should be obtaining rates higher than the minimum ones.

Normally you indicate First British Serial Rights (FBSR) are being sold. If you sell world rights (English language) to a magazine, the fee should be doubled, and general world rights add 150 per cent. The booklet indicates that 50 per cent of an agreed fee is payable for work cancelled before it is begun. Delivered work which was definitely commissioned should be paid for in full, whether it is used or not. Get commissioned in writing: ‘We’ll have a look at it’ on the phone is not a commission. And don’t complain if you haven’t fulfilled what was promised. Chapter 7 pursues this matter.

If there is no definite publication date for ordered work, try to negotiate a date of payment – perhaps within a month of submission of the work. Send an invoice with your copy, or at least a few days afterwards. If you negotiate a regular contract to produce work, you should try to get an agreement for a severance payment – usually one month’s expected earnings for every year of contributing – and for some paid holiday time. The magazine business is volatile. If payment is not forthcoming for an article, ring the accounts department and you should be able to deduce from its reaction whether delay is common. As a last resort, you can consider taking out a summons through the small claims court.

Literary agents (see the Writers’ and Artists’Yearbook) are rarely interested in short scripts, unless from the clients whose full-length works they are handling. Dealing with articles is not likely to be profitable for them, though a series of articles for a high-paying market, or the serialization of a book, might be.

Being professional

Membership of a professional organization will be a source of valuable support. The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) promotes and defends the incomes and conditions of employment of journalists, and provides various benefits and legal assistance. It is the largest member of the International Federation of Journalists, which links journalists throughout the world. Apart from the Fees Guide the NUJ publishes The Journalist, with its articles about trends and strikes, management problems and future prospects for the industry; Freelance, a news sheet giving details about branch meetings and updated information on agreements about fees and conditions made with various publishing houses; and the Online Freelance Directory. Other useful contacts, including online resources, are listed in Appendix 5.