The Fabulist Flash

Issue 73

Walt Whitman's Tomb Mousepad

In This Issue:

1. This Week
2. Find Your Niche
3. Multiply Your Freelance Writing Work
4. How To Re-Set Spellchecker
5. About The Fabulist Flash

1. This Week

The past year has been filled with work and transitions in our household. I've written and seen published my first book. I've started learning the ins and outs of being a full-time writer, plus tons on publicity and promotion. This has involved facing and overcoming fears and experiencing incredible, emotional highs. Likewise, my partner has made the transition into hospital management from bedside care and just last week completed his overdue BA. It's time for a break and a little reward, so when this week's issue of The Fabulist Flash arrives in your inbox, my partner and I will be poolside in Mexico…well through a bottle of Tequila, I suspect.

Just because I'm not in the office doesn't mean you should go without expanding your own writing craft knowledge. And, this week's issue has some great information. Brian Konradt has ideas on How to Multiply Your Freelance Writing Work and Nick Usborne explores 3 Ways to Find Your Niche as a Freelance Writer . And, even if you're not a freelance writer, Jan Kovarik's advice on How To Re-Set Spellchecker to Recheck a Document should be helpful.

Until next week,

Gregory
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Gregory A. Kompes (www.kompes.com) is a writer, photographer, professional speaker and author of the bestseller 50 Fabulous Gay-Friendly Places to Live and The Endorsement Quest.

2. Find Your Niche

3 Ways to Find Your Niche as a Freelance Writer
by Nick Usborne

To make a six-figure income as a freelance writer, to need to be an expert. You need your name to jump to people's lips when a particular job or challenge comes up.

"Direct mail for software? You should get in touch with Bob. That's what he does." Insert your own name and specialty where appropriate.

You can't get that kind of awareness or referral if you're someone who just writes about anything in any medium. Nobody is going to believe that you are a trusted expert in absolutely everything.

So how do you determine a viable 'niche'? You have three choices...

1. Niche by industry...

That is to say, work within a particular industry. For years I worked with pharmaceutical clients. All my clients were drug companies. I wrote direct mail, brochures, sales aids, video scripts. I wrote anything, so long as it was about pharmaceuticals. That was my niche. And my clients knew that I was knowledgeable in that area. So they came to me.

2. Niche by medium...

In this scenario, you make a particular medium your specialty. After my years with the pharmaceutical industry, I decided to specialize as a direct mail copywriter. And for that period, about 15 years, I ONLY write direct mail and associated media...like inserts, fliers, postcards etc. I was a direct response specialist. And I wrote for all kinds of different industries - financial, cable TV, magazine publishers and more.

My specialty, my niche, was as a direct response copywriter. Other writers have built their careers around writing annual reports, radio scripts, white papers etc.

3. 'Double-Niche'

When you double-niche you are making a specialty of serving a single industry through a single medium. For instance, writing direct response for the financial industry. And ONLY writing direct response for the financial industry.

In conclusion...

As I said at the beginning, you can't be an expert at everything...not within every industry, not with every medium. So you need to take some steps to find your niche.

How do you choose? First, know yourself. Know what you are good at. Know what you like.

Also, be smart. Create your niche where the money is. Find your niche where there is a strong market.

And be smart about the size of your niche. Don't go so narrow that you're forever starved of work. Don't go so broad that people view you as a Jack or Jill of all trades, a generalist.

About the Author
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Nick Usborne is a freelance writer, author, speaker and advocate of good writing. For more articles and resources on making money as a freelance writer, visit his site, http://www.freelancewritingsuccess.com

3. Multiply Your Freelance Writing Work

How to Multiply Your Freelance Writing Work
by Brian Konradt

You can turn your $200 fee to write a press release into $2,000 to carry out an entire PR campaign simply by convincing clients to invest in campaigns, instead of individual assignments. Campaigns achieve better results and cost less in the long-term for clients, compared to individual assignments. And, of course, as the freelancer, you get paid much more for turning out a succession of assignments that assimilate a successful campaign.

Here's how to multiply your writing sales by convincing clients to invest in long-term campaigns, instead of short-term individual assignments.

Know the short-term and long-term results. A client approaches you to write a brochure. He may or may not know that his product can also benefit from other types of promotional pieces, such as ads, direct mail, news releases, websites, and so on, to sell his product or service. Your job is to educate the client. The brochure may be the first promotional piece in a consortium of promotional pieces. Here, you must know the short-term and long-term view results of the brochure.

The short-term results are the results the brochure will achieve for the client; and the long-term results are the results the brochure will achieve/contribute for the entire campaign. It answers the questions, "How do the results of this brochure fit into the entire campaign?" and "How can these results be strengthened with other forms of promotional materials?"

Show the client how a campaign, that's comprised of a succession of assignments, can achieve — and exceed — his expectations and outsell and outdo the performance of a single assignment.

Use "tie-in" services. Whenever a client approaches you with a single assignment, ask yourself what tie-in services can supplement the single assignment. A news release achieves better results when it's accompanied with a photo. And a press kit — complete with press releases, photos, brochures, and company information — can achieve better results than a single press release. All of these extra tie-in services can turn writing a single press release into multiple writing sales.

Offer the "concept to completion" benefit. Instead of pitching yourself as a freelancer who can write newsletter copy, pitch yourself as a freelancer who produces newsletters, from copy to completion. You multiply your income by outsourcing parts of the job and delivering a finished product, not a piece of the product. You also can extend your "concept to completion" services by pitching yourself as a marketing consultant, in which you make recommendations to the client as to the best way to market the newsletter.

Develop strong consultative skills. Besides selling your freelance services, also offer consulting services. Clients pay you to explain ideas, concepts, recommendations and turnkey solutions as to the best way to achieve the results they desire. Consulting with clients can lead to securing freelance work, since clients realize you have the skills and expertise to undertake the task.

Know the future needs of clients. Clients come with present needs — and future needs. A client may hire you to write a newsletter now, but they'll also consider you for future work if you know what their future needs are and how to fulfill them. The company may be ushering in a new product line, creating a new division within the company, sponsoring a charity event, or creating a website. All of these future events need a freelancer to do promotional writing and freelance work. That's you. Your job is to show clients how you'll address their future needs with solutions that'll increase their profitability and/or productivity. This is usually accomplished with a proposal through which you pitch yourself as the freelancer who has the solutions to undertake the future tasks.

Use proposals to secure work. Proposals are an inclusive persuasion tool to convince prospects that you can increase their profitability and/or productivity with your freelance services. Proposals specifically show the client how you intend to achieve the desired results, the time and costs involved, and why you and your solutions are the best choices to boost the company's profits.

Adaptations. Any of your freelance writing services can be adapted for websites, turning a single assignment into two assignments. Get paid to write a press release or brochure, and then get paid again to adapt the copy digitally.

Add-on services, such as desktop publishing services, marketing consulting, compiling and selling media lists, and project coordinating can help multiply your work and your income.

About the Author
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Brian Konradt is a former freelance copywriter and graphic designer, and founder of FreelanceWriting.com (http://www.freelancewriting.com), a free website dedicated to help writers master the business and creative sides of freelance writing.

4. How To Re-Set Spellchecker

How To Re-Set Spellchecker to Recheck Document
by Jan Kovarik

After you have written a text and run spellcheck, you might find it necessary to go back and revise the document. You might also have found that you have been running spellcheck, your brain has gotten a little numb, and you can't remember if you actually fixed the last error or just "Ignore" automatically. You'll need to re-set your spellchecker so that it will recheck the entire document, not just new text that is added. Here’s an easy way to re-run spellcheck:

Block highlight the ENTIRE text (that is, click at the very beginning of the document, before the first word on the first page, and drag to the bottom of the text; or click the cursor before the first word on the first page, and then hold down the Shift key and click behind the last word on the last page).

Go to Tools, Language, Set Language, U.S. English (or other language being used), OK.

Then click at the beginning of the document to remove the highlighting.

The spellchecker has now been re-set. You can run it again, and the entire document will be spellchecked.

You can also do this just for sections of text, by block-highlighting the section you want to re-spellcheck.

You can also recheck your spelling using this alternative method:

With your document open, click Tools, Options, Spelling & Grammar. At the bottom of the window under "Proofing Tools" is a button for "Recheck Document." Click on the button. When you do, you will get the following window:

This operation resets spell checker and grammar checker. Do you want to continue?

Click Yes. Then, re-run spellcheck on your document.

It is easy to re-check a document that has already been spellchecked. Please be sure to remember to run a final spellcheck when you are completely finished with your document!

About the Author
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Jan K., The Proofer is freelance proofreader and copyeditor. Visit http://www.janktheproofer.com for more information. Visit Jan K., the Proofer’s sister sites: Mom’s Break at http://www.MomsBreak.com for free printable projects and crafts. Jan’s Dough at http://www.jansdough.com for free printable recipes for Sourdough Bread and more. For more articles by Jan K., The Proofer, visit http://freecontent.janktheproofer.com.

5. About The Fabulist Flash

ISSN: 1554-0804

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Make plans now to attend the 2006 Las Vegas Writer's Conference March 30-April 2, 2006, in Las Vegas, Nevada.