{"id":6236,"date":"2019-02-21T09:23:08","date_gmt":"2019-02-21T17:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/?p=6236"},"modified":"2019-03-27T11:38:46","modified_gmt":"2019-03-27T18:38:46","slug":"how-i-went-from-earning-40-an-an-article-to-400","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/uncategorized\/how-i-went-from-earning-40-an-an-article-to-400\/","title":{"rendered":"How I Went from Earning $40 an An Article to $400"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Shireen Hakim<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Writing should be fun. If you\u2019re not having fun with a publication or editor, move on. It will pay off. I\u2019m proof of that.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d been regularly writing for an UK-based online news publication for three years. I had a great rapport with the senior editor. Although he was just paying me $40 per article (I negotiated up from $18 to $25 to $40-50 over the years), I could always be confident he would immediately accept and publish my work. It was an ego-booster and took away the pressure of pitching, editing, etc. But last month I got critique from a different editor instead. I did not like working with him because he was overly critical and uncreative. When the senior editor finally responded and said he didn\u2019t have time to correspond with me, I ended the relationship. Thankfully I\u2019d already been paid for my last article.<\/p>\n

I was apprehensive about losing that easy, regular paycheck, but I stuck to my instinct and looked elsewhere to pitch. The loss of regular income spurred me to find a gig to fill the void.<\/p>\n

The thing about me is, I never stop pitching. Everything can be a story. Anytime I hear an interesting news story or go to a special event, I think of how I could write about it.<\/p>\n

So as soon as I saw a tweet about the LA Times article on a rare bird in Los Angeles, I direct messaged the Audubon editor I was in touch with. (First, I verified it was a breaking story: that there were no articles posted by Audubon themselves, or that she had tweeted about it.)<\/p>\n

Even though the editor had ignored a pitch of mine a few days before, I still pitched her this story.<\/p>\n

I direct messaged her via Twitter, because she responds faster there than Gmail. I kept it brief since our Twitter conversations are more casual than Gmail.<\/p>\n

First, I sent her a screenshot of the tweet, to show her that the publication was interested in the story. Then I sent a two sentence message telling her I could write a story about it:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

(She responded to me the same day.)<\/p>\n

The other key was, I knew she would be interested in this story because I had seen many articles a couple of months earlier about another rare bird sighting in New York. So I wasn\u2019t as pressured to push my story onto her. I knew this one had cache.<\/p>\n

After I went on-site and updated the editor with details, I let her determine the logistics: length and pay. She asked me for my biggest article yet: 800 words! I was amazed at the length since I knew it would amass to a great pay. Sure enough, I was paid $0.50 per word (it was an online spread.)<\/p>\n

One month after leaving the other tepid publication, I made 10 times the amount. (While working with a female editor I admire.)<\/p>\n

6 Tips to get high-paying gigs:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \n

    Look for stories everywhere.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  2. \n

    Continue to pitch potential stories- even if the publication has rejected you before!<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  3. \n

    Pitch immediately.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  4. \n

    Keep your pitch short, and tell them why it\u2019s news-worthy.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  5. \n

    Contact them directly, in the form they respond most often.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  6. \n

    Work with editors\/publications you vibe with.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Note: After this article was published, I pitched another story right away and got rejected. But that won\u2019t stop me from pitching potential stories in the future.<\/p>\n

    \n

    Shireen Hakim<\/strong> is an award-winning author from Southern California.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    By Shireen Hakim Writing should be fun. If you\u2019re not having fun with a publication or editor, move on. It will pay off. I\u2019m proof of that. I\u2019d been regularly writing for an UK-based online news publication for three years. I had a great rapport with the senior editor. Although he was just paying me…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6274,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-case-studies","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6236"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6276,"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6236\/revisions\/6276"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}