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Case Study:<\/em><\/strong> Sometimes landing a great writing\nclient has a lot to do with taking advantage of your unique background outside\nof writing. And the more creatively you apply that background, the more\ninteresting gigs you can get. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m one of those artsy types with\ndegrees in things that don\u2019t usually lead to lucrative gigs. I\u2019m not qualified\nto write in niches like healthcare, law, or technology that always need\nwriters. My undergraduate degree is in classical languages (Ancient Greek and\nLatin), and my master\u2019s is in music history and theory. Super practical, right?\nBut it\u2019s who I am, so I\u2019m stuck with it. And I get by as a writer because I\u2019m\nalways beating the bushes for new clients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One goal I\u2019ve long had was to\nbecome part of a \u201cstable\u201d of writers for a book packager or similarly\nstructured company. That is, to be on call for large-scale jobs \u2013 usually\nghostwritten \u2013 that will be part of a larger series. Ideally, I\u2019d love to write\nnovels for a book packager. But it\u2019s extremely hard to break into that line, so\nI apply for any type of work-for-hire stable I see on the job boards. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A few years ago, an ad from a\ncompany I\u2019ll call Rainbow Inc. seemed promising. I pored over the job\ndescription to see if I might qualify. Rainbow Inc. mentioned wanting somebody\nwith a background in \u201chistory.\u201d That\u2019s a word so general as to be meaningless,\nand most of the time it\u2019s code for American or modern European history, neither\nof which I know much about. But I decided to try anyway. I was honest, but hoped\nto convince them that my background was broader than it seemed on a resume:<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a freelance\nwriter and editor, I\u2019ve focused on the sphere of arts journalism. As you might\nimagine, that work often requires historical research. That\u2019s always my\nfavorite part of a job. I find it\u2019s impossible to research the background of a\ntopic and not find it fascinating.Here\nare a few clips of pieces I’ve written with a historical context:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Amazingly, it worked! But I wasn\u2019t\nexpecting what the publisher then requested of me:<\/p>\n\n\n\n We are looking for an author for a book on Ancient India in a series called \u2018Ancient Civilizations.\u2019 This book will explore ancient India, highlighting fascinating details and key information. The book is interest level grades 3-6, reading level grade 4, 32 pages, and 3,000-3,500 words. Our rate for the book is $400, work-for-hire. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Wait. What? I do have a lot of\nexperience writing for kids, so that wasn\u2019t daunting. But Ancient India? I knew\nabsolutely nothing about Ancient India! I had to convince myself not to walk\naway from this opportunity. After all, I\u2019d been truthful in my cover letter and\nresume, even if I\u2019d been general. If they<\/em>\nthought I was qualified, maybe I should believe it, too. I\u2019d told them I was\ngood at research. That\u2019s completely true. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And they were offering me the job\nwithout my having to pitch for it. I\u2019d be crazy to say no. So, I accepted the\njob and got to work. I mean work.<\/em> Hard-core\nresearch, hunkered down in a library. None of this Google-search \u201cWhat is\nAncient India?\u201d nonsense. I meticulously followed Rainbow Inc.\u2019s very complex\nspecs for the manuscript. I met every deadline: Initial outline, revised\noutline, chapter drafts. I was almost done\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2026and I suffered a brain\nhemorrhage. Seriously. Spent two weeks in the ICU. The first thing I thought upon\nwaking up after the neurology team had run a camera through my brain (well, the\nsecond thing after \u201cYay! I\u2019m still alive!\u201d) was, \u201cThe Ancient India book is\ndue.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fortunately, I\u2019d already proven\nmyself. My husband sent them my almost-completed draft, and they accepted it as\ncomplete because I\u2019d been so responsible and organized up to that point that\nthey could easily finish it in-house. Once I was well enough to get back in\ntouch, they told me I could go ahead and invoice them for the full amount.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Still, I was disappointed not to\nhear from them for a long time. After a year, I sent an email to the editor I\u2019d\nworked with:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Last summer I\nvery much enjoyed working on the book about Ancient India for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I just wanted\nto check in and let you know that I would love to do another project for Rainbow\nInc., if you have anything coming up that might be appropriate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Please do keep\nme in mind. Thanks for your consideration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She wrote back to say there was\nnothing available, but she would indeed keep me in mind. I figured she was just\nbeing polite. They were probably worried I\u2019d keel over dead in the middle of\nthe next job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Imagine my surprise when, six\nmonths later, I received an email from a company I wasn\u2019t familiar with, and it\nbegan \u201cDear Anne, I remembered your name from your work with Rainbow Inc.,\nour sister company.\u201d Turns out, this was from the editor I\u2019d worked with on the\nAncient India book, and now she wanted me to pitch for one volume of a fiction<\/em> series. And a successful pitch\nwould pay $2500 (for 30,000 words), which was far more than I\u2019d ever received\nfor a writing job. Oh, boy, was I excited! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Then I read the description of\nthe series, and my spirits sank. It was a STEM series for middle-grade readers,\nand each novel had to be about kids participating in hard science. My brain\n(healthy now!) was blank; I didn\u2019t know enough about the hard sciences to come\nup with a plot that fit with their series specs, and certainly not one good\nenough to win a pitch war. I was out of my depth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Or was I? Determination took\nover, and the creative juices flowed. I wasn\u2019t an expert in the sciences, but I\nwas an expert in music. The series didn\u2019t allow me to use music as a science,\nso instead I made music an important part of the main character\u2019s life. Once\nI\u2019d made that decision, I relaxed about the science and was able to come up\nwith a plot that I felt confident researching. (Hey, if I could write a book\nabout Ancient India, why should STEM conquer me?) And, to make the story more\ncomfortable for me to write and more unique as a pitch, I found lots of places\nto make science and music interact throughout the plot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m not legally permitted to say\nexactly what my book is about \u2013 I signed a non-disclosure agreement because\nit\u2019s a ghostwritten series \u2013 but the publisher loved my idea. As expected,\ncovering the science angle well took lots of research, but it was fun to learn all\nthose new things. I\u2019ve since finished the manuscript and received my nice big check,\nand the novel comes out in September 2019 (without my name on it, of course,\nbut that\u2019s okay).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The moral of the story? There are three, actually: 1) Don\u2019t be afraid to try for jobs that are outside your comfort zone. 2) Present your true, unique background creatively, so that potential clients can interpret it to their own needs. 3) Always do your best work, and do it on time; you never know what the impression you make today might lead to tomorrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Turning What You Don\u2019t Know into What You Do Know<\/strong>
By Anne E. Johnson<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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