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October 23, 2009
The Greatest Freelance Writing Tips in the World
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Category: Freelance Writing Books
Product Description
Anyone who has a flair for writing will find this book a fantastic aid for unlocking their literary potential, either commercially or just as a fun hobby. The author’s tips and advice will help you to formulate your writing from first submission to final copy and also include help on copyright and marketing yourself. Whether you want to write articles for newspapers, magazines, the internet or even stage & screen, this book will hopefully guide you to success.
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More from Freelance Writing Books
Each passing month brings many books on writing that come in all shapes and sizes that serve a variety of purposes. Some are helpful others are useless often regurgitating the same information that can be found on the Internet or elsewhere.
Recently, I came across Linda Jones’ The Greatest Freelance Writing Tips in the World that is very, very good in cutting the fat from the bone and providing excellent advice not only to the aspiring freelance writer but also for those who are beyond the beginner’s stage.
Jones resides in England and is a former news editor on the Wolverhampton Express & Star and the Worcester Evening News. She has also worked as a senior reporter at several regional UK newspapers. Recently, she has devoted her writing career to subjects that include technology, parenting and journalism for various publications.
As the title suggests, this book is about freelance writing. Jones does an impressive job in effectively dividing her eight chapters with a wealth of no-nonsense advice that provide helpful strategies from how to get started, the business aspect of freelancing, writing for newspapers and magazines, the skills of interviewing and research, Internet writing, commercial writing to doing your own public relations.
If we look at the timely topic of blogging, Jones succinctly examines what blogs are all about and how they can prove to be beneficial not only as a showcase of your writing abilities but also in assisting you develop your style for writing and online markets. Another interesting section deals with the significance of seriously taking into account the business side of free lancing. Jones immediately poses the first most important question-can you really afford to go free lance? From here Jones explores tax matters, contracts, clients who don’t pay their accounts, negotiating and setting rates for your services, viewing kill fees with suspicion, and developing a healthy cynicism towards writing for free. Each chapter ends with a brief synopsis highlighting the central points. And most sections also include six of the best tips that have been amassed from Jones’ observations over sixteen years in journalism, the last eight as freelance and the last two as a blogger.
Reading Chapter Three, Writing for newspapers and magazines, we notice that six of the best vital attributes of a freelance write are a strong work ethic, in-built bill****detector, tenacity, courage, willingness to market yourself, and writing talent. Within this same chapter Jones covers the questions where and how I send my pitch. In another chapter, there is a listing of the six best websites to add to your writing knowledge and experience.
The final sections of the book end with checklists for your newspaper and magazine articles as well as a blog post. In addition, there is a list of recommended reading as well as useful UK addresses and an index.
The Greatest Freelance Writing Tips in the World adequately fulfills its obligation as offering down-to-earth practical advice and not the gibberish that we are often accustomed to reading. One caveat, as Jones points out, it is not her intention of presenting a complete step-by-step guide to bring you freelancing success nor is it a `How to write’ guide. Instead, it is an accumulation of Jones’ knowledge and experience presented in the form of tips that she hopes will benefit the budding free lancer and even the more experienced.
Norm Goldman, Editor Bookpleasures
Rating: 5 / 5