How to get published - Tips for emailing editors - Freelance

How To Get Published: What NOT To Do When Emailing Editors

Once upon a time, I was an intern-turned-editorial contributor at the crown jewel of stylish online publishing, Refinery29.

Our stylish, growing team was crammed in a chic basement office, clattering away at our keyboards in a highly collaborative atmosphere.

As a freshly churned out fashion school grad, it was basically the best place I could have imagined working. They effectively kickstarted my writing career, which is huge. If the editors there hadn’t taken a chance on me, there’s no telling what I’d be doing right now.

…or whether this blog would exist!

Anyway, while growing increasingly obsessed with their ultra-cool content, I learned a lot about online publishing—specifically what editors look for.

In fact, I learned quickly enough that shortly after becoming an intern, I was allowed to guest-edit the site when the Editor in Chief or Global Editor had to step out for a meeting (or a runway show).

Site traffic was growing steadily, which meant editor inboxes were filling up regularly with pitches.

It seemed like everyone wanted to score some a piece of that prime digital real estate.

The editors spent a crazy amount of time reading emails from people hoping to place products or personalities on the website. They would laugh at some, gawk at others, and immediately assign some to be written up and published.

Others got deleted without a thought.

What was that magic quality something had to have to get published?, I wondered. And, after a while, I caught on. Years later, the same “magic qualities” hold true.

Want to get your projects published? Here’s what not to do when you’re writing to an editor…

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Ways To Get Motivated - Inspiration for Freelance Writers

9 Ways to Get Motivated That You Haven’t Tried Yet

The other night I sat at my desk, cup brimming with coffee—a.k.a. writing fuel—and stared at my to-do list like I was waiting for it to resolve itself.

Try as I might, I just couldn’t get motivated to write.

Nothing feels worse than having a long list of things you need to do… and zero motivation to do ’em. Maybe you can relate?

This kind of rut happens to everyone at some point. The cause can be anything from a messy room to IRL problems, but it’s hard to know how to snap out of it.

I’ve tried pretty much everything to bust out of ruts during my seven years as a freelance writer.

I also try to make a note when something works. This week I noticed that my list of fixes has gotten pretty big, so in light of my own recent rut, I decided it would be a good time to share.

Below you’ll find some unique ways to overcome that stubborn, don’t-want-to-do-anything feeling. If you’ve tried all the standard fixes, these might help.

From Clorox wipes to shifts in perspective, here are some ways to get motivated, harness your productivity, and feel good about working again.

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You Can’t Manifest Your Dream Life Until You Understand This

Your dream life.

It looms in the corner of your mind as you plug away at projects, cake layers onto your to-do list, and set aside the someday-stuff in favor of whatever task is urgently blinking at you.

There’s a fresh of breath air that you’re missing out on, somewhere out there.

At the end of your work day you sink into the subway seat as the train careens through the pinball machine chaos of Manhattan, through dark rat-infested tunnels that usher people back and forth from the rat race you’re more familiar with.

You burst back into daylight and cross the river before rattling into Brooklyn.

The train screeches to a halt on the raised platform above a bustling crosswalk, and empties out like a tipped jar of marbles…

Finally, you’re home.

Exhausted, you still have a thin sliver of inspiration left to “get something done” this evening. Something for your someday.

You make a cup of black tea and light a basil candle for a moment of reprieve before crawling into a pile of pillows with your laptop…

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Make Your Work Space More Inspiring 8

How to Launch a Freelance Writing Career From Scratch

 So you want to be a writer? That’s awesome news. The world needs more brilliant minds to communicate ideas and close gaps!

Whether you’re writing for a non-profit or scrawling cute taglines in a fashion magazine, there is immense value in learning how to trigger inspired moments of commerce and connection.

That’s what writing is all about.

I’ve worked both freelance and full time as a copywriter and content developer for over six years, so when a friend-of-a-friend sent me an email last week asking for advice on launching her own career, I did some thinking.

I’ve always told myself I fell into copywriting accidentally, but there were a series of intentional actions that moved my career along.

I developed a game plan that I would use if I had to go back and do it all over again.

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Day Job Optional - Freelance Writing Resource - Michelle Christina Larsen - Krystal Raydo

Day Job Optional will Change Your Freelance Writing Game Forever

Aaand we’re live! Welcome to Day Job Optional!

We’re Michelle Christina and Krystal: freelance writers with a passion for the location-independent lifestyle.

We’ve taken advantage of our online writing careers to travel the world, set our own schedules, and live life on our own terms—and now we’re passionate about helping other writers do the same. You’ll typically find us wherever there’s Wi-Fi, palm trees, and margaritas… but at the end of the day, we call New York City our home!

We created this website to share our experiences with you, as well as our tried-and-true tips for remote working as we navigate the location-free lifestyle. We truly believe that anyone with a passion for writing and a laptop can launch a lucrative online career by putting in strategic, consistent work.

The blog posts and other things you’ll find on this site are meant both for people who want to work from their couches (or a cool local coffee shop), and those who are aching to go full blown digital nomad. If you want to keep your day job and make a few extra thousand on the side each month? We’re here for you, too.

After all, it’s “day job optional“, friends!

If this sounds exciting, keep reading.

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