The Renegade Writer Blog

Denise asks, “I’m starting to comb press releases from my local university to find story ideas.  Is it ok to use the quotes from the release in your query to magazine editors?  Isn’t that why the PR guys are sending out this information?  I would of course do my own interview after landing an assignment.”
Denise, [...]

Career columnist Penelope Trunk wrote an interesting blog post last month about Twitter — specifically about why it’s good to jump into stuff like Twittering and blogging when you have no idea what you’re doing — or even if you don’t “get” it. On a grander scale, I believe in this advice, too. Writing a [...]

Back when I started freelancing in the mid ’90s, I was lucky to get an ongoing gig with a tech magazine that paid me over $1 a word. I didn’t even have to pitch. My editor would call, give me the topic, suggest a couple sources, and I was off. Dream job, eh? Well the [...]

Let’s talk about kill fees, those profit-sucking vampires that deserve a good stake through their hearts. For those not in the know, a kill fee is the money you get when a magazine decides not to accept a contracted article for reasons ranging from poor quality of the finished piece (fair enough) to the editor [...]

For all you blog writers out there, Dustin, who blogs over at the Writer’s Technology Companion, wrote a terrific post today about how to build your blog’s traffic by writing resource posts.
He writes, “Also called ‘flagship posts’ and ‘pillar posts,’ resource posts are entries in your blog that act as resources for your readers—the kind [...]

K asks, “Not sure how to post this as a separate question for you that I’ve not seen addressed elsewhere. Since you’ve written books and magazines, I’m hoping you can help me. I’m in the middle of writing Book 2 of a 3-book series on assignment by a children’s book publisher. I’ve published 1500 magazine [...]

Kayleen writes, “A couple of years ago in doing research for an article I ran across several photograph albums full of pics taken during the 1930s of an around-the-world trip that two very famous American composers took together. They were working on a musical during the trip. The photos were taken by a professional photographer [...]

“I dread days where I have interviews scheduled.” “I’d rather give myself a root canal than call an editor.” “I’m so much better on paper than I am on the phone.” I’ve heard this, and variations thereof, from dozens of freelancers, many of whom are extremely successful professionals with hundreds of clips to their names.
I [...]

If you’ve read The Renegade Writer (you have, haven’t you?), you might remember me reminiscing about my ten years of toil in product marketing and advertising, where I reported to various stupid and crazy bosses. That guy over on the left? He was one of my bosses … one of the few who was actually [...]

Just a reminder that there’s still time to sign up for my travel writing workshop! If you’re interested in figuring out how to turn your wanderlust into publishable words, roll your sleeves up and join us as we discuss everything from designing your itinerary to effective querying strategies. –[Alison Stein Wellner]