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From the President's Desk
December 2008
Our Evolving Profession, Our Evolving Careers
by Russell Wild

After many years of freelance writing, more than I sometimes care to admit, my career has, in 2008, crossed a threshold. I am now making at least half of my income from sources other than writing magazine articles and books.

My guess is that I'm fairly typical of AJSA members.

Once upon a time, and not that long ago, we were just about all consumer magazine writers and book authors. Today, however, more and more of us, faced with changes in the economics of our profession—changes not that sweet—have reinvented our careers.

Many are writing for trade journals. Others are writing Web copy for either literary or commercial sites. Some are blogging (and, yes, there's money to be had in sponsorships). Some are doing publicity work—press releases, sales brochures and such. Others, including myself, have managed to dovetail their journalism with consulting.

In my case, after writing about money for years, I went back to school for a graduate certificate in personal finance (I already had an MBA and some banking experience from years back), got my license from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to practice investment advising, and now have two nice half-time careers. Almost all of the demand for my financial advising comes from people who have read my books. Much of the grist for my writings comes from advising those real people.

Gene Retske of Ballentine, SC, has had a similar career trajectory, working in telecommunications, writing about it and lately combining the two. He spends the lion's share of his time penning articles for industry trade journals, but also does very lucrative consulting work.

Camille Noe Pagán, of Brooklyn, NY, specialized in health and fitness writing before branching out into marketing consulting. "Say a drug company wants to find out how to effectively market a new drug to consumers ... I research the information, such as the potential target markets. The skills I use as a journalist are the same ones that companies hire me for: the ability to research complex topics and write coherently about my findings," she says. "The hourly rate can be very good—comparable to what I make on most magazine articles, and it's a nice change of pace."

Joan Price, of Sebastopol, CA, also enjoys the change of pace that comes with her dual career. When not writing, she teaches line dancing. "Dividing my time between writing and dancing creates a wonderful balance, emotionally as well as physically," says Price. In the daytime, I'm disciplined, mostly sedentary, quiet, solitary and in my head—in the evening I'm social, gregarious, tearing up the dance floor and in my body."

Of course, we still have members, and quite a few, strictly earning their money the old-fashioned way. Lisa Collier Cool, of Pelham, NY, for example, has far from given up on consumer magazine writing. And most years she is well within the six-figure income park. "Making it as a magazine writer today is considerably more work than in the past. It takes both imagination and persistence. I do it by giving editors stories they can't find elsewhere," she says. Current favorite markets: Reader's Digest, Woman's Day and Hallmark.

Melba Newsome, of Charlotte, NC, makes a similarly good living from consumer magazines. "I do it by working only with magazines that give long assignments (it takes just as much work to do 3,000 words as 1,200 words), and by working with editors high on the masthead who are less likely to be second-guessed by superiors, and more likely to give me assignments that go smoothly." Current favorite markets: Portfolio, Oprah and ESPN the Magazine.

All of us—whether working for consumer magazines, authoring books, writing other material for other outlets, or mix-and-matching our writing with related pursuits—are professional nonfiction freelancers. All members of ASJA have that in common and, with it, a host of other commonalities, such as a love of language, an insatiable curiosity and a strong aversion to getting dressed up in the morning and battling rush-hour traffic.

Somewhat by choice, somewhat by necessity, our profession and our careers keep evolving. But through it all, the mission of ASJA remains constant: To help support the careers of serious professional nonfiction freelancers, no matter what form that freelancing takes.

ASJA President Russell Wild's latest book, Index Investing for Dummies (his third in the Dummies series), is scheduled to appear in bookstores this month.