What if you did a Rip Van Winkle from freelance writing and woke up several years later to an entirely different landscape? How would you cope? ASJA Confidential interviewed new member Debbie Miller, who shares her eye-opening venture into the new, not-so-brave world of article and content writing.
Welcome to ASJA, Debbie! Please tell us a little about yourself.
I am based in Brooklyn and have been freelancing off and on since 1990. I consider myself a generalist, doing features, news articles, profiles and web content about numerous subjects, from healthcare and wellness to safety to corporate governance. Since 1996, I have also written plays, monologues, humor and memoir pieces and personal essays. In addition to ASJA I also belong to the International Centre for Women Playwrights and The Dramatists Guild of America. Along with having plays and monologues produced in and outside New York City, I’ve been a stand-up comic, improviser and Off-Off-Broadway actor. My most recent accomplishment was winning the 2017 Mona Schreiber Prize for Humorous Fiction and Nonfiction for an essay about slugs.
How did you get into freelance writing and why did you leave?
I am originally from Cleveland, Ohio but moved around quite a bit. I started freelancing when I was working as a fact-checker for a publisher in Knoxville, Tennesee; my first published piece was in 1990, on the twentieth anniversary of the Kent State University shootings for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. I wrote articles and other materials until about 1997, when I got divorced and moved to New York City, where I continued to freelance while pursuing a career in playwriting and acting, which is even more difficult to break into than freelance writing. So I needed to supplement my income and took on work as a teacher of English as a Second Language (ESL).
New York is full of immigrants, so that kept me very busy for a number of years, travelling to boroughs throughout the city, at odd hours, on weekends and sometimes two or three different places in a day. When I did have time, I focused mostly on my plays. But in 2016, I had an accident which sidelined me for several months and prevented me from easily going from place to place as I previously had. So I decided to concentrate on freelance writing, which had provided a steady income in the past.
What did you discover when you came back?
Not only had fees been greatly downsized, but the pool of magazines and newspapers had shrunk as well. Many had gone out of business and others had no freelance budget. And publications and content resources that previously utilized the services of generalist writers were now working with subject matter experts such as doctors, who already had an income and were willing to write for free or next to nothing. And while web content job jobs were available, they were snapped up by newbies who were thrilled to do 800 words for $50.
I do have one steady client, a trade magazine, which still pays $1 a word, but most of my time these days is spent looking for work. I love to write and learn new things and now that I have the time to be creative really want to expand my portfolio and explore new opportunities.
What options are you considering to grow your business?
Joining ASJA was one step; while New York City is a much more competitive arena, there are also lots of people here in the same field from ASJA and elsewhere who I can network with directly. I peruse the Forum for ideas, and I got some information from last year’s New York conference.
Any advice to someone just entering this field?
Make sure you have a steady source of income to get you through the lean times so you can pay rent and other basics. It also might be easier if you market yourself as a “niche” writer. I have several resumes and bios that I use when sending out queries or applying for freelance jobs. And always be on the lookout for side jobs; for example, I used my acting skills for gigs as a standardized patient for a college to help train medical students. I also try to think outside the box in terms of marketing my skills, offering to teach creative writing at libraries, for example.
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