Product Description

For decades freelance writers have been told to follow the 'rules' of the business or risk poverty. Keep your query letters to one page! Don't call an editor! Accept every assignment you are given. Now the truth comes out: Many highly successful freelance writers ignore those basic rules and many others, and even flaunt them to their own advantage. The authors have published articles in Redbook, Woman's Day, Men's Health, Writer's Digest and scores of other consumer and trade magazines. When they began freelancing they read all the freelance writing books, followed all the silly rules and struggled to get by. Eventually, they realised that certain 'rules' didn't really benefit them. One by one those rules dissolved and were replaced with clever ways to get assignments, get paid more for them, and finish them more effectively. They share their insights in this book. The book teaches freelance writers how to break into previously unattainable markets by eschewing the old way of doing things. It explains that freelancers can negotiate for more money and better terms, without risking their careers. It teaches that editors are not the writer-gobbling monsters many freelancers fear, and explains how to establish and foster relationships with these important gatekeepers. In short, 'The Renegade Writer' helps freelancers to become renegades and succeed.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #474777 in Books
• Published on: 2003-09-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 206 pages

Customer Reviews

Atlast! Web-friendly advice for writers! Excellent book!
Welcome to the future! A book for writers that actually acknowledges the web exists! And then some.

Excellent web refs for sources for articles, writer's guidelines and downright USEFUL sites. Written by two hot young writers, this book is a breath of fresh air after all those stuffy, out-dated how-to-be-a-freelance-writer books that offer cautious, tip toeing around the editor 'advice'.

This book is a bold, brazen, fun guide to how to GET ON WITH IT and succeed, not just plod along in hobbyist waters. Like putting on a cool fan on a hot day or diving into icy water, this book really motivates you.

I am not one to gush about books - I am too busy reading them, and even busier building my own freelance career. But this book has given me more practical advice, inspiration and get-up-and-go than about twenty other 'helpful guides' to making a living from writing.

Thanks a lot, Linda and Diana - two sassy writers with initiative, balls and spirit! May you long continue to flourish!

How to celebrate the writing life
Unlike many books which treat writers as lowly and desperate, Linda and Diana celebrate the writing life. They don't gloss over realities (like needing to pay your bills) but their advice is upbeat and positive with excellent tips and advice as well as inspiring case studies. The first edition helped me jumpstart my freelance writing career and the new edition is superb, too. It's the best advice for freelance writers I've come across and I recommend it to all my writer clients.

Useful and a bit American for me
Mostly good - could do with an English version or some translations and definitions for example the word querying is used repetitively. No definition or example found yet and I am most of the way through the book.