Freelance writing: credits and clips make sales

Over the past week, several of my writing students have asked about publishing credits: what a credit is, how important credits are, and how you get good credits.

If you’re new to the freelance writing life, you may get depressed by markets (whether magazines, Web sites, or businesses) which ask for your writing credits – for clips, and where you’ve been published.

Top tier markets ask for clips (writing credits) because 99 per cent of queries come from writers without credits. Asking for clips/ credits cuts down on the thousand of queries these markets receive each year.

Let’s answer the questions one by one:

What is a writing credit?

A credit is writing for which you’ve been paid. If you’ve written an article for O, The Oprah Magazine, that’s a credit. The published article in the magazine is a clip. (Always send photocopies of clips, never the original by mail; send a PDF of the clip via email.)

Obviously, a credit from O is extremely valuable. A credit from the Poultry Pluckers Monthly is less valuable, but it’s still a credit.

An article that’s been published on a Web site and for which you’ve been paid is a credit… Bottom line, if they paid you, it’s a credit.

How important are credits?

Publishing credits give you credibility, so you need them. Depending on what your goals are as a freelance writer, realize that certain markets have more cachet than others and those credits (like O) are extremely valuable, and hard to get. Other credits are easy to get, but are less valuable.

Regarding the importance of credits, my term of reference is “Who’s asking?” If a market which pays $3 a word wants credits – GET THEM. On the other hand, if a market which pays five cents a word wants credits, it depends. Do you want to write for this market? If you do, send them something you have on your hard drive. A market which offers five cents a word can’t be demanding. No experienced writer would bother writing for them, so they’ll take what they can get.

How do you get good credits?

You get good credits by working your way up what I call the ladder of credits. You get published in minor markets, and work your way up to the majors.

There’s no secret to getting credits, you simply keep writing, and you’ll get credits.

You can develop your freelance writing career with my writing ebooks, manuals and courses. Here’s a list of my current ebooks – some include coaching. The coaching will help you to write your way up the ladder of credits, and make a very nice income from your writing career.