Easy Ways to Boost Your Writing Career

From Cheryl's Writing Crate

I'm often asked how I find the time to write anything more than a grocery list seeing that I am the mother of 8 kids.  It's a great question, and today I'm going to share some steadfast advice that I gleaned from one of my fellow writing colleagues and friends, Linda Formichelli.

I first discovered this inspiring author about 8 years ago when I read her terrific book, 

The Renegade Writer: A Totally Unconventional Guide to Freelance Writing Success.  This was one of the first books on building a writing career that really made sense to me, offering practical ideas and solutions on how to build my then limited freelance options into a solid and enjoyable writing career.  

After that, I read another of Linda's helpful books, 

The Renegade Writer's Query Letters That Rock: The Freelance Writer's Guide to Selling More Work Faster and it was then that I really gathered up my courage to start querying outside my comfort zone of smaller publications, and I landed a piece for Disney's Family Fun magazine within a month of reading the book!

Next I signed up for one of Linda's on-line writing courses on ways to break into the exciting world of freelance writing which included a lot of personal feedback from  her with each week's assignment.  That was six years ago, and I still keep in contact with her now.  

I recently read one of her articles called 25 Ways to Boost Your Freelance Writing Business in Under 5 Minutes and couldn't wait to share a few of my favorites with any of you who are excited to take your writing to the next level, and hopefully earn some extra income as a result. 

Find and follow five editors on Twitter.

Check out MuckRack for editors (and journalists) to follow by publication.

Clean your work space.

Getting your writing work space clean and organized— even only 2 minutes worth — can give you a boost of energy and inspiration. Some quick ideas: Clean your keyboard with a can of air, clear the unneeded books from your bookshelves, or test your pens and throw out the non-working ones.

Add your recent clips to your writer website.

Linda's Writer's Den partner, Carol Tice, is all about having as many clips as possible on your site because you never know which one will turn on an editor.

What inspires you to add more freelance writing work to your writer's life?  We'd love to hear from you here in the comments.