How to Find Paying Writing Leads and Jobs for Freelancers

Freelance writers have the advantages of setting their own hours, working from home or wherever they happen to be, choosing when and how much to work, and basically writing their own paycheck, determined only by how much they are willing to work. The downside to being a freelance writer is finding paying leads.

In the past, finding paying writing leads was difficult, because a freelancer often had to go in person to the publications, had to purchase publications geared toward writing markets, or had to know someone to have an in with a magazine editor. Today, the internet makes finding paying leads much easier.

The following are some simple steps to finding paying leads for writing jobs on the internet.

Search Magazines for Paying Writing Leads:

The next time you're at your local grocery store or local bookstore, stop by the magazine aisle or rack. Find magazines that interest you, that you think you could write for, and remember their names. Then come back home and do a bit of Googling. Search for: "Magazine Name" + "Submissions". If that returns no results, try: "Magazine Name" + "Guidelines".

One of these two searches will likely turn up information on either how to submit to the magazine or the guidelines for writers, which usually include all the information you need to query the magazine, submit an article to them, or to determine if you should look elsewhere.

Search Writing Forums:

Accentuate Writers, my online writing forum, is free to join and participate, and I keep a detailed and verified listing of both fiction and nonfiction paying leads to magazines, books, anthology submissions, and much more. There are other writing forums where writers share leads with other writers. Even if a writing forum doesn't share leads, having a forum where people who are freelancers can alert you if a lead is bad or confirm that it is good is a nice thing for any freelance writer to have.

Dan Case & Hope Clark:

These two have excellent sites for writers and are well known in the freelance writing community for offering advice and leads for paying writing jobs and assignments. Both also have free newsletters for freelancers. I've subscribed to them both for as long as I've been freelancing and have gained valuable insight and information into the freelance writing world as well as discovering some excellent freelance writing leads.

Dan Case can be found here: http://www.writingfordollars.com/GuidelinesDB.cfm

Hope Clark can be found here: http://www.fundsforwriters.com/

Subscription Services and Job Boards:

I do not personally recommend subscription services and job boards as a way to find paying writing leads, because so much information is available on the internet or in your public library for free. If, however, you don't know where to start, a subscription service or job board might help lead you in the right direction.

However, there are so many scams these days involving people who want to work from home and make good money, it's very hard to tell the real services from the scammers. Always do an internet search of a place that charges a fee before you give anyone your money. Ask around on writing forums, ask other writers, and Google the service or board's name with the words 'scam' 'complaints' 'fraud' or other such words, to see if anyone has reported a complaint against them.

These steps will help you get started, and once you have a few clips or tear sheets, you should be able to continue to build your writing career by word of mouth, or at least feel more confident about broadening your writing horizons.