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Freelancing Thumbs - We write right, alright?

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If the GG thread is any indication, there seem to be a lot of us who are either currently involved or interested in being involved in writing about games on a more professional level, so I thought I'd make a thread.

 

Here's my story: I just graduated college, and I want to write about games professionally. I'm a confident writer, I work well under a deadline, and I don't really have any problems motivating myself - but the logistics of freelancing escape me. Like, I know I'm supposed to be making pitches to... an editor? A managing editor? Am I pitching ideas for articles, or am I pitching fully-written pieces? How does that process change if it's an OP/ED? I'm just unclear on the little things, but I don't want to screw that up, because people in the industry have long memories and I don't want to get on anyone's bad side right off the bat.

 

I'm gonna start reading Nathan Meunier's book Up Up Down Down Left Write tonight. Are there any books right off the bat that y'all can recommend?

 

Anyway, let's talk about freelancing here! Share stories, motivate each other, brag about getting published!

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I made about 30 short videos of jewelry moving around for front displays at Bailey, Banks, and Biddle, a jewelry chain I didn't know existed. If you see rings moving around on an LCD screen in a mall in front of that store, I moved them somewhat nicely. It's all really unimpressive actually.

 

One of the videos is an ad for buying loose diamonds, which according to Mission Impossible 4 is what criminals deal in. My wife thought it would be cool if I made a version with some gangsta rap. I chose this one:

 

Sorry that this isn't about writing.

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If I was looking to pitch writing pieces, I would follow the @ArcadeReview, @Haywiremag, and @CritDistance on twitter. I see calls for writing from them every once in a while.

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When it comes to freelancing, what I know is that you basically pitch the idea/concept to the editor and if it's your first time, your writing samples (in whatever format they want or a link to your portfolio) . If the editor accepts, then they give you additional comments about the idea, what to change, as well as word counts and agreed payment. You write up your shit, you turn it in, they edit and send corrections, you make the corrections (or fight them about it) and then it goes up at some point. Then you invoice them. Make sure to keep really good track of all of the payments you receive in a tax year because you will have to file your MISC 099 (in the US) if you made over 600 bucks. 

 

Also I know that it's incredibly hard to be in games writing professionally unless you want to perpetually hustle and write free-lance for a number of places that will underpay you and not pay you on time. It's a hard knock life, basically.

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Another possibility would be to start your own online magazine or whatever. Amassing a public body of work could build your reputation and maybe you could start selling subscriptions or ads yourself. Additionally, you'll end up finding people and other writers who have similar interests and perspectives which is (to be honest) not something you can buy.

That wouldn't stop you from taking freelance jobs, in fact it would increase the likelihood that people know you exist.

If you end up writing about free hobbyist games, make sure to tell me. I'm @cafefiction on twitter. I'm not a source of money, but I like reading about free hobbyist games.

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A while ago, I compiled a short list of independent games publications that I can vouch for and instructions for how to pitch to them, which could be useful to anybody here planning to write about games specifically. Just scroll past the advice on how to pitch generally (or maybe read that too actually). I should probably update the list now that I could actually have time for something like this again. If anybody has any suggestions for what to add, I'd be happy to do that, if I agree that nothing about the site seems iffy when I have a look.

 

Also I'm @JoeKllr on Twitter and will gladly share what limited knowledge I have of this field. If you want somebody more professional, I recommend asking @NickCapozzoli, who's a regular of Gamespot and always happy to answer questions. He even does a tutorship thing for writers called Tutorial Mission, but I'm not sure if that slot is filled at the moment or not.

 

 

Am I pitching ideas for articles, or am I pitching fully-written pieces?

 

I'm gonna start reading Nathan Meunier's book Up Up Down Down Left Write tonight. Are there any books right off the bat that y'all can recommend?

 

I think sites that want you to submit complete features will generally state so on their submission page, and sites that ask for pitches generally want you to just tell them your idea so they can voice potential concerns before you go and run off in entirely the wrong direction (possibly). They might even go so far as explicitly stating that they will not accept finished articles.

 

Also, I'd recommend focussing on just building a body of work (on your own blog or something like that) over reading guides. Easy to get stuck on theoretical stuff.

 

If I was looking to pitch writing pieces, I would follow the @ArcadeReview, @Haywiremag, and @CritDistance on twitter. I see calls for writing from them every once in a while.

 

Critical Distance doesn't really take pitches, but Blogs of the Round Table, where you write something in response to a monthly theme and then they compile a list of who wrote what, is probably a nice place to start out if you want a bit of practice writing on a schedule, to a theme and as part of a larger conversation.

 

 

Another possibility would be to start your own online magazine or whatever. Amassing a public body of work could build your reputation and maybe you could start selling subscriptions or ads yourself. Additionally, you'll end up finding people and other writers who have similar interests and perspectives which is (to be honest) not something you can buy.
That wouldn't stop you from taking freelance jobs, in fact it would increase the likelihood that people know you exist.

 

This is very true! There's nothing stopping you from just making your own thing, and if you stick with it people might just notice you. I made a thing some three years ago and now I'm at least vaguely known in these circles, and it's much easier to approach editors about writing something when they already know you got the stuff.

 

The roundabout path I took to entirely negligible amounts of cred should also tell you how true the thing Apple Cider said about this basically being impossible is.

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I had no idea, I've been following JoeKllr for months now. You're in dense company, Apple Cider.

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wait YOURE joekllr ???

 

jesus lord I'm dense.

 

Haha, I thought you knew! But now that I think about it I'm not sure when I last mentioned my Twitter around here and neither my avatar nor username are really representative. Whoops!

 

But yeah, I am him. Or he is I?

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Oh jeez, I hope I didn't seem inadvertently creepy knowing things you didn't expect me to.

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Deadpan, that is all super useful. Thank you so much.

 

At one point I had a blog for my games writing; I'll dig it up and see if there's anything worth salvaging in there.

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Blogs of the Round Table is fun but when we got involved it was a little underwhelming in how much feedback you get from the readers.

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Oh jeez, I hope I didn't seem inadvertently creepy knowing things you didn't expect me to.

Nah, you're good!

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Blogs of the Round Table is fun but when we got involved it was a little underwhelming in how much feedback you get from the readers.

 

I'd argue that although discouraging, that's pretty much representative of the amount of feedback you're ever going to get. The only time I ever really get comments on anything is when I touch on hot-button stuff and that rarely goes beyond "Yes I agree" or "No I disagree (plus a string of expletives)". Outside of that, endorsements from other critics at most, which are like more mild-mannered variations on the same theme.

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Kill Screen have that prestige going for them, but don't let that pickiness fool you into thinking it's a particularly lucrative gig. Far as I'm aware, they still only pay a flat rate of $20 per feature, which is pretty standard. If that's the direction you want to go with your writing, I'd probably recommend trying Unwinnable first, both because they pay better and because I get the impression they could use a couple more writers right now. Also they're pretty good about actually responding.

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$20 per feature is low, wow. Like criminally so. 

 

Yeah, holy shit.  When I was freelancing for the local daily paper like 7 years ago, I got paid $50 for simple 300-500 word fluff/community pieces and anything bigger than that was usually negotiated.  To be fair, I think that is still what freelancers get paid today (which is part of the reason I don't bother freelancing anymore). 

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I'm interested to try this blogs of the round table thing out. I'm not sure if I'm doing it seriously though, I haven't written with any real goal for a while and the practice is appreciated.

Although now that I think about it a friend of mine who used to edit our uni's student mag wants to start a web magazine so this could turn out like a good warmup. I wonder if my aunt could give me editing advice; she's a freelance journo heh.

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It's pretty terrible pay but my impression was that that's still the rule rather than the exception. I think The Toast also revealed that that's what they pay recently?

 

Oh well. Hard to get paid, and then you hardly get paid.

 

Although now that I think about it a friend of mine who used to edit our uni's student mag wants to start a web magazine so this could turn out like a good warmup.

 

In my experience, the likely result is that they will get fed up with organizational work after one issue and then you'll take over and run it for the next three years or so.

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Hey folks, I'm working on an expanded version of this list of places to pitch to as a writer's resource for Critical Distance so if there's any places you can recommend from personal experience that are open to submissions from new folk (or maybe you run a site yourself and need people) I'd super appreciate a heads up.

 

Also, how's the writing going gentlefolk?

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I'm stuck on this month's blogs of the round table. I keep telling myself I will do them every month but it usually is once every three :/ 

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If anyone is looking for places to write, games twitter some time ago collaborated on this spreadsheet of places that pay for writing.

 

It's a neat resource.

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