All About Freelancing
The world of freelancing for a science writer is interesting, exciting — and sometimes overwhelming. The resources on this page are developed by freelances, for freelances. You'll find tips on writing query letters, managing your time, contract negotiations and many other subjects of interest to freelances. For more help, contact NASW's freelance committee.
How I did it: A scientist becomes a freelance science writer
Stephanie Chasteen, a science education and communication consultant, was getting a PhD in physics when she realized she was more interested in learning about science than actually doing it. Time for a career change. Stephanie discusses how she launched a "do-it-yourself" program to learn science writing while still working on her PhD.
Commenting well: the art of effective online mingling
Think back to the last time you went to a party where you didn't know many people. Did you have a good time? Make some new connections? If so, then you probably didn't just stand in one spot and expect people to approach you for conversation -- you mingled.
Dave Taylor and Amy Gahran explain how online mingling -- through commenting -- can enhance your freelance career.
December 14, 2009 10:37 AM — Continue reading (NASW members only)Website review: the author as brand
Freelancer Nancy Allison continues her search for the best writer websites on the Internet. This month, she talks with Dan Baum, formerly of the New Yorker, and his wife, Margaret Knox, editor of his work for more than 20 years. Discover how Twitter put their collaborative working style, marriage, website, and new book, Nine Lives: Death and Life in New Orleans, into the public eye.
December 3, 2009 9:33 AM — Continue reading (NASW members only)Resource roundup: free and not so free images
Subscribers to the NASW-Talk list recently had a lively discussion on the ins and outs of finding images -- and using them legally. Member Matt Bille summarized the findings for NASW All About Freelancing.
Please add to this list. When you find a good source of images, add it in the comments section below, or send it to CatherineDold@gmail.com, with a few words about the site.
Technology: audio recording systems
NASW member Jennifer Frazer, an award-winning science writer, explores the age-old problem of how to record interviews without losing your quotes, your notes, or your mind.
September 22, 2009 1:51 PM — Continue reading (NASW members only)How I did it: reporting a story in Vietnam
Christie Aschwanden, a freelance science writer in Colorado, talks about how she raised funds for and reported a story in Vietnam.
July 28, 2009 10:13 AM — Continue reading (NASW members only)Website review: Self-publish and be praised
Freelancer Nancy Allison continues to explore top writer websites and blogs. This month, she talks with Ed Yong, British freelance writer and creator of the blog, Not Exactly Rocket Science.
July 27, 2009 2:05 PM — Continue reading (NASW members only)Findability: a key technique for expanding your freelance business
Sure, you're a great science writer. But can potential clients find you? Media consultant Amy Gahran shows how the basic tools of online "findability" can help you get noticed. (Sorry, having your name come up at the top of Google results doesn't necessarily help.)
July 26, 2009 9:45 AM — Continue reading (NASW members only)Liability: how to limit yours / Part I: Know your risks, and avoid them
Liability is a major concern for many freelance writers, especially as contracts with onerous indemnity clauses seem to be growing like fungus after a warm rain. While for most science writers, the chances of getting sued are small, it can happen. In this three-part series, NASW Freelance Committee member Kendall Powell looks at steps you can take to limit your liability.
Part I (below) addresses knowing your risks, and avoiding them.
Part II discusses setting up a business entity to protect your assets.
Part III looks at professional liability insurance options.
NB: The information in this article cannot take the place of personalized legal advice from your own lawyer. NASW accepts no responsibility for decisions made by any person on the basis of the content of this article.
Liability: how to limit yours / Part II: A business entity protects mainly against breach of contract disagreements
Liability is a major concern for many freelance writers. In this three-part series, NASW Freelance Committee member Kendall Powell looks at steps you can take to limit your liability.
Part I addresses knowing your risks, and avoiding them.
Part II (below) discusses setting up a business entity to protect your assets.
Part III looks at professional liability insurance options.
NB: The information in this article cannot take the place of personalized legal advice from your own lawyer. NASW accepts no responsibility for decisions made by any person on the basis of the content of this article.
Liability: how to limit yours / Part III: Professional liability insurance: not cheap, not bullet-proof
Liability is a major concern for many freelance writers. In this three-part series, NASW Freelance Committee member Kendall Powell looks at steps you can take to limit your liability.
Part I addresses knowing your risks, and avoiding them.
Part II discusses setting up a business entity to protect your assets.
Part III (below) looks at professional liability insurance options.
NB: The information in this article cannot take the place of personalized legal advice from your own lawyer. NASW accepts no responsibility for decisions made by any person on the basis of the content of this article.
Resources for hard times
A number of organizations offer financial assistance to professional writers in severe financial distress because of illness, serious career reverses, or other catastrophes that affect their ability to work and earn. This assistance generally takes the form of open-ended, interest-free loans or outright grants to help pay medical bills, rent or mortgage, or other expenses.
A list of such organizations and other resources can be found on the website of the American Society of Journalists and Authors at http://www.asja.org/weaf/help01.php.
These funds generally do not require membership in any particular organization.
In addition, ASJA has its own Writers Emergency Assistance Fund (formerly the Llewellyn Miller Fund), which aids established freelance writers facing severe difficulties. Again, ASJA membership is not required. Information is at http://www.asja.org/weaf/
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June 16, 2009 11:00 AM — Continue reading (NASW members only)Book proposals and book marketing: a resource guide
Got a book in mind? Lynne Lamberg, a member of NASW's freelance committee and editor of the New Books by NASW Members online column, has compiled a list of more than 60 books plus Internet resources to help you prepare your book proposal, find an agent, understand the contract, and publicize your book. The list also includes guides to self-publishing. Lynne welcomes your comments and suggestions for additions. Write her at LLamberg@nasw.org.
June 12, 2009 2:55 PM — Continue reading (NASW members only)Using LinkedIn to build your freelance business
Freelancing is all about networking: meeting people, making connections, building relationships, helping others, and hoping that people will think of you when some work comes along. So how can you accomplish that from the comfort of your own office? LinkedIn, the online business networking site, is one of the best tools for the job.
May 31, 2009 2:02 PM — Continue reading (NASW members only)Website review: striking simplicity
Freelancer Nancy Allison continues her search for the best writer websites on the Internet. This month, she talks with John Moir about the single-minded strategy of his site, Return of the Condor.
May 24, 2009 3:36 PM — Continue reading (NASW members only)Website review: entrancing entrance
For her first review of a writer's website, Nancy Allison talks with NASW member Emily Sohn, a versatile science writer with an intriguing site, TidePoolsInc.
April 14, 2009 11:14 AM — Continue reading (NASW members only)In case you missed it: SWINY panel on social media
Science Writers in New York (SWINY) recently hosted a panel discussion on social media. Videos of the event are now available on YouTube.
Time to perk up your website...or put down your blog?
You spent hours setting up your website, perfecting the design and uploading your clips. You toil weekly or even daily to add content to your blog. But is it all for naught? Is anyone paying attention? Does it do your business any good?
Freelance writer Nancy Allison today launches a regular feature for All About Freelancing that will explore these questions and highlight freelancer websites and blogs sites that rock.
Your contract: get it in writing
Sure, your editor loves you. But get your agreement in writing anyway. In this article, Anthony N. Elia, a New York attorney specializing in intellectual property, entertainment law, and commercial law, presents an introduction to contracts and negotiating them. This is the first article in a multi-part series on the basic law of book and magazine freelance contracts.
February 22, 2009 3:34 PM — Continue reading (NASW members only)The Twitter hashtag for AAAS this year is #aaas09
What's a hashtag, you ask? It's a handy device that allows you to follow a particular event or topic on Twitter. Get set up with Twitter and you can follow your colleagues who are attending the AAAS conference later this week, as well as contribute to the conversation. Get commentary on former vice president Al Gore's talk as it happens, find out where the cool people are meeting for dinner, and much more. Catherine Dold shows you how.
February 8, 2009 2:46 PM — Continue reading (NASW members only)A quick guide to making sense of the Authors Guild settlement with Google
Do you hold the rights to a book, or part of one, whether in or out of print? If so, you should know about this recent settlement. It affects your rights, and may bring you some money.
December 22, 2008 10:44 AM — Continue reading (NASW members only)Contract questions and answers for freelance science writers
Q: When a publisher offers me a contract, I'd better sign it or I'll lose the job, right?
December 31, 2007 4:18 AM — Continue reading (NASW members only)Contract questions and answers for editors and publishers
Q. Shouldn't publishers be able to obtain the copyright for all the articles we publish? After all, we're paying for them.
December 31, 2007 2:22 AM — Continue reading (NASW members only)Resources for self-publishing
(Prepared for an NASW Science in Society Workshop: October 27, 2006, by Dennis Meredith.) NASW members now have an alternative to traditional publishers, in the form of self-publishing. This alternative has arisen in part because of the advent of print-on-demand services such as iUniverse and BookSurge; the ability to sell books through online outlets such as Amazon.com; and the ability to publicize books and other products through web sites, blogs, viral marketing, etc. This reference list constitutes the beginning of NASW's effort to help its members decide whether to self-publish.
October 7, 2006 9:15 PM — Continue reading (NASW members only)NASW group health insurance available in some states
NASW Members looking for health, long-term care, vision, and dental insurance should be made aware that NASWers in NY (up to Ulster, Putnam, and Rockland County) (Oxford), CT, NJ, Greater Chicago, including part of Indiana, California, and Florida (CIGNA), can get health insurance through TEIGIT, The Entertainment Insurance Group Insurance Trust.
September 30, 2006 1:26 AM — Continue reading (NASW members only)Frequently Asked Questions about freelancing
Where can you find story ideas? Should you send stories on spec? How should you track your time? Two veteran freelances address these and other questions.
February 4, 2006 3:37 AM — Continue reading (NASW members only)Contract negotiation: getting what you want, gracefully
Negotiating a contract can be the most gut-churning part of being a freelance. In this article, reprinted from Freelance Success, Jennifer Pirtle offers sound advice and personal tips for arriving at agreement without knuckling under or burning your bridges.
February 4, 2006 2:42 AM — Continue reading (NASW members only)Useful links for science freelances
February 4, 2006 2:38 AM — Continue reading (NASW members only)Small-business grant writing can be big business
Grant writing can boost your freelance income. Do you want to try your hand at it, but don't know how to get started? Jeanne Erdman tells all.
February 4, 2006 2:11 AM — Continue reading (NASW members only)Beware the double dip
Although it may be possible to survive as a freelance on straight journalism alone, most of us also take on other work as well, for universities, corporations, or research institutions. Jeanne Erdmann explores the rules, guidelines, and pitfalls in working both sides of the line.
February 3, 2006 10:29 PM — Continue reading (NASW members only)Freelancing from abroad
Thinking of plying your trade from a foreign land? Nancy Bazilchuk is currently doing so from Norway, and offers some pithy advice, including "Don't be fooled by the conventional wisdom that 'everybody speaks English.'"
February 3, 2006 10:28 PM — Continue reading (NASW members only)Nice work if you can get it
When Beryl Benderly opened an NASW Jobs List email in 2001, she didn't know it would eventually take her to Mexico, South America, and most recently, up the Panama Canal. Herewith, her lucky tale.
December 1, 2004 12:00 AM — Continue reading (NASW members only)Hit the ground running: finding the sources you need to report a science story
When you're on a tight deadline, you need information fast. Glennda Chui offers her best advice for finding the people and papers you need. Among her tips: "If all else fails, try directory assistance — either on-line or on the phone — and see if you can get the source's home number. You'd be surprised how many people are listed."
November 1, 2004 12:00 AM — Continue reading (NASW members only)How to deal: negotiating a better contract
At the NASW Annual Meeting in February of 2004, two experts offered their experiences and insights in a workshop devoted to freelance contract negotiation. According to Erik Sherman, "The best first thing to do is say, 'I'd like to see your first North American Serial Rights Contract, please," while Kraig Baker suggests, "If you want to be successful, your first tactic should be whatever tactic keeps the publisher's lawyer out of it." Special Thanks to Alan Kelly, Owner, Verbatim Instant Transcripts, for generating this complimentary transcript for NASW
September 1, 2004 12:00 AM — Continue reading (NASW members only)Writing for scientists, especially on the web
(This is Part 1 of a much-expanded version of an article that is scheduled to appear in the second edition of NASW's A Field Guide for Science Writers, edited by Deborah Blum, Mary Knudson, and Robin Marantz Henig, which Oxford University Press is scheduled to publish next year.)
June 1, 2004 7:15 PM — Continue reading (NASW members only)Agents: to know them is to love them
Do you need an agent to sell your book? How do you find a good one? In November 2003, The nasw-freelance list featured a discussion on this topic with much advice from experienced authors. Highlights (and there were lots) are collected here.
March 1, 2004 12:00 AM — Continue reading (NASW members only)Beyond search engines
Past time for a roundup of a few Web sites particularly useful to freelance science writers, not least because they are all free. All but one, anyway.
January 1, 2004 7:22 PM — Continue reading (NASW members only)Secondary rights: a lot of heat, not much light right now
Secondary rights are the rights to resell your work after its first publication. With all-rights contracts growing like kudzu, some authors' groups are trying to work out collective deals and micropayments in order to facilitate reselling stories. Here, freelance Jeff Hecht relates some recent news on these efforts.
January 1, 2004 12:00 AM — Continue reading (NASW members only)(The sad state of) health insurance options for freelances
Looming over the otherwise idyllic life of the freelance writer is the dark cloud known as health insurance, for which the only silver lining seems to be the silver lining the pockets of the insurance companies. In this report, David Lindley provides a snapshot of how NASW freelances are getting their insurance (or not), and provides some recommendations, both for the individual freelance and for NASW as a whole.
December 1, 2003 3:01 AM — Continue reading (NASW members only)Legal update for magazine editors
Contracts, rights grabs, negotiations — What advice are magazine editors getting from their lawyers, and how does it affect the freelance? Robin Marantz Henig sat in at a meeting of the American Society of Magazine Editors, and files this report from the other side.
May 14, 2003 2:48 AM — Continue reading (NASW members only)Once Upon a Midnight Query
In early March 2003, the NASW-freelance list held a lively discussion about query letters — their value, their formality, their structure, and their success. What follows is edited from that discussion.
March 1, 2003 12:14 AM — Continue reading (NASW members only)Her writing was too colorful for academia . . .
. . . so Beryl Lieff Benderly became a freelance. Benderly explains how she went from a prospective anthropology Ph.D. to a highly productive freelance science writer. Along the way, she spent a little time at the U.S. Employment Service, wangled a creative writing stipend from the D.C. unemployment office, and stumbled on a book-writing project that made her an expert in deafness.
November 1, 2002 3:50 AM — Continue reading (NASW members only)The Craft of Querying
Rebecca Skloot gives her advice and tips on crafting successful queries. "Queries aren't just about showing that you have a good idea, they're about making yourself stand out by showing that you can write."
March 10, 2002 1:52 AM — Continue reading (NASW members only)Survey reveals two distinct types
Some make a living at it, but most do not.
February 1, 2002 4:12 AM — Continue reading (NASW members only)You are not totally alone
Results of first freelance survey are out. Can freelance science writers make a living at what they do? Make a decent living at it? What kind of stuff do we write, and for whom do we write it? How do we think the National Association for Science Writers treats its freelance members?
February 1, 2002 4:03 AM — Continue reading (NASW members only)Top ten reasons why freelancing beats a real job
Guess what Richard Robinson puts at the top of his list. And the bottom, too.
February 1, 2002 3:43 AM — Continue reading (NASW members only)A deep reverence for technology
"I can't remember or even imagine having to use a typewriter to do my job . . . " Emma Patten-Hitt writes about the importance in her working life of her e-mail pager, a fast laptop, voice recognition software — but not a Palm.
January 1, 2001 3:14 AM — Continue reading (NASW members only)How to Cover a Medical Meeting
A discussion on the NASW Freelance Listserv dealt with tips for writing about medical conferences. For example: Are chinos okay at a radiologist's meeting? What do cardiologists eat for lunch? Do you need a laptop, or maybe a pen that'll write in the dark during PowerPoint displays? And the big one: To tape or not to tape?
February 26, 2000 10:43 PM — Continue reading (NASW members only)Can you survive as a freelancer?
This document is the record of a discussion that took place on the nasw-freelance mailing list from January 19th through January 27th, 1998. It deals with a number of issues critical to anyone trying or hoping to make a living as a free-lance science writer.
January 27, 1998 3:06 AM — Continue reading (NASW members only)Spinning A Specialty
Nonfiction writers used to be generalists, even science writers. Not now, not for a long time. To get an assignment today, you specialize. Editors are looking for a particular approach to a subject, a certain tone or, occasionally, deep knowledge. For science writers in particular, showing that you have written on a topic before can confer on you instant expertise and create confidence that you understand its complexities.
January 1, 1998 2:05 AM — Continue reading (NASW members only)Ten Tips For Writing A Proposal/Query Letter
Condensed from NASW's own Science Writers (1996), by Janice Hopkins Tanne
January 1, 1996 2:01 AM — Continue reading (NASW members only)
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