Freelance Boot Camp What You Need to Know to Be a Freelance Writer

Open to all

Limited to 12 participants

 

When you are building a freelance writing career, talent, and drive are important, but a basic tool kit of freelancing skills is essential. In this series of three, 2-hour online sessions, author and journalist Julie Barlow draws on lessons from her 25-year career as a freelance writer to explain the fundamental skills and knowledge freelance writers need to get their business off the ground: selling ideas, working with editors, and understanding how the writing industry works. 

 

In session 1, Julie will explain how to: 

 

• come up with writing ideas;
• figure out where to sell them;
• write convincing story pitches.

 

Participants will be encouraged to bring query letters or outlines for writing projects that they can share and workshop with their fellow participants, and Julie will supply sample query letters of her own for the class to read.

 

In Session 2, Julie will explain: 

 

• what editors are looking for;
• how to approach editors;
• how to work with editors and build strong relationships with them.

 

Participants will continue to read and critique the query letters of their fellow workshop participants.

 

In Session 3, Julie will explain:

 

• how to negotiate deadlines and contracts;
• what freelancers need to know about copyright, fees, and other conditions in contracts;
• how to negotiate so you get what you need to write.

 

Participants will continue to critique fellow classmates’ query letters and can ask questions and share experiences about their specific projects.

 

The workshop is designed for beginners and intermediate writers. While it draws on Julie’s 25-year experience career as a freelance journalist, book author, ghostwriter, translator, radio documentary producer, writing coach, editor, and speaker, the focus will be on participants’ own projects and goals. Participants will be expected to develop and pitch a story idea (real or hypothetical) to a media outlet. 

 

Julie Barlow is a freelance magazine writer, translator, and author of seven nonfiction books, including The Story of French and The Bonjour Effect: The Secret Codes of French Conversation Revealed. She has also published books on medicine and energy, including her latest, Charging Ahead: Hydro-Quebec and the Future of Electricity (October 2019). Julie has been a regular contributor to Quebec’s public affairs magazine L’actualité for over two decades and publishes articles in French and English in magazines, newspapers, and online media in Canada, the U.S., and Europe. 

 

Website: www.nadeaubarlow.com