FREELANCE WRITING TIPS

Hundreds of LSJ students from all over the world have taken their first faltering steps towards freelance careers using the school's distance-learning courses - so are there any lessons to be learned from their successes?

Here are some tips of different ways of winning those first all-important commissions that can pave the way to a growing portfolio of published work - and some feedback on what they found the most useful advice.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE OUTLETS

Wherever you are based in the world, local English language papers and magazines may provide an outlet for your writing.

Carolyn was based in Cape Town when she started her course, and as well as securing her first commission for the British travel magazine Travel Africa, spent two months producing news features for the Cape Argus newspaper before returning to the UK.

Laurence started working part-time proof-reading and editing articles for The Times of Central Asia.

Salima had articles published in the News of Pakistan and, by the time she completed the course, was writing regularly for a range of English publications in Pakistan, as well as being invited to contribute a weekly opinion column for a Sunday paper there.

Colin had 10 articles accepted by the Jerusalem Post, as well as items for the Irish magazine International Living, while Preethi had her first pieces published by the Sri Lankan Sunday Observer.

Daniel succeeded in interviewing and photographing the world's second oldest man, after a seven-hour journey into the interior of Cambodia, and was rewarding by selling his picture to AFP and seeing it the following day in the Singapore Straits Times. He wrote: "This is only the beginning. I have loved every minute of this course. Writing was all I ever wanted to do really."

Thomas, by the time he completed the course, was regularly getting his work published in Indonesia's English language daily, as well as a city magazine, while Nadia landed a freelance contract with the Riviera Times, Ian had a two-part feature accepted for Viva Espana and Anne-Marie and Abbe both wrote for the Budapest Sun.

Miranda was offered a job at the Daily Times in Pakistan, Anne got her work published in regional papers in New Zealand, Theresa started writing for the New In The City newspaper in Munich and Felicity got her work published in France magazine.

HOME FROM HOME?

For UK writers working abroad, options include papers and magazines specifically produced for the expat community, or columns in mainstream papers which serve a large expat readership. In countries like France and Spain, there may be separate publications geared towards UK nationals seeking to buy homes in the area or who simply enjoy the lifestyle.

Natalie had her first articles published on the French lifestyle magazine website bonjourmagazine.com, while Peter was commissioned to write a regular column about England for a big provincial newspaper in America and Lara started writing a fortnightly column during the course for The Georgian Times about the western expat life of Georgians in the US and the UK.

Rory was commissioned by the Madrid-based English language magazine, The Broadsheet, while Andrew C got into print in Poland Monthly and Malcolm was involved in the launch of a new magazine in Taiwan.

Sara was one of a number of writers to have her work published in Kansai Time Out magazine in Japan, while Solen wrote for Expat Living and Suki was commissioned to write a package of articles on Grand Cayman for the Key to Cayman tourist magazine.

WORK EXPERIENCE PLACEMENTS

Work experience may be unpaid, but it offers an invaluable opportunity to produce reports for publication and discover what it's like to operate in a real-life working environment. Ideally it will provide a chance to add some bylined pieces to your portfolio of published work, as well as learning how to write to deadline and to a standard acceptable to a news or features editor. And as well as making valuable contacts, you could even find it paving the way to a full-time position if things go well.

Rebecca had articles published during the course in the Haslemere Herald and Surrey Advertiser as well as spending a two-week placement at the Farnham Herald. After finishing the course she was offered £300 a month to produce copy for a local lifestyle magazine.

Sarah H had 15 articles published during a week-long stint at the Solihull News, while Michael produced a number of articles while on work experience at the Evening Star in Ipswich.

PLAY TO YOUR STRENGTHS

If you have any particular hobbies, interests or professional expertise, it makes sense to write about things which you understand and which enthuse you.

Chris managed to get his first articles published in the football magazine When Saturday Comes, and was hoping to continue to write about football and travel subjects following a move to Sweden, approaching the Swedish magazine Offside, the SAS in-flight magazine Scanorama and a number of different websites.

Liz had a two-page travel feature accepted by Running Fitness magazine during the course and went on to write 30-second commercials for her local radio station, as well as writing about wine tasting for the Style magazine in Switzerland.

Sarah C built on her earlier health and beauty experience to get a series of articles published in Spa Health & Beauty magazine, while Ann had articles regularly published in a local parenting magazine and Adele started to write a weekly beauty column for her local paper.

Sally received her first commission from Conde Nast for a wine article for HSBC Premier magazine, while Vanessa followed up on some articles published in the Hendon, Edgware and Barnet Times series in North London by securing a job as food editor of Food & Travel magazine.

Nancy started to provide classical music and opera previews for a regular column in an English language paper in Berlin, and had more than 40 book and music reviews published on various websites during the course.

Barbara wrote on parenting for the Vancouver Island magazine, Island Parent, while Davina was signed up as a regular contributor for the Good Book Guide.

WRITING ACROSS FRONTIERS

One of the most exciting aspects of the internet revolution is the ability to sell your writing anywhere in the world. now that both copy and high-quality digital images can be sent anywhere in seconds. This has implications for all writers, but in particular for those interested in that most competitive of markets - travel writing.

Lorena had an article about the Italian Riviera published in The Lady magazine.

Chris Ord completed the course in June 2003 having launched the travel webzine thetravelrag.com - during which time his travels took him scuba diving with sea lions in the Galapagos Islands and living in a remote Andean village of 80 people.

Richard was commissioned to write a monthly column for the UK-based magazine Everything Spain, while Sarah B had an article on diving published in an Australian backpackers' magazine.

SPECIALIST MARKETS

Professional and trade magazines find it harder to find suitable freelance material so will tend to pay higher rates for contributions. This is ideal if you have areas of expert knowledge you can build on, or a specialism you would like to develop. You don't even have to be an expert in the area if it's of interest to you and you're happy to find out more.

Tess realised there was a gap in the agricultural journalism market in South Africa and was soon having her articles published on a regular basis in Farmers Weekly.

Annemarie had a feature on pioneering floating homes published in The Futurist and after completing the course was moving to Maastrict, where she hoped to specialise in features and documentaries on art, architecture and urban social and environmental issues.

Pattie had her first article accepted for publication in EL Gazette, the trade paper for those teaching English as a foreign language, while Elaine capitalised on her former experience to get articles published in Public Sector and Local Government magazine and Public Sector Review.

Several students had work published in local county magazines like Sussex Life and Essex Life, while other specialist publications ranged from Dogs World to Country Smallholding.

BUILDING YOUR PORTFOLIO

Editors are only interested in what you have had published, rather than your formal writing qualifications, so getting into print can be something of a Catch 22 situation. The solution is to start building up a portfolio of published work incrementally, starting with smaller or less high-profile publications where it is easier to get into print and working your way up to more ambitious titles.

Work experience may also provide a useful stepping stone in this respect, allowing you to produce some cuttings of your published work.

With the course completed, it can still take time to build up a sufficiently convincing portfolio of published work to start winning regular commissions, but of course some journalists find themselves tempted by offers of full-time work too.

Brian was an American working in the Middle East when he started the freelance course, and he soon had articles published in both the Reading Eagle back in the States and the Gulf News in Abu Dhabi, which then invited him to contribute regularly to its Out and About column. By his fifth assignment, he had picked up a freelance contract with the Religious News Service in America, while still continuing his contributions to the Gulf News.

Meanwhile in London, Ruth finished the course after seeing her work published in the Asian Times. She went on to produce freelance articles for Eat Japan magazine, Drum and Girl About Town. She later gained sub-editing and writing experience on the Bangla Mirror paper in East London, going on to contribute reviews to Close Up Film and being appointed editor of the Push Guide to Which University.

Gillian had regular articles published in the Irish Independent, along with various business and technology magazines. She was also contributing travel articles and taking part in a weekly discussion slot on a local radio station.

Sarah L had a range of commissions, with articles published in the West Briton newspaper in Cornwall, What's Brewing magazine, the EasyJet in-flight magazine and a series of tourism features commissioned by Hello Basel magazine.

Louise C won a commission from the Times Educational Supplement, while Lewis started working in Brussels as an EU affairs correspondent for a newswire service and Louise landed a contract with the BBC in London.

JOURNALISM TRAINING

See journalism4schools.blogspot.com for free advice about journalism training options.

LSJ COURSES

See lsj.org for full details of attendance and distance-learning journalism training courses.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW? - NO SWEAT (2004-9)

See andrewjknight.blogspot.com for information about former students from the London School of Journalism (2002 onwards).

Visiting lecturers always find it hard to keep up to speed with what students are doing once a course has finished - and at No Sweat the situation is further complicated by teaching different subjects to different classes (and in some cases not meeting classes at all).
Effectively the journalism lecturer is the "lead" lecturer in terms of liaison over work experience placements and co-ordinating portfolio submissions. There's less scope to discuss career prospects in law and government classes and although the college tries to maintain some record of where former students have ended up, it's an imprecise science.
Tutors remember the faces - and most of the names! - but keeping up to date with everyone's careers is a tougher challenge.
Poor record-keeping during the early days of my experiences at No Sweat's old Islington HQ in Loyd Baker Street haven't helped, and in pre-Facebook days one of the biggest hurdles was the tendency of students to change emails and mobiles frequently in the weeks and months after leaving the course, jettisoning hotmail in favour of a new office contact, perhaps.

Exceptions from 2004-5 include David Williams, who went to the Waltham Forest Guardian and Telegraph Online before freelancing for a variety of papers in East London and moving on to Public Finance magazine in the City and later the Health Service Journal, and Felicity Cousins, who became a features writer at Business Traveller, where she still works alongside a small team of fellow students. Jenni Silver worked in the Forest of Dean before gaining a job as assistant news editor on the Citizen in Gloucestershire and David Lindsell is now working with Newsquest titles in Surrey.
Angela Balakrishnan landed a post at The Guardian as a trainee economics reporter, and Adrian Pearson trained at the Crawley News before returning to the north-east and taking up a reporting position in Newcastle, while Dave Burke went to the Luton News and Dunstable Gazette and Lucy Taylor went to South West News in Bristol before landing a job in Dubai.

The Tuesday group from March 2006 were one of the first to suffer me for both journalism and law, including Hannah Fletcher, who returned from China to win a place on The Times graduate scheme, Paul Cahalan, who now works for Newquest in Surrey, and Hazel Slade, who went to work for the Town Crier in St Neots, Huntingdonshire.
Adam Cornell started his reporting career in Gloucestershire before returning to Essex, where he took over the sports pages for a number of mid-Essex titles. While on the Maldon and Burnham Standard, he scooped top prize in the newspaper practice exam in his NCE. Since gaining seniority, he has moved to the Colchester Gazette as a reporter and in 2011 was appointed the paper's crime correspondent.

Oliver Frankham went to the Sevenoaks Chronicle, Tarik Arafa landed a job in the Midlands in a teaching union press office, Melissa Farmer returned to a marketing job in Leicestershire before moving to GovNet Communications in Manchester and Gustavo Montes De Oca headed to Afghanistan for a while, before returning to London.

Joe Williams, who suffered my government classes during the same period, initially pursued his journalism career in Qatar.

Two members of the government class in September 2006 were reunited in Wiltshire, where James Williams and Victoria Ashford both found themselves at Trowbridge working on the Gazette under the recently retired Keith Gale, formerly news editor at the Chronicle in Bath and an old colleague of mine from the 90s.
Gemma Wilson went via work experience in Kilburn to one of the John Lewis magazine titles in Uxbridge before joining Red Bee Media as a sub-editor, while Martin Croucher continued to work for the Epoch Times at the end of the course and Simon Gilbert headed north to the Rugby Observer.

It's rare for a class to keep so closely in touch that they can regularly stage reunions, but the Tuesday September 2006 group proved the exception, struggling back to the Crown on a number of occasions since the end of their course to catch up (see picture above, which shows Libby, Lauren, Holly and Vicky).
Jon Cheetham and Helen Philpott went to the News Shopper series in North Kent, with James Ankobia ending up at Zoo and Holly Dixon working for Sony. Lauren Crooks joined the Deadline news agency in Edinburgh, where she became news editor before returning to Glasgow as a freelance. In 2010 she joined the Sunday Mail as a staff writer. Martin Webb returned to Sheffield to join a PR agency and Jon remained as a multimedia journalist at the News Shopper until launching his own video production business in 2010.
Rebecca Geach went to Dow Jones, Libby Jones to the Uxbridge Gazette and Alexa van Sickle to a specialist law publishing firm. Vicky Williams continued to pursue her modelling career while exploring writing opportunities, Kate Wade turned to freelance writing from her base in Henley and Angela Sharda has recently moved into financial publishing.

No Sweat's move down the hill from Islington to Clerkenwell not only brought with it the promise of imrpoved teaching facilities but an enviable location in a little corner of the City where local cafes and hostelries have provided a hospitable home from home for journalism students ever since - along with familiar faces like the immortal Richard Morris (above) and legendary shorthand guru Kenn Toft.

Among the Monday March 2007 class to survive my government classes were James Coyne, who joined the Press Association sports training scheme at their Howden HQ in Yorkshire, and Alex Christie-Miller, who went to the West Sussex County Times.
Sophie Pearce returned to university to complete her MA, Lottie Oram went into PR and Hayley Keyes landed a job on the Watford Observer, with Harry Hawkins joining the South Wales Argus, moving to the Wales News Agency in January 2009.

Of the September 2007 Tuesday group - another great class for reunions - Lydia Cordier joined an NGO specialising in crisis intervention, Jonathan Conway moved into PR, Luis Granja worked for Vice magazine and Nick Mayo joined the Maidenhead Advertiser.
Ben Naylor contributes to the arts desk output at The Independent and Maryam Omidi, after initially moving to Havering Council magazine, subsequenty landed a more exotic posting as editor of a news website in the Maldives.
Nina Kelly became a regular freelance contributor to Time Out before considering a return to academia to complete an MA and Anish Puaar, who completed his work experience with the Daily Express, went to work for a Hatton Garden B2B publication, The Trade.
Meanwhile Felicity Crump from the simultaneous Friday course landed a reporter's job on the Bath Chronicle.

From the March 2008 Wednesday group, Oliver Tree moving joined the Courier Media group in North Kent before landing a place of the Daily Mail graduate trainee scheme, later working in New York for the Mail Online, and Sophie Edwards gained a place at the Basildon Echo. Emma Ward joined Aceville Publications in Colchester as an editorial assistant on Crafts Beautiful magazine before stepping up to become deputy online editor and a presenter on the company's crafts demonstration channel. She has since moved on to become news editor before being appointed as the company's special projects co-ordinator.
In the Tuesday class, Verity Broadhurst and Becky Lewis both chose to pursue a career in law, while Liat Clark has pursued a variety of work experience placements with travel magazines and Clare-Marie Dobing joined Wessex Water as a press officer, based in Bath.
David Lewis is working for the Daily Mail online, Belinda Otas joined the BBC World Service, Stefan Glosby is working for business publishers Kogan Page in Islington, and Iain Liddle took up a post with the Wiltshire Gazette in Devizes.
Katie Wilson, who spent much of the course working part-time for the Hackney Gazette, took up a reporter's position with the Wandsworth Borough News, which was subsequently merged with other titles. She continued to work in North Cheam alongside fellow former students like Paul Cahalan (2006) and David Lindsell (2004) before taking up a job with Central News.
From the September 2008 government classes, Rory Jones landed a financial journalism job during the course and Tory Bischoff was offered a position with beatthatquote.com on the day after graduation. Allie Anderson started working freelance shifts at the Hackney Gazette and worked for a variety of publications before becoming editor of the house journal of the British Lung Foundation in 2011. Kristian Brunt-Seymour was offered a trainee reporter's position at South Hams Newspapers in Devon and Natalie Curant took up maternity cover for a beauty journalist's position at the Sunday Mirror's Celebs on Sunday. Louise Miles joined the Essex-based Mulberry Publications as an editorial assistant and James Laurensen works for Hansard in the Houses of Parliament.

Jack Sidders joined Horticulture Week as a reporter before moving to Construction News as a housing reporter.
Of the 2009 government classes, Tim Dickens became reporter for the Bromley Times, Omar el Gamry got a job with the Croydon Guardian, Phil Harrison joined the Essex Enquirer and Jon Reilly gained a job at the finance magazine Treasury Today.

Of the Saturday part-timers in 2009, Ryan Love has worked for Digital Spy, initially as a freelance and later as entertainment reporter.