A Freelance Writing Success Story: Interview with Robert Bittner
Jacob Malewitz
- Published Content: 349
- Total Views: 111,527
- Favorited By: 20 CPs
Freelance writing is one of the harder, yet more enjoyable, professions available. In this interview, freelance writer Robert Bittner explains his views on how to be a successful writer in the field of non-fiction. He wanted to preface the interview by saying this was intended for mainly non-fiction 
writers, not fiction ones.
What do you think are the essential things a person needs to be a freelance writer?
Obviously, you need to be able to write -- that is, compose clear sentences that communicate with readers. But I think it's also very important that you have a willingness to market yourself and your ideas; articles don't get sold unless writers work at selling them. And that ties in with what I think is probably the biggest essential of all: Perseverance. You need to be able to market your ideas, deal with editors who say no to them, and keep moving on.
What is the hardest part about trying to make writing a career?
This is a tough question for me. All of the downsides I can think of could also be seen as positives (or at least motivating challenges) if you're in the right mind-set. For some, the isolation of working alone might be the toughest thing. For others, the irregular/infrequent paychecks might be the hardest part. But I do think one of the biggest challenges that every nonfiction freelancer will face is figuring out how to keep building your business in the midst of constant change: editors come and go, magazines come and go, and book publishers are constantly fine-tuning their lists as a result of a changing marketplace, corporate takeovers, staff changes, etc. The plus side to all of that, though, is that how you handle the changes is entirely up to you. If you're an employee, all of your work eggs are in that one basket. As a freelancer, the more baskets (publishers) you can fill, the better you'll be able to weather any changes that come your way. And you're doing it on your own terms.
What was your first sale and how did you get it?
Robert Bittner
Date of Interview: 3/20/07What do you think are the essential things a person needs to be a freelance writer?
Obviously, you need to be able to write -- that is, compose clear sentences that communicate with readers. But I think it's also very important that you have a willingness to market yourself and your ideas; articles don't get sold unless writers work at selling them. And that ties in with what I think is probably the biggest essential of all: Perseverance. You need to be able to market your ideas, deal with editors who say no to them, and keep moving on.
What is the hardest part about trying to make writing a career?
This is a tough question for me. All of the downsides I can think of could also be seen as positives (or at least motivating challenges) if you're in the right mind-set. For some, the isolation of working alone might be the toughest thing. For others, the irregular/infrequent paychecks might be the hardest part. But I do think one of the biggest challenges that every nonfiction freelancer will face is figuring out how to keep building your business in the midst of constant change: editors come and go, magazines come and go, and book publishers are constantly fine-tuning their lists as a result of a changing marketplace, corporate takeovers, staff changes, etc. The plus side to all of that, though, is that how you handle the changes is entirely up to you. If you're an employee, all of your work eggs are in that one basket. As a freelancer, the more baskets (publishers) you can fill, the better you'll be able to weather any changes that come your way. And you're doing it on your own terms.
What was your first sale and how did you get it?