Online Courses for Freelance Magazine Writing

If you're seriously considering a freelance writing career in the magazine market, you may be interested in taking some good quality online freelance magazine writing courses. Perhaps you need a refresher in basic non-fiction writing skills. Maybe you'd like an instructor-led lesson on writing query letters. You might need help honing an idea for an article. Or maybe you've never written professionally before, and you'd like to know exactly what it's like before jumping into a new career. All of these are great reasons to take a course in freelance magazine writing. But there are so many courses offered, it's difficult to know which ones are legitimate, worthwhile tutorials. Here you'll find a list of quality courses, as well as some basic guidelines on what to avoid when looking for a freelance magazine writing course.

One of the best sources for writing courses is Writers Online Workshops (www.writersonlineworkshops.com), presented by Writer's Digest. As publishers of the annual Writer's Market, Writer's Digest Magazine, and hundreds of books on the writing craft, they are one of the leading companies in the writing field. They offer several courses on freelance magazine writing, including "Focus on the Nonfiction Magazine Article" and "Advanced Article Writer's Workshop."

Another excellent source for courses on magazine writing is the Editorial Freelance Association (www.the-efa.org). An organization for all types of freelancers in the publishing world, the EFA offers several online courses. "Succeeding as a Magazine Writer" is geared towards those who have honed their writing skills and are ready to see their work published.

Don't forget accredited colleges and universities. Some post-secondary schools require that you are an admitted, enrolled student to take their courses; other schools allow anyone to sign up for online courses; check carefully. The UC Berkeley Extension (www.unex.berkeley.edu) has a great array of writing courses. "Writing the Feature Story" is an excellent course for freelance magazine writers. They also offer other online writing courses.

What to Avoid