Need tips/advice please

eezarthegreat

Hi all,

A very good friend of mine wishes to get into writing of some sort. She's qualified in English, and has a tremendous grasp of both grammer and language, but is struggling a little to find her way into the industry.

Do you guys have any tips on where to maybe free-lance to gain experience, and if so, what sites/magazines expect from those starting off? Possible places to work? Copyright houses in the country/online?

Anything to help her would be greatly appreciated,
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EileenG

What are her interests and strengths? Oddly enough, for a commercial writer, a tremendous grasp of English is not necessarily required. Good basic English and the ability to write engagingly and accurately is more useful.

I used to work with a journalist who got an A+ in honours English, and he was a pain in the behind. He could not use a short sentence if he could contrive a long one, and he never used a simple word if there was an obscure one available. And he never got his copy written on time.

One area she might consider is editing. With the explosing in self-publishing, and with even tradional publishers now expecting perfect MSs, there is a demand for an editor who can go over a novel, and correct spellings, grammar, poor word choices, stuff like that. I believe around $1 a page is about the going rate.

kickarykee

1 Dollar per page?
Wow, that's underpaid ...

EileenG

Double spaced with big margins. So $1 per 250-300 words.

kickarykee

That's still not much ...

roran

Maybe not Kickarykee, but the initiator did say 'anything to help her would be greatly appreciated ' I think EileenG has done just that.

DorkBaller

Wow that's cheap. Your friend can try writing in freelancing sites. I believe the going rate for native English speakers is $2 per 100 words.

Your friend can also try contributing to Yahoo. Although it's free, it can help build portfolio.