Tools for Black women entering the gig economy | Why I started on the freelance writing journey

New and praying (and working) for breakthroughs

I’ve been in this game all of two minutes (lol), but doing what I want to be doing best, I’m going to write and share resources on entering the gig-economy as a black woman aspiring freelance writer. But first, a monologue on how I got to this place (only right that I should have a cheeky plug in there.)

Manifesting | July 2020

I’ve been trying to figure out what I want to do with my life this year. I started a new job at a local organization, and I am grateful for it because of everything it’s been teaching me, including the fact that I don’t see myself doing this work for ever. Deep down I’ve always known what I wanted to do, but – and I will say this forever – my ideas of success have always been tied to career titles and salaries, rather than the actual work that I would be doing. I’m working on reframing that and, by God’s grace, I will write a fuller piece on the questions I’ve been asking myself to get me to a place of doing meaningful and valuable work rather than placing all meaning and value on the title of the work.

 

We know that university doesn’t necessarily teach you to do a specific job, but it teaches you important transferable skills to apply to the things you will do later. The content is important, but the critical, writing, analytical skills is just as much a part of it. All this to say that I went into university not having a clear idea of what I wanted to do with my degree (though it was a lot clearer at the beginning of my academic career than at the conclusion of my postgraduate) and came out of it with all these options (sort of, my period of job applications in the UK as an international student trying to stick around was a distressing few months) and little idea of where to go from there.

 

And so, I fell upon the work that I am doing. It was important to me that the values of my workplace aligned with my own but the longer I was there, the less I felt like the things that were important in my own learning at university (i.e. the content and the desire and skill to seek more content), and my gift and love for words were being used.

 

In the podcast I linked above I talk about echo chambers of my own learning and unlearning; in the place that I have reached now, the work that I want to do is to popularize this learning and unlearning. Knowledge is not always accessible, there are often monetary and/or language barriers to it. In my learning and unlearning I understood at a deeper level how access to resources changes the world, individually and collectively. I also know that these resources are not only material, knowledge and learning changes our world(s).

 

So, it is important to me in my work to share the little knowledge that I have as I keep learning and unlearning, and writing is the best way I know how to share it. I began my freelance journey with Black Ballad (another cheeky plug) and as I became more intentional about it, I began compiling a list of platforms that I hoped to contribute to with the submission/pitch details. My partner, being ever supportive and tech-y helped me put all of it on a spreadsheet with tools that helped me keep track of deadlines and the status of pitches. Making good on my mission to popularize knowledge and resources, you can access the spreadsheet here. The format works for me, but you can download it and customize it in ways that help you the most.  I've also included links on the column listing the different platforms, with How Tos and Guidelines (sometime's it's just the website though) from each of them so that you can see what they're looking for. A few notes on the template:

1.  The date format is American, i.e. mm/dd/yy;
2. Google Spreadsheet & Microsoft Excel are not 100% compatible (I don't know if compatibility is the correct wording here, but vibe with me) so if you download it, then the columns with tick boxes will come out as TRUE/FALSE. If you know how to fix that on microsoft excel kudos to you! (comment below if you know and let me know how I can fix it too lol) Alternatively, I'd suggest you just copy and paste the table into your own google spreadsheet (or whichever other platform you use).

The list of magazines/journals is not exhaustive, and I hope that your list continues to expand; mine surely will and as it does, I will continue to add it onto the document. I also hope to keep sharing the lessons I learned on my blog as I grow my portfolio. If you know of any platforms that aren't on there but you think they should be, contact me on my twitter or email. Also note than some of these platforms pay, and others don't - I'll be adding information on whether they have contributor fees soon, so keep a look out and keep coming back! I would always recommend that you do look into each platform(s) yourself to straighten out the details in case I got anything wrong or there have been some updates. 

I am doing my best to include a range of different platforms, dedicated to tech, art, politics, creative writing etc. I am also working on a sister spreadsheet listing creative writing competitions which is another way to get your work out there. Come back soon for the link!

 

I hope that it will make life a little bit easier for anyone, but especially black women - mind you, some of these platforms only take submissions from black women/non-binary poc, I ask that you exercise your wisdom enough to know when a platform is not made for you - trying to start writing with goals of publishing their work. 

Here are some more articles that I have found really helpful/encouraging and that might help you too: 

1. How to Get into Magazine Writing: 6 Tips for Aspiring Magazine Writers
2. How To Pitch an Article to a Magazine
3. Why You Should Aim for 100 Rejections a Year
4. How To Get Into Online Freelance Writing With No Experience For Beginners 
5. Black Freelance
6. The Op-ed Project: Op-ed basics
7. How to stop pitching ideas and start pitching stories
8. From the woman who gave me my first paid commission: In Journalism with Jendella Benson, Black Ballad

Happy (freelance) writing!