Reflections on the NZ Freelance Conference 2007...

Earlier in the week I headed up to Auckland for the NZ Freelance Conference. It was a day long conference attended by about 100 writers from the established to the aspiring (ie me).

It was a full on schedule but the organizers managed to keep everything to time by holding up a time card at 2 minutes and at times up...which unfortunately sometimes cut into an important line of discussion.

What did I learn:

- I learned that one of the magazines that I had planned on submitting to had no interest whatsoever in getting any submissions from new freelancers. As the editor said ‘she has a stable of freelancers and isn’t looking for more’.

- Another editor said ‘the door was open to freelancers…and to…bring on the article ideas’ (note to self - formulate ideas in query letter and send of end of next week).

- A publisher for a group of magazines also said ‘his company open to working with new freelancers and always on the lookout for ideas…as his company constantly planning new magazines.’ (another good lead)

- The pay for freelance writers in New Zealand was stuck at around 40 cents a word and not likely to change any time in the future. And one magazine apparently paid 40 cents a word for the first 1000 words and then 20 cents a word all words over a 1000.

I was inspired by:

- Listening to the stories of writers how have been successful in establishing their freelance writing careers. For a while I started to feel downhearted as each and every one of them had come from a journalistic background.

- But then I listened to Hsin-Yi Cohen’s journey ‘from scratch to specialty in a year’ and was re-invigorated with hope. Hsin-Yi has managed to take her passion, dogs, and develop what sounds like a fairly lucrative freelance career writing about dogs…mainly for magazines and websites overseas.

- Talking to others at the conference who were also working on developing freelance writing careers and how they were going about it.

- The discovery that there is a freelance writers group here in Christchurch. I have made contact with the organizer and am now on their mailing list. They meet once a month.

Conclusion:

Earning a living wage as a freelance writer in New Zealand can be done but not by many. The successful ones were the ones who specialized and the ones who sold their articles overseas….both of which I am already doing…so it looks like I might be on the right track…

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