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Last updated on
8 September, 2007

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Nonfiction Freelance Writing Business
with Stephen Morrill

REGISTRATION:

COST, LENGTH, PREREQUISITES:

No prerequisites.

Standard course: $150 / 6 weeks. Click here to register

Extended schedule: $188 / 12 weeks. Click here to register
Extended course gives you two weeks to do each lesson but contains NO additional material.

For questions about this COURSE, e-mail Steve Morrill at

I teach five course modules for freelance nonfiction writers. This is the business course, a how-to in making a living or extra money at freelancing books, brochures, magazine articles, and more.

Like my other courses, this one centers upon extensive written materials in a private library. Students download these at their convenience and interact with me via e-mail.

This is NOT a course about how to write. The course is intended to teach you how to MARKET yourself and how to run the BUSINESS of nonfiction writing on a freelance basis. Nonfiction includes magazines, books and assorted brochures and newsletters. The course touches upon all these but focuses most heavily upon the magazine market.

The class consists of two parts. Each week I upload, to our private library, materials you should read before the next week. Each week you also receive an assignment to carry out before the next class.

Your course has helped me to meet most of my goals in learning the business of freelance writing. In your extensive collection of reading material you provide an abundance of information and valuable resources.... It made me feel confident in knowing that when I apply the knowledge gained from that assignment I would benefit as a professional freelance writer....Your informal yet charismatic teaching style made the learning enjoyable, and your war stories were very descriptive. - Dorothy

The class has been and will continue to be a great help to me in my freelance career. The marketing session opened up my eyes to possibilities that I didn't know were out there. The business forms will be great for my not so organized approach to writing assignments as evidenced by my desk both at home and in the newsroom.... I already have some work lined up with the paper and am looking forward to breaking into the magazine market and working on some book projects. I think it's going to be a great summer. - Diane

Week 1:
Introduction: Who writes non-fiction?
Analyzing your resources. What do you bring to the task?
What are the odds of success, and how can you better them?
Pay rates and schedules, average lengths.
Where to get ideas?
How do we refine an idea into a salable item?
Some common types of stories.
HOMEWORK: Write out a two-column list of your abilities, liabilities as they relate to writing. Come up with five good ideas for magazine articles or books.

Week 2:
Multiplying your idea.
Preparing a market plan.
How to analyze a magazine market.
Analyzing a magazine copy. Knowing when to bail out.
Importance of query letters/book proposals.
Photos with your queries and/or articles.
Multiple queries, shotgun queries, simultaneous submission.
Agents, publishers, attorneys.
Dealing with rejection.
Dealing with acceptance.
Dealing with phone calls from editors.
HOMEWORK: Prepare a market plan for one idea. Determine ad ratio for one big popular magazine and one local market magazine. Extra credit for looking up ad rates for both. Alternatively, show how you would prepare a book proposal.

Week 3:
Research: How much is enough?
Where to look for help.
How to conduct an interview.
HOMEWORK: Prepare a list of who you could call to research your idea. Conduct one practice interview with a friend or business associate and file a brief report.

Week 4:
Marketing yourself.
Professional behavior and ethics: dealing with editors, the public and other writers.
Copyright and fair use.
Brochure and newsletter writing.
HOMEWORK: Write to the U.S. Copyright Office asking for a copy of Form TX and instructions.

Week 5:
Business basics: Forms for tracking queries, manuscripts, invoices, much more.
Equipping your office.
HOMEWORK: Revise office forms to meet your own needs.

Week 6:
Taxes.
Photojournalism.
When to go full-time.
Where to go next for more help.
HOMEWORK: Send me a letter detailing how my course helped you to meet your goals, or how it failed. Help me to make the course better for the next writers.

Stephen Morrill has been freelancing full-time since 1984. During that time he has written more than 1000 articles for national and local magazines and for newspapers. Nationally, his work has appeared in such magazines as Horizon, World Wide Shipper, The Robb Report, Vista, The New York Times Magazine, and Business Age. In Florida his work has appeared in Changing Homes, Florida Business, Southern Homes, and in a variety of city magazines and local newspapers.

For ten years he wrote a biweekly column about maritime trade for Florida Shipper magazine and he has written about maritime shipping for other trade publications. As a Reuters News Agency correspondent for the west coast of Florida, his writing has been used by newspapers, radio and television around the world.

In addition to general-interest articles, Steve has written extensively about wine, humor, international shipping and trade, business and finance, architecture and the outdoors, and military affairs. He was the founding editor of Know Tampa Bay, a 25,000-circulation quarterly relocation guide to the Tampa Bay area. Steve has been honored by the Florida Magazine Association for his short humor and by the Florida Association of the American Institute of Architects for his writing about architecture. Steve is a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors.

In addition to his ongoing magazine assignments and the occasional brochure or other non-magazine work, Steve wrote St. Petersburg: City in the Sun, a history of St. Petersburg, Florida and a ghost written history of Pan American-Grace Airways, Flying the Andes. He's working on two more books: a mystery (almost finished) and a handbook of businesslike freelance writing practices.