Blogging and big bylines
Q&A: Mariette Williams on expanding her niche and one year of freelancing
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Writer friends! Today we’re talking to Mariette Williams, a travel and culture writer who recently celebrated one year of part-time freelancing. She’s built up an impressive list of bylines in that short amount of time, including The New Republic, Vice, Parents Magazine, Business Insider, and lots more. When she’s not pitching and writing freelance pieces, she’s balancing a job in education.
While it’s obviously helpful to hear from seasoned freelancers with many years of pitching and publishing behind them, those writers can forget about the challenges we face when we’re just starting out, or somewhere in the middle of our freelance writing journey. So I was excited to chat with Mariette about her early success.
Mariette has also written a YA novel and started work on a memoir through the AWP Writer to Writer mentorship program. Transitioning away from those two projects to freelancing gave Mariette the freedom to cover more topics, and it’s pretty cool to see how much variety she’s achieved in her work already. (You can read more about that on her blog.)
So, let’s get to it. Writers, meet Mariette!
Mariette Williams on Blogging and Big Bylines
Britany: Can you tell us about what you were doing before you started freelancing last year, and what inspired you to make the move?
Mariette: I was blogging about adoption (my own and others’) for a few years before I switched over to freelancing. I enjoyed writing about adoption, and during my time blogging, I spoke at a few conferences and published a few personal essays outside of my blog.
I switched over to freelance writing because I wanted to write about something else for a change. When you’re adopted, writing about adoption all the time can be emotionally exhausting.
My transition came through travel writing. One afternoon my friend sent me a tweet from an editor at Travel Noire who was looking for pitches. At the time, I really didn’t know how to pitch editors because all of the adoption writing outside of my blog came from people reaching out to me.
I literally had to Google “How to Write a Pitch”, but I put something together, and the editor loved the pitch. The first story I published as a freelance writer was “Why I’m Ditching Airbnb and Going Back to Hotels.”
After that, I pitched a few more editors, and my first 4-5 pitches were all commissioned, which is NOT normal (lol), but I think it gave me a little boost of confidence to start freelance writing.
What's one thing you're really grateful you did before going freelance?
I’m glad I blogged for a few years before freelancing. I think it helped me get used to seeing my work online. Blogging also helped me develop my writing style, and I also had clips to send to those first few editors when I started pitching.
As someone who frequently writes about travel, how did this last year of travel limitations impact your work—or the work you thought you would be doing more of as a freelance travel writer?
Since the pandemic started, things have actually picked up for two reasons. One, I’ve had more time to pick up more freelance assignments. I freelance part time and during the first few months when things were closed, I had more time on my hands. Editors were still commissioning, and I was writing more on the evenings and weekends to fill my time.
Second, I’m fortunate to live in Florida, which is a popular travel destination state. I wrote a lot of local stories, like this Guide to the Florida Keys and this story about taking a “laid back” trip to Miami. Both of these stories are pretty evergreen, and Florida travel stories usually do well.
What type of work do you find to be the most lucrative and what kind is the most fulfilling?
I love writing feature stories. I wrote one last summer about Black women and astrology for VICE, which is very fulfilling. I was following a few Black astrologers on Twitter, and I loved their content and I was thinking how it would make a good story because astrology is not generally associated with Black women. I love telling stories about things that people may not have thought about.
As for pay, it varies so widely. Sometimes I pitch a publication that I think might have a decent budget because of their name and reputation, and it turns out they don’t. I’ve also found that some of the more off the radar publications can pay .50 - $1 per word. I do try to negotiate rates to get close to .50 a word or higher. I also appreciate when editors tweet out their rates in their calls for pitches—it saves time for everyone.
How often do you pitch? Do you have any kind of system for pitching?
I don’t really have a set system. Since I freelance part time, I sometimes take breaks. The great thing is that once you’ve carved out a niche, editors that you’ve worked with will sometimes come to you with assignments (which is the BEST ever) or I’ll get emails from editors who have seen my work and we’ll work through some ideas together.
In terms of actual pitching, I’ll follow up twice, and then usually move on. When I first started, I was worried about following up and bothering editors, but I have gotten commissioned from following up on pitches, so now I always follow up a few times.
What is one thing you've learned about pitching since you went freelance?
There’s a few things I’ve learned. My most successful pitches have come from really doing a deep dive into the publication. For travel, if I notice that a certain destination hasn’t been updated in a few years, I’ll include that in my pitch. Also, I know it sounds obvious but it’s important to read the publications you’re pitching to get an idea of what they are putting out. My best pitches have been because it fits that publication and its readers well.
Also, I try not to take rejection personally. So much of pitching and writing is based on timing. Sometimes an editor loves a story, but doesn’t have any budget left for the month. Sometimes they love the story, but they JUST covered a particular angle, or they have a staff writer on it. It’s just not personal.
I’ve also learned unless it's a super specific idea you should have a few publications in mind for a pitch. I pitched one particular story to nearly 10 different publications before I found it a home.
You recently tweeted about landing an assignment with a dream publication (congrats!), and that March is looking really good. I'm guessing you can't tell us about that story just yet, but in general, can you tell us what a really good month looks like, assignment wise?
A good month for me is getting to write about important stories with publications that I regularly read. Some months I’ll work on several assignments and some months it’s just one or two.
In a recent blog post, you talk about really appreciating the variety of freelance writing—how you can write about so many different topics. I love that, too, but sometimes I feel like I'm spending so much time trying to switch tracks or wrap my head around the basics of a new-to-me topic. How do you find that balance between capitalizing on a niche/expertise and exploring new territory?
I think when I take on a new topic, I’ll weigh out how much research is involved to get started, and how much I already know about the topic. I started off with travel writing, personal essays, and interviews with authors because those were things I was familiar with or already doing on my blog.
I think travel writing and food writing are closely related, so that was a natural path to go down when I wrote this guide to The Best Neighborhood Restaurants in Miami.
Last summer I also wrote a lot of personal finance stories which lead to some reported stories about gentrification and “banking Black”. In terms of personal finance, it’s always something that I love to read about, so it also seemed like a natural fit in my portfolio. In terms of new topics, I think writing about things like tech or politics would be outside of my range (at least for now).
What has been the most surprising lesson you've learned in your first year of freelancing?
I learned that freelancing is really running a business. There’s so much administrative work that’s a part of the job - pitching, responding to emails, onboarding, invoicing - all of it takes time, so that’s why I think it’s really important for freelance writers to negotiate rates to cover some of those hours spent doing administrative work.
What will you be doing differently this year, compared to last, work wise?
This year, I’ll like to continue building relationships with the editors I’ve worked with and hopefully cold pitch less, which can be time consuming. There are definitely some publications on my “dream list” that I’d love to write for, but my first year of freelancing was about lots of pitching, getting myself out in front of editors, and breaking into publications. This year, I’d like to become a regular writer at some of the publications I’ve already written for.
Can you share one piece of writing you're especially proud of and why?
It’s SO hard to choose, but I really liked this essay that I wrote for The New Republic. I really respect the publication, and I pitched them a story about hurricane evacuations and how they shut out low income residents in Florida. I worked with an editor that I admired, and his feedback definitely helped me see my personal essay writing in a new light. This story got to combine some of my things I really like to write about like Florida and economic and racial inequality, and I was able to include my personal experience.
That’s all for today friends. Thank you so much to Mariette for sharing some insight on her first year of freelance writing!
And if you could use some extra support in your own freelance writing endeavors, consider subscribing to One More Question for just $5/month. You support allows me to support you (in the form of subscriber only resources, monthly pitch feedback, and weekly posts chock full of writing opportunities!) and it’s pretty cool that we can all help each other in that way. :)
Stay inspired,
Britany