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A beginner’s guide to TravMedia’s IMM

If you’re interested in travel writing or a career as a travel writer, I heartily recommend attending TravMedia’s international media marketplace (or IMM as it’s commonly called).

It’s been likened to speed dating for people in the travel industry and I think that’s a pretty accurate description. It’s fast, furious and fun. And at the end of the day many writers walk away with offers of famils or press trips. So how can freelance writers get the most out of IMM?

This is an updated post from my initial article written in February 2018.

How to become a six-figure freelance writer

Over the past three years, I’ve invoiced for over $100K each year. And in 2018 and 2019, I only worked 3 – 4 days a week. I’m not saying this to boast, but as an antidote to all the industry doom and gloom about how hard it is to make a living as writer.

So if you want to make $100K (or more) a year from your writing or even if you just want to boost your income, here are my secrets to being a six-figure freelance writer.

December wrap up and income report for 2019

This time last year I was in the UK and was contemplating 2018 – a huge year where I had been commissioned over $120K worth of work. When I look back to the goals I set for this year, they were fairly modest, but I still didn’t achieve them all. I wanted to continue doing work that I loved (check), seriously move into travel writing (check), launch my online course (miss), start exercising regularly (check) and ensure I maintained my work-life balance (hit and miss).

This post is a round-up of December as well as my yearly income report. I know lots of you have asked about the percentage of my work that is editorial vs corporate, so I’ve included that too.

Thanks, as always, for reading.

Happy New Year.

My 6 favourite posts from The Freelancer’s Year 2019

I hope you don’t mind, but this is a bit of a lazy post from me. Come mid-late December my brain starts to dissolve in the Australian heat, and my idea well seems to run dry. So this week I’ve decided to do a similar post to one I did last year – a round-up of favourite posts. So in no particular order, I’m sharing my best posts from this year. If you haven’t read them, I hope you enjoy them, and if you have, I hope you agree 🙂

Do this before you finish for the year

If you’re like me, you’re probably feeling as though you are limping to the end of 2019. In fact, I debated if I would even write blog posts for the next couple of weeks because I figured that most freelancers are ready to switch off for the year. But, I’ve been writing this blog for three full years and I haven’t missed a weekly post in all that time, so I wasn’t about to start now. But this post is short and sweet. I promise.

Want to get in an editor’s bad books? Ghost them.

Okay, so I know the title of this post could be misleading. I don’t mean to say that there is only one thing freelance writers should never do. Because, of course, there are multiple sins in the freelance world. But recently I’ve had similar conversations with different editors and all have mentioned one thing that freelance writers do that was unforgivable in their eyes.

November – the month of realisations

I’m not someone who puts aside much time for reflection. It’s ironic because my PhD thesis was about the lack of reflective practice in particular educational environments. While I love the idea of reflection and believe wholeheartedly in it, I’ve fallen into the ‘too busy’ trap. My brain is so full with work, family, home life ‘stuff’ that even taking 20 minutes out of my day to sit and reflect seems too big. But this month, I’ve had some opportunities to really consider a couple of nagging issues. And so I want to share these with you in November – the month of realisations.

how to become a food writer with no experience

Feature Writing

How to become a food writer with no experience

There are a couple of gigs in the writing world that seem to have universal appeal – travel writing and food writing. Getting paid to eat – what could be better?!

Feature Writing

Following up with editors – a guide

There are certain things that happen time and again when you’re freelancing. You pitch, you wait to hear back, and you follow up.

My big learnings for 2019

While I love freelancing, there’s no doubt that at times I steer my ship in the wrong direction. Each year I write down my goals

October – the month I lost my bet

I’m sure you were all shaking your head when I said last month that I had made a bet with my partner. The bet was that I wouldn’t be going overseas on a famil or press trip until 2020. My son joined in on the bet, and come to think of it, so did a couple of my friends. I was pretty determined that I wasn’t going to travel overseas again this year for work, mostly because I was sure that my dream run of being offered trips was going to end. But that didn’t turn out to be true.

Where to Pitch

Get paid to write about parenting

When I was pregnant with my first child, I pitched a story to an Australian parenting publication. My pitch was accepted, I wrote the story and was paid well.

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