Specialize for Freelance Success

At conferences, panels of experienced writers are often asked, "If you have just one piece of advice to give beginning writers, what is it?" I think mine would be: specialize. I wish someone had told me that when I was starting out; however, it would have been somewhat like the advice rendered in the movie The Graduate: ("plastics") a gamble. At that time, it paid to be a utility writer, capable of covering any topic. Who knew the field would become so crowded (thanks to the Watergate scandal which glorified writing as a career).

One reason I suggest that specialization leads to success is that freelance writers must have high production rates. If you already have the knowledge base on a particular subject, you are far ahead in the research department. Every time you write about your topic, you don't have to learn about the background or the history of it. You save that time to focus on extending your knowledge, keeping up with the far edges of the field. The time saved means you can write your pieces faster and get out more of them than you would if you had to repeat in-depth research for each one.

Another reason to specialize is to become an expert by way of a body of published work. This applies to fiction writers as well as journalists. Once you're considered an expert, more income opportunities open up. Public speaking and other types of appearances, teaching, publishing books and subsidiary materials, consulting, testimony as an expert witness--these are just a few that come to mind.

Specialization is also the way the publishing world operates at this time. Think of all the stress on niche on the web, in magazines and ezines. Carve out a corner of the world, we're told, and make it your own. Instead of versatility in jumping from one subject to another as a writer, the skills required now are dancing among the various media in this transition phase between the all paper world and the (maybe) all electronic one to come. Competition is horrendous. Make yourself the "go to guy", dependable, reliable and knowledgeable in one area that you can mine for success. I'd suggest something in science, but you have to please yourself, too. Your specialty will become part of your identity, so you'd better enjoy it.