An interesting thing happened the other day. Someone sent me an unusual offer through the Crazy Egg contact form.
What’s most interesting is that it worked. Before the morning was out, I was the proud owner of a new ebook, ready to be used on my blog.
Is this an approach you should take as a content writer? Is it an offer worth considering if you’re a blog owner?
Let’s take a look….
Spec writing for content creators
I’m going to be honest: Spec writing stinks.
Essentially, you spend time and energy researching, writing and editing an ebook or article—with no guarantee you’ll sell it.
It’s a gamble at best.
Established writers rarely do it, but if you’re beginning, you may need to do this to get your name on the map. The key is to be as professional as possible.
- Don’t just write what you want.
- Choose a potential buyer (or two) before you start.
- Plan your content to be irresistible to that potential buyer.
- Think of ways they could use the content (based on what they’re already doing).
- Do your best work EVER, both in the content and in your pitch.
So what am I proposing?
Pro writers sell their work before they write it. If they can’t sell it before writing, they at least find potential markets and tailor the work to be a good fit, so they have a decent chance of selling it.
I don’t recommend writing an ebook then trying to sell it. That’s like standing on the side of the highway with a cardboard sign that says you’re hungry. But here’s how I’d proceed if that’s what I was trying to do.
Let’s say you have an idea. Go ahead and flesh it out. Create an outline and jot down some of your ideas for the piece. But stop there.
Before you invest too much writing time, see if there’s a market for the piece. Look for a brand that:
- accepts freelance work (as opposed to only using staff writers)
- pays for guest posts
- has ebook downloads or other epic content
- covers the topic you’re considering
Ideally, you’ll find two or three brands that fit this profile. (Best bet: find a brand that checks off all 4 criteria.)
You’re proposal will likely be unexpected. It could come at a time when the content manager is busy or working on another deadline. There’s a good chance she’ll say no just because she doesn’t have time to consider your proposal.
That being the case, you need to customize your proposal as much as possible. And you need to plan your approach now, before you write the ebook (or whatever it is).
- What type of content is needed on the blog?
- What type of content do they typically use?
- Can you improve on it?
- Can you help them reach a goal: traffic, subscriptions, events, etc.?
Give it some thought. This is critical to your success. If your offer lines up with something the content manager wants already, you have a good chance of selling your work.
My response to this pitch
As it turns out, I was already planning some tutorials for my blog, so this pitch came at precisely the right time.
However, I never accept a writer’s offer without looking at samples of his work. I want to see whether he can indeed put coherent sentences together, create a logical structure, and communicate his ideas clearly and concisely.
In this case, I asked if I could review the ebook before making my decision. To his credit, this writer agreed. Here’s his response to my request.
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Now, when writers act like the editor is the “enemy” and they need to protect themselves from abuse—especially when they act that way with me—I lose interest in working with them. This writer handled the issue well.
He understands that I can’t commit without seeing the ebook, but he protects his rights in this email. This feels like overkill to me, but I understand that there are other less-scrupulous people out there. What I appreciate is that he didn’t assume I was one of them.
A quick review told me I could use the ebook. It was an exact match to a tutorial topic I was already planning.
The writing would need work, and it needed to be adjusted to exactly fit our conversion-rate-optimization focus. But it was a reasonable price and gave me the framework I needed. I knew I could edit the ebook and have a completed tutorial within a few days.
Final thoughts
I respect this writer’s approach, mostly because he managed to sell his ebook from a cold pitch. But had he adjusted his approach just a little, he could have given me a higher-quality ebook and possibly have walked away with a higher fee.
To do that, he would have only needed to pitch the idea before writing the entire ebook.
Granted, I might not have accepted the offer outright, but I might have been willing to work on a spec basis with this writer until I was sure he could give me a usable piece of content.
If you’re a good writer and you know you can find a market for your ebook, go ahead and write it. But here’s an alternative approach that might work better:
Pitch your idea to the blog manager before you write the ebook.
- Tell her that you’ve been studying the blog and noticed [they use epic content frequently, have gaps in their coverage of a topic, or something else you’ve noticed].
- Pitch your ebook idea. Give an outline of what you’re proposing as well as ideas for using the content.
- Provide links to other published works so she can evaluate your writing.
- Suggest a price, but let her know you’re willing to negotiate (if you are).
Most likely the editor will want to talk with you more before moving forward, but you have a chance at impressing her and getting more work in the future. It all depends on how willing you are to work with her until she’s happy with the end product.
Here’s the process I’d be most comfortable with:
- You pitch your idea, and I review samples of your work. If it looks like you could handle the writing project, I’d be willing to talk.
- We have a discussion about the end product: length, topic, tone, what I hope to achieve with it, what the end format will be, etc.
- I’d ask for an outline based on my needs. Then I’d want to tweak it, etc.
- You write one chapter and let me review it. Based on its quality, we move forward or end the project.
- If we move forward, I’d expect to be able to ask for edits, changes, more research, etc. And I’d need to be able to pull the plug on the project if you weren’t able to meet my needs.
See why I say spec work stinks?
There’s a lot of risk on the writer’s side because there’s no guarantee your work will sell. But if you’re the one contacting the editor, pitching your idea out of the blue, you have to be willing to work that way.
In this case, it worked. And it’s a reasonable way to get your work in front of editors who might need it.
Thoughts? Questions?
