How to get on assignment lists and stay there.

How To Get On Assignment Lists... And Stay There By David Geer Editors at print magazines are sometimes willing to add freelance writers to assignment lists. What is an assignment list? An assignment list is a list that goes out telling the publication's regular freelance writers which story assignments are available for an upcoming issue. For those lists that I've seen, each assignment on the list generally includes the following: the department the article will appear in, the working title, the required Word count, and a description. The description includes the breadth of coverage, the type of article desired (maybe a product review for example), questions that should be addressed and other information, perhaps procedural in nature (i.e., how to acquire products for the product review). How to get onboard and hold on tight! The best time to ask if a publication has an assignment list and whether you may be added to it is once you have satisfactorily completed a first assignment. You might send an email to your editorial contact and ask if they have an assignment list. If they have one and would consider putting you on it, they'll let you know. If you manage to get on one, and care to stay there, don't plan on letting the editor down or showing the slightest inconsistency from the quality of work you initially published with them (unless it's an improvement). There are always other writers who can take your place. Just one bad-egg article may cut you from the list. If you like steady work, maintain the quality that got you on the list. Be polite, patient, and professional and deliver a little better than they expect, sooner than they need it. Show some self-supervision and get as close to what they want to publish as possible, word for word. How to respond to the list when you receive it Pick the stories you feel confident you can write and then pitch yourself for those assignments. I always pick several, as many as I genuinely think I can write. Now I don't mean a number that I think I can write for one issue; you'll be lucky to get one story a month, at least at the start. What I mean is that I pick all the ones I believe I could write, knowing that gives me a better chance of getting selected for at least one of them. Then I write a brief defense of why I am the writer to write that story. I try to respond the same day that I get the list if possible, hoping that an early bird will be rewarded. They'll let you know if you can have one of the assignments and which one that they feel is best suited for you. You could end up with an assignment every month this way. When they send out the list (by email) count how many writers are on it (if you can see the recipients) and compare that with the number of freelance-written stories appearing in the publication regularly. If there aren't many more writers than stories, you may find that exceptional writing and a great relationship with the folks at the publication will be answered with regular work. If there are some months that you don't get assignments, it may be that they want to spread the work around a bit. Don't get discouraged and don't assume you did a bad job on the last piece. If you keep getting the list, you must be doing something right.