By Dawn Colclasure
In the world of freelance writing, opportunities abound. There are magazines, E-zines, newsletters and newspapers to submit to. In most cases, the freelance writer without a college degree, MFA or other kind of notable status has a chance of getting published without those requirements. As long as writers show they know their stuff and can produce a well-written article or essay, they have a chance of getting published.
Freelance writers specializing in a topic or field had more clout than an MFA or college degree. This provided many freelance writers with the opportunity to get published. As long as they had knowledge and high-quality writing, an article or essay had a good chance of acceptance.
That was how it worked once upon a time. Now things have changed. My attempts to get published in magazines and with brands I have researched have met a huge barrier: the fact that I don’t have an MFA or a college degree.
When the opportunity arose to become a part of a content creation agency, which is not the same as a content mill, I jumped on it. I wanted to try something new with my writing. Becoming a writer for this agency required me to have knowledge of SEO writing and using keywords. New to this kind of writing, I learned as I went, taking online courses and reading articles in order to become better at SEO writing, boosting my chances of getting published.
For a while, this went beautifully. I found brands I was compatible with and stayed busy writing articles for them. That worked until it didn’t. One brand eventually changed their platform and another started ghosting me. No problem, I thought. There were tons of other brands I could pitch, simply because I have specialized in these topics.
It didn’t matter that I researched these brands and read samples of their work in order to get a feel for the type of material they wanted. Many who I pitched to never responded, which meant no.
It didn’t matter that I had clips relevant to the topic I was pitching; I was still rejected.
It didn’t matter that I have experience in chemical recovery (alcoholism) as someone who has navigated sobriety for over five years; I was still told “no.” Even when I pitched to blogs on this topic inviting readers to share their experiences, my pitches were ignored.
It also didn’t matter that I have training and experience working as an in-home caregiver, as well as providing rehabilitative care; any article or essay I pitched on that topic was rejected. And, yes, I was sure to pitch to markets accepting work from all kinds of writers.
It also doesn’t matter that I am deaf, as well as a burn survivor, writing on these topics for markets welcoming submissions and pitches from marginalized groups. The rejections still rolled in.
This happened when I pitched brands through the agency as well as when I pitched markets outside of the agency. I knew my luck with the agency would run out, so I made sure I continued my work as a freelance writer, pitching magazines, websites, blogs, and newsletters. There were acceptances here and there, but mostly rejections from the bigger paying markets that seemed to prefer a certain kind of writer–namely, ones who had more impressive publishing clips, positions with a company or a degree in the field they wrote in.
In the end, I noticed that writers who had a degree relevant to the topic they wrote in, or some kind of specialized training in a field, or even an MFA, had a better chance of getting published than I did. I saw how everyone else with those accomplishments under their belt got published in those same places I had pitched.
It’s understandable that most writing markets these days would require writers to have some kind of degree or specialized training, but how does that help those of us with financial barriers keeping us from achieving those goals and can still write well? I couldn’t finish college because the funding was no longer there. I would absolutely love to have a degree and/or an MFA, but there is currently no money to make those things happen!
I am not the only freelance writer out there who faces the financial barrier in earning a degree. The money we earn has to go towards providing for our families, paying our bills and paying for the medications we need to keep us alive. We don’t have the funding required to get a college degree or an MFA, and, yes; we have exhausted all resources in trying to obtain that funding. With no luck. They should not hold this against us freelance writers who are only trying to earn a living with our words.
It seems that most writing markets are adopting a classist or elitist attitude when deciding what writers they choose to work with.
It used to be that anyone who built their way to success with their own resources was looked up to and admired. Anyone who gained knowledge and training outside of educational institutions, and proved they could get a job done, garnered respect and appreciation. This kind of self-sufficiency no longer means anything to the editor at a magazine or publishing company.
It seems this classist attitude is slowly creeping into the world of independent publishing, as well. Writers with bigger platforms, wider appearances at cons, and impressive publication credits are being given more attention among independent publishers. It used to be that I supported independent publishers, being an indie author myself. But now it seems that if I submit to an independent publisher and I have to compete with an author who has more recognition than I do, they get the publisher’s attention and I don’t. I’m lucky if I ever get a response to my submission at all.
Famous writers like Ray Bradbury, Mark Twain, Maya Angelou, Truman Capote and William Faulkner never had a college degree, yet their work was published, won awards and achieved literary acclaim. If only we could go back to the days when it was enough to just be published. When being an author attracted attention, brought admiration and respect from others, and signified that said author is worthy of one’s attention.
Those days are long gone. In its place are the demands for a degree, MFA, or bigger platforms. If a freelance writer or aspiring author doesn’t have those things, then the road to publication is a lot longer and harder to pursue.
Dawn Colclasure is a writer who lives in Oregon. She is a book reviewer, freelance writer and ghostwriter. She is the author of several books. Her work has appeared in magazines, newspapers, websites and anthologies. Website: https://dawnsbooks.com/ and https://www.dmcwriter.com/ Twitter: @dawnwilson325 and @dawncolclasure