Alt-Ac Careers: Freelance Science Writer

People in academia tend to divide into two camps—those who loathe writing and just want to be in the lab or field doing things and those who love getting their observations or experiments done so they can sit down and write about them. For people who are moving out of academia and, like me, fall into the second camp, science writing can be a rewarding post-academic career. If you don’t mind the unpredictability of the gig economy, are very self-motivated, and want to be able to choose your own hours, freelancing can be a great gig.

As a science writer, you need to discuss scientific findings with non-experts in an engaging way, without talking down to your audience or using too much specialized jargon. Cutting out the jargon can be a big hurdle for those accustomed to writing in fields with a lot of necessarily specialized language. On the other hand, a background in academia can be a real asset for an aspiring science writer, because if there’s one thing grad school teaches you, it’s how to learn a lot about a specific subject quickly and independently, and that’s a skill you’ll need in this line of work.

Freelance science writing comes in many flavours, but broadly speaking, there are two categories. One is writing for the general public, either online or in print. Publications like Smithsonian Magazine, Wired, or Popular Science are examples as are newspapers and newsweeklies. The other category is writing for specialized or commercial audiences. This can take the form of writing press releases for research journals, blogging for a science-related company, or writing for a trade publication related to a specific scientific field, among many others. Writing for specialized audiences tends to pay better, but writing for general audiences will get more eyes on your work, so you’ll need to think about what your ultimate goals are. And of course, you can do a bit of both.

How to Get Started

A good two-pronged approach to getting started is to learn about the field and its norms while at the same time just getting some words down and putting them out there for people to read, thereby building up your portfolio. Learning about the job can mean reading books (The Science Writers’ Handbook and The Field Guide for Science Writers are both great options) or online articles, taking online or in-person workshops or courses, or even doing a post-secondary degree, certificate, or diploma in journalism or science communication.

To start to get your writing out there, one common strategy is to begin blogging, either on your own blog or as a guest writer for someone else’s (such as non-profit Canadian science blog promoter Science Borealis). You could also write for non-paying venues, which are more likely to consider new writers. Writing for free is a very controversial subject among freelancers, because too many people being willing to do it has the effect of driving down pay rates for everyone.

Whether you choose to write for free or not is up to you, but it remains a way in which many writers get their start. Even if you do, know your worth and try to get paid for your work whenever you can. Finally, there’s no rule saying you can’t approach more widely read and paying publications as a newbie—a good pitch is a good pitch, and if you write one an editor can’t resist, you could get a shot at a great byline even without a ton of experience. Just be prepared to hear “no” a lot at the beginning.

Finding Jobs

In some circumstances, you’ll simply show an editor your portfolio, and if it’s deemed sufficient, you’ll be assigned an article or other piece of writing that they want done. But in most cases, you’ll need to bring your own ideas and sell them. This means learning how to pitch. A pitch is a short description of a compelling story you’d like to write, why it would interest the publication’s readership, and why you’re the person to write it. There’s an art to pitching well, and there are plenty of resources online for teaching you how it’s done. For examples of great pitches, I recommend The Open Notebook’s Pitch Database, which collects successful pitches for various science publications so others can learn from them.

If writing for mainstream science publications is your goal, many popular online science publications accept pitches from freelancers. Nose around to see if they post submission guidelines, and follow them carefully. Read enough of the publication to get a sense of what they publish and what type of voice the writing tends to use. Then find a story idea that you think would be a good fit for this venue and craft your pitch.

Story ideas can be found by keeping up to date with new discoveries in your field. Big finds published in journals like Nature or Science are likely to be adequately covered, so pay attention to smaller publications. Scientific conferences can also be a good source for stories if you keep your eyes open. Publications will sometimes also put out calls for pitches on particular types of stories. A good way to be aware of these is to follow Twitter hashtags like #pitchme or #callforpitches.

For those that would prefer to be working outside of the mainstream media, networking and word of mouth can be important. You can also query the editors of blogs and trade publications you admire to see if they’re looking to add to their team of writers.

Finding Funds

For those wanting to undertake travel to investigate a story, get funding for a special project, or who wish to attend a scientific conference to find story ideas, there are various funding opportunities. The National Association of Science Writers maintains a grant page on their website (along with other resources), as does the Society of Environmental Journalists.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science has fellowships for international science reporters, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has its Open Science Journalism Fellowship, to name but a few. So if you’ve got a story you want to report on or a journalistic project you’re burning to take on, there may be financial help available for you.

Perspectives from the Field

We asked post-academic freelance science writers what skills are crucial in their jobs, or if they had any tips for those wanting to enter the field.

Journalist Wudan Yan emphasized the importance of her science background. “I’d honestly say just having had such a deep science background. Knowing how to read a [scientific] paper. Not just in [my field of cancer biology], but transferring that skill to read papers in geology, enviro science, physics, computational bio, etc. I think my academic background helped me land some regular gigs with institutional writing, or trade publications.”

Science writer and neuroscientist Bahar Gholipour agrees. “Being familiar with scientific papers certainly helped [me] to read and understand them fast when covering a new discovery or study. I think knowledge about methods and statistics helped too.” She adds, “I could ask questions about sophisticated aspects of a study, and even though most often those questions and answers don’t even remotely find a place in a general audience story, they still helped by making a good rapport with researchers and helped with our interaction during interviews.”

Being in the world of research has also given her a healthy skepticism, “Having been in that world once myself, I may have a better than average ability to spot red flags in a study, or just more confidence in not taking a scientist’s word at face value. Like with any field that needs expertise, scientists talk from a position of authority, but that doesn’t mean something they found or a theory they support is necessarily true or the final word.”

Anthropologist and science writer Kristina Killgrove spoke about being able to “switch registers,” changing her communication style depending who her audience is. “As a kid in school, I was thrilled every time we learned a new style of poetry or prose, and I would practice them at home. Practicing being a writing chameleon helped me become a successful professor in an interdisciplinary field, and—I think—is helping me transition to a decent freelance science writing career explaining this field to the public.”

Freelance writer and environmental scientist Sarah Boon mentions the importance of structure when writing and pitching science articles. “I think one key thing is to work out a strong structure for your article. You can’t write anything if you don’t have a structure to hang it on. And you should use that structure in your pitch as well, as it will help the editor who receives your pitch see where your story is going.”

She also talks about the need to build relationships with editors. “Be really polite to editors that you work with. […] You need to cultivate a relationship with your editors—it will make communicating with them in future much easier as you’ll have a rapport, they’ll know your work, and they may be more receptive to your pitches.”

Tips

• Always read enough of the publication to know that the story you’re pitching is appropriate. Editors get deluged with pitch emails, and are likely to get annoyed by a misinformed pitch that wastes their time. They may not remember you next time, but then again… they may.
• Learn pitching etiquette such as when and how to follow up on a pitch. As with the previous tip, you do not want to make bad impressions on editors.
• Network whenever possible. This can be done through online writing groups, discussions on social media, science writing conferences, or regional meet-ups. Writers tend to be a friendly group who want to help each other out. But remember… it’s not considered kosher to reach out and ask for information or assistance as a first means of contact—take the time to get to know people and be a part of the community first.
• Develop a thick skin. So much of freelance writing is rejection. Most of your pitches won’t be successful, and those that are can turn into pieces of writing that are edited in ways you don’t like. Don’t take it personally, and don’t argue with your editor unless an edit introduces a factual error. Remember, your editor is working with you to make your writing the best it can be… you’re on the same team.
• Make yourself an easy choice for next time. Turn in clean copy, on time, and to the required word count. This will make it easy for an editor to say “yes” next time you approach them with a good pitch.
• Read good science writing. Lots of it. A great place to start is the annual edition of The Best American Science and Nature Writing, which has been published yearly since 2000. At the end of the day, reading is how you’ll learn what high-quality writing looks like, get to know different writing styles, and develop a sense of what type of science writing you’d like to be doing.