Author: Kelly James-Enger

ISBN: 0-87116-199-0

The following review was contributed by:  Helen Kaut: To read more of Helen Kaut’s Reviews Click HERE

In her recent book “6 Figure Freelancing – The Writer’s Guide To Making More Money” Kelly James-Enger looked at different strategies aimed at increasing your income as a writer. One of these strategies was to specialize and “Ready, Aim..” shows you in more detail how to go about doing this.

The book is divided into two parts. The first part “Getting Started” tells you why specializing makes economic sense and shows you how to find your own niche by using a questionnaire to find out your specialized knowledge. It also tells you what you need to specialize in, how to write queries and how to conduct your research. It finishes with an example of an article from the query and research stage to the finished piece.

James-Enger illustrates this part with her own experience, but also uses examples of other established journalists and the margins of the book are crammed with their useful tips.

The second part is an overview of the ten most lucrative specialties you can aim to break into. These include: health, diet, nutrition & food, business & finance, technology, parenting, travel, fitness & sports, essays & personal pieces, home & garden, profiles & features. Every chapter follows the same formula starting with a bit of background for each specialty in “The Basics: What You Need To Know” and goes on to “The Nuts and Bolts: How to write about…” . Here you learn in more detail how to handle the specialty. For example, in the chapter about health writing she tells the reader that it is crucial to be accurate with the facts, to be timely and on top of breaking health news and to know how to research properly and make sure that you interpret and understand the surveys and studies you intend to use. She also tells you to bear in mind who you write for and how to target the market and how to find and interview the experts.

Crucial in health writing is to avoid presenting absolute certainties, but a balanced picture of the information available instead.

Each chapter also contains advice of established writers who specialized in the area featured, a section on potential markets and a list of useful online resources, addresses and books.

In her afterword James-Enger describes how to branch out in other directions such as writing books about your specialty, becoming a contributing editor or a consultant. 

Of course this book can’t cover every specialty you could possibly write for and her decision to concentrate on the hottest markets was therefore a wise one. I would have liked to know how to break into markets like education, environment and career, However the clear structure of each chapter makes it easy to transfer the knowledge of how to break into your chosen market. James-Enger also remains very general when discussing potential markets for each specialty- for the simple reason that markets change all the time and thus mentioning specific titles makes not much sense. The reader has to do his/her homework.

This well structured book is a useful tool and source of inspiration not only for beginners but also for seasoned professionals who want to increase their income and broaden their horizons. If you liked “6 Figure Freelancing”, you will enjoy this one too.