Successful Sistas is an interview series featuring successful women pursuing their dream careers.
Job Title: Freelance Writer, Author, Social Media Consultant
Job Description: A long, hard, treacherous road. I began [writing] when I left my job as a school teacher. I taught high school… for three years, and then I decided to jump ship and become a writer because that’s what I always wanted to do and what always fascinated me since I was a little kid, but everybody told me you can’t make money as a writer so I went into teaching.
I decided that I don’t care if I can make money or not– that’s what I want to do, that’s what I’m going to do. I never looked back. I started off as an editorial assistant for “Billboard,” fetching coffee and getting lunch for my editors and hoping beyond hope I could write a story one day. From “Billboard,” I went to “The Source” where I worked for two years; it was the best experience ever.
Everything I learned about journalism I learned from my editors-in-chief at “The Source.” It was a wild and crazy atmosphere; I traveled a lot, almost weekly. After two years, I was kind of burned out so I left there to start freelancing, and I’ve been freelancing ever since.
Was there a specific moment when you decided to start freelancing?
There was a moment when I woke up, and I didn’t know where I was. I woke up in a hotel room, and I wasn’t hung-over or anything. I just had been doing so much traveling that I had no idea where I was– literally. I didn’t know if I was in Miami, or if I was in New York, or if I was in Minneapolis where I traveled very often at that time or if I was in L.A. I looked out my room window, and I still didn’t know where I was, and I couldn’t tell by looking out the window where the h*ll I was. I looked at my watch, and [it] said 12:00, and I always kept my watch on my local time wherever I lived. Then I looked at the hotel room clock, and it said 9:00. I said, ‘Okay, I’m three hours behind, I must be in L.A.’ That’s when it kind of clicked, I was like, ‘What the h*ll? You got to compare your time on the clock with the time on the watch to figure out where you are in the world? It’s time to go.’
And then, I was getting older, and I wanted a family, and I wanted to live in one place and not travel as much. It was time to take it down a little bit…Plus, I didn’t want to just write about hip-hop anymore. That was the one bad thing about “The Source”; I love R & B music, and I couldn’t cover it the way I wanted to…I kind of wanted to expand my reach in what I could write about.
What do you love most about your career?
It’s so versatile. I don’t know what’s coming from one year to the next. Every year, there’s a different opportunity; there’s a different challenge, there’s a different project that I love. I love the fact that right now, in 2010, I don’t know what 2011 holds for me…I just love knowing the possibilities are endless as long as I keep hustling.
What’s most stressful about it?
Chasing down checks. As a freelancer, I am my own accountant, and I’m my own business person. I run Aliya King, Inc., and it’s very, very difficult to keep track of invoices, and [I'm] begging people to give me my d*mn money and all that. It’s very difficult. Very. I can’t overstate that.
What’s a typical day like for you?
Now it’s a little different because the majority of my day is spent marketing my novel, “Platinum.” That’s the first thing I do, look at my Platinum [Facebook] fan page and do some updates there. I go on Twitter, remind people that the book is coming out and interact with my Twitter friends and Facebook family. I’m ashamed to say I do all that from bed before I even brush my teeth or anything.
Then, I get up, shower, take the kids to school, do all the mom stuff for an hour or so. And then I start working on whatever writing I have to do…I’m juggling seven books right now, and they’re all in varying stages of development…I also work in social media, so I check in with my client; I work on that a couple of hours each day. My day is crazy.
I’m up at 6:30 A.M., and I’m not sleeping until 10:30 P.M., and 75 percent of that time is spent working. [I still freelance write so] on top of all that, I’m writing a story for “Upscale” right now. I’m writing a column for “Media Bistro” called “So what do you do?” So I’m still a freelance writer, I’m still juggling seven books, I’m still pushing my own novel, and I work in social media for a restaurant.
How do you balance everything?
I don’t. I’m a very bad balancer, and I’m not nearly as good a mom as I wish I could be. I don’t have a good life-work balance. I was sending out emails about 12 hours after I gave birth; it’s just ridiculous, and it’s not a lie. My daughter was right next to me in her little bassinet, not even a day old, and I had my laptop on my swollen tummy doing work! It’s crazy! I was on my honeymoon with my husband, and we were both working. That’s the kind of life I lead. I do [love it] and take long breaks where I don’t do anything. I will take two weeks off every other year or so…
What advice or tips would you give to someone who wants to do what you do?
Hustle. That’s the only word that comes to mind when I think about it…You have to be a stalker, and you have to be a hustler. You can’t take no for an answer, and you really have to know your market. If you want to freelance write, you have to really study the magazines you’re trying to write for…You have to know that magazine inside and out.
[Additionally], people need to lower their expectations of where their first stories are going to appear. What’s wrong with writing a story for your local newspaper? Why do you have to start off writing for “Vibe?” I wrote for free a lot in the beginning; my first clips are tiny, tiny 250-word stories in very small magazines. I did not start off writing for “Essence.” I didn’t write a cover story for “Vibe” until I had been writing for them for eight years, and I don’t know if people have the patience these days to really do that.
Also, one thing I didn’t have access to when I first started…is blogging. Whenever someone emails me [that they] need help, the first thing I do, if they have a blog, I click on [it]. And I’m surprised at how many people don’t update regularly. In this day and age, your blog, if you do it right and really treat it professionally, it can really function as clips even if it’s just stories you wrote for yourself.
Get a blog, think small, and study the magazines you want to write for, thoroughly.
Finish this sentence: This career is for you if ___
If you don’t care about being poor, you have a Type A Personality, you are passionate about writing and you can’t see yourself doing anything else.
I can’t wait to read her book and I am diggin her skirt, lol.
Peace, Love and Chocolate
Tiffany
[...] I recently featured Aliya on my blog, for colored gurls, as a Successful Sista. She has fabulous advice for all aspiring freelance writers. See what she has to say: Successful Sistas: Aliya S. King. [...]