What I look for when I'm commissioning a freelance writer
Notes from twenty years on the other side of the brief.
I've spent most of my career commissioning writers. Magazines, community publications, brand journals, contributed editorial. The bylines change, the rates change, the platforms change. The things that make a freelance writer worth coming back to have not changed at all.
This isn't a how-to for writers, exactly. It's more an attempt to write down what I look for, because I've noticed that the writers who get more work from me — and from the editors I know — are doing the same six or seven things, and most of those things are not about the writing itself.
Filing on time
If I had to pick one thing, it would be this. A 700-word piece filed three days early is worth more to me than an 1,100-word piece filed four days late. The early-filed piece gives me time to edit thoughtfully, ask follow-up questions, organise photography. The late piece compromises everything downstream of it.
The writers I commission again file on time, or — if something genuinely goes wrong — they tell me by lunch time on the day it goes wrong, not by close of business. The communication is part of the work.
Filing to brief
The second-most important thing. If the brief says 800 words, the filing should be between 750 and 850, not 1,300. If the brief says first-person, the filing should be in first-person. If I asked for three case studies, I do not want two case studies plus an introduction explaining why the third one didn't work out.
Editors who give detailed briefs are usually doing so because they have a clear plan for the issue or the publication. When a piece arrives outside the brief, the editor either has to rework the issue around the piece (rare) or rework the piece to fit the issue (common, and frustrating, and often results in a worse piece than if the original brief had been honoured).
Picking up the phone
For any piece longer than 600 words, I want the writer to have spoken to a human being. Not emailed three quotes from a comms team and stitched them together. Spoken to someone, with follow-up questions, in real time.
This sounds obvious, but the proportion of submitted features that have clearly not had a phone call in them has risen dramatically in the last five years. AI-generated content is part of it. Comms-team-mediated content is more of it. Both are easy to spot, and both are why genuinely reported pieces — pieces with the texture of a real conversation in them — are worth substantially more per word.
Knowing what to leave out
The single skill that separates working writers from aspiring ones. A working writer can cut their own draft by 30% and improve it. An aspiring writer can't, because every sentence feels load-bearing.
The shorter version of any piece is almost always better. Editors notice writers who deliver this on the first draft, and quietly prefer them.
Getting names and titles right
If you misspell a source's name or get their job title wrong, the magazine has to correct it, which costs the editor time and possibly the relationship with the source. After it happens twice with the same writer, they are no longer the same writer.
This is the easiest thing on the list to get right. It is astonishing how often it goes wrong.
Sending the invoice with the file
A small thing, but a meaningful one. Invoices that arrive with the filed piece get paid faster, because they go into the same email chain as the work. Invoices that arrive three weeks later, separately, sit in an accounts inbox and lose their context.
Some publications have payment systems that make this hard. Most don't. The writers I work with regularly send the invoice the same day they file.
Being interested
The hardest one to write down, but the one that matters most. Writers who are genuinely interested in the thing they're covering produce better pieces than writers who are not — even when the topic is dry, even when the brief is small, even when the pay isn't great. The interest shows in the writing. It also shows in the questions they ask before the writing starts.
You can fake competence. You can't fake interest. Editors can tell.
Why this matters for businesses too
You will hire freelancers. If you commission anyone — copywriters, designers, photographers, consultants — most of the seven things above apply to your evaluation of them. Timeliness, accuracy, communication, scope discipline. The technical skill matters, but the technical skill is usually evenly distributed at the senior end of any field. The professional skill is not.
If you're a writer reading this looking for more commissions: do the seven things consistently for a year and your inbox will look different. If you're a business reading this looking for the right kind of communications partner: these are the things to ask for, and the things to expect.
Wattle & Word is a Lennox Head communications studio led by a writer and editor with over 20 years' experience commissioning and editing freelance work. We work with publications who need contributed writing or editorial support — and with businesses who want the same standards applied to their content. If that's of interest, get in touch.