Notes from a Hired Pen: How Did this Get Made? From Linkedin to story in Princeton Alumni Weekly

Readers!

I know most of my “How did this get made?” features are about stories I pitched to big legacy publications that are on the bucket list of a lot of freelancer writers. However, that’s not how I make most of my income. In 2023, 25 percent of my earnings came from colleges and universities.

I’m not the biggest user of LinkedIn for direct marketing. I tend to post stories there and see where my contacts go, in case they are looking for a writer. But I don’t do as much pitching or contacting saying “HEY LET ME WRITE FOR YOU” there as some other writers. Which is fine! Different things work for different people.

Princeton Alumni Weekly is an exception, though it took a long time to get there. This also shows how reaching out and following up can really pay off. So much of being a successful freelancer, at least for me, isn’t about sending big swing pitches all the time, but this kind of persistent marketing. Here’s how it went.

The Story: “Caroline Nelson ’14 Is a Rancher with an Unconventional Model” for Princeton Alumni Weekly, March 2024

The Back Story: In 2017, one of my Linkedin connections posted about looking for writers (I can’t remember the original post – it was a while ago!) I messaged her on the platform, giving a short run down of my qualifications. Then in 2021 — yes four years later! — she got back to me saying she was always looking for writers. In April 2021, I sent her an email with my qualifications, then followed up in July and again in October. She finally replied in October saying she wasn’t looking for writers anymore, but CCed the editor of Princeton Alumni Weekly so she knew about me. I replied to that email with “If you’re looking for someone let me know! In June 2022, she did, and I’ve been writing for them regularly ever since. Last fall, I also went to Princeton to meet my editor there, was introduced to the editor of their online Tiger of the Week feature, and now write for her too. Win win!

The Pitch: None! All of my assignments for Princeton Alumni Weekly are sent to me.

The Timeline: The story on Caroline Nelson was assigned in January 4, 2024. I turned it in on January 22, and I was paid on February 5.

Recent Bylines

“HIV drug resistance surveillance and guidelines in low- and middle-income countries” for Clinical Laboratory News

“Understanding the impact of the FDAs new rules on LDTs” for Clinical Laboratory News

“American diets have a long way to go to achieve health equity” for Tufts Now

“What CIOs can learn from the first 30 days of an AI co-pilot” for CIO Dive

“The ultimate team players: Why one company makes room for Olympic rowers” for HR Dive

“Emerging remote sampling tech for greater health equity” for Clinical Laboratory News

“Why the Supreme Court’s ruling on Bostock was just the beginning for LGBTQ+ rights” for HR Dive

“Celebrating 20 years of SYCL” for Clinical Laboratory News

What I’m Reading

Majoring in Murder (Murder, She Wrote, #19) by Jessica Fletcher and Donald Bain. I still can’t believe that I didn’t know these books existed until recently. Now that I do, I see them everywhere. I found this in a Little Free Library. In this book, Jessica is guest teaching at a college in Indiana when someone is murder while everyone is sheltering because of a tornado. Was it silly? Of course. Is that why I picked it for beach reading? You got it!
Frank: The Voice by James Kaplan. OK. So I thought 23 hours was long for an audio book, but I was willing to give it a go since Sinatra looms large in the life of any Italian American in New Jersey. However, I was half way through when I realized this was just PART ONE. And part two is 41 hours! Sheesh. I will be listening to it, of course, but I needed a bit of a break from ol’ Blue Eyes.
You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian. Queer historical romance set in the world of professional baseball? Yes please! Our heros here are a young player who suddenly can’t hit the ball, and the reporter set out to cover him. I loved it, as I have all of Sebastian’s books.
Blood Trail (Joe Pickett, #8) by C.J. Box. Back on the trail with our favorite Wyoming game warden, who by this time is working directly for Montana’s governor, but still a game warden somehow (I don’t think about it too hard). I guessed the killer in this one, which I usually don’t in Box’s books.
The Guncle Abroad (The Guncle, #2) by Steven Rowley. This is a follow up to one of my favorite books of 2021, with said Guncle (gay uncle) being Patrick, a single gay man who in the first book is mourning the deaths of both his partner and best friend. This book is a five year jump forward, when his best friend’s widow is getting married again, and his kids are not happy about it. It’s a fun romp through Europe, but it didn’t have the same punch or even whimsy as the first book. Not a bad read, but as many sequels are, a bit in the shadow of the first.
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann. So now I’ve both watched the movie and read the book, which have completely different narrative structures. In the movie, you know at the start who is killing members of the Osage tribe. In the book, you don’t. Both work, and I recommend both.
There There by Tommy Orange. A deeply unsettling book about the lives of Native Americans connected to Oakland, all surrounding a pow wow. It’s unsettling on purpose, so it’s not a knock, but when I finished this one late at night, I let my dog sleep in the bed with me.

What I’m Watching

Dancing for the Devil. I don’t have Tik Tok and can’t say I’ll want it after watching this documentary, about a cult that sucked in dancers via the platform. It’s more about the cult and social media in general though It’s a whole bunch of yikes.
Ripley. Ooooh I liked it. This eight-part series is a different kind of take on the book The Talented Mr. Ripley than what the movie did, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. It’s quite a choice to shoot a place as beautiful as Italy in black and white, but it fit the overall tone of the series. My only note is that as fantastic as Andrew Scott is, he’s maybe a shade too old for the part. Still, I can see why they went ahead with him anyway.
Bridgerton (season 3). I’m really sick of explaining romance to people who don’t understand the genre, or who go into it with knives sharpened, so I won’t again here. I liked it. I don’t mind the changes from the book, or the twists. It’s fun! I watched most of it on the treadmill, and it was perfect to keep me engaged there. Also? She’s right.