How to Become a Paid Food Writer in 3 Months (Even with no Experience)
So, you’ve chosen the life or the pursuit of a professional food writer. That’s great! One of the things I learned quite quickly in my freelance food writing career was that, as long as you have good ideas and are confident in your writing ability, there really is nothing stopping you pitching those ideas to food editors and ultimately getting paid decently for them.
Let’s go through a few basic steps to help you get that far then, shall we?
Month 1: Carve a niche
In this line of work, generalists don’t tend to fare too well. Consider your prior experience and/or specific food-based interests: Figuring out what your food niche is will not only help you start to become an expert in a particular area, and therefore something paying editors will make a beeline to you for, but will help you understand which publications you want to target (especially important later down the line).
Take time to find your niche, which could be almost anything – East Asian restaurants, for example, sustainable agriculture, or cookbook reviews.
Devour food media, whether blogs, magazines, newsletters or podcasts. All in the interest of understanding what writing in your chosen niche is out there – and what isn’t.
Month 2: Generate, develop, and pitch your ideas
While the goal here is to become a paid food writer, you can only do so with good ideas. Ultimately, editors are looking for competent and enthusiastic writers, but what they need most is those who can come to them with an original idea well-targeted to their readership.
Keep a notebook or other note-taking medium to gather any observations or ideas relevant to the publications you’ve been reading since month 1.
Seek information on how to pitch an idea to one of those publications (such as pitch guidelines, editors’ contact details, and how much they usually pay new food writers).
Then, from your list of ideas and observations, put together and send a killer pitch that specifically targets a publication you’ve been reading. Which should, at the very least, outline the story you want to write and why it’s important.
Month 3: Rinse and repeat
Even the most famous professional food writers have had to put up with innumerable rejections throughout their career. It is, in a sense, a rite of passage. And one that will help you become better at pitching those ideas you so dearly want to land.
You will get no-replies and rejections to your story ideas. It’s inevitable. The most important thing is to continue with the cycle of finding food publications and coming up with hyper-targeted ideas to pitch to them.
Be sure to follow up. A large proportion of good pitches get missed by editors the first time of asking. A polite nudge, in the form of a one-line email, is enough to bump it back to the top of their inbox.
Recycle your pitches. Get a rejection? Don’t let your hard work go to waste – stash your idea for another publication. It might even end up being better-suited anyway.
While that will set you off on the right course, there is a lot more to it than simply that – developing into a professional food writer includes things like connecting with other food writers, getting to know thought-leaders in the industry, personal taxes, and invoicing.
For more detail on these steps, and 1-to-1 guidance from a pro food journalist, consider enrolling on my course that guarantees to get you a paid and published as a food writer:
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