Two Interviews with Nancy Hendrickson

Interview by Jenna Glatzer, AbsoluteWrite.com

Nancy Hendrickson is a fulltime freelancer, living in San Diego. She is the co-author of two print books for amateur astronomers, and the author of the ebook Family Tree Guide to Internet Genealogy. Her most current book, Secrets of a Successful Freelancer, is available from this link.

What's a "niche" writer?

A niche writer is one who specializes in writing for one or more markets. Although the majority of writers work in many markets, a niche writer has build a name in a specific market.

For example, I frequently write for one genealogy magazine. Recently I did a Spotlight piece for Writer's Digest on the genealogy market. The editors I interviewed recognized my name, even though they hadn't worked with me before. Once you write a lot in a particular field, most of the editors in that field know your name.

You say that you originally fought against specializing, but later embraced the idea. Why?

I'm interested in just about everything, so to me specializing meant missing out--even though I saw the benefits. However, it finally dawned on me that I could specialize in more than one field. So, I picked the areas I like the most, and set out to build a name for myself in each of them. Today, I write almost exclusively about genealogy, history, computers and collecting.

Let's say I have a passion for pets, but I'm certainly no expert on the topic. Can I reasonably expect to become a pet writer? How?

Absolutely. You know, most editors don't expect writers to be experts, but they do expect writers to know how to find and interview experts. In fact, many new writers are surprised at how easy it is to find experts--and how willing they are to be interviewed.

But back to your pet example. Let's say you want to specialize in writing about horses. One of the things you can do is join horse-related mailing lists. When you need expert advice, post a request to the list. People are generally very helpful. If they can't help you, they often will refer you to someone who can. You can also use those lists to collect those great anecdotes that we all like to include in our articles.

As long as you can locate and interview experts in a field (and this is easy to do), you can reasonably expect to succeed in as a specialist in that field. My book covers how to best use mailing lists, and the other sources for finding experts.

Read the remainder of this interview here .

Interview with Nancy Hendrickson
in T-Zero Expandine
The newsletter of Writer's Village University .

T-Zero: Have you always been a writer? Do you have any particular background or creative writing courses that you draw from?

NH: Even before I went to kindergarten, I remember running around with little pieces of paper I'd scribbled on. So yes, I think I've always been a writer. When I was in high school and college, I loved researching and writing term papers, which is probably why I enjoy writing non-fiction articles today.

Although I didn't take many creative writing courses in college, my degree is in English--which means I did a tremendous amount of reading. For me, being a writer means being a reader. Reading good writing--whether fiction or non-fiction--always inspires me to improve my own work.

As you know, many non-fiction writers dream about writing fiction and I'm no exception. I've taken several fiction courses through Writer's Village, and find they also help my article writing as well. My favorites are the series on Mythic Structure.

T-Zero: Tell us exactly what a Niche Market is.

NH: A niche market is a specialized market. As a non-fiction writer, I'm interested in a wide variety of subjects, which makes me a generalist. However, I learned long ago that editors are more comfortable working with you if they feel you are highly skilled and informed in their particular niche.

It occurred to me that although I am a generalist, I can specialize in several different niches. I picked the areas I know the most about, and went about presenting myself as a specialist in those areas. For example, I wanted to write about genealogy, so I started a genealogy newsletter and built a genealogy-related Web site. Both positioned me as an expert, and helped in getting some of my first genealogy assignments.

T-Zero: You've developed several of your own niches; genealogy, collecting and computers. Did this develop from a special interest you had in each or did the interest develop once you found the market?

NH: Those particular niches were based on my own personal likes. However, I learned to develop my own "niche within a niche" in each of those fields. For instance, although I've been interested in genealogy since childhood, I positioned myself as an expert on Internet genealogy. Because I've been online since 1986 (my first subscription with CompuServe), it was easy to call myself an online expert.

I've had computers for years, but it wasn't until I bought a Handspring Visor--they're like Palm Pilots--that I really got interested in writing about computers. My first articles were on using Palms for various hobbies. I sold pieces on Palms for astronomy, Palms for health and Palms for genealogy. Once I had my foot in that particular door, it was fairly easy to get other computer-related assignments.

I'm a great believer in writing about things you really enjoy. Why go after assignments that you're going to hate writing?

Read the remainder of this interview here