Submit a Spec Assignment – Your Life Is Now
By Michele Peterson

“Your life is NOW!”

What do these four words mean to you? To me, they’re a reminder to take decisive action to make success happen TODAY instead of waiting for tomorrow.

Michele Peterson, here, and I’m taking over the reins of The Writer’s Life this week to help you take action and start living the writer’s life you want … right now!

I’m going to share some of my most powerful Bootcamp takeaways and action steps. Stick with me for the entire week, and you’ll stop dreaming about achieving success sometime in the future — and start succeeding now. Ready?

Your Life Is NOW! Action Step #1: Submit a Spec

The first action step I want you to take is to submit a spec — a sample piece written for a specific potential client.

Here’s why:

1. Worst-case scenario: You don’t land the assignment, BUT you get a new writing sample for your portfolio. Your portfolio shows a potential client what you can do. And, when you can “shock and awe” a prospect with strong samples, you’re that much closer to converting him or her into a paying client.
2. Best-case scenario: You land the assignment and start a relationship with a new client!

Either way, you win!

If you attended Bootcamp, you have a long list of potential clients who were at Job Fair and are actively looking for specs. Go through them. Pick one. Write the spec and submit it!

If you didn’t attend Bootcamp, you still have access to what may be the most valuable spec opportunity you’ll ever come across: AWAI’s $10K Challenge.

Of course, a spec doesn’t have to be anything official at all …

Make Your Own Opportunity

Have you ever received a piece of direct mail and thought, “I can write something better — something more persuasive — than this”?

Have you ever landed on a web sales page and thought, “I can write something more compelling — something that converts better — than this”?

We all have! Next time you have one of these thoughts, see it for the opportunity it is and act on it. Contact the company. Ask to speak to the person who makes the marketing decisions, and then ask if they’re open to working with a freelancer.

Pitch them your specific ideas for how you could make their promotion better and generate more response and more conversions.

If it has the potential to make them more money, don’t you think a smart marketer might be willing to test something new? Sure they would!

The Secret …

The secret to winning a spec assignment is to actually submit the spec!

So, give yourself a deadline, stick to it, and submit that winning sample.

Please use the Comments section to tell me about your experience with specs. You just might inspire one of your fellow writers.

Because your life is NOW … Write On!