Benefits

Mentoring
We will deliberately keep the FBTW small and manageable. One of the benefits is that we will be able to pair up more experienced members with less experienced ones.

Writing Groups
Except in large metropolitan areas, it can be hard to find a suitable writers' group when you're a freelance business and technology writer. We typically make more than other writers, don't share the same frustrations, and target different audiences. Through FBTW, business and technology writers can interact with their peers, offer support to one another, and share resources and strategies.

Markets Database
When you go freelance as a business and technology writer, you soon find out that finding markets is difficult and time consuming. Writer's Market focuses mostly on consumer and general-interest publications, with only a few business and technology listings.

In today's economy, a writer needs to contact a wide range of editors who might be looking for business or technology articles. These include editors of trade publications, regional magazines and newspapers, newsletters, websites, and wire services.

Our markets database currently contains 556 entries and is expanding steadily (we hired a guy to maintain old listings and add new ones).

This information is available as a text file, Excel document, or a Filemaker database.

Writer's Toolbox
A writer needs to have certain things in one place to function efficiently -- interview files, assignment information, a rolodex, and an invoicing system. If all those pieces interact, so much the better.

Our toolbox puts everything you need on one screen. Pull up an assignment record, and there's a list of the people you've interviewed for the story, previous drafts of your article, and the invoice status. Click on the editor's name and her Rolodex entry pops up -- as well as a list of the articles you've previously filed to her, and her oustanding invoices. Click on an interview, and your typed notes from the interview come up, ready to cut-and-paste into the final draft. A phone icon next to each name instantly looks up phone numbers and dials them for you (if your modem is plugged into your phone line).

The toolbox has been field tested by working journalists and the user interface has been refined for over three years. The intuitive design makes it possible to simply sit down and work, without having to worry about all the bookkeeping aspects of the business.