When I started my freelance writing career a little over five years ago, the almost non-existent freelance industry in my country forced me to look for writing work online and in foreign publications. My biggest problem then, was not finding the time or sustaining an income, but getting editors to trust me with that first assignment. I needed to convince them to have confidence in my abilities despite the fact that I lived thousands of miles away from them. In India.

It’s tough enough getting an editor to give out an assignment when you’re sitting across the desk from her; trying to do it from a whole other continent seemed like professional suicide. But I was aware of my odds. And I knew that the only way I was going to get these high-paying assignments was to write query letters so irresistible that the editor saw immediately not only how good my ideas were, but how good I was. No editor was about to take a chance on someone with English as a second language, not to mention someone located all the way in India, unless she saw perfection. She couldn’t pick up the phone if this writer suddenly fell off the face of the planet or pulled a vanishing act two days before deadline. And who knows how many verifications she’d have to make about this writer’s sources.

A lot relied on the queries I wrote. So I wrote the very best.

These queries and submissions earned me entry into national and international editions of Time, Vogue, Glamour, Marie Claire, Elle, Ms., Self,  Parade.com, Women’s eNews, US Airways, The Women’s International Perspective, The Writer and Writer’s Digest.

I may never have met some of my editors in person or even talked to them over the phone, but they’ve come to know me. They can now trust the faceless writer sitting on the other side of the globe to get the job done and hand in work on time.

This trust is what you’ll need to build whether you’re in India or Timbuktu, and it’s this trust that will go a long way in determining whether your freelance writing career is  a brief stint with fame or a long-term relationship.

It’s been five years now since I received that first magazine byline with my name strewn across the top of the page in beautiful bold letters. At the time, I was a full-time college student with a limited knowledge base, no experience, no contacts, and a confidence level that had hit an all-time low. Yet, in that first year, I bagged over a hundred published clips. Why? I wrote fabulous query letters. In my second year, I worked at a full-time job for six months before I finally looked at my records and found that I was making more money from my part-time writing than I was at my job! I was able to quit easily (and happily) because I was assured of more assignments. Why? I wrote fabulous query letters. Today, I make a good living, don’t have to supplement my income with non-writing work, and can afford to take time off. Yep, those query letters again. (Some of my editors swear by them!)

Now I’m ready to share all that I’ve learned with you. In the coming days, weeks, and months, I’ll share with you what works for me, how some others are conducting their business, and techniques that have helped me write pitches that sell.

We’ll start tomorrow.