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In the Trenches with Kelly James-Enger
by Loren Pritchett
 Contrary to popular belief, you don't need a journalism degree to launch a successful freelance career. Just ask Kelly James-Enger of BecomeBodyWise.com. After working for five years as an attorney in a private practice, James-Enger left the legal field to pursue a full-time writing career. She had no formal media training, but she didn't need any. Instead, she used her research abilities, financial-planning skills, and life experiences to get her Chicago-based business off the ground.
"I had never taken any journalism classes. I have a rhetoric background," she said. "So I read Writer's Market and a lot of magazines, and I analyzed a lot of articles. I looked for the kind of ledes writers used, how many people were quoted, experts, and tones."
She also persevered. After sending several dozen unsuccessful query letters to publications, James-Enger tried a new approach and sent an entire article to an editor she found listed in the masthead of Cosmopolitan. The unconventional pitch worked and James-Enger sold her first article, "Surviving the Last Two Weeks on Your Job," to the magazine. "I used my personal experience of leaving my own job for the story," she explained.
Encouraged by the sale of articles to Cosmopolitan and Bride's, James-Enger saved enough money to support herself for six months, quit her job and began writing full time in January 1997. Even with a plan and the financial stability to live as a self-employed writer, she found herself facing the same challenges that most beginners face. "I had problems with time management and getting my foot in the door with editors," she recalled.
She overcame obstacles by setting daily goals for gaining exposure and building relationships with editors at various publications. She sent out one query letter a day and resubmitted new ideas to editors who rejected her initial pitches. "Within 24 hours, I was resending queries out to editors," she said. "It helped me stay on track."
Assuming that she'd have a disadvantage competing for assignments against writers with more media experience, James-Enger applied what she knew as an attorney to her writing business. She was able to transfer her writing, research and interviewing skills and fine-tune her time management skills. "As an attorney, I had dozens of open cases at any time, so I learned to manage my time," she said. "As a writer, I had to prioritize tasks and not spend more time than necessary on them."
She also capitalized on her working habits and suggests adjusting daily schedules accordingly. "You need to know when your best writing time is," she said. "If you are a morning person you should be writing--not doing interviews or research--during that prime writing time."
James-Enger stays on top of assignments by planning her day each morning and keeping a date book and to-do lists. "Know what your priorities are," she said. "It's all about knowing yourself and being organized."
Initially, James-Enger covered a wide range of topics but decided, after a year, to focus on stories related to health, nutrition and fitness. She supplemented her knowledge of the areas by reading studies, breakthroughs and press releases. "Ninety-five percent of my work falls under this topic," she said. "Every magazine cover has something about health and nutrition and that provided me with a lot of opportunities." Her work has appeared in Complete Woman, Fit, Family Circle and Shape.
Eighteen months after the start up, James-Enger's writing business took off. She began pitching more successfully, editors started to offer her more assignments, and she brought in more money. By 2003, she was earning a six-figure salary.
She credits her success to the decision to specialize: She could handle more assignments while doing less legwork. "I just found it saved me a lot of time. You can reinvent the wheel over and over again with stories like how to lose weight. Since I have the knowledge and background, it makes things easier."
James-Enger also advises aspiring writers to pull from their own experiences. "Pitch ideas that you have a personal connection to, ones which you are uniquely qualified to write," she said. "Look at your own background and what unique knowledge you have, and look for markets that you can maintain a long-term relationship with."
 She wrote about the legal side to planning a wedding while she dealt with her own nuptials. She successfully pitched a story about unexplained causes of fatigue when her sister was diagnosed with sleep apnea and drew from her marriage for a piece offering ten reasons to date a shy guy.
She said that after a writer gets one assignment from an editor, it becomes ten times easier to work for that publication again--as long as you remain professional. "Do what you say you're going to do. Be reliable. I've never missed a deadline," she said. "All my clients come back to me. I pitch them over and over and have worked with them for more than five years."
Bonnie L. Krueger, editor-in-chief for Complete Woman, appreciates James-Enger's work ethic. "[She] has broadened her scope over the years," Krueger said. "She delivers a well-researched feature on any subject I assign her. She is professional and thorough."
Over the past few years, James-Enger has tapped new markets to keep up with the shifting media landscape. "I've changed my business quite a bit," she said. "I am doing fewer magazines and more books now. It is more time efficient for me to pick markets I'm interested in and really work on those."
For James-Enger this includes writer's guides and fitness and nutrition books, such as Ready, Aim, Specialize!, Six-Figure Freelancing, and Small Changes, Big Results. She currently resides in a western suburb of Chicago where she is a public speaker on heath and nutrition, a licensed personal trainer, and has a 4-year-old son.
 James-Enger sets daily profit goals for herself to boost productivity and foster consistent revenue streams. With half of her income coming from books, James-Enger earns 30 percent of her income from magazines articles, 10 percent from public speaking and 10 percent from selling reprints. She enjoys a comfortable salary but the flexibility of freelancing is her favorite job benefit.
"I like being my own boss, in charge of my own success and failure. The freedom I have in freelancing means I can sit and work today, tomorrow and have every weekend off if I want. I can focus on being a mom, which is my first and most important job, and I can work in my pajamas. You can't do that as an attorney!"
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