320: How to Create Your Own Market

This episode is for you if: you&#8217;re starting, re-starting or sparking a freelance career with a focus on something you&#8217;re passionate about OR you&#8217;ve ever thought <em>the heck with this, I&#8217;m striking out on my own</em>. <br/><br/>Sometimes the best way to find a publication that reaches the readers you want is to start one. That might mean starting a Substack or a podcast&#8212;hello out there, <a target="_blank" href="https://virginiasolesmith.substack.com/">Burnt Toast</a>, one of the best examples I can think of of doing exactly that.* Or it might mean doing something both a little bigger and a little more old school.<br/><br/>When <a target="_blank" href="https://www.valeriekathawala.com/">Valerie Kathawala</a> decided to write about her passion, wine, she had to start from scratch&#8212;as in, she took a job at a local wine store. She stocked shelves, studied labels and wrote the in-house wine magazine, which led to bylines at other small publications and built up from there. For her it was wine, but I was so excited to talk about how to build up a freelance career now, as opposed to 20 years ago. (I think y&#8217;all know us well enough by now to know this is not an episode about wine.)<br/><br/>But Valerie wanted more. So she and a partner started <a target="_blank" href="https://trinkmag.com/">TRINK</a>, &#8220;the first and only&#160;English-language digital publication dedicated to the "German-speaking wines" of Austria, Germany, Italy,&#160;and Switzerland.&#8221; <br/><br/>They commission articles, pay writers and publish (digitally) in &#8220;volumes&#8221;. Are they making bank? Sadly, not yet, but they are self-supporting and growing fast. Volume 12 is coming soon. Whole story is in the podcast, and sorry-not-sorry if it inspires you to start something of your own. <br/><br/><strong>#AmReading</strong><br/><br/><strong>Valerie:</strong> <a target="_blank" href="https://bookshop.org/a/1183/9780375756580">After Nature</a>, W. G. Sebald<br/><br/><strong>KJ:</strong> <a target="_b