Interview #211: How Andrew Zaleski Makes Money Writing

Andrew Zaleski is a freelance writer who has built a career writing about the world’s most obsessive characters. From sand mafias and penis transplant recipients to the man hunting for lost apples, Andrew finds the stories that others miss. He writes for outlets like Washingtonian, Vanity Fair, and Bloomberg Businessweek, generating an annual income that consistently pushes into the six figures.

In this interview Andrew breaks down his “most money to least money” pitching strategy and explains why he refuses to work for less than $1 per word. He also shares his “Golden Retriever” technique for interviewing scientists and admits that despite his success he never hits a deadline. If you want to know how to turn a specific curiosity about interesting characters into a sustainable business model, this one is for you.

• What you do: Freelance writer.

• Years writing professionally: 15.

• Earnings range: $90,000–$125,000.

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Well, the contributing writer title at Washingtonian is more a vanity title. There’s no monthly income or stipend. Having said that, I can reasonably rely on Washingtonian assigning or greenlighting anywhere from two to four stories a year. Virtually everything else is something I pitch to a magazine. There are some exceptions: Popular Mechanics, once you’ve worked with them for a while, tends to assign stories. But for the most part, I look for story ideas, write the pitches, and then send them off to editors.

I don’t know if there’s anything that necessarily stands out as a story that’s well suited for me. I tend to think about stuff in a different way: Is it an actual story, with a narrative, characters, conflict, tension, some sort of resolution, some sort of thing that is happening beyond just being able to say, “This exists.” If it’s a profile, is this a person whose own tale goes beyond the simple fact that they’re here on this earth? Then I think about which magazines might go for that story.

Here’s an example: Years ago I wrote a profile of America’s winningest pro lumberjack for Men’s Health. (You ever see the Stihl Timbersports stuff on TV? That’s what we’re talking about.) I pitched that thing to four other magazines before Men’s Health bit on it. Another example is the feature about TGL that I wrote for Vanity Fair last year. But, ya know, I’m not a sports reporter. I just try to come up with a story idea that I think could sell, and then assemble a list of publications that I think might be interested in that story, generally in descending order from most money to least money.

There are exceptions here, too. I like sending my best ideas to editors with whom I’ve worked previously. I’ve been very lucky to have worked with a bunch of talented, thoughtful editors. Of course, sometimes there are stories that I try sending somewhere else first if it’s a publication that I haven’t written for yet.