So You've Broken Into Games Journalism... What Next, Ask Jess Reyes | Winter Spectacular 2023
Hi, it’s Jess! You might remember me from the last time I wrote on startmenu about how to recognize and avoid industry abuse. That was after I’d spent about a year of freelance writing. Now, I’ve been doing it for about three years.
In that time, I’ve been laid off twice, which has forced me to evaluate what transferable skills I really have as a games journalist. I still don’t have a permalancing or full-time gig, but I—’ve explored different sources of income, written for a variety of new clients, and expanded beyond the skill set I had at my old position. However, I wouldn’t have been able to do that without building my career the way I did.
By that, I mean that I’ve written all sorts of articles, even ones not directly related to gaming. If you’re new to writing about video games, you might not realize how fast you’ll hit the ceiling once your work starts getting accepted by the likes of Polygon, Kotaku, and IGN. That’s why many games journalists end up branching out into other sections like:
Commerce
Hardware/Tech
Consulting
Copywriting
I’m not an expert on all four, but I can tell you how I dipped my toe into each category and why you should absolutely consider branching into them.
(it’s for the money).
Commerce
Commerce writing isn’t glamorous, but it’s versatile and reliable. It’s essentially any writing that sells a product, and it doesn’t even need to be one you’ve used before. You can find commerce at just about any big gaming pub like Eurogamer, GameSpot, and NintendoLife. These posts are typically about deals on games and gaming accessories, though they could expand into other categories your particular site covers. Once you figure out how to write commerce for one beat, you can do it for another.
I first got into commerce through startmenu friend, Kris Henges. They asked the startmenu Discord if anyone would be interested in potential commerce work, and I quickly DM’d them with my 3+ year old only partly-related samples from old clients. (These samples came from an unpaid internship where they made us write blogs and lists about clients’ products.)
Kris said the gig wasn’t guaranteed, but that they’d get back to me if the editor liked my work. I’m so grateful that he did (thanks, James Pickard). Since then, I’ve been writing commerce articles for places like Polygon and GameSpot. I’ve even returned to VG247, my first client, for seasonal work around Prime Day, Black Friday/Cyber Monday, and Christmas.
If you want to branch into commerce, I’d suggest poking editors before commerce holidays like Black Friday to see if they need additional help. You can also start pitching commerce-ish articles to your evergreen editors like “Best Indies On Sale For Steam Next Fest” and stuff like that.
Hardware/Tech
Hardware is more about machines and accessories than actual games. Hardware writers might review new controllers and computers, but they won’t necessarily review the new Assassin’s Creed unless they double as a games writer. One of the downsides to working with hardware is that you kind of can’t unless you have the product, which gets expensive if you pay out of pocket. Many hardware writers get review units from PR.
I expanded into hardware writing through my commerce work. I extensively research any tech I want to buy before I commit to a product, but I hadn’t officially written about tech anywhere until I started writing buyer’s guides. Then, PR reps started sending me invites to events and offering samples.
Tech, very closely related to hardware, could also potentially expand into lifestyle writing. I once pitched an article about thermal blankets to an editor friend of mine, who works for a tech-focused publication. (I didn’t actually get to do that, though, because G/O Media laid off a ton of staff around the same time and the budget became uncertain.)
If you want to start from somewhere else, you can just straight-up pitch hardware-related articles to gaming editors, so long as they have an important angle that could be interesting to readers.
Consulting
Consulting can be anything from a phone call for advice to a multi-step process with mock reviews. To be a consultant, you need expertise that’s worth selling. I’ve been asked to be a consultant for anime-centric games and RPGs. Other writers openly advertise themselves as consultants for diversity, accessibility, and other areas where companies may have a blind spot.
I didn’t choose consulting, consulting chose me. That’s not always the case, though. Just a couple of months ago, I replied to a Twitter thread asking for games journalists interested in consulting work. I didn’t get an email from that guy, but I did get one from someone else!
I also learned that people who offer consulting gigs do a lot of legwork before they even reach out to you. I’ve heard from a couple of people that the agency I worked for talked to them about me before I even got the email invite. If one of those people said something negative about me, then I probably wouldn’t have gotten that gig. Some freelancers think you can hop from client to client and leave your past behind, but that’s not always the case.
If you want to get into consulting, I’d suggest marketing yourself as an expert in your favourite genre or something you really care about in games (queer representation, for example) and putting your name down whenever someone asks for potential mock reviewers or consultants. Even if that person doesn’t hire you, maybe someone will see that thread.
Copywriting
Copywriting encompasses many different types of content, but most of them boil down to branding or information. My first exposure to copywriting was at my unpaid content creation agency internship, but that was just editing website copy. Copywriting expands way beyond that.
My latest copywriting assignment was writing copy for product pages at TechRadar, where I needed to write short descriptions, frequently asked questions about online shopping, tips for how to save money, and how to apply promo codes for each product page. (I also got that thanks to an old commerce connection.) I also went through an extensive interview for a copywriting position for the Pittsburgh Knights at one point. For that position, I would’ve been in charge of writing the press releases for the website and product descriptions for the store.
In my experience, not a lot of gaming folk will tweet about random copywriting gigs or reach out to you about them. However, you can apply to copywriting job postings. I interviewed for the Copywriter position at the Knights when I’d literally just started freelancing, so you probably have the transferable experience to apply to those gigs right now. It’s just about highlighting your transferable skills and the knowledge you have about the target audience.
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Games media careers aren’t linear. Right now, I’m doing plenty of news, guides, and commerce work, but not much in the way of features or reporting. I also write the occasional food article for Paste Magazine, which I only started pitching to because my friend Charlie Wacholz recommended it to me as a place to start for food journalism. It’d be nice if I got hired soon, but hey. We can’t have it all.
If you TL;DR’d this article, at least get this: Branch out and make connections. You might not know how it’ll help you in the end, but it’s better than being holed into a niche.
