A website for freelance writers or those who need to hire one.
In 45 seconds Neil Gaiman explains how to succeed in your freelance life. What he says sounds easy, but those freelancers who fail usually fail of one of these three areas. Time to look in the mirror and ask yourself if your are following his three rules.
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In no particular order here are 12 strategies that can lead to more money in your pocket from more clients.
1. Don’t fight your client on process, but push back on product. It is counter-productive to fight your client on their process. If they want to micro-manage every word, or if they are so hands off that you are spending a lot of extra effort tracking down information, remember it is their dime. And it is all billable time. Do …
The late great Harlan Ellison rants in the best way about getting paid for your writing work.
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Freelance writers often despair about ever finding enough paying clients. What they have in common wis a disheartened and disheartening plea for advice on how to fix their sagging freelance careers.They were all bright people. They are usually all more than competent at the services they are offering. Since they had been successful in the past, all had been down the marketing road before and knew the rules. Yet somehow, as their businesses were in a bit of a down …
I originally wrote this article during the 2008 economic crash. Fast forward to the uncertainty of the political and economic climate in 2019 and the same concerns apply.
If the U.S. economy tanks, I mean really tanks big time, how will that affect the lot of freelance writers? No matter where they live.
In the normal ebb and flow of economies this is what usually happens. In bad times the first thing corporations do is downsize – that wonderful euphemism …
Throughout your freelance career, from time to time, you will be asked to work for free. Trust me on this. You will. Before you consider any such requests, you have to set up some ground rules for yourself. This is my take on the subject.
First, if you undervalue your work, you are telling the world that it has little worth. And if you give it away, you are giving it zero value. In the first instance, you will attract …
Having been in the freelance writing game for over 20 years, I have made just about every business mistake in the book. And those mistakes have cost me clients and money. If you are a one-person company providing writing services to clients – either online or in person – here are three big time mistakes that you want to avoid.
The first is not picking up the damn phone when it rings. I know this goes against the advice of …
As I watched President Obama’s moving eulogy at the funeral of Senator Clementa Pinckney in Charleston in late June – and his equally remarkable speech in Selma some months earlier – I once again began thinking about the challenges of finding the “voice” of our speakers when we don’t share their age, gender, race, or culture.
Can a 25-year-old write for a 60-year-old senior executive? Would a female scientist making a speech on the challenges of women in the sciences …
One of the more dispiriting aspects of being a freelancer is waiting for our marketing efforts to pay off in the form of paid work. But there is a secret to not going off the deep end if no one seems to be returning your phone calls, answering your emails, or responding to your blog.
The rule is this. Simply don’t be attached to the outcome of your marketing efforts.
Now you probably have heard this one before, but perhaps …
When I talk to my students about putting together their portfolios, I talk of course about including an appropriate functional (rather than chronological) resume, testimonials, business cards, and work samples. All assembled in a spiffy looking folder of some sort. I regret to say that almost as important as the quality of the words you cobble together – is how good they look as a package. It sounds absurd I know. But as in most things in life – first …