If you love (or at least seriously enjoy) writing, and you’re seeking a means of supplementing or increasing your income, freelance writing can be the ideal choice. But please notice that I used two qualifiers here – two “if’s”. The first is “if you love writing.” Don’t attempt to launch a career as a freelance writer unless you do, indeed, seriously love to write. This is a career that will rest entirely upon you – so if it doesn’t involve doing something you enjoy, it will soon become a burden and a source of frustration. Also, if you love to write, you will enjoy improving your writing skills and developing yourself as a better writer over time. If you don’t, the impetus to keep improving (and hence keep striving for better and higher-paying markets) won’t be there.
Second, I said, “if you’re seeking a means of supplementing or increasing your income.” Today, freelance writing is NOT the best choice if you actually “need a job” – i.e., you don’t have a source of income at all. Pay rates in this field have not risen significantly in decades; you can look at a market listing for a publication from twenty years ago, and chances are quite good that it pays the same today as it did then. This is not an industry in which one can become successful and affluent quickly; it requires quite a lot of slow slogging to get to one’s destination. This is why the vast majority of freelance writers have another source of family income and use freelancing as a second or side business, or a business to engage in when one must stay at home for other reasons, such as being a parent.
Now on to the questions…
How did your background develop your writing career?
My background in terms of writing WAS basically that I always loved to write and wanted to write. I expected to “become a writer” since high school. I had a stroke of good luck while I was working as a secretary – a writing job opened up in the computer division, and I got it. It was monumentally boring (and probably the reason I decided I never wanted to be a “tech writer” after that), but it did give me some qualifications to put on a resume. Several years later I got a job as a magazine editor, which was the best possible education a freelance writer could get, because it meant learning what EDITORS need and require from writers. From that point on, when I began freelancing, I did so knowing exactly what the person receiving my query or submission would be looking for.
What are some of your biggest achievements in the writing industry?
I would point to my books as being “big achievements” – except that my books (including Starting Your Career as a Freelance Writer; The Writer’s Guide to Queries, Pitches and Proposals; and Writing.com) really all came about as extensions of my website, Writing-World.com. In 1996 or 1997 I began working for the website “Inkspot,” which was then the largest, most popular community for writers on the web. I then began working on my own site—and when Inkspot folded (for complicated reasons), I was in the position to inherit its audience. Writing-World.com has become one of the largest “go-to” sites for writers on the web, and currently attracts over 1.5 million visitors every year. After writing dozens of articles for both Inkspot and Writing-World.com, I eventually managed to turn these into the three books for Allworth.
What are the skills freelance writers need?
Having a love of writing is, again, essential. There are a lot of frustrations involved in freelancing, so if you don’t love what you’re doing, you’re not going to be able to keep going. Having a basic knowledge of writing skills is also important. (Plenty of folks love to write but don’t know how to use a comma to save their lives.) Keep in mind that an editor is far more interested in your mechanics than your passion. You may love to write – but an editor wants clean copy that he or she doesn’t have to spend a lot of time correcting.
However, writing passion and writing skills are not, in themselves, enough. What a freelancer must remember, first and foremost, is that freelancing is a BUSINESS. Yes, it involves creativity, but it is not simply a creative endeavor. You may be an artist, but you are also a business person. If you overlook the business side of things, you will never succeed.
This means learning skills such as market research, query letters, submission etiquette, and so on. It also means keeping track of the basic business issues of income and expenses, taxes, and keeping records. If you’re serious about making money on this business, you need to be aware at all times of what is working and what isn’t. You need to be aware of what market pursuits are bringing you revenue and what pursuits are coming up empty.
It’s vital to keep track of submissions, response times, payments and so forth. Don’t imagine you can just throw all your receipts and papers into a box and look at them (reluctantly) at tax time. (Of course, these days, the box is obsolete; most of our transactions are going to be electronic.) To run a business, you must be involved in RUNNING that business, knowing from month to month how you are doing, what’s working, and what isn’t. Never allow yourself to think, “Oh, I’m an ARTISTE, I can’t be bothered with these mundane trivialities of spreadsheets and receipts.” If you do that, you may be an artist, but you’re not a freelancer, and you will not succeed as a business.
What are some of the steps to becoming a freelance writer?
Here I’m going to wimp out just a bit and point out that this is, basically, the entire thrust of my book – it walks you through those steps in detail. It takes you from point A – “I’ve never sold an article in my life” to whatever point you want to end up at.
That being said, I tend to feel that the first step is identifying just exactly what you want to do as a freelancer. Determine what your primary goal or objective is – which might also be a question of your greatest need. For example, if you are driven by a serious need to supplement your income, you may want to look at technical and business writing, where it’s often easier to establish a steady stream of revenue. If you are more interested in the creative side of freelancing – writing for print and online publications – it may take a bit longer to get a significant amount of revenue flowing, but you may find the process more enjoyable.
Identify your interests. What do you WANT to write about? You don’t necessarily have to write about what you know, although this is a good place to start because it makes the research side of things quite a bit easier. But figure out what you would find interesting and rewarding to write about. Is there an area where you would like to provide information that will help others? Is there an area that you want to explore? Is there an area that you already know a great deal about and are just burning to share your knowledge? For example, when I started out, I was passionate about pets and pet care, and that’s where I focused my initial freelancing efforts.
From there, you’re going to need to learn how to locate and research markets, craft queries, draft submissions, and so on – and that’s all too complex to attempt to explain in this interview!
How can people launch a freelance writing career on the side of their main full-time job?
The key to launching a freelance writing career while you’re already working full-time is TIME MANAGEMENT. This is not an easy thing to do, and I suspect that today it’s even more difficult, given the non-stop busy-ness of our schedules and lives in general, than it was when I was starting out. Yet for many, it’s the only way to get started. Freelance writing is a career that can take a long time to get off the ground; very few people have the luxury to quit work and start writing, because the money generally doesn’t start coming in for several months.
So the only way to do this is to commit, seriously, to carving out a portion of your time that is dedicated to your freelancing career. This can’t be just a matter of “when I feel like it.” You’re going to have to decide on an amount of time to dedicate to freelancing every week, and figure out where that time is coming from.
I recommend getting some type of day-planner or scheduler that enables you to track exactly where your time is currently going. A lot of us get caught up in the whirl of the day, running nonstop from morning to night, without really realizing just where that time is going. I was talking to a freelancer the other day who was complaining about how “crazy busy” she was. But as we talked I also learned about all the time she was spending keeping her “door open” for friends who needed to drop by and talk (sometimes for hours) about their problems; about her book club; about her girls’ nights out; and a host of other activities that were certainly a large part of the reason why she felt she “never had any time.” (She is also a single mom with two very active kids!)
You need to know where your time is going. So start by keeping track of absolutely everything you do, every day, in a minimum of half-hour increments. (BTW, you can download a free tracker at Writing-World.com that is designed specifically for writers.) Keep track of time spent at work, time spent commuting, time spent at meals, time spent with family and kids, time spent watching TV, and these days, heaven knows, time spent on Facebook and Twitter and so on.
Once you know where the time goes now, you can start working on ways to redirect it. Do you spend two hours a day on Facebook? (I know people who would consider that a “small” amount of time on social media.) Do you WANT to spend two hours a day writing? OK, you don’t want to give up Facebook, but you can cut that to one hour, and then look for another hour somewhere else. Do you spend an hour commuting each way? Could you join a carpool, and use some of that time when you’re not driving to review a market guide?
One thing to be aware of as a writer is that this is also a career that requires some blocks of relatively uninterrupted time. It’s very difficult to write a 2000-word article in 10-minute increments. So as you reach the point where you are ready to sit down and write, you’re going to need to find ways to create larger time blocks for the writing process. Some of the other tasks can be done in shorter increments, but the writing itself, for most people, requires longer periods of time. And that’s the biggest challenge both for the writer who has a day-job and the writer who is at home with the kids.
Do you have any further tips for entrepreneurs?
The final key to making a success as a freelance writer is to remember that you are a professional. Start thinking of yourself as a professional from the moment you decide to launch your career. Don’t think in terms of “becoming” a professional. Think of yourself as being one NOW. Make sure your family understands that you are RUNNING A BUSINESS, not just dabbling in a hobby that might or might not make some money down the road. (Many writers have supportive families; many do not.) Part of this is to help you, yourself, embrace the fact that you are launching a real business and not just “playing at something you like.” And part of it is to remind yourself that in all your dealings with the writing marketplace, you should be behaving like a professional regardless of your actual sales records. Editors are impressed by professionals. If your “presentation” comes across as professional, an editor is going to assume that’s what you are, and be more interested in dealing with you – even, again, if you haven’t sold a single piece. (In other words, never tell an editor you’ve never sold anything before!) Act like a pro, and you will soon BE a pro. Go for it!
