What I’m listening to: Right in Time by Lucinda Williams
I don’t know how it’s been for you, but March came roaring in like a lion for me. I dug out from under seven of the nine projects piled on my desk, and I’m happy to say organization, once again, saved my hide. Plus the scheduling I did with my days kept me on track and gave me the time needed to keep the quality levels up.
I talked with a new client yesterday and that project will kick in on Thursday. Another new client’s project will start Friday or Monday, so I may have an inch of breathing room for the next few days. Then again, there are revisions afoot…
It’s like that with our jobs, isn’t it? Freelance writers can pretty much guarantee that whenever we are our busiest, things are about to become busier.
That got me thinking about the other freelance writing facts we either get right away or learn as we go, sometimes the hard way. Here are some facts about this gig of ours:
Unless you charge like you’re serious, you won’t earn what you need. This is the toughest lesson freelance writers need to learn. It’s an easy change to make, but not psychologically. Too many people starting a career in writing think charging affordably is the way to go. However, that only leads to what’s become another truth in this business:
Charging lower rates nets you low-hanging fruit. You’ll attract people who aren’t serious about paying for quality. They’ll expect quality, and the nitpicking will be ridiculous (writers, isn’t it so?). You’ll have positioned yourself as someone who’s “cheap” and you’ll have an impossible time clawing your way to a better rate. It sure won’t happen with this crowd.
Working without a written agreement is a bad idea. Once you get a few projects under your belt, you’ll have less need of the formalized agreement — email confirmation will do. But for those first few projects, get it in writing. Some clients will push boundaries — change what they’re willing to pay mid-project, go silent once the work is completed (and leave your invoice unpaid), push more work into that same project fee, you name it. Protect yourself.
Signing a contract without reading it is a seriously bad idea. How else will you know if they intend to round down payment, require expensive insurance, or transfer all the liability to you? And yes, all three were on contracts I’ve had in front of me. Read every word. Every word. I was burned a long time ago because of the word “minimum” in front of the word count. They’d paid for 500 words. They printed 2,000 without extra compensation.
Chasing the money takes your focus off the real goal. Your goal? It should be to please your client and turn out quality work. If you do that, the money follows.
There’s nothing permanent about freelance writing. Your clients today may not be here tomorrow. If you think you’re set because you have five regular clients, you’re going to be in trouble when three of them disappear in the same month. Nothing is a sure thing. Ever.
Market always. Even amid all the work I was doing, I marketed. It was “marketing lite” but I was still out there, getting in front of clients, chatting people up. In this job, we can’t wait for work to come to us.
What works for you works for you. I know successful writers who don’t use social media, don’t have a website, love getting on the phone, hate getting on the phone…. no one can tell you what’s best for your freelance writing business. You have to find that out for yourself.
Saying no won’t kill you. You want that project, but you have no time. So why not say no? Offer an alternative deadline and see what happens. Or maybe that client isn’t going to pay you what you want to earn. Writers, you do not have to take every job that’s offered, and the more you freelance, the easier it is to be discerning.
Emotion has no place in a freelance writing business. Flipping out on your clients or getting into a debate with them wins you nothing. You lose much more in terms of reputation than you ever stand to gain. The same goes for inflammatory language in your communications. Keep the focus on the facts.
It’s far too easy to call oneself an expert. I’ve seen this sin committed repeatedly — people with little experience or too forceful a marketing approach shouting from soapboxes, self-labeling as experts, charging for what’s readily available (and free) on a simple Internet search. If you intend to learn from other writers and/or pay for the privilege, vet your choices carefully. There’s too much misinformation, and paying the wrong person could actually impede your business.
Writers, what facts have you uncovered as your career has progressed?
5 responses to “The Freelance Writer’s Fact Book”
This post is packed full of more good advice than you can find reading entire "expert" blogs out there!! A lot of these were very hard lessons for me to learn, and some I'm still learning!! Sometimes I have to learn something over and over again for it to really stick 😉
You're right about pricing being a difficult change to make psychologically. It's all too easy to think "I wouldn't pay that much for this, so why would anyone else??" But you're not your target audience.
I also love "What works for you works for you" ~ Yes!! All those posts out these saying you MUST do this or that really rub me the wrong way. Everyone's different, and every business is different.
Saying no is still tough for me. I just recently renegotiated a few deadlines for the first time! And it's still tough for me to tell new prospects that I'm booked and can't possibly work with them until next month. I'm always tempted to squeeze them in even when I'm already crazy busy, because I don't want to scare them away.
Awesome advice as always, Lori 🙂
Like KeriLynn, the FACT that resonated with me was the What works for you works for you. I am in a different spot than a lot of writers. We all are. I don't want the same things as many writers who are earlier in their working life. So how can someone insist there is only one way to work and it's his or her way?
Using another's ruler of success will often find you short. Make your own ruler. 😉
Funny how I read this while waiting for a new-to-me client to call back. When he wanted to chat last week, I said I was extremely busy (seven active assignments), so I'd need to schedule a 15-minute call. We set it for today at noon. I called. He asked if he could call back from another line in 4 or 5 minutes. Eight minutes later he called. When he thanked me for my patience, I reminded him I was on a tight deadline and gave him 10 minutes. I even set a timer. He spoke very quickly.
I decided to take a trio of short assignments from him since he offers a bonus for turning them in quickly, and if any require more than one interview, he'll pay extra. We'll see how it goes.
Keri, you've actually highlighted another interesting fact — if you're getting advice from someone, make sure the advice resonates and is accurate. Lately there's been quite a lot of self-labeling of people wanting to frame themselves as experts. While I believe everyone has something to teach the rest of us, I just don't see the quality all the time.
A simple vetting process — do an Internet search on the topic of the post. Do that for a week. If the advice shows up in droves elsewhere, there's a good chance the "expert" is either repeating what's hitting the tops of the search engines (trying to drive traffic) or is "borrowing" ideas (and do look for whether the borrowing is often and too similar to other sources).
Ideas cannot be copyrighted (and there really are no new ideas to speak of). However, there's a level of trust someone is building with a following. If there's money being exchanged based on what followers think is original material, that, in my opinion, is deceptive.
Cathy, exactly. I could preach to you all day about how to run your business, but I don't really know your business or your clients. Maybe your clients love being called instead of emailed. Maybe they hate the kind of marketing approach I think you should be shoving down their throats. Maybe you hate the phone as much as your clients do. There are way too many variables for every writing business to be the same. While we do share similar elements, we have our own ways of being successful.
Paula, it's so funny how little time is wasted when you express up front how little of it you have to spare! Also, I think you just increased the urgency with the client. He now knows you're not someone who's waiting for work. He's got to schedule it!
[…] 12 Proven Productivity Hacks to Help You Win Every Day 15 Best Productivity Apps for Your Mac The 5-Minute Move That Wins Over Clients Myths vs Realities of a Writer’s Life The Freelance Writer’s Fact Book […]