Don’t you love all the great advice you find on blogs and in articles? If you do all the reading and really absorb what’s being said, you’ll have a great blueprint for achieving a successful freelance writing business.
The steps go something like this:
- Study your market, including prospective clients
- Write a killer letter of introduction or phone script
- Reach out
- Repeat
- Follow up
Ah, but what if you’re one of those people whose teeth hurt from clenching at the thought of that initial client call? What if you’re so afraid to be rejected that you simply can’t reach out.
Been there, haven’t you? Haven’t we all?
My first queries stunk. Badly. It nearly crippled my writing business. In fact, for a while, I got nothing.
Then one of my queries hit pay dirt. And after a lot of stops and starts, I finally found my sweet spot.
I remember the angst of that first phone call. I prepared for days, nearly choked and canceled the whole thing, and was close to getting physically sick over the thought of failing.
So yes, freelance writer. Your feelings are normal.
I didn’t fail. Guess what? Neither will you.
But there’s that angst, isn’t there? There’s that terror in the pit of your gut telling you everything will fall apart the minute you open your mouth, the minute you send out a query, the minute you stick your neck out.
So how do you get over that?
Here’s my favorite way:
Send out multiple queries at a time.
What? I’m terrified of sticking my neck out and you’re telling me to send out more queries?
Yes. The more you saturate the market with your queries, the less emotionally tied you are to them.
Think of it this way — you have one kid. You fuss over that kid, follow her around, try to teach her everything she needs to know in order to survive in the big, bad world. You’re going to protect her. You’re going to be her shadow so that if she falls, she’ll never touch the ground.
Fast forward: you now have four kids. And you realize that kids survive without your best intentions (or often in spite of them). You don’t have time or energy to worry about them falling. The lesson becomes then pick yourself up and keep moving.
Those queries are your “kids” in a way. They came from you and you have an emotional attachment to your ideas. Plus, you don’t want them to fail.
Ah, but if you have 10 of them out at any one time, you don’t feel that pained when one or more of them come back rejected. You don’t have time. You’re busy trying to corral all the other ideas and queries.
And you’ve done your homework, so those queries are now the best you’ve put out there. You’d done it this way:
- You’ve studied the market
- You’ve written killer queries/letters of introduction based on what you’ve learned
- You’ve sent them
- You’ve repeated
- You’ve followed up
Sound familiar? Hmm. Seems the very things you’re afraid of are the very things you need to get over your fear. How’s that for a revelation?
Let’s go through them one by one:
Study the market
Read the magazines. Look at the trade shows. Familiarize yourself with the topics these people are talking about. Blogs, press releases, and general industry news can clue you in to the pain points, the industry focus, and the things your potential clients will be concerned with.
Write a killer query/letter of introduction
You’re going to stick with what appeals to them — how you can benefit them. Not how wonderful you are or how much experience you have (that matters, but it shouldn’t be the focus). Show them you’ve done your homework. “I saw on your blog that you’ve recently taken on these topics/projects…” is a great lead-in to explaining how you can benefit them in these things.
Send/repeat/follow up.
Hit Send. Go on. Give it your best “what the hell” moment and take that first chance. Then keep going. Don’t wait for that email to get a response. It may never (sorry, but it’s true). Out of sight, out of mind. Send the next one. Then each day or week, repeat the process. Keep reading within your industry so that you know when something hot is about to erupt. Also, follow up. Repeatedly. Give that contact at least two more chances to reach out, then ask if it’s okay to continue doing so if you’ve heard nothing.
Writers, how did you get out of your shell?
What was the hardest part for you?
What advice do you have for other writers who are afraid of failing?
7 responses to “The Introvert’s Guide to Building a Freelance Writing Business”
Lori, thanks. What about how to get work without getting too much work? I remain one of those writers who prefers working in fine brushstrokes vs. many pages. I know some writers specialize in things like case studies, but I also know a lot of clients need a lot of pages. Maybe specializing is the only way to convey you don’t want THAT much work….Thanks for any thoughts!
Gina, sorry. I was sick yesterday and away from the computer.
Your answer is in the scheduling. How much work do you want to take on right now? That’s the question you ask yourself each time a project comes in. Then make an appointment to get to it in two weeks, three weeks, etc. There’s nothing that says you must take the work the moment it comes in, right?
I’ve been where you are. Too much at once isn’t good. Push back on the deadlines. “I’d love to take it on, but it may have to wait a week or two. Will this fit within your timeline?”
Most deadlines are arbitrary and can be moved. Not all, but I’ve been able to postpone things to when I’m able to give it all of my concentration.
Lori, that helps. Thanks. I think I’ve been fixated on the issue of deadlines without realizing it. I need to think longer term calendar-wise. I tend to feel like I have to get everything done now. Maybe I secretly want to go on vacation. Haha. You just helped me rethink how I can take control of the process. Thank you…but I will still bet you and many other writers can turn out more work in less time than I can. I can overthink one sentence while dollars go out the window. Haha.
the same approach applies with LOIs, Lori. Throughout January, I’ve been flooding the market. I’ve seen upticks in people visiting my website, so I know I’ve piqued some interest. Friday I had two editors reply. One wanted to schedule a call, the other let me know what she needed and asked if I’d like to speak with her, too. Of course I said yes to both.
The scheduled call went really well yesterday. We chatted like old friends who happen to both be writers with mutual interests. While their pay rates aren’t that great per project, they are simple, straightforward, short blurb-like items that don’t take much time, so hopefully the quantity will result in a nice additional revenue stream. I told them I can only commit 10 hours per week (occasionally less if I wind up with multiple deadlines at the same time). I also let her know that I couldn’t do interviews at the rates they pay, since it wouldn’t even pay for the time spent on the call and transcribing (or the cost of hiring out the transcribing), and she said those rates were negotiable. She also said that if she has any money left in her budget at the end of the month she pays more. Fingers crossed it will work out.
I’m hoping to schedule a call with the other editor soon, too! That doesn’t sound like it would have on-going work, but perhaps semi-regular assignments.
Still waiting for replies to a couple other queries and LOIs I sent last week….and I can tell someone was viewing my website this morning. Fingers crossed!
Semi-regular sounds pretty good, too! I have a few of those clients who come around every three months or so. That’s when they have a need. I love it because I can pretty much time it so that I don’t have a lull.
Fingers crossed indeed! Let us know how it goes.
Just picked up my first quick assignment from the new client. If I can knock it out in an hour on the first try, I should be able to turn a profit once their system becomes second nature. (The writing is simple, but imputing it into their customized platform will take a little time to figure out.)
While I haven’t yet set a call with the other potential client, I accidentally found another one during a Twitter chat yesterday. I was only on Twitter at that time because of the chat and happened to see he was looking for entertainment-slanted writers to write content for a website. I shot him a quick email and he said my “pedigree” was exactly what he was looking for. And when I asked about story lengths and pay rates I was pleasantly surprised that he wants magazine style articles and pays magazine-style rates…not $1/word, but better than most websites offer, and he said he pays more for stories that involve more legwork. He clearly must have started out as a writer. I told him I’ll study the site over the next few days and try to get some ideas to him next week. Fingers crossed on this one.
Wow! That’s fantastic, Paula! Right place, right time. Don’t you love when that happens?