I call this post A Tale of Two Writers.
A friend of mine knows of a writer who, on the surface, should have made a serious killing the last two years.
The writer in question –let’s call her Writer #1 — has a background in healthcare, senior care, aging, wellness, and medicine, among other things. Unless you’ve been in a serious coma for two years, you realize that the pandemic handed writers like this one a golden ticket to instant earnings. Everyone who was putting fingers to keyboards was making money writing, in some way or another, about the pandemic. I mean everyone — I was writing about it for insurance companies, magazines, and nearly every client. So, this writer mentioned above — she should be raking in the money, right?
Alas, she was not.
[bctt tweet=”If you cannot make a living #freelance #writing when the perfect market is handed to you, the problem isn’t the market.” username=”LoriWidmer”]
Writer #1 stayed in her lane. A very, very narrow lane.
Writer #1 didn’t seek out assignments in her own specialty beyond the usual clients. She didn’t stretch her own knowledge beyond her current clips and portfolio. She stuck with the familiar, which wasn’t what clients or magazines wanted.
I know this without knowing Writer #1. You know this, too. You know this because you’re a professional, and you know how to look for work. You know when to time your opportunities (and when to create them), and you understand that gifts like this writer was handed are to be acted upon.
You also understand that if you’re struggling to make ends meet when your ideal working conditions are all around you, you’re not trying hard enough.
I don’t know if there are circumstances that have held this writer back. I contend that even in the worst of situations, you can pretty much still earn a decent wage.
Case in point: I know a writer (Writer #2) who lost two siblings and dealt with her own cancer diagnosis almost simultaneously. Amid it all, she still worked. She looked under every rock and reached out to former clients. She also had some serious “When the hell is this going to turn around for me?” questions. But as she told me recently:
She didn’t ask that question passively.
Writer #2 also didn’t:
- Focus on reaching out to one client all year, hoping he’d need her help eventually because he had done in the past
- Whine and whinge about losing 20% of her income when an ongoing client project disappeared
- Accept garbage assignments that decreased her earnings even more
Instead, she marketed like hell and replaced the lost clients and income. And exceeded that income.
So which writer are you?
Writers, be like Writer #2. You can do this. You can push outside your comfort zone, outside your lane. Hell, you can even drive on the other side if it suits you.
What you can’t do is blame the market. Instead, blame the marketing — more specifically, your lack of enough of it. Besides, blaming anything other than your own efforts is a bit lazy.
The possibilities are quite literally endless for the writer willing to reach beyond the familiar. Even in a tough-assed market (maybe especially), you can earn a damn good living at freelancing.
Writers, how do you handle the loss of a client or circumstances that get in the way of your work life?
2 responses to “How to Lose –and Win– at Freelancing”
I would like to know more about types of writing assignments of the writers in the examples. I wonder how many of the writers are web writers. Or is this more about corporate writing, like white papers or marketing materials? I realize there are many types of writing, and that principles apply across the board. But, still, it would help me better visualize. I hope that makes sense. Thanks!
Gina, you are 100% correct about the principles applying across the board.
Writer #1 does both web and corporate writing. Writer #2 does both, though her web content is mostly ghostwritten for companies. (See my post from January 19th on why that’s a better idea.) Both writers handle articles, and I know Writer #2 does handle annual reports.
I’m a “web writer” as it were. I ghostwrite articles for clients. I don’t earn less, but more as a result of changing who the buyer is. Perhaps Writer #1 is paid well by the pubs she writes for. I can’t say. I can say that the corporate work she’s doing does indicate that she’s able to write for large clients successfully. So there seems to be a disconnect somewhere between her efforts and her results. She’s proven she can write. Marketing seems to be the missing link.