Finding Freelance Work
By far the question I hear most often both online and off is “Where do I find work as a freelance writer?” I seldom answer this question, because so many people are under the false impression that “anyone can sling two words together, it’s easy”. These misguided people think that just because you speak English you can be a professional writer. While I wouldn’t want to dash anyone’s secret dreams, I’m here to tell you that simply is not the case.
Writing for a living is real work. It takes time, practice and the ability to deliver exactly what a client wants. This means not only delivering a well written piece grammatically, but also in the tone, style and voice the client requests, on the topic given to you by the client, with the necessary research done and cited, in a time frame that is anywhere from quick to reasonable. The first time many new freelancers sit down to write, they discover they did not budget in enough money for the research, or that they aren’t capable of writing in the style or voice the client has requested. Perhaps they didn’t mark out enough time to write the piece, causing delays. Maybe the new writer didn’t pay attention to the spec sheet and deliverables and has no way to deliver the documents in the file format requested by the client. They deliver a slow job, or a poor job, and that ends their career – word of mouth flies faster than the speed of light these days. Unhappy clients talk much more than happy ones.
Let’s assume for a moment that you are not a new writer or editor, but simply wish to take something you do already, writing, to a more professional level. Perhaps your goal is to one day work from home, or to supplement your income with a few extra writing gigs. Before you can start logging on to writing bid sites willy-nilly, you need to price your work. I’ve talked about pricing, contracts and rate sheets in other posts, but haven’t gone into the details yet. I’ll save that for another entry. For now just know that you don’t ever want to become a bargain writer or write for experience, and you never want to do a job without a contract signed up front.
I will also tell you that you should price yourself out per page or per project, never per word or per hour. The average per page rate for a new and unproven writer is $5 a page without prior work recommendations and $10 per page if you can provide samples and references. That takes into account research time and one edit per page at client request. As you gain experience and happy clients, you can increase your rates about once a year. The average industry standard length of a page is 350 – 400 words, assuming 12 pt, Times New Roman font, 1″ Margins.
Navigating the bidding sites and finding work can be a challenge. You have two issues that come into play immediately: learning to tell when an ad for writing work is fraudulent, and competing against writing mills in other countries that bid pennies on the dollar. At the moment the country with the most writing mills is India. What ends up happening when you bid against a writing mill is that a potential client will choose the cheapest option – the writing mill. They will receive substandard product in return, because the writing mills do not speak native English and do not understand what they want. They will then contact you, the second choice bidder, and try to talk you into “fixing” the work for a reduced price. Never do that! I can not stress enough that undervaluing your work is the worst decision. Better to stick to your rate sheet and lose a few crappy jobs, building a network of solid clients you can trust that pay your rate, than to take any labor intensive fix-it job that comes along for cut rate prices.
The best way to get work in the writing industry is word of mouth. Find a few clients locally that you can do work for, or write for your local paper, for example. If the clients are happy, have them write a testimonial you can place on your web page. Your web page should have your rate sheet, some samples with copyright stated clearly as yours (never use Creative Commons), and a description of the type of writing you do. Specialization helps you stand out. I write quite a bit of technology pieces and psychology pieces now. When I first started out I specialized in how-to ebooks geared toward Internet marketers. Whatever your specialty, state it clearly on your web site.
If you have no way to start locally, then you will have to comb the Internet for work. Want ads like Craig’s List have plenty of writing jobs, but don’t check for fraud. That puts the burden of vigilance on you, the writer. The bidding sites I will detail in another post do a better job of checking for fraud, but bad buyers still slip through. Not only do you have to watch out for scams and deadbeat buyers, you also have to watch for students who want to use your skill to write their thesis and other odd ducks. You will get burned at least once in your quest for the golden quill, it’s inevitable. Recognizing fraud is a learned skill, after all. Having a contract and demanding every client sign it is one way to keep those kind of life lessons to a minimum. Having a clear, unchanging rate sheet is another.
I also recommend taking advantage of the business laws in your state. Register a business name, even if it is your own name. Then go to the IRS and file for a free Employer Identification Number to use in place of your social security number. All of my clients pay me as B G W E*, using my EIN on the W-9. That helps immensely at tax time, especially with write offs. Yes, I said write offs. If you can make a success of your career, you will find you can write off a variety of things, from office space to gas, that you use to conduct your business. I’m continually surprised at the number of self employed people I meet who don’t take any write offs each year.
Once you have made your list of things to do before you start checking bidding sites, come back to this blog. Tomorrow’s post will be a comprehensive list of places to look for work online.
*It stands for “Business Graphics, Writing and Editing”, but I didn’t want to spell it out on every document and check, so I just registered the initials.
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