Going Freelance? 16 Things All Creators Need To Know.
I’ve made all the mistakes. So you don’t have to.
I’ve been a freelance writer for (gulp!) more than 30 years now. I’ve made all the mistakes — so you don’t have to.
Here are a few things I wish I’d known from the start of my career as a creator.
1. You can’t appeal to everyone
Not everyone will love the work you make. And that’s OK. They’re just not your people.
Try to make something that will please everyone, and you’ll end up being a bland, vanilla version of yourself that pleases no one. You won’t even like your work. And that really is depressing.
You’ll start by copying the greats in your field. Learning from them. But aim to develop your own voice, your own idiosyncrasies, your own niche.
Make it something you love. Find a niche that’s comfortable and interesting. Then go out and find like-minded souls, people who will love what you do.
Kevin Kelly wrote a famous and often-quoted essay explaining that in the age of the internet, you only need 1000 true fans to be successful. It’s worth reading. Only a thousand people to please, world-wide. That leaves you a lot of space to really own a niche, to be authentically…
