How to be a Freelance Writer: Introduction
Freelance writing is where you write for publication but you aren’t employed by any specific publication or organisation. Rather, you’re self-employed and you contract your services to one or more client.
I decided to put together a guide to becoming a freelancer because I’m constantly disturbed by the myths surrounding writing as an occupation. The first myth is that writing isn’t work, it’s a hobby much akin to scrapbooking or something. The confusing thing is that writing can be a hobby, but it is also a profession which is renumerated. We can get into how well renumerated, but some writers do actually boast six figure salaries in currencies in which a salary in the six figures is rather a lot (for example, see The International Freelancer). Another myth is that writers — particularly those starting out — should be so passionate about writing that they must be grateful for any opportunity that comes along, even if it’s unpaid or paid poorly.
These sorts of myths are really damaging. It took me until age 22 to realise that a person could actually become a full-time writer without joining a newsroom (which, as you know, are fast becoming leaner and rarer operations in the current media landscape). I had been writing for as long as I knew what a story was, yet, as I was growing up and forming my career ambitions, the message that it’s nigh on impossible to be a writer was pretty clear.
And then, when I earnestly began trying to get into freelance writing, I got the message, “you have to pay your dues, you have to write for free for a while”. This is not the case at all, and I think that sometimes writers who are further along in their careers perpetuate this myth to validate their own career trajectories. This is not to say that nobody should write for free ever though — I’ll discuss the potential value and pitfalls of writing for free over this multi-part resource.
The myths are concerning to me because they’re particularly off-putting for people who — for whatever reason(s) — don’t have the resources to realise that writing is a career possibility, or who are not in a financial situation where they can put in years of writing/interning for free. One of the more gratifying things that we’ve been slowly seeing in the media is the proliferation of diverse voices. We need the public discourse to be shaped by people who can offer all sorts of insights. I hope that this resource encourages more people with important perspectives to share those perspectives.
Despite the fact that writing is a real job that pays actual human money, I wouldn’t say that being a writer is a practical career choice. It’s not immediately lucrative (six figure salaries are possible but certainly not the norm), pay rates actually tend to decrease over time, and you have to deal with rejection on a near-daily basis, but it’s definitely possible to work on fascinating assignments and be paid for it. Most of us don’t develop an interest in writing for the money. We do it because we’re curious, we want to work with important ideas, and we have strong feelings about the serial comma. For those people, freelance writing can be a satisfying career choice (although, like any career choice, there are also frustrations and difficulties, some of which I’ll address in this resource).
Here, I’m talking about freelance writing in an editorial context — writing non-advertising content for newspapers, magazines, and online publications. There are lots of kinds of writers though! There are copywriters, technical writers, content marketing writers, social media coordinators, ghostwriters and ghostbloggers, and many more. If you just like to write and aren’t particularly attached to editorial writing, you should check out these (often better paying) alternatives. Additionally, even if you are mostly interested in editorial writing, picking up other kinds of writing work can bolster your income (through you do have to watch out for conflict of interest — e.g. don’t write an op-ed about how great breakfast is if you’re also writing advertising copy for a cereal company).
Although this resource should be relevant to people looking to become freelance writers from around the world, my experience is in writing for Australian, UK, and US markets. Other markets may have different conventions. Additionally, there are many possible ways to approach freelance writing — as a full-time career, a regular side gig, or a sporadic activity. This guide is geared to people in all those categories, although for me freelance writing has always been a side-gig. It’s a very serious side-gig, which has at some points looked a lot like full-time work, but I don’t know what it’s like to have to solely rely on writing money for living expenses.
Remember that your mileage may vary. My goal isn’t to tell you what to do, but to put all the info I know into an accessible place and to encourage you to keep going with your writing, because it does get difficult — especially in the beginning — and I’d like you to keep at it.
As for me, I’ve been a freelance writer since 2012. I’m not sure if I want to be a freelancer forever, but it’s great for now because I can fit it around my studies (I’m a PhD student in nonfiction writing too). I began really slowly, a few op-eds here and there, dealing with a lot of frustration/rejection before getting a few regular writing gigs. As well as op-eds, I’ve written feature articles, personal essays, and reviews. Right now, I sporadically write op-eds and profiles of social enterprises for regular clients while finishing up my PhD work. Over time, I’ve been slowly figuring out how to get paid more while writing fewer pieces. It’s definitely a work in progress with huge fluctuations in how prolific I am based on other work/life commitments I have going. I’ll be drawing on my own experiences throughout the guide.
The guide is divided into five parts. I recommend reading in order because it’s laid out fairly logically and different sections are cross-referenced and so on, but you do you.
PART TWO: Putting yourself out there
PART FOUR: Tracking what you’ve done and imagining the future
Consider this a living document. If you have any questions that weren’t addressed in the guide, let me know. Also, if you have any related advice or links, I welcome you to include them in comments.
