The freelance writer, by definition, is ‘a writer who sells services to different employers without a long-term contract’. It sounds like a great job and yes, it can be a lucrative vocation but it does sound ‘unstable’ and it can be that too; most freelancers barely survive paying the bills. On top of that, the hours are long and the days even longer. You have to love writing to become a freelancer so who, in their right mind, would want to be one? For some, it’s an accident.

“I didn’t start out as a freelance writer. I started out as a freelance photographer,” says freelancer Jerry Nelson, “while I was in the Navy, to supplement my income, I started ‘stringing’ for various newspapers wherever I was stationed.

“When I got divorced in 2005 after 31 years, I moved into freelancing full time. It was a good match; I walked across America and was able to turn a lot of those images into photo essays that enough of the right people saw, and they thought it was good.

“Around 2008, I was talking with a friend and complaining how everyone in America with a camera thought they were a photographer. Work was getting harder to find. He had read some of the articles I had written to accompany my photo essays and suggested I start writing. I did, and my work was 80 percent photography and 20 percent writing. Today that is reversed, and my activity is 20 percent photography and 80 percent writing.”

The first is the most memorable

I remember my first noteworthy article was a news feature in a local newspaper. It would have been the lead story but for some accident that had occurred, never-the-less, I was well pleased and I still remember it well.

For Jerry, he remembers that he was in the fifth grade and a classmate called Joey had started a penny paper. “My first article was a scandalous piece about how Rocky and Cathy had a crush on each other.” However, as a more professional memory, “for a season I lived in Asheville, North Carolina and a local paper, Mountain Express, ran a lot of my work which is still available to see on their website.”

It doesn’t matter how much you improve over the years, much like your first love, your first article is never surpassed. “Never surpassed but replicated many times.” Jerry adds, “I got hundreds of emails from followers each week, but my favourite ones are those that tell me the sender has lived vicariously through my work.”

Have keyboard, must be a writer

Today, every Tom, Dick and Harry, who can hold a pen or use a keyboard, thinks they’re a freelancer.

“It’s a lot more challenging now,” Jerry says, “everyone with a laptop thinks they’re a writer. That can be a good thing; it’s crystallised the notion of everyone having a voice and a platform. Getting work, for me, has been comparatively easy; I’m blessed to have a long list of contented clients. I have around a million or so followers on Twitter and I have to turn away work.”

And, as if trying to find clients wasn’t bad enough, the freelance marketplace has opened up to exploit the market; offering disgusting prices for quality work to anyone who thinks they can write. “They give the bottom-feeding predators a source of second-rate content,” Jerry says, echoing my sentiments. “Part of the culpability rests on the writers who whore themselves out for pennies and a byline. They don’t appreciate their work; if they did, they wouldn’t bid on such sites. They’d set aside the chance to work for a few pennies instead of working where they can actually earn a living.”

The fact that Copyscape and other plagiarism checkers are common terms used on freelance marketplace sites, proves that because these clients offer pathetic payments, writers are either spinning or copying and pasting existing content and passing it off as their own.

Lasting memories and memorable moments

Over the years, as an article writer, I’ve met people I would never have dreamed possible. As a music writer, I did some of my most memorable interviews with people such as Ice-T and Kristin Hersh (Throwing Muses) and groups like Radiohead and Metallica. I’ve covered some good stories and not-so-good stories, and as a freelancer, you will too. They will remain with you for years; leaving a lasting impression which influences you as a writer.

As Jerry lists some of his memorable moments it highlights the diversity and life experiences that create the all-round freelance writer; the writer that can take any situation and turn it into a readable article. “I’ve had many memorable moments,” he says, “I’ve spent six weeks in the desert with the Sinaloa Cartel and been in the Plaza when the Pope got installed. I’ve lived with miners in West Virginia who were dying from health complications and got caught in a buffalo stampede in Washington State as well as rafting the Colorado River. I’ve also met both George W. Bush and Barack Obama in The White House. It’s a long list, and I’ve been blessed to live many adventures.”

Jerry’s experience of touring the USA with a camera highlights that experience can outweigh qualifications when trying to break into the freelance market. “Experience brings a certain amount of freedom; but sometimes, the experience is part of being qualified.” Which is true, as a freelancer you should see the opportunity of turning any experience you have into a marketable article, you can’t do that sat at a desk. It’s no good saying you can write if you have nothing to write about. Jerry adds, “At the end of the day, I think most of my clients, and editors, would rather have someone that’s ‘been there, done that/ instead of just someone that went to school to learn.”

And Jerry had no formal training or qualifications, as he says, “just a lot of little things that piled up over time. A few years ago I was speaking to a group in Phoenix, and I was introduced as an ‘overnight success.’ I thought to myself, ‘That was the longest night of my life.’”

It’s not all doom and gloom

It seems that I paint a gloomy portrait of life as a freelancer, but it’s not that bad. There are more positives than negatives to the industry and I for one shouldn’t deter anyone. On the contrary, I’d be one of the first to totally endorse the career. I love it.

I would probably give the same advice as Jerry. “Follow your heart. Friends and family will tell you all of the reasons why you can’t make it. That doesn’t matter. Wade through the thousand reasons why you won’t be a success and hang on to the one thought that would give you a victory.

“Learn to sell yourself. You can be an extraordinary writer, but if no one ever sees your work, you won’t make a living. Never reach the point where you believe you know-it-all; stay curious and always ask, ‘Why?’”

I’ll leave the final words to Jerry. When I asked him to sum up his writing career his reply was. “I’d have to steal Hunter S. Thompson’s words:

‘Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming Wow! What a Ride!’”

Happy freelance writing!