Fab Freelance Writing Blog

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Freelance writing is a numbers game. The more queries and proposals you send out, the more commissions you will get.

Here’s the thing: if no one knows who you are and what you do, no one will hire you.

I’ve been preaching to writers for years about the NUMBERS (write more, sell more), and the value of what I call mini-proposals - letters and emails of 200 words or less, designed to introduce you and what you do. They work.

Letters of Introduction - A Profitable Alternatives to Queries By John K. Borchardt reports: “Letters of introduction can be a powerful tool to increase freelancing income. Sometimes letters of introduction (LOIs) are an effective alternative to conventional query letters. One LOI, which I wrote last April to a custom publisher, resulted in four assignments for a total of $11,000.”

Editors are busy - you have to reach them when they have a need

All editors are busy. If you could see what an editor has to do in the course of a day, you’d no longer wonder why you get no response to your messages and queries.

Since editors are so hard-working, you need to stay in touch. Each long-term relationship I’ve developed with a magazine (I have a couple which have lasted over a decade) took effort to establish. I kept submitting proposals, until finally the editor called me because of an urgent need. One assignment led to another, and another, and more after that.

So be persistent - you can work for any publication which hires freelancers, online or offline, IF you have persistence and patience.

Look on introducing yourself to editors as pitching yourself - pitching your expertise and your enthusiasm. And remember: it’s always a numbers game.

Want the secret to a GREAT freelance writing income? Here it is: write more.

Most freelance writers have no idea what rates they should be charging, so they charge minimal rates and are unfair to themselves.

Read Jennifer Mattern’s excellent post What Buyers Need to Know About Freelance Writing Rates. She comments: “The fact is that there are a lot of freelancers who don’t understand these concepts themselves. They look at $10 per hour as being better than the minimum wage jobs in their area, so they take on the work to learn the hard way that they’d be better off in most cases working for the local McDonalds (in a financial sense).”

Whether you’re a full time or part time freelancer, writing for minimal rates is the sure road to ruin. You can’t operate a business that way. Trying to do it will ensure that you end up tired, bitter and burned out. Not only is it bad for your mental and physical health, it’s bad for your writing too.

Be fair to yourself and charge what YOU need to stay in business

I repeat this mantra regularly to my writing students: “YOU set your rates; your clients have a budget”. Often, you’ll be contacted by clients who have no budget for a decent writer - that’s fine; they can’t afford you.

Focus on marketing your freelance writing business, get known, and you will get clients who are prepared to pay decent rates because they have a good business and they know that good writing gets them a fantastic return on investment.

Technorati Tags: freelance writing, fees, rates

In Fab Freelance Writing Ezine this week, our article is “Writing Books As A Dream Home Business”.

Here’s an excerpt:

Writing books is a dream home business. You can write when, where and how it suits you, without a commute, and without a boss looking over your shoulder.

There’s something else which makes writing books extremely attractive: since the rights to books are licensed, the author receives a royalty (somewhere between six and 15 per cent of the sales price) for each and every copy of his books which is sold, for years, and sometimes for decades, to come.

Unlike freelance writing for magazines or the Web, or copywriting, authors (writers who write books) are writing for long term income – for twice-a-year royalties arriving in their bank account, for years, as long as a particular book stays in print. Imagine if you’ve got royalties from five or more books flowing to you twice a year.

Read the rest of the article in Fab Freelance Writing Ezine this Wednesday.

Additional resources: my new membership site for authors and the site’s accompanying blog, Just Write A Book Blog.

Technorati Tags: write a book, freelance writing, home business