One of the mysteries for new freelance writers is how to bid for jobs. As a new writer, you often have no idea what to charge or what clients are looking for. Sure, you can write, but bidding is about selling yourself so you can get the chance to show your skills.
I’ll say up front [...]
Straight Talk About Your Writing Career
Category Archives: Freelance Writing Questions
Freelance Writing Questions: How To Bid Successfully
Freelance Writing Questions: Avoiding Scams
Give me my money! That’s what most freelancers want to say when they have done a piece of work but have not been paid. When you freelance, there’s always the chance that you might fall victim to a seasoned scammer – there are lots of them about.
Three Freelance Writing Scams
Here are some of the potential [...]
Freelance Writing Questions: Starting Out In Freelance Writing
Why aren’t you writing yet? A lot of people dream of starting a freelance writing career, but never get around to doing it. One of the reasons is that they fall in love with the dream of writing, but find the reality hard to achieve. So what’s the first thing you should do if you [...]
Freelance Writing Questions: Dealing With Difficulties
Catherine asks What did you find most difficult when you first began freelancing? And how did you overcome that difficulty?
When I went freelance, I faced two issues. One was a lack of contacts. The other was a lack of recent clips.
While I’d been lecturing, I’d done the occasional freelance piece, but since I wasn’t writing [...]
Freelance Writing Questions: Creating A Writing Business
If you’re going to write for a living, then you need to put your writing life on a business footing. That doesn’t mean giving up the pleasure of writing; it just means that you need to take it seriously and get others to do the same. So how do you transform your writing from a [...]
Freelance Writing Questions: Going Back To A Job
Here’s another in the series of questions on freelancing. Rachel asked me: Do you ever think about going back to being an employee? She also asked about the benefits of freelancing. While the benefits are different for different people, here’s what I get from freelancing:
I work for myself. That means I don’t have to [...]
Freelance Writing Questions: When Should You Go Freelance?
In my last post in this series I answered Rachel’s question about why I decided to freelance. However, wanting to go freelance doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a good idea to just jump ship and do it. Rachel also asked: ‘Should a young freelancer like myself try to get a stable job so I can [...]
Freelance Writing Questions: Why Go Freelance?
Last week I invited you to ask your questions about freelancing. I got a great response, with several questions to answer. Rachel asked why I decided to go freelance.
For me, the decision was relatively easy. I didn’t realise how essential writing was to my well being till I stopped doing it every day. I [...]
Freelance Writing Questions: Setting Rates
One aspect of freelancing that always stymies new writers is how to set the right rate for the freelance writing job. In fact, even experienced writers who are bidding on a new area might have difficulty. A post the other day on rates for blog posting provoked some discussion. There are a few resources that [...]
Freelance Writing Questions: Ask Them Here
I get a lot of emails from people who want to know how to get started as a freelance writer. It’s one of my favourite topics and I never mind giving a few tips. My advice is based on more than 20 years in the writing business. I have worked as [...]
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