When I’d finished reading the Ultimate Guide To A Successful Freelancing Career, my first thought was: is that it? Twenty-nine pages doesn’t seem enough space to provide an ultimate guide to anything. Written by experienced freelance writer, Glen Haskell, the book aims to talk about freelance writing in the real world, for writers who may have to juggle other commitments with their writing careers.
What’s Inside
In fairness, the book is full of common sense advice, including links to places to look for jobs, advice on getting those first writing gigs under your belt and much more. There are a couple of pages each on some of the important issues for freelancers, including finding writing markets, removing roadblocks to writing, looking beyond magazine work, copyright, tax, setting prices and marketing.
Sample Contracts
The book also includes a few sample letters, contracts and agreements which will be useful for the new freelance writer. There are handy reminders of the key points in a column alongside each chapter, as well as prompts to make you consider the main issues, so there are multiple opportunities to get the information while reading.
Bonus Ebooks
However, I couldn’t help thinking that the author was asking a lot to expect you to part with $49 (reduced from $140) of your hard earned cash. For that price, you do get several bonus ebooks, which may provide additional value.  At the time of writing these were:
- Writing For Fast Cash
- Breaking into Freelancing
- A Fickle Muse
- Writer’s Bootcamp
- Goals and Deadlines
The Verdict
I think Ultimate Guide To A Successful Freelancing Career works as an introduction to the issues that freelancers face, but I’d want to see more detail on almost every area for it to justify its name. If you’re new to freelancing, then check it out. If you’re not, you may already know much of what’s inside.
Article by Sharon Hurley Hall
Sharon Hurley Hall has been mentoring writers here at Get Paid To Write Online since 2005 to help them improve and build sustainable and successful writing careers. Check me out on sharonhh.com. Feel free to connect with me online on Google+.
Sharon has written 653 awesome articles for us at Get Paid to Write Online
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{ 10 comments }
Do you think this ebook would be better for someone who has absolutely positively no idea where to start or where to look for information? I’ve seen this ebook advertised, but this is the first review I’ve read – thank you for this information!
Jenn Hollowell’s last blog post..Motivation, or Lack of
Twitter: shurleyhall
August 20, 2008 at 07:36
I think if you have no idea about freelancing, this could be a good starting point, Jenn. It would be interesting to read a review by a new writer and see if our opinions differed.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Sharon! I think at so few pages a book shouldn’t attempt to consider itself ‘ultimate’ anything. Quick and Dirty might have been a better title and would probably get more hits. *starts contemplating an ebook called, “The Quick and Dirty Freelancing Guide”.*
How was the quality of layout and readability? Those are some of the key areas I like to know about before I invest in an ebook because there are so many out there that are poorly done.
Also, the price seems exhorbitant. For a product that costs nothing to reproduce how can anyone respectfully charge so much?
Rebecca Laffar-Smith’s last blog post..Book Review: Save The Cat
Twitter: shurleyhall
August 20, 2008 at 10:18
It was readable enough, Becca, though I found the fact that there were things in the left column disconcerting. It seemed to me that they should have been on the right or at the end of the chapter.
Hey Sharon (and all). Nice to see your review of this ebook. I was sent a review copy and decided I couldn’t in good conscience give it a thumbs up. I found it VERY basic, and while a good guide for an absolute beginner perhaps, I don’t see it being worth even half the asking price. But I’m very very picky.
There are certainly better guides out there a new writer could spend his/her money on, in my opinion. Since I didn’t buy the book, only got a review copy, I didn’t have access to the bonus materials. So maybe all together, I would reconsider that it would be worth the money. Can’t say. 
Amy’s last blog post..Freelance Writing Success: Your Way or Mine?
Bonus materials often make it worth the money but my rule is, if I could actually WRITE a book like that, I don’t bother. To tempt me into purchasing the book needs to teach me a specific skill set that I may not have, such as writing a novel. I haven’t read that book per se but when I first started, I read a lot of books like it.
Katherine’s last blog post..Simple Steps on How to Start a Profitable Business Online
My view of ‘bonus’ material is just that, they should be BONUS. If the actual product is only true to value because of the extras they aren’t bonus at all. That’s like saying “Two for the price of one.” When one costs twice as much as it usually would.
Rebecca Laffar-Smith’s last blog post..Book Review: Save The Cat
Twitter: shurleyhall
August 21, 2008 at 20:25
Hi Amy: I expected more from it, but I’m not reading with the eyes of a newbie. The jury’s still out as to whether the bonus material makes it a fair price.
Katherine, I must say that when I read it, I thought that my half finished effort wasn’t so bad
Becca: I agree. If you are selling me an item, tell me what it’s worth on its own.
My reaction is, if I paid $49 for an eBook, I’d ask for my money back if it was only 29 pages, unless the content was something absolutely incredible that I couldn’t find elsewhere.
This is a problem with eBooks, IMO — you can’t preview them at all unless the author gives you a sample or something. If I was to contemplate purchasing a traditional book, I could look at it in a bookstore, flip through it, read the table of contents. And even on Amazon you can often do that. I would not pay that much for a book till I was sure it was worth the money.
I agree with Rebecca, bonus content should be bonus, extra, the content should still be worth the price.
Sharon, thanks for the review.
Melissa’s last blog post..
Twitter: shurleyhall
August 25, 2008 at 09:17
You’re right, Melissa; it can be difficult to judge the quality of an ebook. I’ve found some that are worth paying for, while others should be given away for free. You just have to take a chance.