The truth is that there are many parts of freelance writing that are difficult.  Now, I’m not saying that freelance writing is a bad job, far from it.  I love my job and wouldn’t do anything else, but especially for someone considering a leap into freelance writing, I think it is important to understand all the aspects of the job.  Since there are plenty of “Pros” resources out there already, I thought I would take a stab at some of the “Cons.”  So, without further ado, the first thing that makes freelance writing hard.

Competence and Understanding

One of the greatest challenges of freelance writing comes from the fact that in order to recognize incompetence, you must be at least a little competent.  A great illustration of this concept can be found in the movie Amadeus.

In the movie, Amadeus Mozart, who the world will of course recognize as one of the great musical geniuses of all time, arrives in Vienna where the Emperor has a Court Composer named Salieri.  The Emperor is not gifted in any way when it comes to music.  Salieri, on the other hand, laments that God has seen fit to give him enough of a musical gift to truly understand and appreciate fine music, but not enough to produce it.  When Salieri’s composition plays before the Emperor, he proclaims it the greatest of all time, while falling asleep during one of Mozart’s productions.

The point is, that the Emperor has no understanding of the difference between good music and average music.  Likewise, he cannot tell when a piece is powerful and when it is not.  It is useless to try and tell or teach him otherwise, because he simply does not grasp the basic concepts necessary to understand further.

Which brings us to today’s point.  There are a great many people in the world who cannot write well.  There are people whose entire success in their careers stems not from their ability in their field, but simply their ability to communicate proficiently in their writing.

Look around, and you’ll hear it all the time. 

“Oh, I don’t like to write, I’d rather just talk.”

“I never been much of a writer.”

“I have real work to do, I don’t have time to write.”

And so on.

These are all the excuses of someone who is not proficient in writing.  But, here is the catch.  They don’t know that they lack writing ability.  They are not competent enough in writing to realize that what they do put down on paper does not communicate what they want it to well, if at all.

Unfortunately, these people are often your clients.  Or, more specifically, these people are often your prospective clients.  When you approach them with your writing services they will not understand why they need them no matter how dreadful their current output.  Even more so, they will not understand why they should pay you.  After all, anyone can write.

Thus, the freelance writer moves on, frustrated that something he could have greatly improved will instead continue to be mediocre or worse.  It takes thick skin and a lot of belief in yourself to continue in the face of such things. 

And that, is one of the hard things about being a freelance writer.

Missing from the pages of the Associated Press Stylebook is the correct use of the term open-source which until recently I had been using as just open source.  Recently, an editor disagreed and though neither of us could find a definitive source, the editor always wins the ties.  So, now I have to remember to write open-source for him, while I continue to write open source elsewhere.

Ah, the joys of writing

I recently stumbled across a fairly recent CNN article that mentions some actual, real life, companies that offer various telecommuting or work from home positions.  I don’t like to link to things I haven’t looked at yet myself, so I won’t post individual links here until I have a chance to look at them, but if you are interested, here is a link to the original CNN article.

Getting Ideas for Writing

Ideas for what you want to write are not hard to come by.  Good ideas can be tougher.  It always helps to go back to the basics.  In this case, the basics is: Write What You Know.

This may sound like strange advice especially if you don’t “know” the topic you are writing for.  But, we all know stuff and it is from there that your ideas will come.  Let’s say, for example, that you are writing a piece on microeconomics, a topic which I know very little about, other than it was a college course I may or may not have taken.

Without Googeling, or looking anything up, I already know something.  I know some things about economics, and I know what micro means.  I also know that micro is a modifying word which means there is such a thing as economics (without the word micro) and maybe even macroeconomics (the opposite of micro).  There may even be some in between ground (smalleconomics?).  There is idea one:  The difference between micro and the other kinds of economics.

Not what you are looking for?  Probably not, but from there we can carry on.  Is microeconomics the kind of thing you can support and oppose?  Is it the kind of thing that you can believe in or not believe in?  Has it been in the news recently?  Should it be?  And so on.

Bringing In Outside Ideas

Now, add in the knowledge you have from the rest of your life.  Are you a chef? How does microeconomics affect you?  Is it killing the restaurant business?  How about your suppliers?  Would either on of them be more efficient if they took heed of microeconomic concepts, and so on.

The idea is to keep spinning your mind around this track until you hit on an idea that makes you think you’ve got something good.  

Idea Generating Tips

Here are some good questions to ask regarding your topic to help generate ideas.

• Is this good or bad?
• Does anyone know about this?
• Should more people know about this?
• What would people do if they knew about this?
• How long has this been going on?
• Who does this affect?
• Who cares about this but shouldn’t?
• Has it been in the news?
• Can this be spun?
• What happens if I take the opposite?
• Would my mom care?
• Would my kids care?
• Is the government involved?  (Helping? Messing it up?)

Keep working with your concept.  Eventually you’ll have something you care enough about to research it.  When you get there, you’ve got your idea.  Chances are that as you do your research your idea will change or become completely different.  That is good.  It doesn’t matter if a good idea was your first one, only that it is a good one.

If you are a regular reader of the ArcticLlama blog, you know this.  It has been way too long since I posted last.  What happened?  I don’t know.  Frankly, it probably doesn’t matter, but I know what fixed it.

I’ve said before that the only people who should become professional writers are people that love to write.  If you are one of them, then you always want to be writing SOMETHING.  The catch is, it isn’t always what you need to be writing to generate a paycheck.

For me, it was the opening chapter of a novel that came to me while I was soaking in a nice hot bath a month or two ago.  It had a couple of nuances and turns that I just loved.  I told myself I would write it sometime (I have dozens of novel ideas, like most writers do) and I jotted down enough notes in one of my writing journals to make sure that I didn’t lose the ideas that I loved.  But, that wasn’t enough. 

You see, as writers we get our ideas and inspiration and thoughts from somewhere.  Some people call it a muse, others just call it inspiration, others believe that they simply force it up consciencely.  Whatever you believe, that well must be tapped in order for you to write and it must spring up for you to have inspiration.  If you leave something in the well, that is too big for it, then the flow stops and you are one of those hacks putting words on a page the way you were taught in K thru 12.

That was me for the last few weeks.

Today, I decided I was tired and burned out.  I let my wife take our daughter to the zoo and I sat down to work, only instead, I started typing my chapter.  Not for real, mind you, just as a way to get back into the groove.  And groove, I found.  I wrote the whole chapter, found new characters, named them, came to know their life stories and more.  Then, I got a soda, sat back down and cracked open my planner.  I saw an article that had been waiting to be written, and thought, "Oh, geez, I’ll just write that real quick it isn’t hard."

I wrote it.  It flowed.  My fingers flew across the keyboard.  I finished it fast and it was good.  Then, I remembered that I had another one of them for next week.  I just wrote it too.  Oh, and there was that one thing…

Long story, short, I cranked out tons of stuff today and it was good and more importantly it was fun.

Writers are always asking me for advice, so here is some:  Write what you want to write.  You can’t ignore the bills of course, but your writer soul understands that even if it doesn’t like it.  If you throw him a bone every once and a while to let him know that you haven’t forgotten about who you are, he won’t pout, and your writing will be better for it.

Have a great weekend.  I know I will, writing the whole time, I’m sure.

Oops.  It isn’t in the AP Stylebook.  “Car pool” is in there.  That’s a pretty good hint.  Well, since it isn’t in the AP style guide, then we check the dictionary (a real one).  It isn’t in there either.  I guess I’m wrong.

If you’ll excuse me, I have something to do.  — Replace All …

So, to see if a job site like guru.com is good for freelancers, I setup a quick profile and then did a search.  For my search, I chose the entire Writing / Editing / Translation category.  Then, I chose to filter out results that require on-site work (what it takes to get me to work on-site is different than what it takes to get me to work remotely.)  Lastly, I eliminated all of the jobs listed in the very lowest paying categories.  That is, everything that pays less than $250 and everything that pays less than $15 per hour.  Those are not high numbers by any stretch of the imagination.  Lastly, I eliminated any jobs that did not say how much they wanted to pay, or chose "Don’t Know."

Trust me, when I tell you that anyone who doesn’t know what they want to pay, wants to pay something that is too low.  I have never, ever, ever, encountered a prospective client who talked to me about their project and when they heard how much it would cost said, "Oh, that’s way lower than what I thought."  If someone doesn’t have any idea whatsoever what a project should/would cost, they are either just testing the waters and there might not end up being any job, or they are hoping that they can get a really low price and don’t even want to think about what it might cost them in reality.

Lastly, I left the default parameter to only include projects posted in the last 45 days.  That is pretty ridiculous in itself.  Unless we are talking about a project that goes through a full RFP process, after 30 days, most projects are already sourced.

The results?

14 projects.  That’s right, 14.  I think that is pretty much your answer right there.  It is not worth a freelance writer’s time to be an active member of a site that will generate a whopping 14 projects that do not pay the bottom rate or require you to be onsite.

So, no, it is not worth it for a professional freelance writer to use guru.com

The Doctor’s Office Method

I have found it to be effective to use what I call the "doctor’s office" method in honor of the people who send me these kind of bills.

On your invoice put a row of boxes along the bottom which say Current, 30 Days Past Due, 60 Days Past Due, 90 Days Past Due.  Then, put on your invoice something about a late fee, either a percent or an amount.  The late fee shouldn’t start until 60 days (some companies only pay on cycles and it just might not fit in the 30 day).  Then, make sure you include the fee on the invoice. 

So, after 60 days have something like:

I started doing this after noticing it makes me pay may doctor co-pays sooner.  I’m not a dead beat, things just get lost in the stack or whatever.  But, if I notice a number in that 90 Days box, I think, "Oh cripe!" and go get my checkbook.

The nice thing about doing it this way is that if your client is tight on money, this may motivate him to pay you this month and someone else next month instead of the other way around once he realizes how late his is on you.

Secondly, it shows that you know they are late and that you aren’t just "getting over it."

99% of the time, when the client pays they do not pay the late fee, and I don’t make an issue of it.  The point isn’t get the fee so much as to make a point.  If a client does it more than once or twice, then I would collect the fee or stop working with them (their choice).

Last, if you do take more work from the client, keep the amounts marching across that 30,60,90 row.  So that you have 90 Days Past Due $1236 (2 late fees) and Current $400. 

That way they don’t get the impression that the clock starts over because there was new work.  Otherwise, they might be thinking, "Well it’s only been 30 days" when it has been a long time on the other payment.

Getting Paid + Burning Bridges

If you don’t get paid, then you have to decide if possible future work is worth "donating" this work.  If not, then it is time to send "The Letter". 

The Letter says that the invoice is 180 days past due and will be referred for "Further Collection Efforts".  If that doesn’t work, then 10 days later send them a Notice of Pending Legal Action in which you state that you will be filing a claim in court (you can find templates for this online).  After that, you have to decide if you are bluffing or not.  If not, file a claim. 

Lawyers for big money, small claims court for little money.

In any case, remember that "bad debts" are a tax deduction, so keep not only your original invoice, but all the attempts you have made to collect the debt.  Print out all the emails, keep copies of all the letters and invoices, and write down a log of all the phone calls you make. 

So, it was with some relief that I came upon this site.  This is technically at a science-fiction writing site, but it is good advice for everyone.  It is a Writer Beware page that lists some of the more common scams.  This list is by no means complete, but at least you get a heads up on some of the common tricks.

http://www.sfwa.org/beware/

Other Safety Tips

• Never ever give out your Social Security Number.  (Give out your EIN on a W9 Form)
• Only give out your name and other info AFTER you have been given the job (more important online than offline)
• Never “just sign up” for a website in order to APPLY for a job.  (You may have to sign up to AFTER you get the job, but a legitimate employer will give you a username or way to do it for free.)
• Don’t leave money in your Paypal account.  (It is way harder for them to get money from your bank than from paypal.)
• Never give out your banking information, even for direct deposit unless it is a real world, real building, real offices that you have been inside company.  Otherwise, give them a Paypal account or an online banking account. And, do not leave money in either one.
• Get a business phone number (use GrandCentral or other service so you don’t need another phone line)
• Use *67 to block caller id any time you call a business contact, especially if you are calling from your cell phone.  (Otherwise, expect plenty of calls at 11:00 PM).

It isn’t that bad out there, but where the scams are, they are mean.  So, keep you head on straight and go for it.  Just don’t get so excited you forget your basic safety rules.

I try and be helpful and friendly to people who contact me asking for help or advice.  It’s just in my nature, and it is probably the right thing to do for the business anyway.  So, it was nothing new when I began trading emails with a guy who was interested in becoming a freelance writer.

We started with all of the usual stuff.  How much money can you make?  How do you setup your own web site?  Do you actually have to know anything about HTML or SEO?  Then, we got down to business.

I recommended that he start writing some things to be used as samples, and to get his web site going.  He replied that he would.  After a week or so, I emailed him to see how it was going.  That is where the wheels fell off the wagon.

He hadn’t gotten around to the web site yet.  He had started some articles, but “didn’t like how they were coming out,” so he didn’t have anything he could show me.  I’ve heard this all before.  My new friend simply hadn’t sat down and done the work to get his freelance business practice going.  It isn’t my place to judge, but I don’t need to waste my time either, so I left it with him by sending an email that basically said, let me know when you get those things done and we’ll go from there.

I haven’t heard from him since.

It Is Work

This reminded me of a previous encounter.  This one was a face to face meeting where I was describing the world of freelance writing and how I was doing and how much I loved it.  There were smiles all around.

Then, I started talking about what my friend should do to get started.  The smile started to fade and eventually was replaced by that scrunched up forehead that people get when they look at a long unpleasant list.

“This is just as much work as I do at my job now.”

That was when I realized that there are a lot of people out there who see freelance writing as a way to work less (and some, not at all).  They envision an hour of writing in the morning, and maybe another hour in the afternoon, and the rest of the time spent enjoying the sunny summer days.  Well, I suppose fantasies are nice, but if this is how you envision your life as a freelance writer, I encourage you to never ever pursue freelance writing with any seriousness, because all it will do is ruin your pleasant daydream.

Freelance writing is work.  It is a lot of work.  No, it isn’t like lifting and carrying cinder blocks work, but it is work. 

It Is Fun – If…

Before I became a full time freelance writer, I spent my working years in two careers, one as a high-end computer consultant, the other as a small business owner financial advisor.  I don’t do any less work today than I did when I worked those jobs, but there is one major difference.

I never seem to roll my eyes at my freelance writing business.  Why?  I like writing.  I always have.  I like the way I get to specifically explain my thoughts the way I want to.  I like the way I can tailor how the words come out and in what order.  I like the way I get to talk all at one time instead of hashing out points as they come up.  I like to communicate via the page.  It is just how I am.

How do you decide if you are cut out to be a freelance writer?  I think the easiest test is the email test.  The email test works like this.

Has anyone ever called you, emailed you, or spoken to you in person to ask you to TALK to them instead of typing up detailed email messages? 

If so, you might be a good freelancer.  If not, well, maybe you are just an efficient user of email, but it might also be because you don’t like writing enough to be a happy freelance writer.  If you are typing up words somewhere, all the time, you need to really look at how much you enjoy writing.  There are a lot of easier ways to make a living than freelance writing, so if you don’t love writing, there really isn’t any point in pursuing it.

If you do decide to join us, then welcome.  Please do understand that it will be work, lots of work.  Like every other job out there, if you become one of the best, you will not have to work as hard, and the money will come easy.  Just keep in mind that is true whether you are a writer, or a lawyer, or a building contractor, or a programmer, or a designer, or a …