What is a freelance writer?
You may have heard of freelancing all over the place. Especially since COVID arrived and forced a lot of people to work from home. A lot of people do not know exactly what freelancing is. It can be seen as quite a complicated concept. But it can be made quite simple. Instead of working for one company at a time and having a permanent role, a freelancer works as a contractor. All it takes is for the freelancer and the client to agree on what needs to be done, a price and then they sign a contract. the freelancer is only employed by that client until the work is finished. There is no set terms on the contract that says they must work there for a certain amount of time, but just until all the work is finished.
It sometimes feels as though you don't really belong anywhere. You work for a company or just one person and then you swiftly move on to the next. Some freelancers work for more than one client at a time, as I do. But many people prefer freelancing as it gives you freedom. You can do different types of work all at once if you can cope with good time management. I, for example, was writing a novel for someone; their life story whilst also working for a company doing game writing for an app. It did take up a lot of my time and I barely had any time to write my own stories but it kept me busy and it was worth it.
What is it really like being a freelance writer? My story.
I won't lie to my readers, it is difficult, very. It sometimes takes more time to find freelance writing work than it does to complete the work. I became a freelance writer in June 2020 during the height of the pandemic. I believed that I was finally ready to get a job but because of my mental health conditions and COVID, I felt too uncomfortable to leave the house and work. The only other option was to stay at home and work. At first, I thought it would be impossible to make a living as a writer. There was so much involved such as knowing where to look for clients, building great social media and freelance platform profiles, spreading the word about yourself, advertising, deciding exactly what type of writing you want to offer. And that's not even the half of it. It took me a good few months to find a client. I had a few clients at first but they were quite big jobs for very little pay.
I first found all of my clients on freelancer.com. My first proper client was an Indian man that wanted his short story re-writing and improving. I got just 10 pounds for editing and revamping 5,000 words. it didn't take me long but now that I know what I should be charging, it doesn't seem like much at all and it definitely wasn't a wage that I could live on. 10 pounds doesn't stretch far these days at all. I did have some trouble on that website. I had a few clients that ended up scamming me which almost put me off continuing and it put me back financially. The only finances I had at the time were my maintenance loan from university, as I was in my 2nd year when I started freelance writing. But my first proper client was a man that wanted his life story writing, it was a ghostwriting project. It was only 30 pounds per chapter (compared to the going rate of 50 pounds per 1k words) but it was something to get my experience up. I had to write the novel very slowly as the client could only afford one chapter a month (and it took a while as he owns a care home and didn't have the time) but it is now complete and I have one happy customer.
At first, my main concern was building up good reviews and a really good reputation. Nobody would trust me with important writing tasks if it looked as though I had no experience and nobody to say I was as good as I was. So I would do cheap one off writing tasks just to get a review and over time, it worked. I was amazed when I managed to work for a gaming app company named Scripts: Untold Secrets. They paid me between 300-500 pounds a month (which was a giant increase to the odd few pounds that I was used to) and it finally began to feel like I had a proper wage coming in. I enjoyed writing two interactive romance games for them (although admittedly, romance is not my thing) but it made me realise that script writing was my favourite of all. Unfortunately, writing two interactive stories for the company didn't take as long as I thought. They were very popular and remained at the number one spot for months (they are still popular now with hundreds of thousands of views!) but they were only about 15 chapters each so about a year later, I had to look for a new job as they had too many writers and I had to move on (another reality of freelance writing I am afraid.)
So, after doing odd writing jobs, advertising constantly, getting reviews under my belt and trying my best, I eventually got my highest paid job yet; Eduland. In May 2021 just after finishing university, I took on a full time role with the Chinese company Eduland. You had to write at least one story a week. They were children's stories and it was different and exciting for me. The money was monthly and it depended what you had written that month and how long your story was in review for. I got around 300-900 pounds a month depending on how many stories I submitted. With the script writing job I was paid 0.03 dollars per word. With Eduland, I was paid 0.07 per word so it was a giant increase to me. It seemed that every freelance writing job that I got, my wages went up which was amazing. But recently, I had no choice but to leave Eduland for personal reasons and so now, I am back out there looking for work. I have recently done writing trials for script writing companies and I hope I hear something back from them soon and start a new writing adventure.
The good and bad points of being a freelance writer:
Good points:
-Flexible hours
-Writing freedom (you can do anything from copy writing to script writing)
-You can work for anyone around the world (it's mostly online!)
-Opportunities can lead to great things (I got to do some brief work for Hollywood!)
-If you want to be/are an author, it will help your writing reputation
-Constant changes with job - keeps it exciting and new!
Bad points:
-Employers can let you go - WITHOUT WARNING! (This has happened to me...)
-You can be easily scammed (be very careful about what you agree to. Always have a written contract!)
-Not many people are willing to pay you fairly (please refer to the next section for more on this)
-it is becoming increasingly hard to find freelance writing jobs
-Not knowing where to look for the right jobs can be frustrating
-Companies may not be what they seem
Knowing what you are worth as a freelance writer:
There have been many instances where I have been appalled by what some companies/people are offering freelance writers with way of payment. I have even seen some people offering to give freelance writers nothing and just to call their hard work 'experience'. Whilst this may be beneficial to do once or twice when building your writing portfolio, it is not good when it keeps happening and it can easily become insulting. It is absolutely essential to know your own worth when it comes to writing. I have written the odd article and small biography upon request, but they are only things that I would say are small writing jobs, more like favours. It is quite different if someone asks me to write a 10,000 word short story for as little as 20 pounds or worse, nothing. It may seem ridiculous that a freelance writer is offered nothing for their great writing, but it happens a lot more than you think.
I am in a lot of writing and authors groups on social media and there are a lot of chancers that try and offer a ridiculously low rate for such high writing skills. There have been many times where I have had to intervene and stop a fellow freelance writer from making a big mistake. For example, about a month ago, there was a man on one of these groups saying that he had a platform that any writer could join. All you had to do was upload a 20k-50k novel each month to earn money. I thought the amount of words was daunting (surely a novel is rushed if it is finished within a month?) It had hundreds of comments and everyone seemed interested. But as soon as I looked at the payout, I had to step in. They were offering just 50 dollars for such long stories. I could not believe that some freelance writers were seeing it as a good opportunity. As soon as I told people that they were walking into a very bad deal, they soon thanked me and moved on. When you take a freelance writing job, please make sure that you are being paid what you are worth. Some pay by standard of writing, some by experience and some by qualifications. Just never take lower than you are worth.
I hope you have enjoyed my small guide to freelance writing and I will be back soon with more tips.
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