The Daily Freelancer: April 15, 2020 — Striking the Write Balance Between Publications and Businesses
As far as I’ve discovered, there are two ways to do freelance writing: writing for publications and writing for businesses. There are pros and cons to both, and different ways to approach each one, so I’ll give you some of my thoughts on the experiences.
Freelance for Publications
I consider this the more literary side to freelance writing. This is what I would envision myself to be doing someday, but I’m not there now, at all. Here are some things to keep in mind:
This kind of writing is article writing for online and print publications, like magazines and newspapers. This is also personal essays for magazines and journals. And journalistic pieces overlaps here a bit, too.
Here you’re a brand unto yourself, i.e., relying on your name and value as a writer. You can build your portfolio from this, and build your clout and connections. If you have a piece in The New Yorker, you have a piece in The New Yorker.
These articles are usually by project (unless you want to get hired on somewhere as a staff writer), which means coming up with the idea and pitching it to an editor. You can get really niche here, or do interviews, or research the heck out of something, or speak from personal knowledge.
They may or may not take it. Then you need to find another publication and/or another article to pitch, which takes time. Sometimes you write a piece first, and then try to pitch it (called “on spec”). Sometimes you can, sometimes you can’t.
If you’re pitching the right places, the money can be good, and the visibility great. I highly recommend only working with publications that pay. (I could write a whole other post about non-paying publications, and that’s usually what happens in the literary world — but not today.)
Speaking of money, it may take a while to get paid.
Freelance for Business
I actually “turned” towards this income stream when I went freelance, and consider this what I do when I saw I’m a freelance writer. This is what is primarily called copywriting or content writing, and here are some things to keep in mind:
This is copywriting for businesses, marketing firms, or PR firms, and includes creating web pages, website content like blog posts and articles, social media posts, reports and white papers, and generally any other copywriting needed.
Don’t expect to get your name on this (when have you ever seen a website’s page copy bylined?). You may also be ghostwritng blog posts and articles for other people.
The money is great, because you’re a skilled talent in a world that hasn’t been trained in what you’ve been trained in, and as a business, they have revenue (unlike literary magazines).
You need to know how to write web copy, emails, blog posts, etc. It’s not hard, just make sure you know how to write in different voices, and which voice is needed. In other words, this isn’t your personal literary essay, this is a business’s web presence.
Depending on what channels you work through, projects and money can get to you very quickly.
These can be one-off posts, projects that last a few weeks, or ongoing retainer-based. But you may ultimately be at the whim of the business.
Weighing the Right One Daily
It’s tricky. On the one hand, I live for good literary writing, but it doesn’t necessarily pay, ever. On the other hand, I like getting paid and really enjoy copywriting projects, but they’re not literary projects. But the literary projects don’t pay the bills…see? If you want to do both, it comes down to a question of what you can afford to do.
For example, this afternoon I didn’t have any immediate copywriting projects, so I worked on an essay I hope to send out. I probably won’t get paid for the essay. And that time I worked on the essay was time I could’ve spend rustling up some paying freelance gigs, which I need. Tomorrow, I will probably not write anything literary and spend time rustling up paying freelance gigs. I could also work on pitches which may yield something in the future, or jump on Upwork and find something small to yield me pay next week.
Build my portfolio of well-crafted work? Or pay my rent? Unfortunately, I’ve learned that the two are mutually exclusive.
See you tomorrow!