Last updated on February 25, 2024
So you want to be a freelance writer…
You decided. You’re going to do it. You’ve toiled away at your outside job and pecked at your writing when time allows. But lately? You’ve chafed at the lack of creative forward movement and freelance is your destination. You long to toss in your resignation with a self-satisfied, “No, I’m not going anywhere else. I’m working for myself!”.
In your mind’s eye, you picture yourself ensconced in a restful cabin in the woods or at your desk before a fire in a converted castle or wearing flamboyant shirts you don’t care if anyone likes while writing on a tropical beach somewhere. No more bosses, no more rat race, no more commuting – nothing but letting loose the dogs of your creativity and all the while that sweet, sweet freelance money keeps rolling on in, right?
I hate to break it to you, but the reality of quitting your day job to work full-time as a freelance writer is often far from those pleasant fictions. Many a talented writer has crashed and burned going full-bore at a freelance career and it was for no other reason than lack of preparation before making the leap.
If you’re seriously considering going freelance full-time, there are a number of important considerations you should mull over before deciding it’s the right call. Let’s have a look.
You have experience and a reputation
Contrary to popular belief, it takes experience and a reputation to get good freelance jobs that can support you. Even experienced writers struggle in the freelance market. If you’re not already a semi-experienced writer before you go down that road, it’s going to be tough or near impossible.
If you’re in the other camp, one of the wannabies who think you can quit your day job and learn to write as you go, I hate to break it to you, dude, but you’ll be competing for jobs against the likes of me and the rest of the professional freelance writers who already built reputations and extensive industry networks over years. We can often get jobs on reputation and word-of-mouth alone without having to send samples or a portfolio. Can you?
Before you make that leap and cut off your only source of income, a better use of your time would be to get focused. Writing is art and it takes sacrifice. While you’re still working your other job, ensure you carve out time to write every day and get polished and published.
If you can’t do that? You don’t have the discipline to work freelance.
Be smart. Take on small, piecework freelance jobs and build your reputation that you can use to broker bigger jobs later. Get your name out there. Working a full-time job while writing on the side is where you pay your dues, convert feedback into implementation, and hone your craft. Build your portfolio and your web presence. If no one knows who you are, they aren’t going to pay you gobs of cash for anything and you’ll be broke and back in your parents’ basement with your tail between your legs before you know it.
You’ve built your freelance portfolio with professional writing credits
At the beginning, it’s nearly impossible to pick up freelance jobs without samples and credits. Start small. Earn writing credits and that means professional writing credits. Having a blog is an excellent way to bulk out your web presence. It adds to your reputation, and the posts can be used as style and skill samples. But they’re not professional credits.
You can post to your blog all you want. But if no one’s paid you for writing any of those articles, even a small bursary or honorarium, those eloquent blog posts about cats or your editorial commentary on global warming aren’t professional credits.
A professional credit is counted as writing you were paid for, most often published by someone other than yourself. Keep this in mind if you’ve spent all kinds of time on your blog, but didn’t submit anywhere. In rare cases, someone may have an incredibly popular blog with millions of followers and in that case, it could have been monetized, so considered a professional credit. If it wasn’t monetized, but still very popular, you could use it as a demonstration of your large, existing following which brings a guarantee of some readership. This is an important thing nowadays. Most people don’t fall into this category, though, so spend some time submitting and getting published.
If you’re trying to get your first novel published and in your query letter can’t quote anything professional published under your name, most big publishing houses won’t chance investing in an emerging writer anymore. Gone are the days of netting an advance, not even a small one for magazine articles. You may well be an excellent writer and it’s not a judgement of your abilities at all. This is an economic reality. They’re not going to invest large amounts of money in someone who they can’t judge by experience or reputation will provide a return on their investment.
Give yourself a leg-up before you quit that day job. Spend time submitting and earning some pro credits you can cite in your query letters.
You have money put aside to float you
Like any business endeavour, you’re going to need money to begin. Becoming a full time freelancer is your business, so invest in yourself. You’ll need to have the capital up front, enough to float you through the growing pains. Most small business fail in the first or second year and freelancing is no different. How will you live until the money starts flowing?
Be practical and sit down and work out your budget. Factor in the cash you’ll need to cover all your necessities: rent or mortgage, groceries, Internet, cell, dues to your local writers guild and whatever else you need until your jobs overlap and the money flow evens out. A good guideline is to put back what you need to live for three to six months, but honestly? It’s always safer to have more, because you just never know.
Even in the best of circumstances things can go wrong. Help yourself out and make sure you have some cash in reserve for things like an emergency wisdom tooth extraction or a 3-day power failure that wipes out everything in your deep freezer that you bought ahead. (*true story – happened to me during the winter of 2014 during a hellacious ice storm here to the tune of about $2000 of thawed food).
Shit happens, but with good forethought you can save yourself from disaster. Work up a little nest egg before you quit your day job. You’ll thank me later.
You have your freelance jobs lined up
Be smart and spend time picking up jobs with different deadlines. Start working through them while still working your full-time job. Anyone who’s ever been out of work knows how tough it is to find a job and working freelance full-time is no different. When your existence is hinging on those jobs, don’t leave finding them until after you already cut-off your only source of income.
If you’re already getting paid for some of those piecework jobs when you leave work, the transition will be much smoother. You’ll already have some money coming in, so you don’t blow through all your savings in the first couple of months. Without jobs lined up, the stress of not knowing where your next dollar is coming from will crush . It’s really tough to be creative or stay the course in that mindset.
You changed the way you live
Be prepared for the reality of the change to your life. People often labour under the mistaken impression they’ll have all sorts of free time. This may not be the case. Not unless a miracle happens and you sell several large things in a row. Even then that’s no guarantee. You’ll be working to multiple deadlines with competing priorities so will need to budget your time. More than likely you’ll work longer hours than you’re used to – challenging when balancing your career and personal life.
As a full-time freelancer, you also have all the considerations of a small business. This means you wear a lot of hats – doing bookkeeping, correspondence, filing, banking, looking for more jobs, marketing and whatever else you need done in a day. That’s all in addition to working at your writing. If you’re lucky and have a supportive significant other, they may be able to help with to free up more of your time for composition, but not everyone has this luxury. Be prepared for multi-tasking and being disciplined about your days so you can fit everything in.
With luck, you worked up a realistic budget and adjusted your spending habits to accommodate a reduced income. If you haven’t given any thought to this, remember, you’ll be working with a lower income at the beginning. You may have to make some sacrifices. Things like that weekly trip to the bar or movie with friends might need to become having them over for movie night instead. Or changing your daily take-out food habit into cooking dinner at home to help you make ends meet. While you’re working up your budget, you should look at all the ways you can scale back your lifestyle.
You fucking love it
Seems like a no-brainer, but I’ve had people complain to me about how much they hate writing. And then still think it’s a good idea for self-employment. What???
Seriously, dude, you could have a thousand freelance jobs lined up, but if you hate what you’re doing? It’s going to show in your writing. People can tell and it turns them off. If you don’t love it, over time, you’re going to find it difficult to force yourself to keep going at it every day. And you’re not going to last long.
Working freelance can take many shapes, so if you fall into this category, you should think about applying your energy toward something you actually like. That way you can still live the dream without torturing yourself.
Ready… set… go freelance!
People successful as full-time freelancer writers are among those lucky few loving what they do for a living.
If you want to be among them, practice your craft, accumulate a few professional writing credits, and be practical and plan for the lean early days before telling your boss to suck it. You stick to that? You’ll be well on your way to achieving your dream of…
What’s that phrase again, peeps?
Supporting yourself on your art!