Ghostwriting Finally With Attitude
How would you like me to present your thoughts and desires for the gig?
The market is ready for you. Are you ready for it?
There is a burning desire in lots of us to write.
If that first line resonated with you, it wouldn’t surprise me. You are on a writing platform whereby a significant number of readers are also contributors.
It’s one thing to want to write — and I would encourage everyone to do that in some way or another — but it’s another thing to become a freelance writer. Maybe it’s something you’re thinking about doing, or something you are dabbling in and want to take further?
Freelance writing is about making money — on an independent basis — from writing. I’ve been a freelance marketeer and writer on a full-time basis successfully for a while, and it’s a whole different ball game.
It’s also a huge market that is set to grow even bigger. That market is ready for you, but are you ready for it? Here are seven questions to ask yourself to help you on your way.
1. Do you know what kind of freelance writer you want to be?
Journalist/ feature writer, digital content creator, technical writer, business writer, blogger and, of course, author … there are a myriad of jobs and potential contracts that could fall into the term freelance writer. What do you want to do?
We often immediately associate journalism and feature writing with freelance writing. If you have a curious mind, this can be a good call, as it often asks you to plunge into the new and unknown, learning things on the way as you research and interview.
But there is also business writing, offering a wealth of opportunity. Breaking down into internal (communication to employees) and external (communication with clients and prospects), it can be digital and non-digital content, extending into areas such as thought leadership (comment pieces for top executives) to speech writing and video scripting.
Remember content has moved online too. In fact, the global digital content creation market is expected to grow at CAGR of 9.1% between 2020 and 2025 to reach USD 16.9 billion (360 Research, 2021). This pulls freelance writing immediately into the world of search engine optimization (SEO).
Put simply, writing is not just for future readers, but also for Google, Bing, Yahoo! and any other search engine out there. Do you need to master SEO? Not necessarily, but SEO knowledge allows you to enter the freelance writing value chain at a content strategy development — rather than pure content creation — level.
And then, there is blogging and book writing. Do you have a book in you? According to some, everyone does.
2. Are you ready to diversify?
Thought I was asking you to choose with the first question? Not at all! Let’s break this down a little more.
There is a huge creative benefit to anyone journaling, blogging and — why not developing a whole book, fiction or otherwise — but if you start out blogging or book writing today, will it pay your rent next month? Probably not.
Coming back to all the freelance writing work out there, put simply, there are quicker ways to earn money. Sounds capitalistic?
If you are taking the idea of freelance writing seriously, you need to adopt this business mindset to your writing. Unless you are descended from gentry or have had a recent windfall, you will need regular income.
Apart from technical writing — that which involves activities such as technical explanations, instructions and manuals — I work across all the areas described above.
What pays my bills? The corporate communications work, hands down.
What do I enjoy most and has potential to generate long-term recurrent income? Blogging and sketching out whole new characters and worlds for my novel writing.
So, the good news is you don’t need to choose just one. Depending on the type, freelance writing presents certain demands and offers varied rewards, financial or otherwise, but you may need to be open to diversifying from what you like most.
Maybe it even helps to have a multitude of writing outlets for other reasons. Why am I happily sat with a coffee writing this article on a Sunday morning? Because I’ve had a week of drafting internal comms memos and my novel needs some creative plot work that for the moment is slightly overwhelming in its entirety!