Looking for advice from freelancers

Excellent stuff, MU. Thanks.

 

Welcome.
Best of luck.

 

Actually, I was not being flippant.

Where people fail in freelancing is that they don't do the first three things well.

Most freelancers I know are good at doing the work.

Finding work? Some are OK, some aren't.

Getting paid? Even tougher.

I've seen plenty of freelancers fail because they get the first job and forget they need to still be looking for the next job after that. Or they starve between the 90 days they turn in the invoice and the time they get the check.

Writing is actually a much less critical skill than prospecting for work and getting hired for job after job.

Besides, if you are thinking of going the freelance route, presumably you know how to write already and have a decent degree of ability.

Having the ambition, talent, discipline and wherewithal to market yourself is something else entirely.

One other thing: You will starve trying to write for newspapers. If you mix in commercial work - brochure copy, ad agency stuff, marketing copy, etc. - you can make a good living.