Questions for freelancers

[ksmith]

I tried to construct a poll for this, but the questions were so numerous and nuanced that I figured it would go on forever. So, I'm asking you folks out there who are now or once were freelance, who what when where why? What made you decide to give it a shot? Were you prepared (frex, savings, a client list)? Do you have a spouse/sig fig who has health insurance or who otherwise provides support? Did you ease into it, building it up while ramping down the day job, or did mood/circumstances compel you to jump off the deep end of the pool? How old are you?

If you're a former freelancer, why did you quit?

Comments

[cmpriest.livejournal.com]

I started freelancing when I couldn't pay the bills on fiction alone -- after quitting my day job when I got married and moved out to the west coast.

Husband has bills-paying income and health insurance, otherwise I couldn't do it, really.

I won't post my (sole) client publicly, but if you can't guess you can email me and I'll answer (I have reasons for this, most of them related to my old part-time day job). I quit my part time day job when this sole client offered me better work, so I didn't leap into the pond without knowing it was deep enough to hold me. So to speak.

On a good month, I can make almost 4K working part-time. On a slow month, they forget to pay me. Sometimes the slow months accumulate due to paperwork or slow corporate wheels. It's not a steady or predictable existence, but it's steadier and more predictable than writing fiction for a living and the hours are better than a regular desk job.

Again, without the husband paying the bulk of the bills, I couldn't do it.

I'll be 32 next month.
Anything else?

:)

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

No--this is good, thanks. Watch your email.

[emluv.livejournal.com]

I was actually unemployed when I started freelancing, and it was actually easier to find freelance assignments than to get an actual job. I had worked in the marketing department of a financial services company in NYC for years, but got tired of writing about mutual funds and of shoveling snow, so quit the job and moved to LA with no job lined up, but money in the bank. After a year of being unable to find anything except other finance jobs (which I did not want), I began working for a friend who does support work for market research firms (focus groups), first transcribing only, and then actually writing reports. In addition, I do some freelance entertainment journalism for online venues, also garnered through a friend. My major client does contract work for Thompson/Gale publishing, and for them I write author bios for the Contemporary Author series--writing and updating the entries for the authors and the critical essays about their work. I have some other things that come and go--web content, book blurbs, educational articles, other corporate work. Pretty much all of my work has come through friends and/or referrals. This is my third full year as a freelancer, and the first I'll be making a salary comparable to what I made as a corporate employee, which is pretty decent.

I do have another job in the publishing industry--though it is also contract work, and currently pays very little as it's entirely commission based. I mention it only because they pay my health insurance costs. Prior to that, I was basically playing Russian roulette and crossing my fingers. This job may or may not end up being the lion's share of my work/salary eventually. If not, I might revert solely to freelancing.

I'm single and 38.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Pretty much all of my work has come through friends and/or referrals.

I have on-the-job experience writing technical reports. Then there's the fiction. I tend to think I have some worthwhile experience. It's just a question of taking the plunge and getting it out there. part-time would be sufficient. I just think I may be reaching the point where I need the comparative flexibility.

Thanks for the info.

[emluv.livejournal.com]

The flexibility is definitely wonderful. I'm the type of person who likes to work full out when I'm on a roll and knock assignments out of the way, so I'll typically work a 12- or 14-hour day or two and make enough money to hit my week's quota. It's terrific if you have a second job or are working on personal writing projects, etc. And technical writing experience should garner you a lot of work because it's fairly specialized.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I would love that flexibility.

Did you present a resume to your friend, or did they know your work well enough to give you a shot?

[emluv.livejournal.com]

No resumes with any of my clients. The first couple of projects I did for my friend, I simply completed the reports before the ultimate deadline. That way she could take a look before forwarding them to her client and see I had the hang of the format and tone she wanted. With everyone else I've been given small assignments as a test run so they could see my work, though again, this is probably since I generally work for people I know, or on recommendation from mutual friends. An easy in is also to contact companies you've worked for previously and just put the word out that you're open to contract assignments now. Because they're already familiar with your work, they should be more willing to hire or recommend you.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

An easy in is also to contact companies you've worked for previously and just put the word out that you're open to contract assignments now.

The only company where that would work is the current place of employment, given that I've been there almost 20 years.

But they do contract out.

[mindyklasky.livejournal.com]

Alas, I have nothing direct to contribute, being a job-slave myself, but if you don't hear from her here, follow up with suricattus...

[e-moon60.livejournal.com]

I got into freelancing because I was unemployed and our cash-flow was running backwards--husband trying to set up a business that wasn't doing well (er...was failing.) I wrote a weekly column for a county weekly paper--that paid for the paper and typewriter ribbon (no computer yet) to write more and try to find more markets. For several years I ghosted articles for him (he had the degree; I could write) for a professional magazine, and published a few nonfiction articles myself.

Then I started selling fiction. Once the first book was out, the fiction income overtook the nonfiction freelance work and I gave that up (but continued to write the newspaper column until a new editor got snarky with me.) My husband's business was doing some better by then (it eventually failed and he went to work somewhere else...only the second of these jobs gave us medical coverage, and only for five years, because he got fired.) So I've been doing fiction only for at least ten years now, I'd guess.

I'm 62.

[anisosynchronic.livejournal.com]

I became a freelance when the day jobs left me... initally healthcare coverage was via COBRA and for a while I converted over to individual coverage policy [ouch on the premiums]... dropped it eventually because I was not using a fraction of the coverage services and paying several hundred a month in which I could no longer afford.

The first time of extended unemployment I was eventually getting some contract work doing technical writing and market research and such, but was not doing well going out and selling myself, and was not doing well as regards buckling down and conscientiously working day after day after day earning or towards earning income. Eventually I got into contract jobs doing software testing and then when the economy was expanding after having contracted all those many months before, got a fulltime job with benefits again, which paid less in absolution terms than I had been making when I had been laid off years before... but it was something with benefits, and a steady paycheck. A year and some months later I got an unsolicited job interview and realized that it was time to go job hunting again, got hired at a different place for quite a bit more, and then in early 2002 was laid off from the whammies of the dotcom bubble implosion, the 9/11 investment capital shutdown and termination of additional credit to companies that weren't completely solvent regardless of customer base and potential for revenue for the future and the ordering freezes of so many businesses and offshoring of jobs and supply chain contract for what they couldn't stop buying for... a freelancer again, I by happenstance found some part time contract work until the customer of the company started cutting the contract... eventually the job market started coming back again and I was able to get a fulltime job with benefits again. (As previously, for a while I was on COBRA and then on an individual health care policy, and eventually dropped it...)

Big things include being proactive about getting work, assiduous about both finishing projects and continuing to watch and push for and arrange new projects.... especially if all on one's own.