Mike Dougherty asks,

How does one get started?

Meredith Eaton asks,

How do you get established as a freelancer? Do you start by contacting publications or writing articles?

I’m answering Meredith and Mike’s questions together — I hope you two don’t mind!

The first thing you should do if you’re considering becoming a freelance writer is to determine what kind of writing projects you want to take on. Until you know the type of writing services you want to offer, it’s tough to market yourself, making it the most important first step. Furthermore, you need to know what kind of writing projects you want in order to decide what sorts of samples to include in your portfolio. Do you want to write articles? Blog for companies? Write marketing copy?

It’s worth noting that while marketing yourself as a freelance writer taking on a specific type of projects can help you land clients, it doesn’t mean that other sorts of projects won’t come your way. It just happens to simplify the marketing process. And, yes, some freelance writers recommend that you diversify your services and try to offer your clients as much as possible. I disagree. It’s very hard to build an excellent reputation among high-paying clients of any kind if you’re constantly taking on projects that have nothing to do with the type of work they want to recommend you for.

Once you have that idea, the next step is to put yourself in a position to land clients. That means setting up a website, putting together your portfolio and starting to tell people that you’re available for work. That’s the point when you would start querying publications or cold calling prospective clients. I’d recommend not writing articles or other projects until you actually have a publication or client lined up — the exception is if your portfolio is a little bare and you need to fill it out.

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Christiana Aretta says,

Would love to read some stuff about copyright, especially alternative models that aren’t Creative Commons.

As far as copyright goes, most freelance writers in the past would never have considered anything other than traditional copyright. That’s because selling reprints were a crucial part of a writer’s income. But I’m going to let you in on the secret to why so many older freelancers hate the web — it’s almost destroyed the market for reprints. Most of the clients you’ll work with online want content that does not appear anywhere else online, because Google penalizes duplicate content. You can still sell reprints to magazines that are primarily print products, but there are fewer publications that don’t also publish their content online every day. With reprints off the table, traditional copyright becomes a lot less important.

Creative Commons has become a popular alternative, especially for online-only publishers, who may ask writers to allow their work to be distributed under a Creative Commons license. There are both benefits and drawbacks to the Creative Commons system.

Personally, I like the idea of Founder’s Copyright. Personally, I think that copyright law has become bloated — it protects big corporations, but doesn’t encourage writers sufficiently. When the Constitution was written, the framers believed that creators should have a monopoly over their works for 14 years, after which, those works would pass into the public domain. I’m of the opinion that if you don’t keep making use of a particular piece of work (writing sequels, adding on to it and so forth) in 14 years, it’s okay to let it go.

There are a lot of arguments about copyright these days. No matter what side you’re on, it’s hard to argue that we aren’t due for some reforms of the copyright law.

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Got a question about the business side of freelance writing? Send it my way and I’ll answer it on next week’s ‘Ask Me Anything.’

Kristina Viera asks,

How do you know what to charge?

Deciding how to price your work is one of the hardest part of freelancing. There are so many different factors that can affect your price — your own experience, your location, what type of clients you’re interested in working with — that it’s impossible to say that you should be charging X dollars per hour.

That said, here’s how I came up with my price. First of all, I calculated how much I needed to make per month to cover all of my bills (and I was very pessimistic about that number, assuming big bills). I then padded that number so that I would have something put in savings, as well as enough to cover unexpected emergencies. Then I doubled it — yep, doubled it — for taxes. I’m not in a tax bracket where I’m paying 50 percent of what I make to the IRS and neither are most freelance writers, but when you add in state taxes and any county or municipal taxes you may have, it can come close.

From there, I assumed that I could work 30 billable hours a week (based on having administrative tasks that would eat up about two hours a day) or 120 hours per month. I divided the amount of money I needed to make per month by that number. It was an odd number, with plenty of decimals, so I rounded it up.

Even if you aren’t freelancing full-time, I’d recommend basing your rate on the same calculations. That way, if you find yourself freelancing full-time, you won’t have to immediately raise your rates (and therefore run the risk of losing existing clients).

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Leslie Joy asks,

How do you turn networking contacts into clients?

I take networking pretty seriously. I come home from events with stacks of business cards, often with scribbled notes on who I talked to and what I talked to them about. I sit down after meeting someone new and add their email information into Gist. Because I try to end every introduction with some sort of offer to email my new contact (“I’ll give you the name of the tool I use,” “Let me send you a blog post I found on that topic,” etc.), I can immediately follow up with something deeper than “It was nice to meet you yesterday.” It’s important to be helpful and talk more about the contact than yourself. Unless a contact specifically asks me to send my rates and information about my business, I tend not to. I’ve found that building a relationship where I’m not immediately asking for something pays off better in the long run.

Usually, I’ll get a response back. From there, I continue the conversation. If an opportunity to talk about any of my projects comes up, I do so. The goal is to get contacts to think of you as a good connection overall, as well as a great freelancer. That way, they’re more likely to come to you when they have a project.

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Have a question about the business side of freelance writing? Send it my way and I’ll answer it here next week!

We have two very important questions this week.

Scott Cheatham asks,

What would you say is the best first step for someone wanting to enter the world of freelance writing?

There are a lot of first steps that I could suggest for getting started as a freelancer: picking a niche, setting up your bookkeeping… Plenty of things go into being successful. But the most important first step you can take is to pull together your clips. You can land some writing gigs without samples of past work, but they’re not going to be the kind of work that’s worth your while long-term. Instead, to land the type of clients who can actually help you pay your bills, you need a good portfolio.

If you’re lucky, you’ve already got a few published pieces that you can use as samples. It doesn’t matter if you were a full-time employee when you wrote them, as long as they’re solid examples of how well you write. If you don’t have so many pieces that you’re comfortable using, it’s time to start writing some. There are many different ways to build samples — no matter what type of writing you want to do. However, keep in mind, you want to write for someone else to get those portfolio pieces. Most clients aren’t going to be as impressed with a personal blog as with proof that someone else liked your work enough to use it.

Writing a press release for a non-profit or submitting a guest post to another blog can be good ways to start. You may not get paid for those first few clips and, as much as I dislike freelancers writing for free, it’s a fact of life.

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Kathleen O’Connor asks,

What should you consider when drafting a contract? Is there a good template to use?

It’s been my experience that most freelance advice sites recommend that you never ever take on a project without a formal contract. In my opinion, that’s idealistic: most freelance writers aren’t comfortable drawing up their own contracts, but also aren’t in a financial position to have a legal professional draw up a contract either. Using a template can help make the situation manageable.

However, I think it’s important to note that letters of agreement or any other written agreement laying out the terms of your deal with your client (what the work is, when it’s due and so forth) are considered legal contracts, at least under U.S. law. I typically use a letter of agreement with my clients rather than a more formal contract.

That said, I do keep a contract template on hand for use with certain clients. It’s a Word .doc, which I’m making available for you to download. Please note the following disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. This contract was not reviewed by a lawyer. I cannot recommend you use this contract as every business agreement is different and it may or may not apply to your project. I’m only providing it as a sample and you should check with a lawyer before using it for your own freelancing.

There are a couple of points that I specifically think are important for a freelance writer to think about when writing or signing a contract:

• Intellectual property: As a writer, you’re creating intellectual property. Make sure your contracts clearly outline who has rights to the project at the end of the day. I’m not telling you to keep all rights — there are definitely financial benefits to choosing to do otherwise — but make sure your contracts say who has what rights.
• Sub-contracting: It’s not absolutely necessary that your contract spells out whether you can sub-contract part of a project. Many clients will want you to remove that clause. If for any reason, however, you may need to sub-contract any part of the contract, make sure that is listed in the contract.
• Indemnification and Waivers: Many clients will try to get you to indemnify them against any damages or loss, as well as waive your right to injunctive relief. You may try to do so in reverse (I throw in that clause with many big corporations, expecting it to be removed before the contract is signed). If you can get your client’s to leave it off, you should — in most cases, it’s not important, but if something goes wrong (like you get sued as a result of your work), those clauses mean that you can’t sue your client.

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If you’ve got a question about the business side of freelance writing, send it my way. We’ll get an answer up next week!

As a full-time freelancer, I spend most of my days in my house, at my computer, talking to my cats. It can get a bit lonely at times and it doesn’t make for a great environment when I need to work with clients in person — after all, I don’t have a conference room hidden anywhere in here. I’ve been exploring co-working — sharing office space with other freelancers, as well as other business owners who would otherwise work from home. In most cases, you don’t pay anywhere near the full rent for a space — you can pay to work for a day or get a plan that allows you access to the space for a certain number of days each week.

My biggest problem has been that all the great co-working spots in my area require a commute. There are some cool places in both Baltimore and DC, but one of the benefits of freelancing is the fact that I don’t have to drive to either city on a regular basis. A couple of other freelancers I know and I started exploring the option of starting a co-working space closer to where we live — around Howard County, Maryland.

Here’s where you come in. If you’re in the HoCo area and you’d be interested in co-working with us, let me know. We need to fill two more desks in order to start up our space. The plans available are three days per week (for $175 per month) or seven days a week (for $275). We’ll also have drop-in rates, one day per week and one day per month plans once we’re operational, so let me know if you’re interested in those options, as well.

The amenities are great:

• High speed internet
• 24-hour access
• Free parking
• Near restaurants, shops, post office, etc.
• Easy access from I-95, 295 and other main roads

I’m happy to answer any questions you might have, as well.

There was a period of time when I thought my notebooks had to be just so; I would only write in a specific type of notebook, with a particular pen. That routine just about did me in as a writer. Rather than offering me a way to be a better writer (no matter how cool I thought my notebooks were), those routines offered me an easy way to procrastinate. If I didn’t have my notebook with me, I couldn’t write.

If I found myself with a spare hour but without my notebook — well, I wouldn’t be using that hour for writing. You can be sure of that. That writing routine of mine actually was an excuse not to write. I know that I purposely forgot my notebook at times when I could have gotten some good writing in, effectively giving myself permission to slack off and do something else.

Breaking Routines

Today, I write on different computers, type out notes on my phone and scribble notes on any piece of paper left in my vicinity too long. I still prefer using a notebook for hand-written notes and writing, if only because I can’t lose pages as easily as I can lose random notes. That said, the type of notebook certainly doesn’t matter to me.

I didn’t set out to break my routine: I found myself in a position where I was traveling and could only write on my laptop for several months. My notebook suddenly wasn’t an option. So I started working on my computer instead and rapidly realized that my notebook had little affect on the quality of my writing. It just happened to be the place where I was writing.

The Right Kind of Writing Routines

There are some kinds of writing routines that do support us in writing on a regular basis and those routines are well worth cultivating. Simple habits, like writing on a daily basis can get us to the point where we’ve completed books or have successful blogs, just by having a routine of writing every day, no matter what. The hard part is recognizing these routines.

Find the routines that work for you: the ones that support your ability to write on a regular basis and improve your skills. Toss the fancy notebooks and special pens, though, along with anything that is an excuse masquerading as a routine.

We’re getting pretty close to the end of the year, but there are still a few things that may make the difference in how your business does in 2010.

1. Talk to your accountant. I handle most of the bookkeeping for my business myself, but I pay my CPA to handle my income tax return as well as advise me on what I can be doing for myself and my business from a financial point of view. Suggestions like when to open a retirement account and how to use it to minimize the taxes I pay have more than covered the amount that I pay my CPA — and those payments are tax deductible as well. As the year ends, it’s good to check in with your accountant about the state of your business. You can talk about what you need before January 1st to improve your tax situation, as well as make plans for the new year.
2. Touch base with your clients. It’s worth checking in with your clients before either of you start to take time off for the holidays: starting with Thanksgiving, it can be a bit hit or miss to catch people in the office. I find it worthwhile to chat about everyone’s availability during the holiday season, especially if there are any deadlines approaching. It’s also helpful to check if they’re going to be sending any work your way in the first quarter of 2010.
3. Take a look at your prices. The beginning of a new year is a great opportunity to raise prices if you aren’t earning what you’re worth. It’s easy to tell clients that your prices will be going up after the end of the year, while it can be harder for them to remember that things are changing mid-month or even mid-year. Since most writers have a hard time raising our rates, having a set date to do so can provide a little internal motivation as well.
4. Double check your expenses. While we freelance writers have less expenses than a lot of other small businesses, there are a few standards: utilities, internet access, banking fees. A lot of these services change their terms and prices over the course of time — just as we may increase our rates on New Year’s Day, so might they — so it’s important to take a look at where those prices have gone. Spending 15 minutes checking through bills and seeing if you can negotiate a lower rate or take advantage of a discount can make the difference for your business. It’s also a good opportunity to review what tools you’re using. If you’re using software to manage certain parts of your business, it may be time to make sure that you’re getting the most out of that tool.
5. See how your colleagues are doing. The holiday season offers a great chance to check in with other writers. Many of us feel like we really know what’s going on based on what our peers post to Twitter, Facebook and other social networks, but it’s worthwhile to send out an email directly, check in on folks and see what’s happening. These little chats may give you insight on where you’re going in the next year, opportunities to team up or even a chance to just enjoy some downtime with a friend.
6. Clean out your inbox. From my email to my filing cabinet, I want to have everything emptied out by the end of the year. It rarely happens that way, but in trying to get as far as I can, I often catch things that would otherwise slip through my fingers. Take some of that downtime that comes with every holiday season as clients reduce the work they’re sending out and apply it towards cleaning out the old and making room for the new.
7. Set goals for 2010. I feel like goals are my main motivation for moving forward as a freelancer. If I can’t tell myself that next month I’m going to make more money, it’s hard to get up and send out more queries. At the end of each year, I check how I’ve done in achieving my goals and set some new ones for the future. By preference, I prefer to set out monthly goals, but some people prefer yearly. No matter what works for you, this time of year seems to be a good time to stop and think about goals.

What are you planning to do before the end of the year? How are you setting yourself up to succeed in 2010?

The past couple of weeks have been pretty hectic for me: my husband and I bought a house and moved into it. I’m still a little surprised that we managed it. After all, I’m a freelancer — a situation that causes many mortgage lenders to break out into hives. Just because my income can vary, the rules seem to change entirely.

However, we did get our mortgage and our house — and I came out of the experience with a few pieces of advice for freelancers ready to buy a home.

It’s All About Income Taxes

If you’re looking for a traditional mortgage, you must have at least two years worth of income tax returns showing at least your current income level. If you’ve made the switch to freelancing full-time in the last two years and don’t have income tax returns demonstrating how much you’re making, many lenders will essentially ignore your income. If you have a spouse who can manage the mortgage payment on his or her own, that’s not a big deal, but otherwise you are going to have to explore other options. I’ve also heard of freelancers taking part-time employment temporarily and having similar issues.

An FHA mortgage offers an alternative. Because the requirements have more flexibility, lenders who offer FHA mortgages are more willing to look at your current invoices and contracts to determine what your income really is. You’ll need a Year-To-Date report for your business as well as any supporting documents that the underwriter asks for. I was able to use a copy of my current outstanding invoices and list the projects that I already have lined up through the end of the year, along with providing a copy of my bank statement (I have a separate business checking account).

Think Ahead For A Home Office

Most freelance writers work from home. That means that making a dedicated home office area a priority during the hunt for a new home makes sense. The specifics of what you need may vary, but make sure you get what you need. As a bonus, it’s important to remember that if you have an area of your house used only for your freelance writing business, you can write off a portion of your utility bills and even your mortgage payments as a business expense.

Talk To A Tax Professional

Buying a house can make a big difference in your tax bill — even more so if you’re used to paying those quarterly estimated payments to the IRS. However, I would definitely recommend talking to your CPA or tax professional to see just how much you can save. My CPA was able to point out that not only would we qualify for this year’s first-time home buyer credit, but we’d also save a ton of money on our income taxes by deducting the interest we’re paying on the mortgage. We’ll actually have more money available after tax season by buying a house.

Kathryn Lang asks,

I want to know how you end up with eight hours for writing. I have yet to be able to make that happen around my home. Maybe I should just run away.

Some freelance writers struggle to schedule around day jobs. Some struggle to schedule around kids. There are plenty of other problems that can creep into a schedule — and sometimes they show up in combination. All of that means that setting a writing schedule can seem entirely impossible.

Because I know what can happen if I’m not careful, I’m very protective of my time. No matter who asks me for a favor or who I need to schedule an appointment with, I’m willing to say no if it doesn’t fit into my schedule. I do set aside a couple of day-time hours for errands and appointments and such, knowing that if I schedule time in, it’s easier to recover from the disruption of time away from the computer. To make up for that time, I may spend a couple of extra hours at the computer after dinner or on the weekend.

Just because I work for eight hours a day, though, doesn’t mean that you have to. I’m lucky to have a pretty flexible schedule (no kids yet, full-time freelancer), but my schedule would change in a heartbeat if I had another priority above work.

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Kathleen asks,

When someone emails you interested in your services, what do you say?

It can be hard to decide how to approach a prospective client. If you start with your rates, he might get scared off. If you start with trying to educate a client about why you charge a certain way, he might get bored.

I’ve come to the conclusion that a good starting point is to ask the client about himself and his project first. In general, most people don’t include enough information about their projects for me to offer a fair quote, so I list out the details I need. Because so many clients start out by asking rates, I do have a boiler plate paragraph explaining that I charge per project and why.

I also make a point of asking about the client’s goals with a project. More times than I can count, a client has come to me with a project, hoping to reach a specific end — but I can tell from my experience that the project will need to be tweaked or altered in order to achieve that goal. If I can mention that up front, I can often save both myself and the client a lot of worry.

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Matt Willard is looking for tips to find opportunities to connect with the people relevant to the writing work he wants to find — and he’s a humor writer.

Connecting with potential clients and editors before you actually try to get them to put money can make it much easier to convince them of the value of your writing when the time comes. The problem is, for some niches, it’s hard to find those people. Humor writers like Matt may actually have the hardest time of it: assuming that you don’t want to get into scriptwriting or other related projects, your main opportunities for selling your work will be to humor magazines and humor websites.

That means that you’ve got to build strong connections with humor editors. You need to at least make yourself known to them. The best starting point is likely to be the publications that these editors work for. Commenting on articles can be a way to build up a presence among what the editors think of as their community. Do it often enough and they may even recognize your name when you send in a submission. Those comments do have to be meaningful and well-thought out to really get the attention of editors, though.

It’s also worthwhile to get involved in some of the forums and groups on various social networking sites that share jokes and humorous links. Just looking on Facebook, there are hundreds of groups dedicated to jokes. Get involved and start sharing (among other things) links to your own writing). I’d suggest not limiting yourself to your own work — you’ll be better able to become a part of the overall community if they don’t see you as only promoting your own work.

This sort of approach works for more than just humor writers, of course. It’s just a matter of creatively connecting with the folks in your field.

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Have a question about the business of freelance writing? Ask it in the comments and I’ll answer it next Saturday!

Mike Dougherty asks,

How does a freelance writer best schedule their time?

Very carefully! I know that many writers use very different systems of managing their time: some people like to spend only a certain amount of time a day working on client work, while others ascribe to the philosophy that there are 24 usable hours in every day. I think it’s important to find a system that works well with the times you do your best work as well as your own habits. I know I can’t stay in a chair for more than an hour, for instance, so I schedule around that.

I can give you a quick run down on how I schedule my days. I have a basic schedule that I start from: I plan to spend four hours a day on client projects, two hours on my own projects and one hour on marketing. I know about how long most types of writing projects will take me and I generally try to schedule about four hours worth of work each day. I rarely have less and I often have more, which means I’m taking time away from my personal projects or marketing. I don’t, however, write down on a calendar that I’m going to work on Project X from 9 AM to 10 AM and switch to Project Y from 10 AM to 11 AM. Instead, I just focus on what is listed on my task list and work my way through it. This allows me to get up and wander around for five minutes every hour or so without having to make special accommodations in my schedule.

However, that really is just what I do. I know some freelancers work much better with a more regimented schedule and I know a few who think that I plan out my day too much — they just sit down with a list and see what happens. It’s up to you to find a comfortable schedule for your own writing. Once you find it, though, stick to it. Make it a habit. You know you’re doing it right if a day away from your schedule makes you a little bit uncomfortable.

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Jennifer Vaughn asks,

I’m curious to know what your sourcing/research process is like after you land a piece of writing.

While there are some differences in the articles that I pitch to editors and the long-term blogging assignments I don’t necessarily need to pitch for, I do handle certain parts of my research for both.

When I’m developing a query, I try to have at least one source that I already know will be able to work with me on the piece before I even pitch. I make a note of who that person is in my query, along with their relevant expertise. If, after my query is accepted, I need more sources, I follow these steps:

• I check my contact list for anyone who would be a good fit.
• I post a note on Twitter about who I’m looking for — but I don’t hold my breath. Twitter is great for tech-heavy articles and certain articles involving marketing. But otherwise, unless you’re looking for someone at a specific company, it can be tough to find a relevant source.

I submit a request to HARO. Even my truly obscure requests get at least one or two answers from prospective sources. I’ve had more than 70 responses for broader requests.

I’ll also do a couple of searches online to find other information and resources. Wikipedia is not a source, of course, but it can be a good way to start tracking down articles and websites that have mentioned your topic in the past. On certain projects, I’ve even been known to request books from the library. My district allows me to place a request online: they’ll find the book at whatever branch it was last turned in at and then deliver it to my local branch.

Once I start getting notes and interviews together, I tend to email them to myself. I use Gmail, so I can search for specific pieces of information very easily as I’m writing. That’s also why I like email interviews for a lot of the topics I work with.

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Have a question about the business of freelance writing? Ask it in the comments and I’ll answer it next Saturday!

During my presentation at AIW’s seminar yesterday, I promised to provide links to all the sites I talked about, so here they are!

Word Processing

• Google Docs
• Zoho Writer
• Adobe Buzzword

Distraction-Free Writing

• WriteRoom
• DarkRoom

Notetaking

• Evernote

Mindmapping

• MindMeister

Query Tracking

• Slushomatic
• Write Again

Invoicing

• Harvest
• Freshbooks

Contact Management

• Batchbook
• Gist

Task Lists

• Remember the Milk

Social Networking

• Tweetdeck

Internet Browsers

• Firefox

Firefox Plugins

• Shareaholic
• Text Area Word Counter

Desktop Blogging Tools

• Mars Edit
• Windows Live Writer

A few other sites that I mentioned in conversations throughout the day that may also be helpful:

• Help A Reporter Out — useful for finding sources for articles, books, etc.
• Scribd — embed PDFs in your website without eating up your hosting
• Google Analytics — tracks visitors to your website
• Cotweet — tweet from multiple Twitter accounts

There are thousands of other great tools for writers out there. If you find yourself needing something that isn’t up here, it my just be a matter of searching on Google. If you have any questions, please let me know, either in the comments or through my email form.