Gripes about pay are an epidemic within the writing world. However there are nonetheless good-paying assignments on the market. So why don’t writers earn more cash?
In my expertise mentoring writers, there are three foremost the explanation why freelance writers don’t earn more cash
Cause 1: You’re not advertising sufficient
Once I converse with writers who’re caught making $10,000 or $20,000 a 12 months, I normally start by asking them about their advertising. Are they not getting responses to their queries? Really feel they don’t do properly at in-person networking? Need assistance with their cold-calling abilities?
The solutions are all the time the identical. It isn’t that they need assistance bettering how they do these items—they merely aren’t querying, aren’t networking, and aren’t cold-calling. To sum up, they’re not advertising their enterprise, other than maybe taking pictures the occasional resume to a web based job advert.
You’ve bought to always be in search of new and higher purchasers to maintain your slate full. That is additionally the way you increase charges: you discover better-paying purchasers, after which sooner or later you take a look at your roster and notice you’re so busy you’ll be able to drop the lowest-paying account.
In the event you’re actively prospecting, you get extra new purchasers and might drop low payers quicker, resulting in larger common pay. In the event you’re writing for $15 an article, it’s since you’re not taking the time to market your enterprise and discover better-paying markets.
Cause 2: You’re getting assignments as an alternative of constructing relationships
New writers typically get so enthusiastic about having an project that they neglect—each project must be, like they are saying on the finish of Casablanca, the start of a stupendous friendship. You must hyperlink in social media to that editor so that you simply by no means lose monitor of them, even when they alter jobs.
If you flip in your story, don’t let the connection momentum die. You need to be prepared with two or three extra story concepts. In the event you don’t have concepts, at the very least ask the editor what their wants are arising. As an alternative of a one-off, attempt to flip every relationship into a gradual gig.
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Cause 3: You’re not reselling
One nice strategy to maximize your earnings is to take every story thought you’ve gotten and promote it a number of locations. Personally, I’ve recycled story concepts a lot prior to now I’m dizzy. I’ll write a few enterprise subject for a Canadian conglomerate, then a U.S. journal, then a company web site.
Reselling accelerates earnings since you leverage the analysis and skilled interviews you probably did as soon as throughout many paychecks, making you extra environment friendly. You’ll be able to interview one supply and promote the story to their college journal, a enterprise journal, a neighborhood newspaper…and so forth. You match extra articles into annually extra simply, you invoice extra, you make extra.
What’s all of it boil right down to? Be prepared to exit and actively search for better-paying purchasers, and do your writing assignments extra effectively. Do this, and your earnings is certain to rise.
This publish initially appeared on the WM Freelance Author’s Connection.
