Christine Rice - Freelance writing guide: what to expect in your first year as a freelance writer

Freelance Writing Guide: What to Expect in Your First Year as a Freelance Writer

By Christine Rice

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2012 Christine Rice

Discover other titles by Christine Rice at Smashwords.com:

Poetry for the Heart

Essays for the Soul

My Not-So-Ordinary Life

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If youre reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This book is dedicated to all the new and experienced writers in the world who wish to become freelance writers.

Table of Contents

First of all, thank you for showing interest in my book! I started writing Freelance Writing Guide after I had been a freelance writer for nine months and I finished it at sixteen months. I was initially inspired to write it because of all I had learned as a freelance writer and how much I enjoyed writing. I wanted to share what I had learned - both my experiences and my knowledge - with other writers to save them time from having to do the research (about content websites, writing book reviews, and search engine optimization, for example) on their own.

When I first began freelance writing, I had a lot of questions: How do the content websites work? What do the different types of rights to a writers work mean? What is the proper structure of a book review? Is it necessary to brainstorm ideas and create an outline? I hope, by the end of this book, these and other questions will be answered. I hope that you will feel more prepared to take the plunge into starting a freelance writing career.

This book is written objectively as a factual book that is addressed directly to you as a reader, so Id like to tell you a little about myself to share my personal and professional experiences with you so that you will know the type of person I am and what qualifies me to write this book.

I had wanted to be a writer since 2005, which was when I bought my first computer. I wrote journal entries and poetry since 1990, but I wanted to get more serious about my writing and thought a computer would help me do so. So I began typing poems and essays on the computer.

In 2006, I read a book about a womans experiences with losing weight that she initially chronicled in a weekly magazine column. She was living a life she chose and writing about it for a career. It was at that moment I realized I could do the same, so I decided I would become a professional writer.

I began writing a book about eating healthy and weight loss, and I queried twenty literary agents. No one picked up my book idea, but I wasnt discouraged. I tried writing my book again from the beginning to make it better, but didnt end up finishing either version.

In 2007, I enrolled in college as an English major. I truly loved school and did my schoolwork perfectly, because I had a passion for it. I thought, this is my ticket to succeeding as a writer! A few months later, I joined Writing.com, where I created a portfolio for the poems and essays I had written and got involved in the websites online community.

That same year, I published my first book, Poetry for the Heart , as a paperback with Lulu. I liked the feeling of being published and holding a book of my writing, so in 2008 I published a second book, Essays for the Soul . I quickly began writing my third book, which was an autobiography.

In 2009, I tried writing for Helium, where I published a few poems and essays. I also signed up with Demand Studios (content website) and Textbroker (ghostwriting marketplace). But I quickly got discouraged, because I thought the pay was very little (I mistakenly thought writers made a lot of money from the start).

That same year, I published the autobiography and titled it My Not-So-Ordinary Life . I continued to work on school while working full-time as a finance assistant. I was very busy and couldnt wait to become a professional writer.

Unfortunately, I stopped attending school at the end of 2009, because I lacked motivation, and I also resigned from my job in finance.

For a little over a year, I dealt with health issues from a car accident. I started a health blog at the end of 2010 and blogged regularly.

In the spring of 2011, I was feeling better health-wise and had more time on my hands, so I decided to give those content websites another try. I put all my time and effort into writing articles and poems for Helium, Textbroker, Yahoo, and Suite101. I also worked for Elance and submitted over a dozen proposals to open positions, but unfortunately I was not selected for any; however, I did learn a lot about writing proposals and how the work-for-hire community works.

In December 2011, I began writing book reviews for publishers and authors. I wrote a book review for every book I read. (I think I will always do that, because I enjoy reading, and writing a book review doesnt take up much of my time, generally speaking.)

In January 2012, I began writing this book and another book, published second editions of my three published books, started an author blog, and really committed myself to writing full-time. From January up until April 2012my one year anniversary as a freelance writerI learned how to compose a press release (and wrote several), took up marketing (by hosting online events), participated in blog interviews, wrote guest blog posts, and provided editing services.

From April 2012 up until now, well, that will be saved for a future book about what to expect in the second year of a freelance writing career!

In this book, there are no untrue claims that youll be rich from day one, and none of the information is exaggerated in any way. Rather, the information provided is truthful and direct about what I encountered in my first year as a freelance writer.

I truly hope you enjoy this book. I also hope it answers your questions and you learn a lot. All the best to you!

Sincerely,

Christine Rice

8/12/12

So youre interested in becoming a freelance writer? There is a lot to learn, but well take it a step at a time and divulge each important point a chapter at a time.

First, youll need to address your priorities. Have you started writing yet? Writing is crucial to being a freelance writer. When you break it down, a freelance writer is a writer that makes money off of their writing (while working from home). You can perform the act of writing without earning money, such as if you dont publish it, but as a freelance writer you cant earn money without the act of writing. Therefore, the most basic and important component of freelance writing is writing.

Teaching someone how to compose a piece of writing is similar to how animals care for their young. They feed and nurture them, and teach them skills, and then, probably when the child animal still doesnt feel very independent yet, the parent animal lets them go fend for themselves. Let me explain.

Writing is taught in school in English classes. In college, it is taught through more specialized classes, such as creative writing and technical writing. You will have received lots of instruction on mechanics, vocabulary, spelling, structure, and grammar in school, and possibly tips on conciseness, forms, research, and creativity in college. Then you are set free to do it all on your own and, hopefully, remember what youve learned. It doesnt end there. There is more to learn, more practice to gain, and more avenues to explore.

Unless you are an English teacher, it is difficult to teach someone how to write. This is especially true for writers, because writing techniques come more naturally to them, so they find it hard to explain how they do what they do. Teaching writing is partially an abstract topic, as every person has their own preferences on what makes good writing.