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 most important explanation why freelance writers don’t earn more cash
Cause 1: You’re not advertising and marketing sufficient
Once I converse with writers who’re caught making $10,000 or $20,000 a 12 months, I often start by asking them about their advertising and marketing. Are they not getting responses to their queries? Really feel they don’t do effectively at in-person networking? Need assistance with their cold-calling expertise?
The solutions are at all times the identical. It isn’t that they need assistance enhancing how they do this stuff—they merely aren’t querying, aren’t networking, and aren’t cold-calling. To sum up, they’re not advertising and marketing their enterprise, apart from maybe capturing the occasional resume to a web based job advert.
You’ve obtained to continually be on the lookout for new and higher purchasers to maintain your slate full. That is additionally the way you elevate charges: you discover better-paying purchasers, after which sooner or later you have a look at your roster and understand you’re so busy you possibly can drop the lowest-paying account.
In the event you’re actively prospecting, you get extra new purchasers and may drop low payers sooner, resulting in greater 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 a substitute of constructing relationships
New writers typically get so enthusiastic about having an project that they neglect—each project ought to be, like they are saying on the finish of Casablanca, the start of a good looking friendship. You must hyperlink in social media to that editor so that you simply by no means lose observe of them, even when they alter jobs.
If you flip in your story, don’t let the connection momentum die. You have to be prepared with two or three further story concepts. In the event you don’t have concepts, a minimum of ask the editor what their wants are developing. As a substitute 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 could have and promote it a number of locations. Personally, I’ve recycled story concepts a lot previously 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 knowledgeable 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, an area newspaper…and so forth. You match extra articles into annually extra simply, you invoice extra, you make extra.
What’s all of it boil all the way down to? Be prepared to exit and actively search for better-paying purchasers, and do your writing assignments extra effectively. Do this, and your revenue is sure to rise.
This publish initially appeared on the WM Freelance Author’s Connection.