Write For Money No.1
After writing two books, securing a third one under contract and taking my first stab at editing for an official publisher, I opened up the blogging floor for questions about writing. This is what lead to some of my current series like I Like Writing (Weekly Finds for the Writer in the Making and Epub: What the Media Isn’t Telling You About Self-Publishing), not to mention this free online support community for writers.
I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised, then, when half the questions rolling in had less to do with the writing process and more to do with another universal need in this economy: acquiring cold hard cash…as a writer.
A lot of people are laid off, being forced to take pay cuts, or just looking for a way out of their current jobs and into more writing opportunity. It’s only natural to want to connect something you love to do (writing) with getting paid, right?
Along those lines, I thought I’d start offering a weekly suggestion–tips of the obvious and not so obvious–on how to get paid to write.
Write for Money No. 1: Join a Moonlighting/Freelancing Service
These sites exist, literally, to help writers write for money.
Here are the moonlighting services with the best reputations:
How These Sites Work
FIRST THINGS FIRST: You, as a writer, create an online profile that establishes your credentials as a writer. Don’t worry if you don’t have any “official” credits to include. Just put whatever you do have. Did you work for the school newspaper or yearbook in college? That’s a start. If you edit your church newsletter, stick that in there too. Have a blog? Link to that. An English (or related) degree? Mention it. Everyone starts somewhere. Once you take a job that is published, quickly add it into your profile to keep expanding your resume section.
On the flip side, clients (individuals or people who often represent companies) who need writers also create profiles.
Some websites allow you to create a website for free, but you’re probably not going to make much money until you’re willing to pay for the expanded options of a membership with a monthly or annual fee you can cancel any time. (The first and only job I ever tried and successfully got off a moonlighting service immediately paid for the annual fee 10x over).
SECONDLY: Here’s where the write for money part comes in. The clients post an ad–something like you might see in the Classified section of those increasingly-antique resources called newspapers. The ad describes the writing project they are seeking a writer for. And, believe me, among the listings you will find every kind of writing project you can dream up. Some people need ghost writers for full length books (some are even rumored to be famous authors who seek assistance keeping up with their contracts). Some need a person with a good command of the English language to proofread a manual or policy book they’ve written for their company. Others need help editing curriculum, brochures, even letterhead.
Then, you as a writer, go in and submit a bid (how much money you’re willing to do it for) on the project. The company reviews the bidders (they don’t always go with the lowest bidder, sometimes they go with a moderate bid from someone who seems reputable) and chooses one to work on their project.
The system then functions a little bit like Ebay. You get paid through the service, via your bank account (or most still let you submit a check request, I think). And at the end of the process, the company who worked with you gets to provide feedback on you and you get to provide feedback on them. Good feedback from one client, of course, helps you get future jobs, so making the client happy is in your best interest if you want to continue to write for money.
**Have you ever taken a freelance project, in real life or online? How did it work out? Feel free to click on the Comments and tell me your story. Also, if you have a writing question, feel free to drop it to me at sarahraymondcunningham (at) gmail (dot) com. Also, don’t forget to join the online writing support system.**