© 2003, Janet Lorimer Unless you just returned from a fact-finding mission to Mars, you know we're in a recession. And unless you've just signed a long-term, lucrative contract with a major publishing house, you're probably wondering what else you can do with those writing talents of yours. Is there some other way to turn them into dollars? First, let's take a look at those talents. Since you're a writer, you may also want to include editing and/or proofreading in your skills list. Now let's take a look at how you may be able to use these skills to earn extra income, right in your community. Okay, so these jobs may not be a glamorous way to make money, but who cares about glamour when you're pricing a box of cereal. Furthermore, working at writing jobs in your community broadens and enhances your writing skills. And one job can lead to another which can lead to another which can .... Some of the best writing and writing-related jobs may be right under your nose. Stop and think about all the locally printed matter that comes into your home on a daily basis. Newspapers, magazines, circulars, flyers, brochures. That's only a small portion of what you see in print each day. All that printed material has to be written, edited, and/or proofed by someone! Why not you? Believe it or not, a lot of companies do use freelance writers, editors, and proofreaders. Freelancers save companies money. The company does not have to provide a freelancer with an office, office equipment and furniture; most freelancers prefer to operate out of their home-based offices. Freelancers don't get extra fringe benefits, like health insurance, retirement benefits, overtime pay, parking privileges, etc. Freelancers are sometimes called on to work the irregular hours that a fulltimer would never consider working. Freelancers can often be pulled in on very short notice. Once the job is done, they fade gently into the woodwork until the next time they're needed. Okay, so this may not look like a very pretty picture for you, the freelancer, but if it means immediate employment, don't complain. I personally find these freelance jobs a lot of fun. For one thing, I don't have to commute to the same job day in and day out. I'm not stuck in 9-5 routines. The work is often unusual, something I find challenging. One day I may be teaching a seminar on techniques of clear writing. The next day I'm proofreading a government report. The day after I'm revising a personnel manual. Never a dull moment! Now that you've established what services you can sell and why you should be hired, you need a Master Plan of Attack. Oops, sounds a little like you're going into battle. Well, trying to sell yourself can be a scary, depressing proposition. First, you need to figure out who to contact. The yellow pages come in very handy at this stage. Any company that generates written materials is fair game. That may include: * local publishers * ad agencies * big corporations * small businesses * government offices * colleges and universities * utilities firms * unions * clubs and/or other organizations. Once you've got a list of places to contact, work out a schedule to go with it. Depending on how desperate you are, you can make an agreement with yourself that you'll hunt for freelance work every morning from 8-12 or from 12-2 or whatever works best for you. Or maybe you'll feel more comfortable setting a number goal. "I'll contact 5 companies each day," you promise yourself. Once you've achieved that day's goal, treat yourself to something special--a cup of coffee, a walk in the park, another chapter in the book you're reading (or writing). Sure it's scary to pick up the phone and call a company, but what have you got to lose? It helps if you first rehearse what you're going to say. And what's the worst that can happen? They may say, "No thanks, we don't use freelancers." If they do, keep in mind that the sun will still rise tomorrow, cross them off the list, and go on to the next phone number. Not long ago a friend of mine got the idea of trying to find jobs as a freelance proofreader. Although she didn't have her degree in English, she had excelled in that subject in school, and while working in other jobs had proofed other people's reports. She had to work very hard to get her nerve up to make the initial contacts, but she was desperate. She was working as a substitute teacher which will never make anyone rich! Finally, she forced herself to create a Plan of Attack! That meant making a list of all the places that might use her services. She began with the obvious--local publishers, both book and periodical. That's a good place for you to begin, too. Not all publishing houses are named Doubleday. Some local publishers may publish little things, like local guide books, local directories, local maps, etc. To her surprise, my friend learned that the local publishers did indeed use freelancers. She made appointments for interviews and signed up with them. You should also know that many places will give you a test to see what your skill level is. Feeling more courageous, my friend expanded her list to include every large business she could think of, such as banks, ad agencies, small newspapers, even utilities companies. As she discovered, any company that generates written material may need a proofreader. If you follow her lead, don't get your hopes up that you'll be steadily busy. When it comes to freelancing, it's often a case of feast or famine, as I discovered last year when I worked several part-time jobs. One of them was as a proofreader for an engineering firm. They were producing a Federal Environmental Impact Statement and every few weeks they had sudden and immediate life-or-death deadlines--or so you would have thought from the hours we proofreaders worked. Usually the proofreaders were called in on weekends. Sometimes the work didn't start until late afternoon, and then we'd be hard at it till the wee small hours. Once, I found myself driving home at 3 a.m. with proofreader symbols floating around in my brain, and wondering why I hadn't taken my mother's advice to become a dietician. But for $15 an hour, I couldn't complain, especially when I had to go grocery shopping. (Lest you think I jest, a box of cereal in Hawaii sells for about $6! No lie!) That proofreading job was one I obtained through a temp agency. So be sure you add temp agencies to your list. You should ascertain in advance if they need people with your skills. You may end up "signing on" with half the temp agencies in town, but who knows what jobs that might lead to. Don't forget that colleges and universities may use the services of a freelancer. A community college near my town hired me on several occasions to rewrite materials they needed to use in non-credit classes. Local government offices may be able to use your services, too, so be sure to add them to what should now be a growing list. Via word-of-mouth, I got a short term job rewriting a manual for the State's Department of Personnel Services. Speaking of word-of-mouth, you need to get the word out about who you are and what you do. Word-of-mouth is certainly one way, but there are other methods that may produce more immediate and tangible results--like phone calls from would-be employers. After you've made a list of places that might use your skills, you may want to put together a brochure or flyer about yourself. Thanks to the miracle of desktop publishing, doing your own "resume" is cheaper than having someone else do it. On the other hand, nothing can be quite so agonizing as trying to sell yourself. If you have a friend who's a writer, you might work out an agreement to do brochures or flyers for each other. The barter system is alive and well, especially in the Age of Recession. I worked out an agreement with a friend to help her with the children's book she was working on if she would help me with my brochure. Doing a mass mailing can get expensive, so you might want to hand-carry them to various businesses close by. Only mail them to people who respond positively to one of your phone calls. Business-size cards that detail your abilities can be created very cheaply on a computer. You should be able to get several "master" cards on one sheet. Take the master sheet to a photocopy service and run it off yourself on nice, heavy paper. Cut your cards apart neatly with a good paper cutter (the photocopy service probably has one) and tack them on bulletin boards everywhere! Also, hand them out. I've learned to carry business cards with me, to give them to everyone I meet. Well, no, I don't assault passing strangers and cram my card down their throats, but you know what I mean. What should you charge for these wonderful services? I use the current edition of Writer's Market to help me select appropriate fees. WD offers a range of figures, so consider your skill and experience level, as well as the recession. I was going to raise my rates before the recession hit. But once we were well into it, I realized that might be a mistake. I've chosen to keep my rates on the low side and I'm quick to point that out to prospective clients. Furthermore, I have no compunctions for asking for other forms of compensation--such as the names and phone numbers of more would-be clients. Hey, it's a dog-eat-dog world, right? When I worked on the manual for Personnel Services, I asked for the names and phone numbers of the heads of all Departments in the State so that I could send them my brochure. They tell us the recession won't last forever. I hope "they" are right. But in the meantime, freelancing locally helps pay the bills (while I work on the Great American Novel in my "free" time).
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