I am of the firm belief that our own self-identity, in many ways, determines the trajectory of our freelance writing business. The fact of the matter is you’re going to operate your business very differently if you see yourself as a struggling author than you are if you see yourself as an entrepreneur.
Now, I’m not going to tell you how to see yourself. I’ve got my own thoughts on what works best overall, and I certainly know what works best for me. You’ll see some of that come through in the rest of this post, too, and I won’t apologize for it. At the same time, I will say that none of these models are inherently better than another.
Here are the 5 ways freelancers often see themselves:
1. Author
The author is an artist who uses words as her brush and canvas. Even if she pays the bills today by writing web articles, what she really wants to do is be a novelist. She spends her free time (and much of her work time, too) working on her latest masterpiece.
One in a thousand (or fewer) submitted novel manuscripts ever get published. Of those that do get published, only around 10 percent ever turn a nickel of profit, meaning the author gets only the advance – an average of $5,000 for a first novel.
I don’t know about you, but I have a family of 5. Even if I were to write my novel during NaNoWriMo, and even if it were to be published, that won’t feed my family. Novel dreams are fine, and you should pursue them if that’s your thing, but they don’t pay the bills.
2. Writer
Other freelancers see themselves as writers. That is, they write for a living. Even more than that, however, they identify themselves by that one task: writing. So, in many ways, clients become bosses. They often project income based on 40 hours a week of writing.
The downside to this model is that it doesn’t provide any opportunity for growth. It also puts all of your eggs in one basket. If you have one client and that client goes under or runs out of work, you’re screwed.
3. Freelance writer
This kind of freelance writer recognizes that there’s much more to making money as a writer than just the writing. There are sales and marketing to worry about. There is bookkeeping. There are a hundred other tasks, quite incidental to writing, that have to be done in order to make the business work.
The freelance writer sees himself as one-man team. He projects income based on a percentage. In other words, he assumes he’ll write 70% of the time, and bases income projects on that number.
The freelance writer is constantly in danger of burnout. He’s busy, and it shows. On top of that, he might not be the best salesperson, or he might get behind on taxes because he’s not especially good at accounting.
4. Entrepreneur
Some writers are entrepreneurs. They’ re constantly on the lookout for new ways to make money with their writing. They’re on the cutting edge of technological paradigms. They’re folks that make money blogging, or with social media, or who combine their writing services with marketing, design or other business services.
The entrepreneur runs the risk of becoming too diverse. She runs the risk of being a jack of all trades, master of none. On top of that, she can lose, and lose big, if the particular technology or strategy she’s investing her time and money in fail to pay off.
5. Writing Business Owner
The writing business owner treats his profession as a business. Rather than being the employee or a hired pen, he sees himself as the boss. He probably does some writing (after all, that’s what got him into this buisness). But he also probably hires other writers to do some writing, and becomes an editor in the process.
The writing business owner knows his limitations (most of the time). He hires someone to do his accounting, and probably his sales, too.
The writing business owner faces some dangers, too. He might grow quickly, hire a bunch of additional help, and then see sales drop back down. He might get so bogged down in administrative and editing tasks that it saps some of that writing joy.
So, what do you think? Which model do you prefer? Are there any that you’d say just don’t work? Have you moved through different models in your writing career?
