If you want freedom, flexibility to express personal style, more time for your family, interests and hobbies, more variety and more control; and, you have self-discipline, a strong work ethic, good interpersonal skills, appropriate assertiveness, situational awareness, and don't mind working home alone, you may be ready to launch your business as an editorial freelancer.Being an editorial freelancer takes a variety of professional abilities, personal attributes, and business skills. You will find the essentials for developing all of these in this booklet; as well as, definitions of the types of editorial freelancing, lists of skills, tools, resources, and pros and cons of freelancing.This booklet answers the most common questions asked by editors considering the freelance life: How to get started-choosing a business name, type of business entity and accounting system, basics for marketing the new freelance business, find clients and assignments, how to identify possible fraud, how much to charge, and how to get paid. The authors share practical skills such as what language to include in service agreements and how to send invoices and collect payments. Written by two experienced editorial freelance professionals at different places in their careers, the revised edition of Freelancing 101 includes expanded information about finding work through job placement and freelance websites, marketing freelance businesses and finding work using LinkedIn and social media, and details about SaaS tools that automate some of the tasks of running a freelance business.
Author Biography:
Ruth E. Thaler-Carter (writerruth.com) has done freelance writing for pay since high school; was an in-house writer, editor, and/or proofreader for a weekly newspaper, university administration newsletter, international magazine, national trade association, and public hospital; has been a full-time freelance writer/editor since 1984; and has won awards for her writing, editing, and newsletter work. Thaler-Carter created the Be a Better Freelancer(R) conference of Communication Central (communication-central.com) in 2006 and has hosted the event every year since. She is also the owner of A Flair for Writing, which helps independent authors get published, and the An American Editor blog, which covers editing, writing, proofreading, and freelance business matters. Robin Martin (TwoSongbirdsPress.com) has been a member of the EFA since 2009, when she started her own full-time freelance business. Robin works with fiction and nonfiction writers and business people to get their messages to their intended audiences with the desired outcomes. The managing editor for Under the Gum Tree, a creative nonfiction and digital arts literary magazine, Martin also manages, edits, and creates content for business marketing materials. She became the Publications chairperson for the Editorial Freelancers Association in 2019.
