Freelance Writing For A Living: Part 11

April 23, 2008
I'm not sure this qualifies as a full entry in this series, but I was responding to a post on the BookEnds Literary Agency blog about book packaging and work-for-hire and I thought I made a point or two that would be of interest to freelance writers. I wrote:

As a freelance writer, work-for-hire is pretty much what I do for a living, and it's a pretty good living at that. That said, not all magazine writing is work-for-hire and there are contractual negotiations that can be made consider reprints and rights, at least at the higher end of the market.

It's not an unreasonable question either. I wrote a book-length business report and was paid $20,000. The publisher sells that report for something like $1200 (yes, apiece, welcome to the world of business) and as it turned out, this report is their best seller. In those terms, that's something like 100 or 150 copies, but do the math, it's clear the publisher is making significantly more money off this than I am. Should I get royalties?

Maybe. Do I? No. But it does give me some negotiating leverage for future reports and perhaps more importantly to my career, I can go to other publishers and say, "Hey, I wrote this, it made the publisher X number of dollars and sold this many copies, want to hire me?"

What certain work does for your reputation and how it helps deliver future work is a significant consideration if you're self-employed, as a writer or anything else.

Doing a book package deal for fiction may or may not have similar results. Would I be willing to write something like that for a relatively small amount of money and little or no royalties? It depends, but probably, yes. For a couple reasons.

1. Money. I have a mortgage, etc.

2. Wider readership. My own readership is fairly modest. If I were, say, given a chance to write a pre-sold concept (Star Wars, Star Trek, Murder She Wrote, CSI, et al) and still have my name on the cover, those books sell significantly more numbers than my own do. It's a great marketing bonus. It's also possible it will open other doors, bring you to the attention of editors and publishers at big houses, or even to producers and writers and execs in the TV and film industry. (Or video gaming industry, which is worth taking into consideration).

3. For the right book, I am SO there. My agent commented to me once that one of her clients was writing a Nancy Drew novel. She said there wasn't much money in it, but her client was thrilled to have the opportunity to do it. I can understand. I would absolutely love to write a Star Wars novel, among a few other franchises. There are some I wouldn't be interested in and so as a result, the money would have to make it worthwhile. But hey, if I had the opportunity to write about Obi Wan...

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What struck me as worthwhile was this statement:

What certain work does for your reputation and how it helps deliver future work is a significant consideration if you're self-employed, as a writer or anything else.

A freelancer's life and work has no guarantees. In fact, I would argue that the total lack of predictability is one of the few guarantees. Things change. You start out working in one area and end up working in another. Publications and publishers change directions, go broke, stop hiring freelancers, your editor quits or gets promoted or decides they don't like you any more (or vice versa).

But when I do a certain type of job, particularly if it's something I'm not necessarily excited about, one of the questions I ask myself is: what will this do for me in the long run?

Example: A little over a week ago, someone I work with at one of my clients' places contacted me to say she had been approached by a company that wanted her to write website content. She felt there was a conflict of interest (or possibly she just wasn't interested) because she was a staffer, whereas I was a freelancer. I told her to go ahead and refer me. Now, except for my own website, I've never written any website content. I am, however, something of an expert on the industry the client is in. The client called me, told me what she wanted. I was clear that although I had no direct experience doing this work, I was sure I could do it and I sent her a copy of my resume and told her how much I would charge.

I got the job. It's not probably going to add up to that much money and it's unlikely to turn into regular work (which can be a significant consideration when taking a job where maybe the money isn't all that great: will it nonetheless give you regular work every week or month?), but it puts a type of writing onto my resume and in my portfolio that will allow me--if I want to--to pursue some medical copywriting and website content work.

So that's something to keep in mind as a freelancer. Not just, do I want to do it, what's it pay, but: what might come of it?

Cheers,

Mark Terry