How Do You Cope?

I haven't made any $$$$ since May, but I'm retired and I get a small pension check as well as Social Security, so any money I make freelancing is just gravy anyway...

I never expected to "make a living" as a freelancer, so it''s all good, as far as I'm concerned.

I write for businesses instead of magazines. The pay's more regular (and pay is on submission -- no waiting months on end for publication before you get a check).

If you're trying to make a living with magazine writing, then you need to hustle your *ss off. You should have queries going out constantly, upping your chances of sales. It's not an easy way to make your rent, that's for sure.

I have a great husband and almost full-time job. When I get a freelance check, it's gravy. If I was going to do it full time, I would work more corporate jobs. Not fun but lucrative.

Realistically? I am married to a guy whose income pays the bills so that freelance work can be set aside for bonus expenses, entertainment, and savings. To make an actual, reasonable income freelancing, you have to have queries out all the time--a lot of them, and high quality! It also helps to take a mix of different types of jobs. Maybe this one doesn't pay as much as you like but they're known for paying FAST and can plug that gap between the larger, slower checks. Maybe that corporate job is boring as heck but will pay you a large enough chunk that you can live off it for the next few months while you wait for a magazine article to hit the stands. Variety and volume.

I write and copy edit and live off my husband's income. I apply for lots of work-for-hire stuff, anything I don't think will kill my brain to complete. After that, it's hoping for the best.

Edited to add: Special thanks to all the supportive spouses.

I have Day Job which pays all my bills. My husband is stay-at-home, with Lyme disease, so he's a house husband. I earn the bacon, and do the writing. I am an expert multi-tasker!

Debbie V said:

Special thanks to all the supportive spouses.

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Here, here!

Angie said:

I write for businesses instead of magazines. The pay's more regular (and pay is on submission -- no waiting months on end for publication before you get a check).

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Yeah, me too. I seriously can't imagine what it's like to constantly wait for things to get published before I get paid. But that's not a helpful answer.

How do I cope when I don't have jobs coming in?

I hustle. I'm talking about emailing all former clients. Cold-emailing new prospects. Searching directories and such to build a cold list. I don't "cope". When it's your livelihood, there's no time to cope. You just hit the pavement and knock on doors, or virtual ones in my case.

Jinn Zhong said:

Yeah, me too. I seriously can't imagine what it's like to constantly wait for things to get published before I get paid. But that's not a helpful answer.



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No writer should have to wait to get paid until after something is published. This is why God invented pay on acceptance markets.

maxitoutwriter said:

With not being paid on a monthly or weekly basis as a freelance writer. Like some submissions take up to 3-6 months just to receive a response. How do you cope?

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If you're in that situation, you either aren't writing nearly enough, or aren't selling anywhere near as well and as often as you need to in order to be a fulltime freelance writer.

If you're sending out material every week, and you should be sending out both finished pieces, and several new queries each week, how long response time is becomes meaningless. You should ne hearing back from something every week, and often more than once per week.

You should also be selling often enough to avoid any long periods without pay.

Freelance writing is a job, which means you have to sit down and work at it just as often as any other job, and you have to be good enough to it to be paid on a regular basis.

I do a lot of freelance non-fiction work - blog posts, white papers, etc for corporate entities. I have a few regular clients that cover about 50% of my needs.
I also do editing work.
If I don't make my expenses, I'm lucky, hubby covers the shortage. (All hail supportive spouses!)
For a long time, I maintained a part time job as a copywriter to ensure a base salary. Prior to that, I worked full time as an editor.

maxitoutwriter said:

With not being paid on a monthly or weekly basis as a freelance writer. Like some submissions take up to 3-6 months just to receive a response. How do you cope?

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Cheap booze.

Seriously, marry someone with a steady income, earn a decent pension, win the lottery or get a second job. Or get really good at budgeting really quick.

Haven't hit the lottery one yet, but the others can work.

Jeff

Multiple income streams. I never went the usual freelancer routes. I make ad revenue, copywriting fees, and until the Amazon KU changes, most of my income this year came from royalties on fiction. Aside from book reviews for a major newspaper when I was in college, I haven't written for offline publications. I don't have the patience to wait weeks and months for a go-ahead and then more months to publication and more months to payment.

Same as with any job that's irregular. You put away something each month, then during dry times you have something to carry you over. Just a matter of simple budgeting. (Keeping a ledger of expenditures, etc, helps.)

I worked as a freelancer. However, I had been a journalist on staff for several years prior to that. I it helped me because I was used to writing all the time and convincing editors to let me write stories. That's really what freelancing is about.

It helps to build relationships with editors. Building trust with them is key. A lot of writers miss deadlines and/or fail to turn in clean copy. Don't be one of those writers. The way to build relationships with editors is to have solid ideas and bring something to the table that another writer can't. Example, why are you the best person to write this story? It never hurts to mention that. Maybe you have already been in touch with sources who have agreed to be part of the story or something like that. This is something I always did.

Once you build those relationships, you will get quicker responses and hopefully more work.

Every publication I worked for paid upon publication. I know that can be hard, but if you are really doing this and treating it like a job, it will get easier and your income more stable. That doesn't really change the situation you are in right now, but, in time, it should, especially if some of those places are big names that will help build your reputation as a writer. I used to write for a really great publication, but it took about six months for a piece to run. There was a lot of fact checking involved and a more intense editing process than I had ever been through. It's how they operate. I was thrilled to write for them, and it definitely helped my career, but I knew I couldn't make a living off of writing and getting paid every six months by them.

So, I built up similar relationships with other publications like a few newspapers and other magazines that offered me steady work. I still had to pitch stories, but I started getting quicker reposes and more yes answers than no answers.

It may take more time than you thought to feel like you have a stable income, but it is possible to do it. Work hard, pitch often and meet deadline. Good luck!

gettingby said:

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Every publication I worked for paid upon publication. I know that can be hard, but if you are really doing this and treating it like a job, it will get easier and your income more stable. . Good luck!

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Why would you do that? Writing for pay on pub markets is not treating freelance writing as a job. There are thousands of pay on acceptance markets out there, and pay on pub should never, ever be one of your primary markets. Pay pub markets are for reprints, or for getting paid pennies. There's no way in blazes to earn decent money writing for pay o
n pub markets.

In fact, if you want to earn anything like good money freelancing, you should not only get a contract before even writing a piece, it should be a pay on acceptance contract, and it should specify a kill fee should the piece not be used for any reason.

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gettingby said:

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Every publication I worked for paid upon publication. I know that can be hard, but if you are really doing this and treating it like a job, it will get easier and your income more stable. . Good luck!

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Why would you do that? Writing for pay on pub markets is not treating freelance writing as a job. There are thousands of pay on acceptance markets out there, and pay on pub should never, ever be one of your primary markets. Pay pub markets are for reprints, or for getting paid pennies. There's no way in blazes to earn decent money writing for pay o
n pub markets.

In fact, if you want to earn anything like good money freelancing, you should not only get a contract before even writing a piece, it should be a pay on acceptance contract, and it should specify a kill fee should the piece not be used for any reason.

You need to rely on different types of jobs. I write articles, proofread texts, and do some translation work from time to time. In case you depend on only one type of a job, it can get pretty nasty.

Angie said:

I write for businesses instead of magazines.

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This. I invoice on 14 day terms. If I think they might be sketchy, I will ask for part payment up front.

handsomegenius said:

This. I invoice on 14 day terms. If I think they might be sketchy, I will ask for part payment up front.

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I don't work with them if I think they might be sketchy. I ask for a 50% deposit from all new clients and for large projects (for which I have to turn aside other work) as a standard policy.

Jamesaritchie said:

Why would you do that? Writing for pay on pub markets is not treating freelance writing as a job. There are thousands of pay on acceptance markets out there, and pay on pub should never, ever be one of your primary markets. Pay pub markets are for reprints, or for getting paid pennies...

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Actually James, my experience seems to be the opposite of yours. Every magazine I work with pays based on publication, including both regionals and nationals. Salon paid the most so far, but took the longest, all spelled out fairly in the contract of course. Payment arrived a week before I expected it so kudos to them. Also, they all want fresh, original content.

When I work for corporate clients, they pay on acceptance. They don't care if it's a reprint sometimes, as long as it fits their needs.

Maybe there's just a lot of variety in markets?

Max, if you're going to rely on freelancing for your bread & butter, then write, pitch and submit daily. Track your subs and expected payment dates. Follow up. Eventually, you'll have a regular income stream from your repeat clients. And I agree with Hunter and the others: branch out.

Wishing you the best!

Still in school with a part time job, so it doesn't really make much of a difference. I can definitely sympathize, though.