How to Start Freelancing
One of the questions I get most often as a freelancer is “how do you actually begin?”
It makes sense, given it was definitely one of the first questions I myself had two years ago when I first joined this strange section of the workforce. Most of the advice I could find was encouraging but wildly vague. Very little of it was actionable or gave clear steps.
Now that I’m actually doing it, I can see why it’s so hard to explain. Any job is unique, but freelancers have to be one of the categories with the widest range between what their job title is to what they actually do every day. One “freelance writer” could have a fundamentally different pay scale, niche, and daily schedule than another. However, there are still a few common things to figure out no matter where you’re heading (and especially if you’re not yet sure).
Literary Agents Who Respond FAST
While you certainly shouldn’t choose which agent to query based on who responds quickest, knowing the response times of agents can nonetheless be a great help. Once you have your initial query list pulled together, sending the first batch to some agents who have a history of quick responses can help you determine whether your query package (particularly query letter) is working the way you hope.
Knowing how helpful these lists were for me while I was querying, I wanted to share what I could. Below you’ll find who had the fastest response times for me, as well as general information on response times.
What does it actually mean to be a freelancer?
The trouble with freelancing is that at its surface, everyone knows what it is, but as soon as you start talking logistics, it all becomes rather hazy. Freelancing is a term that is so vast that it covers the same sort of range that something like “salaried” or “part-time job” might, and just like these terms, one person’s freelancing will likely look vastly different from another’s.
Honestly, the easiest way I’ve found to explain the whole freelance thing is to keep in mind the following characteristics that freelancers tend to have in common:
Self-Employment: Though most freelancers work with companies, we are not that company’s employees. This means that they typically aren’t responsible for us when it comes to things like taxes and healthcare typically, but also means they don’t get to dictate details like hours.
Project-Based or Time-Based Work: A good full-time employee can generally expect to keep their job indefinitely. While they can certainly be laid off (and many are), most employers offer benefits like transition help or extended final paychecks to soften such instances. On the flip side, freelancers are generally hired for a period of time or a specific project and may or may not be hired again. There is never severance or a guarantee of future work with freelancing.
Multiple Clients: You certainly can be a freelancer with a single, well-paying client, but the vast majority work with at least a few different clients.
How I Got My Literary Agent
Let’s start with the obvious: querying is hard.
Querying in the midst of a pandemic, massively overworked literary agents, and a changing publishing landscape is especially hard. Anyone who is doing it should honestly get a gold medal in perseverance (also, probably chocolate for, ya know, the feelings).
I’ve always found posts about how authors manage to cross that proverbial finish line to be immensely helpful and encouraging in the past, so I wanted to do my part and make my own!
Follow along for some real talk, statistics, and a healthy dose of humor along the way.