Self-inflicted scope creep often results from perfectionism gone awry. Sometimes, however, it’s caused by the slightly more-noble impulse to convert all of our hard-earned research and interviews into usable text. When I catch myself wasting time that way, I remind myself that readers or freelance clients see the final product. I’m the only one who knows what lands on the cutting room floor. [Read more…]
Academic malpractice in freelance pricing
Busy day, so just enough time for a quick rant. I met with a colleague for coffee yesterday. She’s a lawyer by trade, with plenty of courtroom experience and a solid background in the technical aspects of writing, but happens to be new to the freelance writing and editing business. At one point she mentioned that she’s enrolled in an editing certificate program through a well-known university. And something her professor suggested about freelance pricing, well, let’s just say it qualified as academic malpractice. [Read more…]
Friday link roundup
Super busy day ahead, but wanted to take a few minutes to share a link roundup of items I came across in the past few days:
Here’s How Daniel Pink Writes: Absolutely fantastic interview at Copyblogger with the author of Free Agent Nation, Drive, and, most recently, To Sell Is Human. Free Agent Nation made a huge impact on me when I was early in my freelancing career, confirming that I was on the right track going solo. I simply love the way he thinks, and am gratified that he thinks writer’s block is bunk, just like I do. [Read more…]
Video: Freelance writing speed
Been too long since I did a video—and I felt like dressing up in my scrubs—so here are some quick followup thoughts to last week’s post on “How much time will it take to write copy?”. Let’s talk about freelance writing speed.
Twitter ghostwriting rates
Dear Dr. Freelance, I am a rookie soon-to-be freelancer based in Europe who’s wondering how much to charge for Twitter ghostwriting.
The background: I am currently finishing a webdesign/copywriting project for a small software startup. Since they are both colleagues of mine and they were offering me the chance to collaborate on future projects, I gave them a 30% discount on an already very conservative estimate. Still, it was quite a lot of money for them. [Read more…]
Where can I find high paying freelance writing jobs?
It’s Dr. Freelance’s distinct pleasure to play today’s host for Jennifer Mattern’s March Virtual Blog Tour. Here’s her take:
One of the most common questions I receive from new freelance writers is “Where can I find the high paying freelance writing jobs you always talk about?” What they don’t understand at first is that the problem they face is right in their question. They’re looking for the “where,” when there is none. [Read more…]