A Freelance writer does writing for companies and individuals on a variety of topics without revealing to the public or anyone that they did the writing giving the individual or company the credit for their work.
Primary Responsibilities:
- A Freelance writer performs the duty of writing an article, blog, or book in a timely manner without revealing that they are the author.
- A Freelance writer may write for several individuals or companies at the same time but must not let the other parties know and must not submit the same materials to more than one party.
- A Freelance writer must show integrity and honesty in their work ethics.
A Freelance writer commits to a writing assignment should get all the particulars required before beginning to write. The English grammar skills and spelling are a given for a freelance writer. The things like the size of the article, terminology expected to be use, time table for completion are all provided to you by the buyer. It is wise to have discussion with the buyer finding out the things that they expect before you do the assignment. In many cases when you are going to be writing multiple articles, books, or blogs you should write a few samples and send to the buyer to make sure that you are writing what is expected of you.
A Freelance writer needs good computer skills, research capabilities, and typing skills. You will need to check the spelling and grammar from your writing program but it is very helpful if you can write without constant misspellings or grammar errors. There is nothing like having your checker says no errors found. When you are writing you may not be doing perfect English depending on the type of material that you are focusing on. You will find that when you write for people from another country that perhaps your technique and style may need to change in order to please the buyer. You find that your writing takes on a different tone for different types of articles. The different kinds of writing that a Freelance writer can do are:
- A Freelance writer can focus on being a business writer.
- A Freelance writer can focus on marketing writing.
- A Freelance writer can focus on web writing.
- A Freelance writer may decide on doing query and writing for magazines, anthologies or newspapers.
- A Freelance writer may focus on writing for non-profit organizations by writing proposals developments and grant writing.
A Freelance writer should focus on the type of writing that they feel that they are best suited to do and do most of the writing that particular area. You can advance yourself by taking some course from your local community college in English Grammar, Computer Labs, and Writing courses. Experience is one of the best methods to get good clients. There is no real guild or organization that helps a Freelance writer with clients but there are several good organizations that are more than willing to let you work through them and will help you find good jobs and get paid.
The pitfalls of becoming a Freelance writer are few but are worth making note to help you to avoid problems. One thing is that you need to be weary of false buyers. Unfortunately, there are buyers who will ask you to write articles and they refuse to pay you for your work later telling you this is not what they wanted. It is best to go through one of the well-known hiring groups who will back you up until you have built up clients whom you can trust. One thing unfortunately is that you should be very careful about submitting materials to someone else after the first person refused your articles. Please do not assume that they will not use your materials. When this happens you do not have proof that you were the original writer putting you into a very serious position. Remember copying other people’s work is illegal. Even though you wrote the materials first if it shows up on a website or a magazine in someone else’s name then you have lost that work.
A good Freelance writer can normally find work on a continuous basis when they have set up their portfolio and have good references from other buyers. One thing that you should be able to do is write articles and stories on your own and have them published so that when you do write for others and cannot reveal that work you still have your own writings that you can use for your portfolio.