Looking to the Ivory Tower

If you’re looking for a way to subsidize your writing and earn extra income, you might consider teaching. Teaching has always been a traditional financial base for writers. It’s often the first route freelancers explore, and for good reasons. The time you devote to it is relatively flexible. Let’s face it, the ivory tower can beckon invitingly after several years of scratching out a living as a freelance writer—the chase after editors, the haggling for peanuts, the worrying over the paying your mortgage or rent can all be debilitating.

What's waiting for you, if you decide to pursue this possibility? Aside from the benefits mentioned above, there are a few problems you may encounter as well, mainly stiff competition in a tight job market. If you want the kind of security that comes with a full-time position, you'll need an advanced degree. Without it, you'll face an uphill struggle. But if you seek a full-time position, will you have time to continue writing? Chances are once you get used to a regular paycheck, you’ll not want to go back to earning a living as a full-time writer.

The answer is to seek part-time employment, but not just any job. The work that will give you the most benefit and will fit nicely into your schedule and creative side is teaching continuing-education courses at local school nights, community colleges, and universities. Pay for these jobs generally runs from a low of perhaps $20 an hour teaching courses at community school nights to $40 an hour teaching at universities.

Most writers gravitate toward teaching the obvious—writing and journalism. But it's possible to devise a course based on a specialty of yours. If you’re an expert on money management, for example, you could offer a beginners' course on budgeting and finances or even tax preparation. If you also do photography, consider a course in basic digital photography. If you’re a science writer, you might create a course based on a fascinating topic, if you handle it broadly enough, might appeal to a wide assortment of students.

If you write travel articles and books, why not put together some travel lectures based on your articles and travels. These can be done individually or grouped into an armchair traveler series. Whatever your specialty, take advantage of it.

Before you plunge headlong into teaching, do some market research. It’s not unlike what you normally do to sell your writing. Ask someone in college continuing-education departments what types of courses students request most often. Find out what they’re looking for before you approach them with your own suggestions.. Plan ahead and prepare your resume to impress.

Remember, academics will be impressed that you have published. They’ve faced the publish- or-perish syndrome for years. The simple fact that you’ve managed to get your words in print can be a big plus for you. Today’s students want courses taught by people in the field. They seek first-hand advice and expertise. If you do teach a writing course, they’ll seek your insight into the latest techniques.

The fact that you're going to give students as much opportunity as possible to talk with you, a successful writer, about how you do things, what your frustrations are, how joyful it is to be your own boss and see your name in print, will give you a decided advantage.

In continuing education, there are no rules. It’s usually up to you how you want to put your courses together. You’ll need to produce a simple course proposal that includes a description of the course and a weekly outline. Most continuing education courses run from one or two weeks to as long as ten weeks. Each class usually runs from an hour and a half to two hours. You’ll be paid by the hour and only for the time you’re actually teaching, so take that into account for any writing courses. Remember, it takes time outside of class to read students’ work—time for which you’re not paid.

Planning for the Future

All successful businesses start with a master plan. As a freelance writer, you need to know where you’re going and have a plan in place to take care of contingencies—those times when the markets you’ve been counting on disappear. Perhaps you’ve been putting it off while focusing on getting published. Before you get too far along in your freelance writing career, take some time to compile a more definitive plan.

With a good plan, you’ll be able to review your progress periodically. Doing so will allow you to discover  the need for a change in your direction when your original plan and your checkbook balance are at odds. Plus a clear, concise, well-thought-out business plan gives you a better opportunity to get a loan from your bank or a friend or family member when money is tight or you want to buy some new equipment. Few people, bank loan officers included, ever take freelance businesspeople seriously unless they have a plan in writing.

Your plan should be flexible, but it should keep you pointing—and moving—in the right direction.

A good business plan also keeps your eye on your long-term goals. It will detail priorities in a sequence that will save you valuable time and energy and help eliminate worry, which can be a major distraction to your writing.

When you draft your plan, stick to facts, realities, and valid assumptions. Don't overlook the obvious pluses. Perhaps your spouse has a good, reliable job which won’t disappear overnight. Or you know that you'll be coming into some money in a couple of years.  Or, even better, you’ve been building up your expertise in a particular subject area which will allow you to eventually specialize in it, resulting in reliable assignments.

When compiling a business plan, keep daydreams to a minimum. You’ll only get frustrated if you write a plan based on wishful thinking. Deal in the here and now, not in what you hope will happen. Above all, don't overanalyze, or you'll drown in a sea of data you won't be able to use. Allow a certain amount of time for creating your business plan and then stop. You can always change it later.

If you’re dealing with several different types of markets or other related ventures, such as teaching or photography, you might want to compile some detailed sub-plans. These don’t have to be involved, but should include details for that particular venture to help you expand as you go. Once you have your plan in place, prepare a general To-Do List based on it that you can work into your daily routine.

Now that you know what a good business plan will do for you writing, let’s look at what it should include.

First and foremost, it should include a statement of purpose—what is the purpose of your writing business.

Second, a detailed description of your business, including a list of your specialties, the markets for them, and a paragraph on why you, above others, can give an editor or a client a unique angle.

Third, a discussion of what the market is like for your writing. Included in this section should be a list of opportunities, with specific details about current markets, names of publishers, publications, and editors, as well as other clients. Do the same for each of your specialties or other ventures.

Fourth, a plan for marketing your writing—how do you plan to promote it and yourself? 

Fifth, list your market objectives for one year, eighteen months, two years, and five years. These will help you outline your strategy—specific work you'd like to be able to cover in the year to come, research already available to you, what you'd need to research further, and probable places where you might find  information, plus the time and cost to get it.

And finally, a profit-and-loss statement or budget, including an estimate of your net worth, and a list of your office equipment with a projection of future items that could increase your productivity. This tells you and whoever is reading your plan where you are financially and where you plan to go.

Remember, the more flexible your plan, the more it will allow you to grow your freelance business.

Staying Afloat Without a Paddle

As important as the quality of your writing is to freelancing, so should your financial base. Too many beginning writers only daydream about how wonderful it would be to strike out on their own and get paid for their writing. In order to stay afloat while freelancing, especially in the beginning while you’re opening markets and gathering clients, you must have money to pay your bills.

If you’ve ever bought a house, you know how careful you have to inspect it. Once you sign the sales agreement, you’re stuck with it, no matter what problems may arise. The same goes for severing the financial cord to your fill-time job. By doing thorough research and planning carefully, you’ll be able to concentrate on your writing and not have to worry about how you’re going to buy food or pay for heat and fuel for your car.

When I began freelancing, I decided that if I had to work part-time at any point in my freelance career that I would only get a job at something related to what I was doing. I figured that if I working thinking and working with writing or any of the subjects I wrote about then I might also gain some knowledge or insights to help me in my writing. I wrote about travel and tourism, so I worked as a travel agent. I wrote about the Internet and technology, so I learned to design Web sites for small businesses. I even did public relations writing—I got plenty of press releases and learned to write good ones from them.

But the job that has offered me the most opportunities was teaching what I loved to do best—writing. No, I didn’t teach in public school or college. Over the years, I’ve taught continued education courses at a number of colleges and universities as well as community evening schools in my area. I knew that I really couldn’t write all day and all night, so I scheduled my classes during the evening hours. No course is longer than eight weeks and each session runs for two hours. I work as an independent contractor, thus setting my own schedule and creating and writing my own courses. Once a course is “in the bag,” I just have to reap the profits.

The experience I gained teaching writing courses propelled me into an even more lucrative sideline—business writing workshops. I earn more in a six-hour day doing this than writing two or three articles. But instead of presenting these workshop constantly, I’m selective and only do them occasionally.

Another sideline related to my course work is lecturing. I’ve amassed loads of information on a variety of subjects, as well as photographs of the same. I began assembling these into one-hour lectures that I present at retirement centers and at conferences. Again, once a lecture is all assembled, it’s easy to draw from my inventory and reap the profits.

When, do you ask, do I have time to write? Believe it or not, I have a lot of time because I set my own schedule. All my teaching venues know that if something comes up, I may need to cancel a class and make it up later. All have been very accommodating. Plus, I get all sorts of ideas when teaching others.

My Web design business kicks in when times are slow. It takes a lot to put a good site together, so I take on only one client at a time. The pay is usually worth it.

During the recent economic downturn, my ability to turn a profit with my other ventures has paid off handsomely. All of these ventures come under the umbrella of Bob Brooke Communications, my brand name and the company I created.

Staying Afloat in Today’s Market

With the economy the way it is today, it’s become harder and harder for freelancers, like myself, to stay afloat. The age-old doggie paddle just won’t work anymore. Sure, by kicking your feet you’ll keep your head above water, but little else.

So what can you do to make sure the Big Bad Wolf doesn’t come knocking at your door. The answer is diversify. Regular businesses learned this long ago, so it’s time that you as a writer learn it, too.

Before you cut the cord to a full-time job and seek work as a freelancer, you need to figure out what kind of financial base you have from which to operate your freelance business. Yes, that’s right, I said “business.” Every business has some sort of backup plan for tough times, and you should, too.  Thoroughly do your homework so that you’ll have the confidence to know about the writing markets before you begin.

I started out slowly, writing on Sunday afternoons. Then as I got better and got some assignments, I worked at night after teaching school all day. Soon I was writing as much as I was teaching. But I really didn’t do enough research, so when I did quit teaching, I didn’t have much to fall back on.

I decided that if I was going to do this, I would see work in areas that used the knowledge I had gained from the subjects I wrote about. I began teaching continuing education classes about travel destinations—I was an aspiring travel writer—at a local community college. This led to teaching writing classes. After all, I was both a writer and a good teacher, so why not combine the two.
But I still wasn’t making enough.

I sought out a part-time  job at a travel agency since I did know a lot about travel and world destinations. That gave me a regular paycheck with enough time to continue writing. Eventually, I got a full-time job at a better agency while still writing. But that put me back in the same position I was in as a school teacher with one exception. I had learned a lot about the travel industry working in these agencies and this gave me the knowledge and experience to write for travel trade magazines. Once I started doing that, the assignments kept coming in. By the time I had moved to a third agency, I knew I was in a rut. So one day I quit.

But now I had travel trade assignments and articles published weekly in five local newspapers. Plus I was teaching more continuing education classes in the evenings which left my days free to fulfill my assignments. I was on my way to freelance success.

Today, my company, Bob Brooke Communications, encompasses several different areas. Besides writing articles and books, I also have a fairly packed continuing education course schedule. My interest in photography led me to learn as much as I could about digital photography and now I teach that at several locations several times a year. I have also developed a modest lecture circuit which pays well for the time involved. To get material for lectures, I use the information I gather for articles on various subjects and combined with my photography, turn them into lectures.
But to fill in the voids left when writing markets go astray, I began designing Web sites, mostly for small businesses. I began with my own site, then developed three more informational sites. I’ve designed over 25 sites to date. These I do occasionally, but the pay is good enough to tide me over.

So if you have to seek out other work, make sure it’s related to what you write or that you can learn information that will be useful in your writing. My continuing education courses and lectures are all based on what I write. My technical expertise, which I developed solving my own computer problems and designing my own site over the years, has helped me tremendously in my web design work.

Remember, don’t work at anything that will take away from your writing. Work only at jobs that complement it–if you have to seek outside work at all.