Ten Things to Do to Achieve Freelance Success

Anyone who plays the ponies knows that in order to boost your odds you need to know and do all you can. Guessing won’t get you the big money. And neither will closing your eyes and pointing to just any horse in the race. So it is with freelancing. To become a success, you have to make it happen. To do so requires you to honestly look at yourself and your business operation for weak areas that need to be improved upon or eliminated.

To get started on the right track, ask yourself the following 10 questions:

    1. Have you learned all you need to know to present yourself in the most professional manner? Look at related areas that might help. Tap any and all sources, including this blog, to learn all you can about the writing business.

    2. Have you kept current with the changes in your industry? What problems do other independent business owners—commercial artists, printers, bookstore owners, consultants, etc.—face every day?

    3. Have you studied your competition as much as possible? By noticing how other writers accomplish what they do, you may be able to pick up some of their techniques to improve  your business practices.

    4. Have you paid attention to current legislation that's bound to affect future business decisions in the industry? To do so you must read online news from Web sites in the industry and subscribe to their E-mail newsletters to be kept up to date, as well as  maintain open lines to important contacts who know about or may be able to influence that legislation (editors, elected officials, influential business persons, etc.).

    5. Have you joined any writing and/or business associations that may offer connections with fellow writers and markets? Have you participated in seminars given by experts in your field?

    6. Have you observed outstanding people in other fields and attempted to discover by what means they leaped forward in their careers?  Did they make bold changes of direction, timely innovations, or conceive creative promotional campaigns? Take time to lunch with friends in other businesses or fellow writers and quiz them intelligently.

    7. Have you set performance goals for yourself and stayed with them? Goals are a great way to motivate yourself.

    8. Have you honestly evaluated the work you've done? Take a hard look at what you’re producing and perhaps seek the opinions of others in the writing field.

    9. Have you trained yourself to troubleshoot problems? Solve problems as they arise rather than put them off until later.

    10: Have you learned to delegate and practiced motivating others to cooperate with you? You can’t do it all by yourself. Try outsourcing some smaller tasks of your business to allow yourself more time to write. When your business reaches a point where you can afford to hire help, and you need it, do so.

You’ll want to return to these pump-priming techniques repeatedly throughout your hopefully long and happy freelance career. You can't afford not to.

Systematizing Your Research

Sometimes there's good reason to more research then you need. Whether you write fiction or non-fiction, you need to do research—how much depends entirely on the complexity of the subject and the scope of your project. But no matter how much or how little research you need to do, developing a system of research will not only get what you need but keep you from getting frustrated in the process.

But whether you need stacks of material or not, apply a system for getting your material quickly, using it most effectively, and retrieving it later when you may need it. Libraries are convenient storehouses. Your research for any given project may well begin with a trip to one. If you’re just starting out in freelancing and aren’t yet equipped with a large collection of files and clippings, you’ll want to rely heavily on public sources.

To get the most from your research in the least amount of time, you’ll need to mix the research techniques of four kinds of professionals—the reference librarian, the university scholar, the investigative reporter, and the detective. Knowing how each of these experts does their research, what resources they rely on, and what tricks they apply will help you systematize your own research, getting what you need faster and more efficiently..

Reference librarians approach research through their knowledge of a wide variety of indexes, almanacs, dictionaries, bibliographic titles, and vertical files at their disposal. Getting acquainted with the reference material available to you will be one of your first priorities. Good reference librarians have a wealth of information at their fingertips. They’ll point you in the right direction—often long after your inquiry and until you’ve built a sizable file of information on your subject. They also seem to know everyone in the area and state who might be of help in your search. And since interlibrary loan agreements link  most libraries are linked to others in their states and nationally, there's little information that shouldn’t be quickly and readily available to you. If you let your librarian help you uncover these sources, you'll be able to do your research much more easily.

University scholars are another source you can turn to. Their knowledge is highly specialized, and they’ve spent their careers developing in-depth comprehension of particular information. Not only will they be cognizant of related disciplines and esoteric facts, they’ll be acquainted with a great many others in their field of expertise. You may want to ask them for letters of introduction to their colleagues at other universities, museums, or laboratories if these people can help you get the information you need. From these scholarly research techniques— concentration in great depth on one subject—you can borrow the discipline of thoroughness, without carrying it nearly as far as they do. Their techniques are particularly useful when you need to learn about a subject from the ground up. To find scholars, contact your nearest college or university or check out Who Knows—and What, among Authorities, Experts, and the Specially Informed, which covers 12,000 specialists in 35,000 areas of expertise.

Investigative reporters wade through criminal indictments, police complaints, warrants, arrest sheets, bail applications, court hearing reports, and interview transcripts to obtain the information for their articles. However, unlike scholars, they have to complete their research within a specific amount of time to meet their deadline. Good reporters know they must check their facts and quotes thoroughly but that eventually, the deadline wins and they must settle for what they’ve got, so they take lots of notes along the way.

Detectives and private investigators work with probabilities, official documents, confidential indexes, and government resources. Their specialties are the law and human behavior patterns. Some of the tricks they use to uncover information can be particularly helpful if you’re in search of anecdotes and colorful copy. They’re masters at combining what often appears to be infinite patience with timely impatience. Talk to a detective, and you'll discover how easy it is to gather quite a bit of data about people based on just their driver's license.

Remembering how each of these experts goes about their work is the first step to systematically approaching your material. With your project questions laid out in front of you, decide which expert's procedure is best. Often you'll use a combination of them.

Obviously, the kind of research that yields the most complete information takes ingenuity and constant practice. Remember, research often begins in the library, but it doesn't take place there exclusively. You may even end up doing research while sipping your morning coffee and watching the news.

Research, especially for books, may seem endless. Your head will become so crammed with information that you may even dream about it. When that happens, it usually means you're well on your way to understanding your subject enough to write about it.

Books, Books, and More Books

A writer cannot operate in a vacuum. Ideas come from everywhere. But after getting ideas, they have to be researched. And for that a writer needs a good reference library.

Over 30 years and hundreds of books later, I can truthfully say I’ve amassed a good reference library. Setting up a basic reference library needn’t be expensive. I found almanacs, dictionaries, directories of various kinds, thesauruses, and atlases in paperback. I had several dictionaries left over from my college days. And while they weren’t the most current, they worked fine when I was just starting out.

The focus of any writer’s reference library is the subject matter he or she writes about. I started out writing about travel, so from the start, I was on the lookout for travel guidebooks from countries and parts of the United States that I was interested in writing about. Back then, online booksellers such as Amazon.com didn’t exist. In fact, compared to today, that was the Stone Age (I kept my club in the closet and only used it to go hunting.). Over time, I gathered several hundred travel guides, mostly from library and used book sales. For my purposes, it didn’t matter if they were a year or two old. The basic information never changed.

Along the way, I began to write about antiques. This subject required its own specialized library of reference books. Again, I kept an eye out for antiques books—traditionally expensive—at local library sales. Some are small reference books on furniture styles, etc. while others are massive coffee-table-sized volumes with lots of photographs. Mixed in are a number of antiques encyclopedias for easy reference. As with my travel books, these soon grew to 100 or so.

Another of my specialties is writing about Mexico. One Mexico guidebook wasn’t enough. As a specialist, I needed detailed information. I acquired many books on trips to Mexico. Often, this was the only place I could find them. While there, I constantly looked for brochures, booklets, and maps that would give me detailed information not available to me once I headed north of the border.

Over the last five or six years, I’ve written a number of books. Each book required its own set of reference books—in fact, each has its own mini library.

Besides writing, I also teach it to adults in evening classes. As the number of courses grew over the years, I needed writing reference books as well. I’ve gathered 50 to 75 books on various types of writing and writing techniques to help myself and my students. Most of these I obtained through Writer’s Digest Book Club and still purchase the occasional volume through the Writer’s Digest Book Store online.

In also created my own photographs to illustrate my articles. My interest in photography developed before my writing, so I began with basic how-to books on photographic techniques. Over the years, I’ve used these many times. Today, I not only take digital photographs but teach others how to. This has necessitated starting a small library of digital photography books, used mostly to develop the courses I teach.

As you can see, my basic writing library has grown considerably. Most of the rooms in my house contain books. And while I can easily find information online on just about any subject, there’s still information I need to look up in my library.

The Keys to My Success

When I’m at a dinner party or other gathering, inevitably someone will ask me what I do for a living. I tell them I’m a writer and immediately they think of Stephen King or some other celebrity writer. No, I’m not one of those, but I have made a living at freelancing for over 26 years, so I must be doing something right.

There are a dozen keys to my success. Any beginning writer, with a little hard work, can achieve what I’ve done by following them.

1. First and foremost, I meet deadlines. It’s become second nature to me after this long. Editors appreciate a writer who works with them and doesn’t cause them to get behind.

2. I write something new every day.  Perhaps its one of my blogs, a book review, an article for a publication, or an article or two for one of my four Web sites. It’s sometimes hard to make enough time to write since I now have to exercise about an hour and a half a day after recent coronary surgery, plus teach writing classes in the evenings.

3. I read as much as I can. The more I read, the better writer I become because I’m influenced by the thoughts and techniques of other writers. But I don’t just read as a reader, I read as a writer, analyzing the text as if I had written it and seeing how I might improve on it.

4. As a writer, I’m constantly making notes. In fact, my desk is flooded with them. Often, I’ve made so many, I lose track. I make To-Do Lists almost daily. If I don’t, I may forget what needs to be done on what piece.

5. Over the years, I’ve learned to mentally record conversations, visual details, sensory stimuli,  facts—lots of facts. I also record these facts in copious notes that I prepare for each article and book. Notes for the latter often fill an entire file box.

6. To keep myself organized, I’ve learned to clip and file vital information so I can retrieve it later.  This has increased my productivity over the years.

7. Even in this day of e-books and the Internet, I still use my public library from time to time. Some information just hasn’t been digitized. However, I find myself using my local library less and less as technology marches on.

8. And though I love words and their origins, I’m careful not to add vague words, that my readers won’t understand, to my vocabulary.  (See my previous blog on $20 words).

9. I love books and my house shows it. There are books in just about every room. As my writing career has advanced, I’ve amassed a small library of perhaps 500 books on both writing, and the subjects I specialize in—Mexico, travel, and antiques.

10. In order to sell my work consistently, I study the markets for it.  However, today, it has become a challenge to keep up with writing markets. It used to be easy to spot a trend, but things have changed so much and so fast, that today it’s difficult. And while it’s always my goal to be at the right place at the right time, I don’t always hit the mark.

11. Since I began writing books, I’ve had to learn as much as I could about editing, publishing, and marketing. Being more knowledgeable about all facets of my business, I’m a more effective business person.

12. I take my writing seriously and have made an effort to make my family and friends do likewise. It isn’t just a pastime or a passing fancy. I communicate with my readers and now, through social networking, many of them communicate with me.

These keys are what have made me successful, but they won’t necessarily work for every writer.
And while my name may not be a household word, I’m still successful at what I do.