Freelance Writing - How Valuable Are Your Words?
Freelance writing can be a wonderful career.
You can work the hours you choose, and your potential income is unlimited.
Unfortunately it can also become a disaster -- if you haven't taken out health insurance for example,becoming ill can wreck your finances.
Therefore, even if you're a brand-new freelance writer it's essential that you take thetime to think about your career and the value of your words.
If you keep trading words for money, at the end of the day you'll have nothing to show for all your hard work.
1.
Your Writing Career and Your Body of Work During your writing career you will write millions of words.
This is your body of work.
As soon as possible start thinking about how your words can support you long after you've written them.
2.
"Work Done For Hire" Versus Keeping Some Rights Writing contracts vary.
The "work done for hire" contract is one of the most common contracts in freelance writing.
This contract means that after you're paid in full, all rights in your writing are transferred to the person or company which has bought them.
Occasionally you won't have any option other than to take work for hire jobs, and this usually isn't a problem.
It's highly unlikely that you'd be able to use 20 articles on electrical conduit again, for example.
However, retaining some rights is often advisable.
For example, if you've just written an article on weight loss, and can see yourself writing a book on the topic sooner or later, selling all rights in the article would be a mistake.
Try selling just the electronic rights for example, or first serial rights, and keep the other rights for yourself.
3.
Freelancing for Freedom: Stop Trading Hours for Money When you first start out in your freelance writing career you'll take any jobs you can get, but as you become better known, and are offered more work, start thinking about retaining more rights in your work for yourself.
You should also start creating some work which you can license: books, classes, scripts.
Work which sells under license like books and screenplays brings you in money long after you've written it.
These days with the success of e-books, think about writing e-books: they can bring you an income every day without you having to do anything at all.
You can laze on the beach, and the money will nevertheless flow into your bank account.
As a freelance writer, all you have are your words, and they're valuable.
Make them work for you.
You can work the hours you choose, and your potential income is unlimited.
Unfortunately it can also become a disaster -- if you haven't taken out health insurance for example,becoming ill can wreck your finances.
Therefore, even if you're a brand-new freelance writer it's essential that you take thetime to think about your career and the value of your words.
If you keep trading words for money, at the end of the day you'll have nothing to show for all your hard work.
1.
Your Writing Career and Your Body of Work During your writing career you will write millions of words.
This is your body of work.
As soon as possible start thinking about how your words can support you long after you've written them.
2.
"Work Done For Hire" Versus Keeping Some Rights Writing contracts vary.
The "work done for hire" contract is one of the most common contracts in freelance writing.
This contract means that after you're paid in full, all rights in your writing are transferred to the person or company which has bought them.
Occasionally you won't have any option other than to take work for hire jobs, and this usually isn't a problem.
It's highly unlikely that you'd be able to use 20 articles on electrical conduit again, for example.
However, retaining some rights is often advisable.
For example, if you've just written an article on weight loss, and can see yourself writing a book on the topic sooner or later, selling all rights in the article would be a mistake.
Try selling just the electronic rights for example, or first serial rights, and keep the other rights for yourself.
3.
Freelancing for Freedom: Stop Trading Hours for Money When you first start out in your freelance writing career you'll take any jobs you can get, but as you become better known, and are offered more work, start thinking about retaining more rights in your work for yourself.
You should also start creating some work which you can license: books, classes, scripts.
Work which sells under license like books and screenplays brings you in money long after you've written it.
These days with the success of e-books, think about writing e-books: they can bring you an income every day without you having to do anything at all.
You can laze on the beach, and the money will nevertheless flow into your bank account.
As a freelance writer, all you have are your words, and they're valuable.
Make them work for you.
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