Almost done with my huge April project! I've got about 3 hours worth of work, which I'll save for tomorrow.
In retrospect, this was my largest freelance project to-date. It took me the entire month to complete, and I worked pretty much 6 days a week, for at least 3-4 hours per day. I'm a little drained, and to be honest, I think I'd rather focus on smaller projects in the future so I can spend more time doing my creative writing. However, there's also the necessity to keep doing work to spread your reputation, so if the money's good, I'll probably keep going on large projects as well.
Still...I'd like to take the month of May off, other than a few select projects that I do around my chapter work. I don't have any short stories that are brewing at the present, only 6 in submissions, so I'm circulating those until they sell. I fully expect it to take the rest of the year, because it takes 6-8 weeks to hear back from the editors as to whether or not it's been accepted or rejected, and you can't dual-sub, so...it's a lengthy process.
I've been debating another post in my "The World is your Oyster" series, but it's a bit foggy at present...not nearly refined enough to post about. Maybe I'll have something up towards the end of the week. I've also been debating starting a "how to get started as a freelance writer" discussion/network, because I see a lot of college kids and other people struggling during the recession trying to break into this market without any real knowledge of how to do so. I think that practical knowledge is key, and too often you see the veteran writers giving out canned responses or generic replies such as "don't give up!" or "apply to more jobs!" as advice, which doesn't help the new writer whatsoever.
What's more important is practical application of common sense in order to land jobs. We'll see how the idea pans out. It won't be free, that's for sure. I'm thinking of hosting a seminar type webisode or something where I give a 45 min or so lecture + answer a few questions + a written guide on how-to's, where-to's, and otherwise. It's all in the "planning" phase, but it's bubbling.
That's it for now. My work for the day is done and I'm going to enjoy the rest of the sunny afternoon out and about. Cheers!
Showing posts with label how to get freelance writing jobs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label how to get freelance writing jobs. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
The World is your Oyster: Part Four
How do you stay competitive in a global market?
By being willing to do work that sometimes requires getting your hands dirty.
"But I have standards!", you decree. "A minimum rate that I refuse to go below, because otherwise I'm bastardizing the freelance market!"
Standards are great. And it's important to have them. However, the key is to have realistic standards. In the face of a global recession, where people's jobs are getting cut left and right, wages being reduced, or hours-per-week cut down, people are struggling to find the funds to pay all the bills. Everyone is feeling the crunch. And in the face of such a global issue, refusing to evolve with the times is bad for your health. As in, lack of food on your table or roof over your head bad.
If you research actors, business owners, authors, or anyone with money to their name, they almost all have a background of doing dirty work at some point in their history. By dirty work I mean the kind of work that you would consider beneath yourself, whether it be due to the amount of money it pays per hour or how much work it involves. But everyone starts somewhere, and while your standards most certainly evolved over time as you gained the respect of your peers and experience in your chosen industry, in much the same way you have to be able to adapt to the changing of the tides when the weather isn't blowing so fair in your direction.
I regularly see freelance writers complaining about a lack of work. In the same breath they criticize those writers who work jobs that pay lower than what the complainers deem "acceptable". They also go on to state they they refuse to work for lower than X. That's great, if you have a spouse who is supplementing your income or if you have a pension or can survive on part-time income. Because let's face it, in today's global climate charging 75 dollars an hour is going to get you part-time work at best, unless you happen to be in an extremely niche market with a Masters degree or 15+ years experience in that particular niche (a sports writer for the NY Times would be someone I consider a niche writer with such experience as to justify those rates). However, if you are average Joe, you have to be more realistic in your approach.
No millionaire out there would have become a millionaire by only accepting the jobs that paid what they considered to be acceptable. Part of building up your empire is the willingness to work hard for your money, and to sometimes do work that might be considered beneath you simply because of the long term effects. Take an actor who agrees to do a project for free, agreeing to a profit sharing program. He's taking a risk doing the project for no money, but because his name is attached to it, then the chances are that fans of his other work will come see it, which will drive up the percentage. In much the same way, freelance writers should be looking at those low paying jobs and using them to their advantage.
Again, standards are great to have. Everyone has them. I certainly do. But the important thing to remember is that if your standards are getting in the way of you putting food on the table for your family or paying the rent/mortgage, then perhaps you need to adjust your standards to adapt with the times. Standing in the middle of the sidewalk without an umbrella while it's pouring down rain and shouting at the top of your lungs "it's not raining, it's not raining!" doesn't change the fact that it is, in fact, raining. You can put your foot down as much as you want and say "my rates don't have to change!" but if you are suffering from a lack of work because your standards haven't adjust to the times, you aren't benefiting anyone. You certainly aren't benefiting yourself, and you aren't benefiting a client because you are refusing quality work.
Adaption is key. The willingness to be flexible. Gas prices rise and fall. Housing markets fluctuate. Banks adjust their interest rates. Employers give and take away raises. We are in a time of fiscal instability, and the waters are troubled. You have to be willing to adapt if you are going to make it through until the waters calm.
Be your own judge. If you have a bottom line you don't like to go under, that's all well and good, but the moment that bottom line starts interfering with your ability to put food on the table, you should re-evaluate your position in the grand scheme of things and be willing to adjust to the global market. And last but not least, don't allow yourself to be arrogant. There are millions of writers across the globe who are just as talented as you or I, who are more than willing to do the jobs for lower rates. That's the nature of the global beast. However, I'm more interested in putting food on my plate than I am on putting it on the plate of someone in another country, and I'm going to do whatever I can to get that job.
By being willing to do work that sometimes requires getting your hands dirty.
"But I have standards!", you decree. "A minimum rate that I refuse to go below, because otherwise I'm bastardizing the freelance market!"
Standards are great. And it's important to have them. However, the key is to have realistic standards. In the face of a global recession, where people's jobs are getting cut left and right, wages being reduced, or hours-per-week cut down, people are struggling to find the funds to pay all the bills. Everyone is feeling the crunch. And in the face of such a global issue, refusing to evolve with the times is bad for your health. As in, lack of food on your table or roof over your head bad.
If you research actors, business owners, authors, or anyone with money to their name, they almost all have a background of doing dirty work at some point in their history. By dirty work I mean the kind of work that you would consider beneath yourself, whether it be due to the amount of money it pays per hour or how much work it involves. But everyone starts somewhere, and while your standards most certainly evolved over time as you gained the respect of your peers and experience in your chosen industry, in much the same way you have to be able to adapt to the changing of the tides when the weather isn't blowing so fair in your direction.
I regularly see freelance writers complaining about a lack of work. In the same breath they criticize those writers who work jobs that pay lower than what the complainers deem "acceptable". They also go on to state they they refuse to work for lower than X. That's great, if you have a spouse who is supplementing your income or if you have a pension or can survive on part-time income. Because let's face it, in today's global climate charging 75 dollars an hour is going to get you part-time work at best, unless you happen to be in an extremely niche market with a Masters degree or 15+ years experience in that particular niche (a sports writer for the NY Times would be someone I consider a niche writer with such experience as to justify those rates). However, if you are average Joe, you have to be more realistic in your approach.
No millionaire out there would have become a millionaire by only accepting the jobs that paid what they considered to be acceptable. Part of building up your empire is the willingness to work hard for your money, and to sometimes do work that might be considered beneath you simply because of the long term effects. Take an actor who agrees to do a project for free, agreeing to a profit sharing program. He's taking a risk doing the project for no money, but because his name is attached to it, then the chances are that fans of his other work will come see it, which will drive up the percentage. In much the same way, freelance writers should be looking at those low paying jobs and using them to their advantage.
Again, standards are great to have. Everyone has them. I certainly do. But the important thing to remember is that if your standards are getting in the way of you putting food on the table for your family or paying the rent/mortgage, then perhaps you need to adjust your standards to adapt with the times. Standing in the middle of the sidewalk without an umbrella while it's pouring down rain and shouting at the top of your lungs "it's not raining, it's not raining!" doesn't change the fact that it is, in fact, raining. You can put your foot down as much as you want and say "my rates don't have to change!" but if you are suffering from a lack of work because your standards haven't adjust to the times, you aren't benefiting anyone. You certainly aren't benefiting yourself, and you aren't benefiting a client because you are refusing quality work.
Adaption is key. The willingness to be flexible. Gas prices rise and fall. Housing markets fluctuate. Banks adjust their interest rates. Employers give and take away raises. We are in a time of fiscal instability, and the waters are troubled. You have to be willing to adapt if you are going to make it through until the waters calm.
Be your own judge. If you have a bottom line you don't like to go under, that's all well and good, but the moment that bottom line starts interfering with your ability to put food on the table, you should re-evaluate your position in the grand scheme of things and be willing to adjust to the global market. And last but not least, don't allow yourself to be arrogant. There are millions of writers across the globe who are just as talented as you or I, who are more than willing to do the jobs for lower rates. That's the nature of the global beast. However, I'm more interested in putting food on my plate than I am on putting it on the plate of someone in another country, and I'm going to do whatever I can to get that job.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
The World is Your Oyster: Part Three
Following along in the same vein as the first two parts of "The World is Your Oyster", I'd like to take a look at global networking.
I am a freelance writer. I do content generation, investigative journalism, blogs, informative articles, how-to articles, and a variety of topics and formats dependent upon the needs of my clients. I have successfully published creative fiction, and my goal is to eventually transition into full-time novel writing. However, publishing fiction, or even content for the Internet, is no longer the way it used to be in the 20th century.
In the 20th century there was a fairly straight-forward and nationally-accepted standard to submit your manuscripts: two spaces after periods, double lined, and be prepared to sit on your thumbs for 6-8 months while you waited for a publisher to get back to you on whether or not your manuscript had passed or failed.
Enter the 21st century. Manuscript formats abound. Every e-zine and paper magazine has a different submission guideline and format preference. In order to stay on top of things you have to learn how to be flexible, how to format your work into a variety of different ways to satisfy your client's needs. It doesn't just apply to manuscripts, either. Some people want you to submit work to their websites directly via their Wordpress login. Others want a Word document. Some prefer Open Office documents. Others still would rather have it in a PDF. Some want double spaced, others don't. Some want 12 point Arial, while others want 11 point Times New Roman. Some want underlined, some prefer italics.
The point is, everyone's needs are different. As a freelance writer you have to be flexible. You have to be willing to adjust in order to move ahead, and keep generating new clients.
I'm still a relative newbie at the freelance world. What I am not a newbie at is business in general. I ran a successful construction business in Colorado for several years, as well as spent time as a foreman and superintendent for my father's company, which was a multi-million dollar commercial construction company, from the time I was 19 years old. I've seen the ins and outs of corporate business for over 10 years now, and while I'm not a suit-and-tie white-collar worker, I've learned a few things over the years that have helped me become reasonably successful in my current position, despite the fact that I've only been doing freelance writing as a career now for a little over a year.
Being flexible is key. You have to be willing and able to adapt to the circumstances. Part of that is keeping up with the current document programs. Another is networking. I'm not a huge fan of social networking other than for keeping tabs with my friends, but I'll have to admit...in the past week or so of having started a Twitter account and linking things to my Facebook I've generated hundreds of hits on my blog, as well as expanded my client base. I've also been expanding my contacts on a global level, which brings me to the point I was beginning to make before I started to ramble.
Global networking. By this I mean expanding your client base, as well as your reader base, to include people on a global scale. Too often I see writers--especially writers in the United States--refusing to think outside of the box. Many times I see writers in the US assuming--incorrectly, I might add--that the only client base and reader base they need to worry about is the one at home. These same writers are the very ones I've talked about in my first two "The World is Your Oyster" discussions. They are the farmers standing in the field with their torches, the smoldering ashes of the threshing machines at their feet, proud in their stance, proud that they stood up for the principle of it all, proud that they refused to lower their rates to accommodate for global growth, but in the same breath railing against the advance of technology, woefully looking back to the past when they were the only ones capable of fulfilling their clients needs. And as they look around on the horizon they see thousands, nay millions!, of threshing machines springing up, churning out content at a pace that fills them with dread, because with mass production comes competition, and competition is bad.
Unless you can learn to adapt and move with the times.
It's happened before. Many times. The threshing machine. The construction market in America, inundated by illegal Mexican workers. The gold mines of America, the coal mines of Australia, full of Asian migrants, willing to work for pennies compared to the local residents. And in each and every scenario the businesses have gone with the cheapest labor, regardless of the principles. Why? Because it's business. The low man wins 9 times out of 10. And yes, you can try and hold to your principles and hope that you can win that 1 out of 10 to your side, but grit your teeth in frustrating as you watch the other 9 jobs go to people you feel aren't qualified to do the work.
The first mistake is in assuming that the competition--that is, the workers willing to do the work for what you consider pennies--is somehow less qualified. The second mistake is in dwelling on the past, holding your torch, railing against the threshing machines, the printing press, the digital camera, the hand-held camcorder. The world changes. The world evolves. Technology advances. Humanity moves forward, regardless of those few who stand staunch against the change, waving their torches and going fearlessly into the night.
Who does history remember? The laborers who burned the threshing machines, or the threshing machines themselves? The threshing machine, of course, because it advanced humanity. And in the case of today's environment, and the work place as it exists today, what will be remembered is that the Internet opened the doors of the entire world, allowing people who previously had little hope of advancing themselves beyond the restrictions of their economy and cultural differences the opportunity to suddenly embrace the fact that they are no different in fact than the very Western civilizations that have for years been the only ones at the top of the heap.
Should we embrace our brethren, or should we rail against them for becoming our competition? Many writers of today's generations are for the latter. Many writers in the US feel that their jobs are being unfairly shopped out to "paper mills" in unethical fashion, stealing jobs that should "rightfully" be theirs, and theirs alone. Such writers do not embrace humanity, they do not embrace change. They would have the world remain in repression, the only jobs existing being the ones they themselves work. They view the Internet as a threshing machine, ready to be burned in an attempt to keep evolution from occurring.
I am an advocate for the former. I met my wife specifically because the barriers of communication have been toppled with the advent of world-wide connectivity. I have been expanding my client base on a global scale, working with people from the UK, from Australia, from Taiwan, and from the US. I have met people from all of those countries, from Greece, from Italy, Germany, Sweden, and beyond. All of these people share a common purpose, a common goal: survival.
Should I alone bear the responsibility for dictating who is or isn't allowed to complete the tasks a client puts forth? How have I earned the right to do so, when my fellow writers--regardless of their location on this green Earth--are no less qualified than myself, and have no less of a right at competing for the jobs as I?
I have talked with many people in the recent weeks. I have met people in third world countries who do work for what many US writers consider pennies. Some US writers would have these jobs be eradicated because they believe it is perpetuating a system that undermines their own rates and forces them to adjust accordingly in order to be competitive. Who are they to judge what should or shouldn't be considered work, or relevant pay? If an employer pays a rate I find too low for my personal standards, I move along and find a client who pays what I want to make. The job I passed on will go to someone who needs the money, and perhaps to someone in a third world country where the USD is worth 3 times more than their local currency, allowing them to make triple what the average citizen makes. To me, the fact that such jobs exist and allow an individual the chance for opportunity supersedes my ability to judge. In much the same way I am sure there are those out there who pass over jobs I myself consider a fair wage with nothing more than a sneering glance and the thought of "I pity the poor wanker who would work a job for such pay."
One lady who posts at a community site I frequent gave a relative's position recently. He was one of those who valiantly stamps his foot down and says "I refuse to budge!". He has been unemployed for months, unable to provide for his family because his principles are outdated. His principles were those of a world before global networking, before global communication, before a global pool of employees for clients to choose from. His rates no longer apply because the market has gone on without him, has evolved beyond his comprehension while he remains mired in the muck of self-pride at the expense of his family.
As I sit here on this Sunday evening I would remind you fellow writers to think global. The world is your oyster. Global communication and global networking are key to the survival of your job, and your ability to adapt to the changes that are affecting our workplace on a daily basis. Embrace your fellow writers, regardless of where they hail from on the map. Be glad that they too can find work, even if it is at a wage you find below your present needs or standards. But do not judge, or dictate terms, or apply labels such as "ignorant" to those who are willing to work for rates you would not yourself. Be happy for the work you have, and be willing to adapt and evolve with the rest of the world.
Change is on the wind. Will you embrace the change, or stand alone in the dark, railing against the change with your sputtering torch in hand, the smoldering ashes of the threshing machine at your feet while the world moves on without you, leaving you in darkness as the flames of your torch are finally snuffed out by the wind?
I am a freelance writer. I do content generation, investigative journalism, blogs, informative articles, how-to articles, and a variety of topics and formats dependent upon the needs of my clients. I have successfully published creative fiction, and my goal is to eventually transition into full-time novel writing. However, publishing fiction, or even content for the Internet, is no longer the way it used to be in the 20th century.
In the 20th century there was a fairly straight-forward and nationally-accepted standard to submit your manuscripts: two spaces after periods, double lined, and be prepared to sit on your thumbs for 6-8 months while you waited for a publisher to get back to you on whether or not your manuscript had passed or failed.
Enter the 21st century. Manuscript formats abound. Every e-zine and paper magazine has a different submission guideline and format preference. In order to stay on top of things you have to learn how to be flexible, how to format your work into a variety of different ways to satisfy your client's needs. It doesn't just apply to manuscripts, either. Some people want you to submit work to their websites directly via their Wordpress login. Others want a Word document. Some prefer Open Office documents. Others still would rather have it in a PDF. Some want double spaced, others don't. Some want 12 point Arial, while others want 11 point Times New Roman. Some want underlined, some prefer italics.
The point is, everyone's needs are different. As a freelance writer you have to be flexible. You have to be willing to adjust in order to move ahead, and keep generating new clients.
I'm still a relative newbie at the freelance world. What I am not a newbie at is business in general. I ran a successful construction business in Colorado for several years, as well as spent time as a foreman and superintendent for my father's company, which was a multi-million dollar commercial construction company, from the time I was 19 years old. I've seen the ins and outs of corporate business for over 10 years now, and while I'm not a suit-and-tie white-collar worker, I've learned a few things over the years that have helped me become reasonably successful in my current position, despite the fact that I've only been doing freelance writing as a career now for a little over a year.
Being flexible is key. You have to be willing and able to adapt to the circumstances. Part of that is keeping up with the current document programs. Another is networking. I'm not a huge fan of social networking other than for keeping tabs with my friends, but I'll have to admit...in the past week or so of having started a Twitter account and linking things to my Facebook I've generated hundreds of hits on my blog, as well as expanded my client base. I've also been expanding my contacts on a global level, which brings me to the point I was beginning to make before I started to ramble.
Global networking. By this I mean expanding your client base, as well as your reader base, to include people on a global scale. Too often I see writers--especially writers in the United States--refusing to think outside of the box. Many times I see writers in the US assuming--incorrectly, I might add--that the only client base and reader base they need to worry about is the one at home. These same writers are the very ones I've talked about in my first two "The World is Your Oyster" discussions. They are the farmers standing in the field with their torches, the smoldering ashes of the threshing machines at their feet, proud in their stance, proud that they stood up for the principle of it all, proud that they refused to lower their rates to accommodate for global growth, but in the same breath railing against the advance of technology, woefully looking back to the past when they were the only ones capable of fulfilling their clients needs. And as they look around on the horizon they see thousands, nay millions!, of threshing machines springing up, churning out content at a pace that fills them with dread, because with mass production comes competition, and competition is bad.
Unless you can learn to adapt and move with the times.
It's happened before. Many times. The threshing machine. The construction market in America, inundated by illegal Mexican workers. The gold mines of America, the coal mines of Australia, full of Asian migrants, willing to work for pennies compared to the local residents. And in each and every scenario the businesses have gone with the cheapest labor, regardless of the principles. Why? Because it's business. The low man wins 9 times out of 10. And yes, you can try and hold to your principles and hope that you can win that 1 out of 10 to your side, but grit your teeth in frustrating as you watch the other 9 jobs go to people you feel aren't qualified to do the work.
The first mistake is in assuming that the competition--that is, the workers willing to do the work for what you consider pennies--is somehow less qualified. The second mistake is in dwelling on the past, holding your torch, railing against the threshing machines, the printing press, the digital camera, the hand-held camcorder. The world changes. The world evolves. Technology advances. Humanity moves forward, regardless of those few who stand staunch against the change, waving their torches and going fearlessly into the night.
Who does history remember? The laborers who burned the threshing machines, or the threshing machines themselves? The threshing machine, of course, because it advanced humanity. And in the case of today's environment, and the work place as it exists today, what will be remembered is that the Internet opened the doors of the entire world, allowing people who previously had little hope of advancing themselves beyond the restrictions of their economy and cultural differences the opportunity to suddenly embrace the fact that they are no different in fact than the very Western civilizations that have for years been the only ones at the top of the heap.
Should we embrace our brethren, or should we rail against them for becoming our competition? Many writers of today's generations are for the latter. Many writers in the US feel that their jobs are being unfairly shopped out to "paper mills" in unethical fashion, stealing jobs that should "rightfully" be theirs, and theirs alone. Such writers do not embrace humanity, they do not embrace change. They would have the world remain in repression, the only jobs existing being the ones they themselves work. They view the Internet as a threshing machine, ready to be burned in an attempt to keep evolution from occurring.
I am an advocate for the former. I met my wife specifically because the barriers of communication have been toppled with the advent of world-wide connectivity. I have been expanding my client base on a global scale, working with people from the UK, from Australia, from Taiwan, and from the US. I have met people from all of those countries, from Greece, from Italy, Germany, Sweden, and beyond. All of these people share a common purpose, a common goal: survival.
Should I alone bear the responsibility for dictating who is or isn't allowed to complete the tasks a client puts forth? How have I earned the right to do so, when my fellow writers--regardless of their location on this green Earth--are no less qualified than myself, and have no less of a right at competing for the jobs as I?
I have talked with many people in the recent weeks. I have met people in third world countries who do work for what many US writers consider pennies. Some US writers would have these jobs be eradicated because they believe it is perpetuating a system that undermines their own rates and forces them to adjust accordingly in order to be competitive. Who are they to judge what should or shouldn't be considered work, or relevant pay? If an employer pays a rate I find too low for my personal standards, I move along and find a client who pays what I want to make. The job I passed on will go to someone who needs the money, and perhaps to someone in a third world country where the USD is worth 3 times more than their local currency, allowing them to make triple what the average citizen makes. To me, the fact that such jobs exist and allow an individual the chance for opportunity supersedes my ability to judge. In much the same way I am sure there are those out there who pass over jobs I myself consider a fair wage with nothing more than a sneering glance and the thought of "I pity the poor wanker who would work a job for such pay."
One lady who posts at a community site I frequent gave a relative's position recently. He was one of those who valiantly stamps his foot down and says "I refuse to budge!". He has been unemployed for months, unable to provide for his family because his principles are outdated. His principles were those of a world before global networking, before global communication, before a global pool of employees for clients to choose from. His rates no longer apply because the market has gone on without him, has evolved beyond his comprehension while he remains mired in the muck of self-pride at the expense of his family.
As I sit here on this Sunday evening I would remind you fellow writers to think global. The world is your oyster. Global communication and global networking are key to the survival of your job, and your ability to adapt to the changes that are affecting our workplace on a daily basis. Embrace your fellow writers, regardless of where they hail from on the map. Be glad that they too can find work, even if it is at a wage you find below your present needs or standards. But do not judge, or dictate terms, or apply labels such as "ignorant" to those who are willing to work for rates you would not yourself. Be happy for the work you have, and be willing to adapt and evolve with the rest of the world.
Change is on the wind. Will you embrace the change, or stand alone in the dark, railing against the change with your sputtering torch in hand, the smoldering ashes of the threshing machine at your feet while the world moves on without you, leaving you in darkness as the flames of your torch are finally snuffed out by the wind?
Monday, April 6, 2009
The World is Your Oyster: Part Two
As promised, I'm continuing the discussion from Part One.
One thing that has increasingly frustrated me in recent weeks is the amount of freelance writers who constantly complain about the lack of high paying writing gigs. They also complain how writers who agree to work for low wages are perpetuating the system and bastardizing the writing process, and go on to suggest that writers should band together and "strike" against those organizations who pay low wages for content generation, in an attempt to force those organizations into raising their rates.
Such naivete is frightening.
As I suggested in Part One, we (writers) can no longer afford to think of things in local terms. There is no such thing as local any longer. With the advent of world-wide Internet connections the work force of today is no longer constricted by the geographical boundaries on a map. The work force is the entire globe. Wherever there is an Internet connection there is a person on the other end who not only has the qualifications to perform the tasks required by employers, but in many cases are willing to work for wages that to others might appear as pennies. Why? Because there is no global currency.
It is extremely selfish to think that you (the writer) are somehow special. Are you talented? Sure. So am I. So is the guy in India. Or the guy in Bolivia. Or the guy in Argentina. Are you more qualified than those writers? Possibly. But can you be competitive in the world-wide market? That is something that is entirely up to you as an individual.
The worst is writers from the UK and the US. The reason for this is that during the 90's both of these countries enjoyed a period of being on the top of the food chain in terms of economic success. Enter the post-War-on-Terror world, and the US and the UK are no longer the booming economies that they once were. They are suffering from the highest unemployment rates, the highest inflation rates, and the highest level of social dissatisfaction. Writers who flourished during the 90's and even the early 21st century are suddenly finding that they can't charge the rates they once did, and that the work which was once only available to a select few is now being made available to a world-wide workplace that has potential employees from all corners of the globe vying for the same jobs. And in such an environment one cannot afford to be selfishly absorbed in a bubble, thinking that they are somehow special because they live in a certain part of the world or have worked for a certain wage for a period of time.
The work place is not limited to the US or the UK anymore. The global summit meetings now have 20 countries involved, up from the handful who used to be. Those global summit meetings are expected to continue adding countries every year from here on out as more and more countries meet the economical and technological standards required for membership. More and more of the general population is discovering the beauty of Internet content generation. And employers aren't stupid. They are getting quality work for a fraction of the price it used to cost, and that's just smart business.
Sure, if you happen to live in the UK or the US then a dollar per 500 word article isn't worth your time. So don't bother with those jobs. Look to the higher paying jobs that fulfill your target guidelines for "acceptable" rates. But do not presume to dictate to the rest of the world what rates are fair or unfair. To the person in a smaller country those rates are triple or more what they are to you or me. And while I myself do not necessarily think that such rates are "fair" in my personal view, I do not presume to tell the writer from India that they are somehow bastardizing my job and stealing food from my plate. After all, he is JUST as qualified and has JUST as much of a right to the work as I do, and if 1 USD to him is worth 10 of his own (an example: I do not know the rates off hand, I am just using an example to explain) and he can make 25-30 per hour of his own currency doing content from a US company who is only paying 1 dollar per 500 word article...then more power to him.
I do not have the right to dictate to another writer what rates are fair or unfair. Why? Because I cannot afford to be selfishly absorbed in thinking that I am somehow magically better than the rest of the world just because I happen to be from a certain country. My nationality and place of residence has absolutely nothing to do with dictating rates to my peers. What is fair to the guy from Pakistan might not be fair to the guy from Germany, but neither of those writers is more or less qualified than the other; they are equal. And from an employers standpoint, you can bet your ass they are going to hire the guy who is willing to do the work for the lowest bottom price because it's just smart business.
Writers cannot afford to be self absorbed and selfishly ignorant about the global work force. We need to be continually aware of the ever-changing nature of the career we have chosen and adapt accordingly. Continually bitching about how "unfair" it is that the work we've been doing for years is suddenly being farmed out to other countries is a waste of time. You cannot control the growth of the global work force, and you are not magically better than someone on the other side of the world. You have the same color blood, you breathe the same air, you eat the same food, you are both humans.
My suggestion to writers who spend so much time complaining about low rates is to adapt. Find other avenues for your talent. Spend less time worrying yourself about what others are making and forge your own path. Be aggressive. There will always be clients out there who pay you what you need or want to earn. But do not think that you are somehow qualified to dictate to the rest of the world what is fair or isn't. You are not God. You are not better than someone on the other side of the globe. You are a human being, just as they are. You may be unhappy with the fact that your job is now available to people from all over the world rather than just a select group who enjoyed a period of being "kings of the world", but that time is over. The Internet is opening doors that cannot be closed, and you can either hobble together a boat to ride the tide, sink underneath and drown, or you can fashion a sleek and sexy vessel to cruise the open waters as you explore all the opportunities this world has to offer by opening yourself to endless opportunities.
I'm aiming for the sleek and sexy. How about you?
One thing that has increasingly frustrated me in recent weeks is the amount of freelance writers who constantly complain about the lack of high paying writing gigs. They also complain how writers who agree to work for low wages are perpetuating the system and bastardizing the writing process, and go on to suggest that writers should band together and "strike" against those organizations who pay low wages for content generation, in an attempt to force those organizations into raising their rates.
Such naivete is frightening.
As I suggested in Part One, we (writers) can no longer afford to think of things in local terms. There is no such thing as local any longer. With the advent of world-wide Internet connections the work force of today is no longer constricted by the geographical boundaries on a map. The work force is the entire globe. Wherever there is an Internet connection there is a person on the other end who not only has the qualifications to perform the tasks required by employers, but in many cases are willing to work for wages that to others might appear as pennies. Why? Because there is no global currency.
It is extremely selfish to think that you (the writer) are somehow special. Are you talented? Sure. So am I. So is the guy in India. Or the guy in Bolivia. Or the guy in Argentina. Are you more qualified than those writers? Possibly. But can you be competitive in the world-wide market? That is something that is entirely up to you as an individual.
The worst is writers from the UK and the US. The reason for this is that during the 90's both of these countries enjoyed a period of being on the top of the food chain in terms of economic success. Enter the post-War-on-Terror world, and the US and the UK are no longer the booming economies that they once were. They are suffering from the highest unemployment rates, the highest inflation rates, and the highest level of social dissatisfaction. Writers who flourished during the 90's and even the early 21st century are suddenly finding that they can't charge the rates they once did, and that the work which was once only available to a select few is now being made available to a world-wide workplace that has potential employees from all corners of the globe vying for the same jobs. And in such an environment one cannot afford to be selfishly absorbed in a bubble, thinking that they are somehow special because they live in a certain part of the world or have worked for a certain wage for a period of time.
The work place is not limited to the US or the UK anymore. The global summit meetings now have 20 countries involved, up from the handful who used to be. Those global summit meetings are expected to continue adding countries every year from here on out as more and more countries meet the economical and technological standards required for membership. More and more of the general population is discovering the beauty of Internet content generation. And employers aren't stupid. They are getting quality work for a fraction of the price it used to cost, and that's just smart business.
Sure, if you happen to live in the UK or the US then a dollar per 500 word article isn't worth your time. So don't bother with those jobs. Look to the higher paying jobs that fulfill your target guidelines for "acceptable" rates. But do not presume to dictate to the rest of the world what rates are fair or unfair. To the person in a smaller country those rates are triple or more what they are to you or me. And while I myself do not necessarily think that such rates are "fair" in my personal view, I do not presume to tell the writer from India that they are somehow bastardizing my job and stealing food from my plate. After all, he is JUST as qualified and has JUST as much of a right to the work as I do, and if 1 USD to him is worth 10 of his own (an example: I do not know the rates off hand, I am just using an example to explain) and he can make 25-30 per hour of his own currency doing content from a US company who is only paying 1 dollar per 500 word article...then more power to him.
I do not have the right to dictate to another writer what rates are fair or unfair. Why? Because I cannot afford to be selfishly absorbed in thinking that I am somehow magically better than the rest of the world just because I happen to be from a certain country. My nationality and place of residence has absolutely nothing to do with dictating rates to my peers. What is fair to the guy from Pakistan might not be fair to the guy from Germany, but neither of those writers is more or less qualified than the other; they are equal. And from an employers standpoint, you can bet your ass they are going to hire the guy who is willing to do the work for the lowest bottom price because it's just smart business.
Writers cannot afford to be self absorbed and selfishly ignorant about the global work force. We need to be continually aware of the ever-changing nature of the career we have chosen and adapt accordingly. Continually bitching about how "unfair" it is that the work we've been doing for years is suddenly being farmed out to other countries is a waste of time. You cannot control the growth of the global work force, and you are not magically better than someone on the other side of the world. You have the same color blood, you breathe the same air, you eat the same food, you are both humans.
My suggestion to writers who spend so much time complaining about low rates is to adapt. Find other avenues for your talent. Spend less time worrying yourself about what others are making and forge your own path. Be aggressive. There will always be clients out there who pay you what you need or want to earn. But do not think that you are somehow qualified to dictate to the rest of the world what is fair or isn't. You are not God. You are not better than someone on the other side of the globe. You are a human being, just as they are. You may be unhappy with the fact that your job is now available to people from all over the world rather than just a select group who enjoyed a period of being "kings of the world", but that time is over. The Internet is opening doors that cannot be closed, and you can either hobble together a boat to ride the tide, sink underneath and drown, or you can fashion a sleek and sexy vessel to cruise the open waters as you explore all the opportunities this world has to offer by opening yourself to endless opportunities.
I'm aiming for the sleek and sexy. How about you?
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
The World is Your Oyster: Part One
Over the coming months I'll be blogging about something that I find worth delving into with greater detail: the effect of the Internet and global communication. Specifically I'd like to focus on the effects that it has had on the job market in specific countries. Having come from the Western part of the world, I regularly keep tabs on things back in the U.S., and some of my clients are from the U.S. as well. I also have clients in Thailand, the U.K., Australia, among other places.
In today's society the borders of our countries really don't mean anything anymore, other than geographical boundaries. With education around the world relatively on the same level, employers are beginning to look beyond their own country for employees, especially in job sectors where a physical seat in the office doesn't necessarily need to be filled in order for the job tasks to be carried out. For example, the freelance writing market, or the print market in general. Journalism, freelance writing, copy writing, SEO writing, copy editing, and more, these are all jobs that can be completed by anyone who has the relevant skills.
For example, let's take a company from the U.S. Let's say your average magazine or newspaper. They are willing to pay a competitive wage. But here's the thing: they aren't just pulling potential writers out of a local pool anymore. It's not just open to relevant individuals within their country, but rather the entire globe. Why? Because the Internet means that anyone with the qualifications can complete the work. And here's where the crux of the issue comes into play. A person from say, India, or the Philippines, goes up against a writer from the U.S. in a bidding war for the job. The employer looks over the quotes. The first thing he notices is that the writer from India/Philippines (this is just an example...any country could apply) has quoted him rates that are anywhere from 40 to 60% lower than the writer from the U.S. Any smart business plan will have the employer hiring the low bid...so long as the qualifications are relevant.
If you take two people with the same level of skill, education, and background, and one of them is from a country with a high cost of living, and then compare him against someone from a country with a drastically lower cost of living, each person's bid is going to be relevant to his or her present cost of living and what they consider to be an acceptable wage. The problem with this is that for many writers in the United States, it means the jobs they have come to rely on in the past are now being farmed out to people who are willing to do the same work for a fraction of the price.
Are the companies concerned? Absolutely not. Why? Because they are getting services at a drastic discount, but still marketing their end-product the same as ever, meaning their profit revenues go up.
It's a sticky topic with a lot of freelance journalists and writers, because there have been a rising number of content generation sites opening up in the last year or two that are farming work out at dramatically low prices. Where a writer might have been able to get 100 dollars for a 1k word article 2 years ago, those same 1k articles are now being farmed out for under 5 dollars. Many writers feel that it is unfair, that the wages shouldn't have been dropped that low, and that the writers accepting such low paying work are only perpetuating the system and they shouldn't take the jobs, thus forcing employers to raise the rates again.
It won't happen. Why? Because we can't afford to selfishly think of ourselves as locked into regional borders when it comes to methods and means of employment. We (writers) are no longer competing only against other qualified candidates from our own country. We are now competing with writers from all over the globe. And while 2 dollars for a 1k word article might be pennies to someone used to making 100 dollars for that same article, for someone from a third-world country who has the relevant qualifications, that 2 dollars is worth a hell of a lot more than it is to you or I.
While I agree that fair standards should be in place to insure that writers are getting a fair wage as a bottom line, I also don't think that it's going to be an easy thing to put into place. After all, we aren't just competing with the people from within our own country anymore who have the same cost of living and thus need the same amount per article or per hour. The competition is growing by the day as more and more people around the world gain access to the Internet. We can't afford to think of ourselves as locked in by borders, because they don't exist anymore. Global communication means the entire world has access to these jobs, and in order to stay competitive you either have to learn how to work for as cheaply as they do, or move on to greener pastures (if you can find them).
In today's society the borders of our countries really don't mean anything anymore, other than geographical boundaries. With education around the world relatively on the same level, employers are beginning to look beyond their own country for employees, especially in job sectors where a physical seat in the office doesn't necessarily need to be filled in order for the job tasks to be carried out. For example, the freelance writing market, or the print market in general. Journalism, freelance writing, copy writing, SEO writing, copy editing, and more, these are all jobs that can be completed by anyone who has the relevant skills.
For example, let's take a company from the U.S. Let's say your average magazine or newspaper. They are willing to pay a competitive wage. But here's the thing: they aren't just pulling potential writers out of a local pool anymore. It's not just open to relevant individuals within their country, but rather the entire globe. Why? Because the Internet means that anyone with the qualifications can complete the work. And here's where the crux of the issue comes into play. A person from say, India, or the Philippines, goes up against a writer from the U.S. in a bidding war for the job. The employer looks over the quotes. The first thing he notices is that the writer from India/Philippines (this is just an example...any country could apply) has quoted him rates that are anywhere from 40 to 60% lower than the writer from the U.S. Any smart business plan will have the employer hiring the low bid...so long as the qualifications are relevant.
If you take two people with the same level of skill, education, and background, and one of them is from a country with a high cost of living, and then compare him against someone from a country with a drastically lower cost of living, each person's bid is going to be relevant to his or her present cost of living and what they consider to be an acceptable wage. The problem with this is that for many writers in the United States, it means the jobs they have come to rely on in the past are now being farmed out to people who are willing to do the same work for a fraction of the price.
Are the companies concerned? Absolutely not. Why? Because they are getting services at a drastic discount, but still marketing their end-product the same as ever, meaning their profit revenues go up.
It's a sticky topic with a lot of freelance journalists and writers, because there have been a rising number of content generation sites opening up in the last year or two that are farming work out at dramatically low prices. Where a writer might have been able to get 100 dollars for a 1k word article 2 years ago, those same 1k articles are now being farmed out for under 5 dollars. Many writers feel that it is unfair, that the wages shouldn't have been dropped that low, and that the writers accepting such low paying work are only perpetuating the system and they shouldn't take the jobs, thus forcing employers to raise the rates again.
It won't happen. Why? Because we can't afford to selfishly think of ourselves as locked into regional borders when it comes to methods and means of employment. We (writers) are no longer competing only against other qualified candidates from our own country. We are now competing with writers from all over the globe. And while 2 dollars for a 1k word article might be pennies to someone used to making 100 dollars for that same article, for someone from a third-world country who has the relevant qualifications, that 2 dollars is worth a hell of a lot more than it is to you or I.
While I agree that fair standards should be in place to insure that writers are getting a fair wage as a bottom line, I also don't think that it's going to be an easy thing to put into place. After all, we aren't just competing with the people from within our own country anymore who have the same cost of living and thus need the same amount per article or per hour. The competition is growing by the day as more and more people around the world gain access to the Internet. We can't afford to think of ourselves as locked in by borders, because they don't exist anymore. Global communication means the entire world has access to these jobs, and in order to stay competitive you either have to learn how to work for as cheaply as they do, or move on to greener pastures (if you can find them).
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