Recession-Proofing Your Career as a Freelance Writer

As a freelance writer, the recession is bound to make you nervous. I know it makes me nervous. Unlike other jobs that have unemployment and other benefits like severance and COBRA benefits, the self-employed person has nothing - nada - in which to fall back on. You don't make money; you don't get paid, pure and simple. This lack of a safety net is why it's so important to set yourself up for success as a freelancer.

In some ways, freelancer writers have a chance at excelling in the market and even doing pretty good. The trick is flexibility and following these eight recession-proof tips.

Recession Proof Tip 1 - Have a Nest Egg

If you're a writer, you're probably already through your savings so the nest egg recommendation might be akin to shutting the barn after the horse has left. But it's still a good idea and if you can manage to put away a few dollars in savings - anything - from your writings when you bring money in, well, it's a good thing. Big financial whizzes talk about paying yourself first and this is true, unless you really need to buy groceries. Even so, take that extra $5 or so you would've spent on lattes and put that into your account.

Recession Proof Tip 2 - Don't Put All Your Eggs in One Basket

Following on the egg theme, lots of writers tend to work with one or two clients. While this is fine during good economies, in bad recessions it can leave writers holding the proverbial bag. Publishers and clients go bankrupt or can't pay their bills; even good clients fall behind in payments. Publishers are slow, slow, slow, which means you're on the bottom of the food chain when it comes to doling out the cash. Look for other venues to write in and other companies to target your business. If you're writing fiction, branch out and look for work in nonfiction. Are you willing to write content for companies like Associated Content, Demand Studios or other online publishers? Having several clients means several paydays. That means you'll be able to bring some money in while others might be a bit slow on paying you.

Recession Proof Tip 3 - Be Flexible and Expand Your Writing Horizons

A follow-up to tip 2, don't write in the same old genre all the time. Genres, like clients, take nose-dives all the time. For example, I'm a pet expert, but the pet market can be very temperamental at times. I still write plenty of articles in that market because they're simple enough for me to write, but I expand out in other writing venues all the time. I write in travel, history, food, computers, science, gardening, hunting, health and other areas because there's a need. I'm writing on local venues too, which is fun and educational.

Recession Proof Tip 4 - Get It Upfront and In a Contract

If you're working with a new client (or even a client who perhaps is a little late on the money), ask for money upfront to cover your work if they're late paying you, or worse, don't pay you. Money up front means the client is serious and you need to take them seriously. Vague promises of money after doing a lot of work can be foolish.

Get everything spelled out in a contract, too. If you're talking money where the job is going to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars, get a contract. If the money is big enough, contact your state bar association and ask for referrals to copyright lawyers or contact one of the writing organizations such as the National Writer's Union or the Author's Guild for a boilerplate contract you can modify to suit your needs.

Recession Proof Tip 5 - Trust Your Instincts

Remember when Spiderman's spidey sense was tingling? It always alerted him to danger. Develop your own spidey sense and keep it tuned into what is going on with clients and publishers. More often than not when I've had that "I have a really bad feeling about this..." feeling, it means something worse is happening behind the scenes. Every single time I didn't listen to it, I got burned, and every time I did listen to it, I got out of a bad situation that snared other writers.

If your client is chronically late paying you, or is playing games such as "so-and-so who cuts the checks is on vacation," (funny, they get paid somehow even though this person in accounting is on a four week trip in the Bahamas), or is telling you that the check was mailed last week but you get the check two weeks later with a postmark of three days before you received it, start listening to that nagging voice telling you all is not right. Companies that play those games are looking to hold onto their money as long as they can because 1. They don't have the funds to pay you, or 2. They're heading for bankruptcy, or 3. They're exceedingly inept, or 4. They're really scum and they want to keep hold of the money as long as they can.

A couple of late payments aren't a reason to pull the plug, but several late payments or no payments are. You shouldn't be doing work without a check in your hand from the previous installment anyway, even though we all do on occasion. Unless you know the client's reputation well or have worked with them in the past, don't be a sucker. Walking away from empty promises won't burn you; focus on clients who pay you on time, even if they pay less.

Recession Proof Tip 6 - Work on an Hourly Rate, Not a Per-Project Rate

Most freelancers make the mistake of looking at the project rate rather than the hourly rate. While it's nice to get $5000 for a project, if it takes you six months to complete it working 80 hour weeks, well, how worthwhile is that? That's about $2.40 an hour, which is far less than minimum wage. At the same time, if you can complete two short articles in an hour and make $15 an article, that's $30 per hour. Which makes more sense?

Recession Proof Tip 7 - Swallow Your Pride, but Don't Be a Chump

During recessions we freelancers sometimes have to take a bit less money or do writing jobs that aren't necessarily thrilling or interesting to us. Pride doesn't buy dinner and pride won't pay the electricity bill. Be open to writing about things that positively bore you. Things that aren't interesting. And be willing to lower your rate to get the job. Still, don't let your clients take advantage of you. Just because you're doing a work for hire doesn't mean you should be paid nothing. Take assignments and work where you can get them as long as it's a workable wage.

Don't compromise your principles, but you may have to figure out where your line in the sand is. For example, I won't sell a book as a work for hire if I'm not making enough money to justify it, and I certainly won't enter an agreement with a publisher as a work for hire unless I knew the terms up front. I've been willing to walk away - and have walked away-from all rights contracts when the book was not pitched as an all rights contract.

Recession Proof Tip 8 - Complacency is Your Enemy

Most freelancers hurt themselves by not looking for opportunities when they're overworked. The old adage of "feast or famine" describes the freelancer's life. You're either wondering how you're going to get your work done on time or you're wondering how you're going to buy groceries. There's just no happy medium. I had a boss back when I worked for a company who said in a Cecil B. DeMille voice "This Too Shall Pass." He was right 100%. Nothing good or bad lasts forever, so plan on having your next jobs ready to go.

As jobs dry up, you may have to get a bit creative. The Internet has a plethora of work opportunities, but then, so does your local community. Write for content providers, query magazines and newspapers, talk to local businesses, look on writing job lists such as PayingWritersJobs - all of these areas offer places to make money as a writer.

Resources

National Writer's Union

Author's Guild

PayingWritersJobs