Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #69800 in Books
• Published on: 2006-08-22
• Released on: 2006-08-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

Review
“With Bob’s practical ideas and clear advice, I’ve been able to land jobs I would never have thought of before—and establish myself as a highly successful full-time
professional freelance writer.”—Joe Vitale, Houston, Texas
 
“The best book I’ve found on the business of being a writer.”—Robert S. Winkler, Corporate & Marketing Communications, Weston, Connecticut

About the Author
Robert W. Bly is a freelance copywriter specializing in business-to-
business, high-tech, and direct advertising. He is the author of more than sixty books and has appeared on CNBC and on CBS’s Hard Copy. He lives in River Vale, New Jersey.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Preface
This book was written to help you make a lot of money as a freelance writer.
 
To my mind, too many writers spend too many hours laboring over work for which they are paid only a pittance. We live in a society that often forces writers literally to give away their writings, either for free or for wages that, when figured on an hourly basis, are barely competitive with what an unskilled laborer can earn pushing hamburgers in a fast-food restaurant or moving crates in a warehouse.
 
This book is dedicated to the proposition that writers should be paid a fair dollar for a fair day’s work . . . and that writing is a professional service worth the fees that other professions command.
 
Think about the last few articles or stories you sold. Were you satisfied with the pay? If not—if you feel frustrated by editors and publishers who seem to begrudge you every penny when it comes time to negotiate your fee or advance—this book can change your life!
 
• If you’re tired of being underpaid as a writer, of spending long hours on projects that barely provide a decent living wage, I’m going to show you a different side of freelancing—one that can put you in an income bracket that even a corporate executive, attorney, or physician might envy.
 
• If you’re a new or established freelancer handling commercial projects for corporate clients, I’ll tell how you can double or triple your writing income, how to get new clients, and how to get more business from current clients—and I’ll give you new ways to market your services and expand your business as never before.
 
• If you’re a staff writer employed by a corporation, advertising agency, newspaper, or other organization and you want to quit your job and become a freelancer, I’ll show you how to do it. By following my techniques, you’ll be able to match—or even double—your present salary in your first year of freelancing.
 
• If you dream of writing the Great American Novel, or short stories, poetry, plays, essays, articles, or other literary forms—great! This book will show you how to get lucrative commercial assignments that pay the rent and free you to pursue more artistic interests.
 
• If you’re a moonlighter, a part-timer, or you want to expand your regular income, the type of writing described in this book is ideal for you, because you can work as much or as little as you choose. It’s all up to you.
 
• If you’ve never written for money in your life but you have a hankering to write, or you’re looking for a second career, or to make some money in your spare time working from home, you’ve come to the right place.
 
When I wrote the first edition of Secrets of a Freelance Writer for Dodd, Mead in 1987, I was thirty years old and had five years’ experience as a freelance commercial writer.
 
Now it’s nearly two decades later, I’m 48, and I’ve been a freelance corporate writer for twenty-three years. In the eighteen years between editions, I’ve written hundreds of freelance projects for dozens of clients—and I pass along the new tips, techniques, and methods I’ve learned in this new edition.
 
The question readers of the first and second editions most often ask me is “Can you still make $85,000 to $125,000 a year or more doing freelance writing for the business market?” The answer is yes, although market conditions have changed over the past two decades. Here are the key differences between then and now.
 
First, the bad news:
 
• The recession of the late 1980s and early 1990s—and the uncertain economy of the twenty-first century—put us into a “buyer’s market” from which we will never recover. There is more competition, and, at the same time, budgets are more limited and clients are more cost-conscious. You can still make $100,000 a year or more as a freelance corporate writer, but it’s more difficult than when I started in 1982—no doubt about it.
 
• We live in the Age of Now. Deadlines are shorter. Speed, convenience, efficiency, and client service are becoming ever more critical to many buyers of writing services. For some assignments, how fast you can get the copy to the client—and in what file format—seems at times to overshadow the quality of the writing itself.
 
• There have always been clients who do not care about writing and treat it as a commodity. Such clients have always been and are still a small minority, but their ranks have grown over recent years. You value your craft. Be aware that some buyers do not.
 
• Downsizing has motivated many downsized corporate workers to try freelancing, flooding the market with new writers. Some stay. Most seem to freelance only until they can find another corporate or ad agency job.
 
• Clients expect and demand freelance writers to have adequate office technology and be knowledgeable in a variety of programs and computer skills, including Internet access and e-mail. If you are low-tech or computer-phobic, you are far behind the times—and you need to enter the world of modern computing without further delay.
 
Now, the good news:
 
• Demand for freelance writing services among businesses, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations has never been higher. Many freelancers are struggling to keep up with the workload and fill orders. There are more than enough assignments to go around. Unlike the book and magazine publishing fields, demand for corporate writing greatly outweighs supply.
 
• There is still a lot of money to be made. For the first and second editions of Secrets of a Freelance Writer, I picked the subtitle “How to Make $85,000 a Year,” because that seemed like a lot of money at the time. It’s still a nice income for a freelance writer, but many of my readers report earnings of $100,000 to $175,000 a year—and several make more. One called me the other day to tell me he just hit the $200,000 mark!
 
• Instead of seeing the Internet and CD-ROM as competition for the printed word, see them for what they are: lucrative markets for writers. Do you prefer print? Writing for the World Wide Web has more in common with writing a brochure than it does with writing a movie. It’s easy for print writers to adapt to and enjoy this medium.
 
• Downsizing has resulted in more outsourcing by corporations. They no longer have large staffs of writers and editors. Many documents once produced mainly in-house are now routinely outsourced to freelancers like us, often for big bucks.
 
• Technology lets you get more work done in less time and makes your life easier. With the PC, fax, and e-mail, I can get twice as much work done as I did in the days of the electric typewriter and no fax or e-mail. For the freelance writer, computers and related technology dramatically increase output, which translates directly into greater earnings.
 
For many writers, freelancing is where it’s at! Freelance writers enjoy significantly greater freedom, flexibility, and—for the most part — more income than writers employed at full-time jobs. When copywriter Nick Usborne asked subscribers of his online newsletter “Excess Voice” in late 2004 their work preference, more than six out of ten said they would prefer to be self-employed.
 
“Before we can accumulate riches in great abundance, we must become money-conscious until the desire for money drives us to create definite plans for acquiring it,” wrote Napoleon Hill in Think and Grow Rich (Fawcett Crest). Secrets of a Freelance Writer gives you those “definite plans” for acquiring wealth through freelance commercial writing, saving you the headache of creating those plans for yourself—and the costly trial and error of testing them out.
 
This new edition of Secrets of a Freelance Writer has been revised and expanded to address today’s new marketplace. It has been reorganized to give you many more tips and strategies for running a successful freelance commercial writing business. It also provides more guidance on using technology, the Web, and e-mail, both as a source for writing assignments and for marketing and self-promotion.
 
Here’s what you’ll find in this third edition of Secrets of a Freelance Writer:
 
Chapter 1 defines “freelance commercial writing” and gives an overview of this lucrative but often overlooked writing opportunity.
 
Chapter 2 provides special guidance for novices. It was written in response to readers who have asked me, “Can you do this if you have no experience?” This chapter outlines strategies for those who want to be writers but have limited or no writing experience, as well as for writers who have done journalism, fiction, or poetry but have little or no experience doing corporate work.
 
Chapter 3 shows how to set up your freelance writing business, including computers, software, e-mail, Internet access, and other recommended equipment for your home office.
 
Chapter 4 answers the question “What will I be writing?” It discusses some of the commercial writing assignments you can handle for pay as a corporate freelance writer.
 
Chapter 5 shows you how to set your fees, present cost estimates, and get the client to agree to your price. You will see what other writers are charging and be given effective strategies for dealing with the objection “Your price is too high.” You’ll also reduce the number of times you hear this objection, by finding out what the client wants ...

Customer Reviews

A freelancing goldmine
To sum up this review succinctly, I love this book.

As I jump full-force into a writing career, myself, I have found this book to be very inspiring and an invaluable resource for repeated reference and a great pick me up during those doubtful moments that every freelancer faces as they embark on their career.

Robert Bly has a very approachable writing style (could you expect any different, honestly?) and he provides so much advice that you may find yourself folding every page corner and taking copious notes to try to help yourself remember it all. I started taking notes and then realized I was practically dictating the book verbatim so I decided to just continue reading it all the way through and then go back and pick through it.

If you are feeling lost or overwhelmed about where to begin, or if you're a seasoned pro looking for affirmation that your techniques or working (or trying to figure out why they're not!), this book will surely help you feel more confident and excited about pursuing the freelance life.

The information is valuable, but....
I read an earlier edition of this book as well "The Copywriter's Handbook" very early in my freelance writing career and have to say it was the most valuable tome on my business reference shelf; in fact, the information in TCH contributed to a large part of my success as a freelancer. HOWEVER....

When I wrote to the author, Robert Bly, several years later to thank him for his good advice, his reply was a pitch for AWAI, billed a "writer's resource" that hawks "classes" and "reports" for new and experienced writers -- through those loooooooong sales letters with all kinds of testimonials from "satisfied customers."

Further, I got into an email discussion with Bly over a grammatical point which I know was correct. I very politely pointed it out to him; is response was curt and defensive. So I again tactfully restated my reasoning. His second reply was, "whatever."

Third, I ordered one of his products a few months ago online. I was emailed a code to use to access and download the product. I didn't get to it right away -- maybe a week after it had been sent to me -- and when I attempted to download, was denied access because the code had expired. I wrote to Bly's organzaition once; no reply. I wrote a second time; no reply. Wrote a third time, threatening to notify the publisher of the online newsletter in which his ad had appeared. The reply was notification that my credit card had been credited the amount of my purchase. No apology for the delay in asnwering nor for not telling me the code would expire, no attempt to re-issue the code so I could get the product (besides the incredibly poor customer service, just plain bad business practice) which is all I really wanted when I wrote the first and second times.

So, although I can't deny that Bly knows the freelance writing formula for success, and his books are indeed valuable resources for those of you considering a career in freelance writing, I will never purchase another of his books or online products that would directly profit Bly. I find one of his books in used-book store, though....that's a different story (pun intended)!

A Robert Bly Ground-Breaker
Robert Bly is one of the foremost experts in the B2B market, and I had the good fortune to study some of his material, under a course given by Steve Slaunwhite. This book, along with Six -Figure Freelancing by Kelly James-Enger, inspired me go plunge into the freelance writing world. Robert covers all the various categories: books, magazine articles, etc. If you want specific advice, then I highly recommend this book.
Randy Kemp
http://www.randykempcopywriting.com