5 Reasons Why I Hate Freelance Writing

May 25, 2011

Not really a title you’d usually see on a blog promoting freelance writing, right?

Since I started writing here back in August 2010, I’ve always aimed to provide an insight into the freelance writing career.

Focusing on how you can develop and further your writing career, as well as encouraging a discussion between all readers about certain topics relating to freelance writing, one of the points I haven’t touched on much is the negative aspects of freelance writing.

Don’t get me wrong, I love being a freelance writer and wouldn’t change it for the world, but when you’re starting out in any new career, it’s always good to know not just what you can expect in terms of positive benefits, but also what you should understand could happen during your time in that career.

And for that reason, the following five pieces of information are all reasons why I very occasionally stop and think to myself ‘do I really love freelance writing that much to put up with this?

1. Some clients have completely unrealistic goals and / or views

This is something that has only started to bother me over the last year or two as I’ve been pitching ideas and contacting more and more potential clients.

I completely get the fact that unless you know a bit about writing, you might not know what you can receive in terms of writing work for your budget, but to expect, for example, a website’s content to be rewritten for $100 is completely unrealistic by anyone’s standards.

Similarly, you need to be spending some more time researching the effects of utilizing certain resources if you think one well written, well placed press release is going to completely change your business’s success to date — there’s no doubt it could help, especially if it’s seen by some industry relevant editors or outlets, but it’s highly unlikely that investing in just one press release will have a tremendously positive effect on your business to the extent where you no longer need to invest in any form of writing, marketing or promotion.

2. Getting money out of a client can be like drawing blood from a stone

I’m fortunate enough that I’ve never been in a situation where a client has refused to pay or they’ve disappeared without settling an invoice.

However, I have been faced with some clients who put off payment for one reason or another, whether it’s because they can’t afford it at the time of the invoice or they simply forget.

Honestly, I don’t mind if payment isn’t made straight away — I state on all invoices that payment should be made within 14 days, which I believe is a sufficient amount of time to make payment or at least get in touch to say they are going to need a little longer.

Yet I still have to put on my Debt Collector’s hat every now and again and give clients more than one or two pushes in the direction of their cheque book or online banking.

Seriously, when I get an invoice in, I try and pay it straight away. I know that with some larger organizations there are certain processes to go through, but it does nothing but grind on me when I have to ask you more than a few times to pay me.

3. There are still plenty of clients who believe cheap text is better than quality content

This is one of those points that although it doesn’t stick out and make me particularly annoyed every now and again, it always sits at the back of my mind as a sort of nuisance aspect about freelance writing.

I completely understand that some clients can’t afford to pay for the amount of writing work that they require and that they have to lower their requirements to reflect their budget.

In these cases, I generally explain that rather than stopping work altogether or not working together at all, we simply reduce how much work they need delivering, so that the quality is still there.

What I don’t understand are clients who have the finances to be able to afford quality content, yet choose to pay less for writing that is of a substantially lower quality than what they could afford.

Sure, it might be cheaper initially, but it’s going to do very little to build confidence in your customers that you’re a professional organization.

And unfortunately, I think this is just something that all freelance writers are going to have to contend with.

4. It’s arguably one of the most unstable freelance careers ever

If you’re going freelance in any occupation, you need to understand that you’re going to hit both ups and downs when it comes to workloads, which obviously has an effect on your income.

However, sometimes I feel like being a freelance writer is harder and more unstable than any other freelance career.

There are two reasons behind this and the first is that many organization’s don’t see writing in whatever respect as a vital part of their business development or success — as much as it is — and when things get a little rough for them, the writing work is often the first thing to be put on hold.

The second reason is that it can be difficult to tie any client down into a legally binding contract, especially if it’s only a one-off piece of work and if you’re conversing solely online, you’re relying heavily on the client sticking to their word that they’ll pay.

OK, I am aware that there’s plenty that can be done here, but for a new freelance writer, there’s no doubt that this can be a major pitfall.

5. People don’t understand what you do

If you’re a nurse, when someone asks you what you do, you tell them that you’re a nurse and they understand straight away.

When you’re a banker, as soon as someone asks what job you have, they instantly understand that you’re involved in banking in some way.

As soon as you decide that freelance writing is the career for you and you explain to people when they next ask that you’re a “freelance writer” or even simply “a writer”, I guarantee you’ll have to elaborate further more times than people will understand what you mean.

“Oh, so you write books?”

“Sounds good — like computer code writer?”

“A journalist? Great!”

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not ashamed or anything of telling people that I’m a freelance writer, it just gets a bit wearing after a while — especially if you’re at a large family event — when you have to explain to everyone who asks what it is that you do in a way that they’ll understand.

Do you agree with these points? Do you have different points you don’t like? Do you like freelance writing in every single way?

(By the way, the answer is of course always yes — I do love freelance writing that much to put up with these nuisances!).