Freelance Writers Manifesto

This may be my last post of 2006, as I may be going away for the duration of the holidays. Before I go, I’d just like to say to all you freelance writers out there: Make 2007 a really special year for you. There are several ways you can give your career a boost in the new year.

• Get hooked up with an online networking site, like Xing.com or LinkedIn.com. If you don’t have any connections, drop me a line and I’d be happy to link up with you to get you started.
• Get to know the online job boards. Not the ones where you have to bid for work. Personally I wouldn’t touch those with a barge pole. Bidding drives the prices down. It’s great for employers who want first class work for practically no outlay, but it’s terrible for writers who have spent time and money learning their profession, and need to eat to live! I like Craigslist and Genuinejobs.com. But you can do a search and come up with others, I’m sure.
• Do something to improve your output. Learn a new freelance writing niche. There are literally hundreds to choose from. If you have specialized knowledge, then capitalize on that. If not, think about what you might like to do. Catering to a niche will bring your more work, not less, trust me!
• If you’re interested in my niche, I’m preparing a course on SEO that will be sold online. I’ll be offering a special price for Freelance Writers Manifesto members, so again, drop me a line if you’re interested in that.

I’m sure that lots of you out there have other ideas on how you’re going to enhance your career in the coming year. Why not let us all know about it? You could do that by commenting on this post. Please do! Remember, you might be helping another writer by giving him or her a spark of inspiration to do the same!

So, I wish all of you the very best year yet in 2007. Here’s to freelance writers everywhere!

I’m glad to see that debate is heating up all over the Internet on whether Freelance Writers Manifesto is a good thing. Debate is healthy, and it’s only normal that we will never all agree on the perfect solution to low pay trends for writers. I have been ‘radical’ all my life, and I’m totally accustomed to ‘going where no man has gone before.’ But I do understand why some writers are reluctant to openly declare their support for Freelance Writers Manifesto. The number of people I’ve had signing up for this tells me that I’m attracting a great deal of interest! If nothing else, we’ll at least bring the issue of writers’ pay to the surface. What we achieve is largely up to you, our members.

Please consider taking the following step: Go and list yourself in the Members Directory, so we can all gain a little strength from the tangible proof that we are not alone out there.

Here’s a fresh comment from Deborah Ng of Freelance Writing Jobs. My comment is below.

Like you, I believe changes need to be made though I’m not sure the Norma Rae approach is the right way to go about it. That’s not to say I disagree with what you’re doing, however. I believe talented writers should be paid what they’re worth but I don’t know if it’s realistic to set a rate. What happens when the $150 per hour copywriter is told he’s now being paid $25 per hour because that’s all the union says he has to be paid? Education is key. New writers should be taught to value their work and not settle for a $2 content job.

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Carson Brackney of Content Done Better asked for an interview on the Freelance Writers Manifesto. I’ve had some negative comments on what he had to say though; a few members seemed to think he’s raising some irrelevant points here. After all, what sane writer doesn’t want to get paid more?

The Manifesto argues that many content buyers undervalue writers. If that’s the case, shouldn’t the market correct for that error in judgment? It would seem that if buyers were truly offering too little, they wouldn’t find people willing to do the work and would be forced to pay more. I guess you could say that I’m something of a believer in the ability of open markets to organically determine wage fairness based on supply and demand. What am I missing?

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So many people have commented on Freelance Writers Manifesto. I’m going to post some of those comments as quotes over the next few days. Here’s what Peter Bowerman of The Well-Fed Writer had to say:

I. APPETIZER: NON-WELLFEDWRITING & THE FREE MARKET SYSTEM 101
Whos to Blame for Low WritersWages? NOT Clients!

Got an email recently from Amman, Jordan-based FLCW Patricia Skinner, asking if I’d be willing to give an EPUB plug a new pet project called the Freelance Writers Manifesto. Its goal? To encourage writers to stop working for peanuts and get what theyre worth. Sure. My whole well-fedrap dovetails nicely into that sentiment.

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After weeks of having it on my ‘to-do’ list, I finally managed to find the time to get the Freelance Writers Manifesto blog live. I arranged it like this so that you can all participate. Comments will have to be moderated (at least for now) to stop the spammers. (Sigh!)

A big thank you to Spencer Passmore for helping me out with the installation. He’s been having problems with WordPress for weeks (he was one of their great free-installers over there). Please help him out by asking WordPress to reinstate him. Hey, we’re helping each other in here, I hope we can spend a little time to help others.

OK, let me get on with the task of putting some of our content up here….