Hug a writer – It’s National Freelance Writers Appreciation Week

It’s National Freelance Writers Appreciation Week – hooray for us.

Freelance writers take a lot of crap from people who think the job description is code for posers who couldn’t hack it as staff reporters or “real” journalists.

How little they know.

If it wasn’t for freelancers…

If it wasn’t for freelancers, magazines like Esquire, GQ, Vanity Fair, New York, Texas Monthly, Outside, Good Housekeeping, Redbook, Cosmopolitan, Readers Digest, Mother Jones, Ms., and countless others would never have been as great as they were or are.

If it wasn’t for freelance writing assignments, authors like Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne, Tom Wolfe, Gay Talese, Michael Lewis, Seymour Hirsch, David Foster Wallace, Dave Eggers, Nora Ephron, Annie Proulx, Annie Lamott and Barbara Kingsolver would never have launched stellar fiction and nonfiction careers.

If it wasn’t for freelance writers, half the country’s trade magazines would have nothing to run between advertisements – I may be exaggerating, but not by much.

If it wasn’t for freelance writers, newspaper travel sections and food sections would have shriveled up and gone away long ago.

If it wasn’t for freelance writers, corporate websites, blogs, newsletters, shareholder letters and company histories would be unreadable.

If it wasn’t for freelance writers, speeches from CEOs, hospital presidents, nonprofit leaders, college deans and other big wigs would be unmemorable.

If it wasn’t for freelance ghostwriters, some of the juiciest celebrity tell-all autobiographies wouldn’t exist.

If it wasn’t for freelance writers, nonprofits wouldn’t have the grant proposals and pitch letters they use to raise funds.

If it wasn’t for freelance writers, technical manuals would be even harder to decipher.

If it wasn’t for freelance writers, couples wouldn’t end up happily ever after because they’d never give each other’s online dating site profiles a second look.

If it wasn’t for freelance writers, resumes wouldn’t look nearly as good.

If it wasn’t for freelance writers, the new wave of content marketing and digital media agencies wouldn’t be nearly as successful as they are.

This week, if someone asks what you do, answer with pride: ” I”m a freelance writer.”

Because the world wouldn’t be the same without you.

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Here’s what else people are saying about National Freelance Writers Appreciation Week, which runs Feb. 10-16:

• Freelance writers, this is your week (Society of Professional Journalist’s The Independent Journalist blog)
• To celebrate Freelance Writers Appreciation Week we’re giving away $500 (American Writers & Artists Inc.)
• Freelance Writer Appreciation Week Feb. 10-16 (Write Naked)