What does it take to be a successful freelancer?
If you’re new to the writing business or a long-time freelancer with advice to share, join me for the next WordCount Last Wednesday Twitter chat on Wednesday, July 27 at 10 a.m. PDT, where we’ll talk about the basics of running a freelance writing business.
To make it as a freelancer, it’s a given that you’ve got a certain skill and passion for writing. But to make it as a freelancer, you’ve also got to be:
- A motivated self starter, to be your own boss
- Organized, to juggle multiple projects at once
- Disciplined, to meet deadlines
- Resilient, all the better to bounce back from rejection
- Creative, to come up with story ideas
- Aggressive, to hunt down sources or go after late payments
- Ethical, to maintain journalistic integrity
We’ll talk about all that and more during the chat.
Here’s the agenda for the July 27 #wclw chat:
10 a.m. – Sign on and introduce yourself.
10:10 a.m. – I’ll throw out a few questions to get things started:
- What’s your biggest challenge been as an independent writer?
- What do you want to know about publications that use freelancers?
- How do you stay organized?
- What’s one thing you wish you knew before you started freelancing?
10:30 a.m. – We’ll open it up to other questions and a general discussion.
11 a.m. – The chat ends.
Although it’s possible to use the standard Twitter interface for the chat, you might find it easier to follow along with an add-on application such as TweetGrid, TweetChat or HootSuite. Of those three, my favorite is TweetChat, which you can log into using your Twitter account.
If you’re unable to join us, I’ll post highlights from the chat on Monday, Aug. 1.
If you have a subject you’d like to see discussed in a WordCount chat for writers and bloggers this year, let me know.