Sell Your Writing, Not Your Soul

By Mandy Shunnarah

 

Many writers have dreams of hitting the literary big time, but would like to eat something other than Ramen Noodles while working toward that goal. Peter Bowerman, commercial writer and founder of WellFedWriter.com, offers some advice about finding well-paying freelance gigs writing for businesses with marketing and promotional needs.

“Writing commercially doesn’t involve selling your soul or going to the dark side,” Bowerman said. “People say they want to write about something they believe in, and I say, ‘Do you not believe in building materials or home security systems?’”

Businesses are hiring freelance writers these days for a number of reasons. If a company has downsized, there may no longer be a proficient writer on staff, or the company may have never employed a strong writer. Companies may need an outside voice to translate the message of the business without jargon. For larger companies, most employees know their department, but may not know the workings of the company as a whole. Additionally, it’s cheaper for companies to hire freelancers than to have writers in-house because they don’t have to pay benefits for freelancers and they only have to pay for the work they need. Most importantly, though, companies need expertise. Not every writer is good at writing everything.

“Of course there are benefits for freelancers, too,” Bowerman said. “With a diverse portfolio, you can lose a client and it won’t hurt you nearly as bad as losing a full time job. Plus, companies tend to pay well because they know cost is secondary to quality.”

And there’s more good news for freelance commercial writers: companies don’t expect commercial writers to be prolific. They just want a clear message that attracts customers’ attention.

“A lot of what commercial writers do, in addition to writing, is being able to structure information in a logical way. Structure is more important than good writing in commercial writing. In this field, success means writing like you’re verbalizing an infographic,” said Bowerman.

As you’re structuring the information, remember to constantly reiterate the benefits of choosing that company’s product or service. Ask yourself who the audience is and what moves them.

Along with structuring information effectively, successful commercial writers must also learn to estimate the number of hours to be spent on a project.

“With magazines, they don’t care if you take five hours or fifteen minutes on a piece, you get a flat fee. But with commercial writing, you’re paid for all your time, provided you estimate your hours correctly,” Bowerman said. “It’ll take practice, but eventually you’ll get it.”

Estimating your hours correctly is especially lucrative for repeat jobs. For example, you charge $1400 for a job you expect to complete in 12 hours. If it’s a repeat job, you’ll get better with practice, so after a few months it may only take you, say, only 7 hours. The faster you can complete the job, in theory, the more your hourly rate increases.

Further on the matter of hourly rate, Bowerman has a few suggestions.

“Don’t discuss your hourly rate with clients because they’ll likely think worst case scenario, like the job will become a runaway train. Or they may only want to pay you for two hours when it’s a ten hour job,” Bowerman explained. “Instead, ask what their parameters are for a specific project and define those parameters as specifically as possible, including what information they will provide to you and what you’ll have to research and the deadline, then give them an estimate for the whole project. If the client says the estimate is too high, don’t just drop the price because they’ll wonder why you didn’t just offer them the lower price initially. Look for parts of the service to remove so you can lower the price.”

Be sure to discuss fees in the beginning. Clients are expecting you to discuss money and not doing so will leave both of you confused. Bowerman recommends making short contracts such as “When I get _____, I can do ______, which will cost you $_____.” Particularly for lengthier projects, it’s acceptable to ask for a down payment of a third or half of the total project cost.

Likewise, Bowerman suggests never meeting with clients just to discuss ideas.

“The client needs to be sure they want to do something since that’s how you’ll get paid anyway. If they do want to meet to discuss ideas, let them know that’s your time on the clock,” said Bowerman.

At the end of the day, a good commercial writer needs companies to write for. Bowerman says there’s a sweet spot: “You want small to medium sized companies, ones that have 50-200 employees, because they’re not large enough for in-house ad staff, but big enough to have money,” Bowerman said.

The commercial writing sweet spot can also include not-for-profits, particularly larger organizations. “Not-for-profit is an accounting term–it doesn’t mean they don’t have money,” said Bowerman.

For help finding clients, reference the previous article on Bowerman, “How Writers Can Build and MaintainBusiness Contacts,” posted recently on See Jane Write Magazine.

For more information on Peter Bowerman and commercial writing, check out his website, WellFedWriter.com.

 

Mandy Shunnarah is a freelance writer and editor, and an aspiring novelist. When she’s not writing, she can be found reading, learning to letterpress, watching Downton Abbey and Game of Thrones, and finding stray cats to cuddle with. Follow her on Twitter at @fixedbaroque and @awhitewrites.