07.07  E-BOOK REVIEW: How to start a freelance writing business   | You probably know by now that FreelanceFolder is an indispensible resource for freelancers. Following the success of The Unlimited Freelancer , they are launching a series of 'How to start a freelance [insert specialism here] business' e-books. The first is for writers, and being one himself, Gareth Pike took a look at it and weighs in with his comments.

HOW TO START A FREELANCE WRITING BUSINESS
 By Laura Spencer, Freelancefolder.com

I wasn’t even sure what an e-book was when I ordered this one; to my Luddite wonder I discovered that it’s a book you read, page by page, on your desktop. Easily downloadable in PDF form, “How to Start a Freelance Writing Business” is a useful checklist to bounce on and off during your working day.

Ostensibly a thorough, step-by-step guide for beginner writers – square-one types - it is also highly useful to those of us who are a bit longer in the tooth; already-hardened writers who long ago hurled ourselves out of full-time work into freelance, out of some desperate passion to escape open-plan offices and agency politics.

The book comes in at under 50 pages, yet tells you everything you need to know if you want to be a successful freelance writer – and that means any type of freelance writer, from an advertising copywriter to a government speechwriter. If you have ever wanted to make words that make money, and you wanted to take that aim seriously, this is the book. It outlines the steps you need to take in a businesslike way, and I think that’s a key difference – writers don’t often think of what we do as a business, yet in order to succeed long-term, that’s the mindset you need.

I found this compact guide most useful for two reasons; as a retro-active checklist for ticking off all the steps I should have taken a year ago when I went fully freelance – nuts and bolts stuff, like working out your tax implications and budgeting for monthly overheads – and as a click-through to numerous job boards, blog sites and network forums, the links for which pepper the text like... like... .I need a writer over here! Simile, please.

Spencer’s e-book is of course geared for the US reader, yet the prose is so straightforward and the advice so down-to-earth, you should have no problem adapting any minor Americanisms to your own situation. Now, what page was I on (only drawback, you can’t dog-ear these things…).

"How to start a freelance writing business " is available for purchase here at a price of USD12.00*.

– Gareth Pike
www.pikecommunication.co.za

* Price correct as at 7 July 2009.