I’ve had the pleasure to work with Kristy Pruitt for several years now.  She’s a fantastic person and a real pro. If you’re interested in starting your own freelance writing business, she’s a great role model and has a fun blog over at http://awahmsblog.com/

How long have you been working as a writer?

I’ve been doing freelance writing for about two years now. I started out doing it part-time while working at a full-time job, but as soon as I felt that I was making enough money, I started writing full-time.

How did you get your start?

I was working at a factory job, making decent money, but the politics there were just driving me nuts! So one day I up and quit. I had been considering working at home for some time, and I owned a website, so I thought I could make a living with that. As it turned out, it wasn’t my cup of tea. I started making a little money blogging, but it wasn’t enough to pay the bills, so I got another job.

Still, I kept trying to think of ways that I could make money from home. I had always wanted to be my own boss, and I liked the idea of having a flexible schedule so I could be there more for my family. Then I remembered my passion that had been buried since high school: writing! Read More…

Posted under Interviews

Mara Burke is a work-at-home freelance/ghostwriter from Albertville, Alabama. She is a wife who has always loved to write. When she’s not caring for her home and homeschooling her two sons, Mara spends her time writing for online companies including: All Custom Content, All Private Label Content, and ArticleMojo. She has also written for the Patterns Patch website which provides information and cross-stitch patterns for the cross stitching niche.

How long have you been working as a writer?

I’ve been working hard as a freelance writer for the last two years. Prior to that I had worked as a staff reporter for a couple of newspapers but it had been a while.

How did you get your start?

I began my “professional” career when I was in high school where I was the editor of my high school newspaper. I also wrote sports articles for my local newspaper. I went on to work as both a writer and editor for the college newspaper, and then for the local newspaper.

At the college I attended, they didn’t have a degree program for journalism, so I did the next best thing. I worked hard at earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing. I went on to be a managing editor for a weekly newspaper, and then a staff writer for a tri-weekly newspaper.

During the last job at the newspaper, there were some things that happened that shook my faith in my writing ability. Because of that experience, I gave up on the thought of writing as a career. So I turned to the business world and worked as an administrative assistant. Still I longed to write again.

A few years ago a friend of mine suggested that I do some paid posting to bring in a little bit of spending money, and that’s really what started me down the writing road again. The paid posting led to my writing for others.

What motivated you to become a writer?

I’ve always loved the written word. I feel it can express emotions and thoughts much more clearly than speaking, in many cases. Sometimes it’s hard to convey just what you mean, especially with people living away from friends and family. Writing allows you to put words to paper, make changes, and then clearly communicate what needs to be said.

I also needed to find a way to help support our family because my husband’s work wasn’t very reliable at the time. Freelance writing allowed me an opportunity to work from home, continue homeschooling my boys, and bring money into the home.

How do you market your services?

Right now I’m working for other people as a freelance/ghostwriter. However, I’m working on getting my own website set up for marketing my writing. I hope to have it up and going soon.

What tools and steps did you use to establish your business?

Freelance writing sort of snuck up on me. Since I had given up the thought of writing, except to write poetry for my own creative outlet, I was surprised when one person I was working for asked me if I wrote. I told them yes and the rest, as they say, is history.

How would you describe your typical day?

In my life, there is no such thing as typical because I also homeschool my two boys. We try to get school work done before lunch, but that doesn’t always happen. I feel like I have to be available for them so I don’t get much writing done until school time is over.

When my husband returns home from work he can help answer questions and keep the boys busy. That’s when I can get started writing but often find myself waiting until they’re ready to sleep before getting the lion’s share of my work done.

How do you find balance as a writer working from home?

It’s not always easy to balance writing and working from home. Unfortunately, to get everything done I’m often writing late at night. This means I don’t often take care of myself the way I should. However, I have been blessed to work with some great people and organizations, so the trade off is definitely worth it. Besides, if it takes me losing a little bit of sleep to stay at home with my boys, I’m ready and willing to do that.

What are your struggles and how do you overcome them?

Struggles, boy do I have struggles!

Time management is a biggie for me. I’ve found that I really am more productive after the kids have gone to sleep, however that often means I don’t get the sleep I need. I almost feel like I did when they were babies and didn’t sleep through the night.

Another one is staying focused with all of the noise that two boys can make. Again, staying up later and working then seems to be the best work-around for that problem, too, personally.

I think in a way, I also struggle with insecurity. I’m not sure my writing is “good enough” at times. I guess I also use that as an excuse to procrastinate in getting my website up and running and not applying for more freelance writing jobs that I’ve seen advertised.

What is the most difficult part about being a freelance writer?

I find I have a hard time knowing when it’s a good time to try to get more work. Should I stay working only with the current people I’m working with or should I seek additional work?

What’s the best or most rewarding part about being a freelance writer?

The most rewarding part of being at home with my boys, I can homeschool them, and still help bring in money for our family finances. I also am doing what I always dreamed of even if it’s not in the way I always thought it would be.

What advice or tips do you have for people aspiring to start their own freelance writing business?

Get a website as soon as possible. This is one area I wish I had taken care of earlier. Now I feel like I’m behind and struggling to catch up. Choose a domain name that is easy to remember and easy to spell. If at all possible, get a .com domain name instead of a .net or .org name because they’re more easily remembered.

Don’t sell yourself short. There are many freelance job sites that list low-paying jobs. Decide on what is the least you feel comfortable receiving for the work you do and then stick to it. Your writing ability and experience is worth more than $20 for 50 400-600 word articles. Look for jobs that will allow you to be paid well for your work.

Write about what you love. Even if you work for someone else to begin with, be selective about the topics you choose to write about. And don’t forget to proofread your work before sending it in or submitting it one of the many article submission sites. If your work is replete with errors it might keep people from choosing to have you write for them.

Don’t forget to network with other freelance writers through forums, Twitter, or other avenues. Be careful which newsletters you sign up for as many of them will just fill your email box and won’t provide valuable information.

If you’re just getting started, don’t look down on beginning to work for a company rather than on your own. If you can, find a mentor to learn from.

Finally, read, read, read, and write, write, write. Reading other good writing will have a positive effect on your own writing ability. Then try to re-write the articles in your own words. This is how Benjamin Franklin did it, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a better writer in any century.

Posted under Interviews

Over the next couple of months I’m going to be publishing a series of interviews with successful freelance writers.  These are people who come from a variety of backgrounds with different writing niches and approaches.  Whether you’re looking to make supplemental income by freelancing or you’re building a full time writing business we have the answers, tips and experiences from other successful writers.

Our first installment in this series is with Kathryn Lang.

Annette:  How long have you been working as a writer?

Kathryn:  Writing for money is relatively new to me. I got my first paying gig as a writer in 2004 as a regular columnist for the regional paper – it lasted a year. After that I tested the online waters a bit. I started out posting in forums for a whole $.15 per post. The first few months I posted about things I actually new off hand. I soon realized that will a little research I could write 15 words about anything – so I did. I worked hard to make each post relevant and informative. It was from these posts that individual site owners began to contact me to write blogs and articles. It was no time before I no longer had time to do the forum posts.

Annette:  How did you get your start?

Kathryn:  I started writing while I was still in school. I had one teacher that encouraged me all through my years in public education. It seemed that I always ended up with her in one class or another (maybe she was following me). She still encourages me today.

Annette:  What motivated you to become a writer?

Kathryn:  Our homeschool mom’s group did a bible study and one of the questions was about dreams and hopes for the future. I told them I wanted to write for others. Saying it out loud got me started in the right direction. Getting the job to do the column was all the rest of the motivation that I needed.

Annette:  How do you market your services?

Kathryn:  It is tough selling your own skills and abilities. There is this hidden fear of rejection that used to want to crawl out and keep me quiet. I’m getting over that! Today I utilize my own web site to market my writing. It is undergoing some restructuring that will help expand my opportunities as well. I am also working with a friend that does library and school presentations about putting together a seminar/class for creative writing.

Each week I send out queries for print magazines and I follow up on job listings (which I have emailed to me through several different sites). I have also contacted several content sites and signed up as a writer for those sites. Any time I see a potential lull in my work load I contact the people that I work with and let them know I have an opening.

Also, I think building a rapport with site owners, editors and publishers is important. They are no longer just writing contacts for me. I reach out about family, life and things unrelated to writing. Many of the contacts that I have made have actually sent the majority of my writing business my way.

Annette:  What tools and steps did you use to establish your business?

Kathryn:  I think I’m still in the process of understanding and establishing my business – at least to the level that I want it to be. I have a website but it is not the main source of my writing opportunities.

Contacts are the most important source for me. When I do a job for one person I do the best job that I can do – on time, well written and on topic. It usually means more work from that person. After a few weeks or months (or however long it takes to begin to feel comfortable) I usually ask for a reference to post on my website and also ask for additional work.

Annette:  Would you describe to us your typical day?

Kathryn:  My typical day is usually not very typical. There was a commercial for a television show recently (The Starter Wife) and the main character says “I live in a crazy world.” That has become my mantra! I work at home, my husband works at home and we homeschool. We have a 12 year old, a 9 year old and a three year old – all boys. I try to stay on schedule, but it can be tough.

Most mornings I am up by 4 am. I like the early morning hours because the phone doesn’t ring, I rarely hear “mom” and I am up in time to see the sun rise. I get a large chunk of my writing done during these hours.

The kids are up by 7 am and we spend a little time as a family doing chores before breakfast. School (and hopefully more work time) starts at 8 am.

Lunch time is around 11 am and then the three year old takes a nap (and hubby usually joins him ). The older boys go out to play and I have a quiet time before writing some more.

Dinner is around 5 pm and then we have some family time or do evening activities (like scouts, church or play practice). If I’m not in charge of the driving then I stay home and write some more.

This is supposed to be my day – but life often gets in the way! When it does I just go with the flow and squeeze in my work when I can. Some days I find myself sitting in a parking lot with a laptop doing my writing or in the doctor’s waiting room. I keep a pad and pencil in the car, in my purse and all around the house so that I can write no matter what.

Annette:  How do you find balance as a writer working from home?

Kathryn:  Balance – we don’t need no stinkin’ balance!

It amazes my husband that I can write in the midst of chaos, and some days I can. There are days when I grab my laptop and hide away in the corner of the bedroom. You have to keep in mind that my office is literally in the center of the house – wide open. The best days for me are laundry days because I sit next to the washer and dryer and I can’t hear what else is going on.

It helps if I can let my family know what I have coming up and what I need to accomplish so that they know how much peace and quiet I really need.

Annette:  What are your struggles and how do you overcome them?

Kathryn:  There is really only one struggle for my writing and for my life. I procrastinate. I mastered the art in high school, carried it over to college and am working daily to break the habit now that I have kids watching me. I know that if I do a little here and there NOW then I will have all the time that I need later. I continue to find myself in a position where every thing has to be done right now. It is a daily challenge and I am getting better. I have learned to use schedules, to-do lists and calendars to help keep events, projects and activities in order and to not stack one day heavier than the other.

Annette:  What is the most difficult part about being a freelance writer?

Kathryn:  The most difficult part of freelancing for me is working every day. It is so easy to just not do anything when there is no one looking over my shoulder making sure I’m doing what I need to be doing. That goes back to the procrastination thing. I am good at self motivating – I just have to do it days before the due date instead of hours before.

Annette:  What’s the best or most rewarding part about being a freelance writer?

Kathryn:  The best part of being a freelance writer changes for me from day to day. If you had asked me a few months ago I would probably have said that the best part of freelancing was being at home with me kids or getting to work when I wanted to work and not being locked into a time schedule. Getting to help others is not something that I would have even imagined as part of being a freelance writer. The last few months I have helped a friend write essays for law school, encouraged a teller at the bank to write her story and worked with some teenagers at writing (and getting published). There are more benefits to being a freelance writer than I could have imagined and I look forward to discovering even more in the future.

Annette:  What advice or tips do you have for people aspiring to start their own freelance writing business?

Kathryn:  The most important thing any writer can do it to write! Continue to expand your skills and abilities by taking classes (online or at the local community center or community college), attending conferences or writer’s groups and visiting writing websites.

As for starting a business, I think that it is important to follow basic business principles.

1. Create a business plan – this means having a budgets, marketing strategy and a vision for the business.
2. Create a savings before starting out – it is better to have three to six months of payments in the bank before starting a new business than to jump in with both feet without looking. A safety net will make it easier to relax and do the best work and look for the best opportunities.
3. Look for the positive – there will be rejections – so go ahead an prepare for it – use the rejections to clean up queries, articles and other submissions and then send them to other publications.
4. Be aggressive – I heard once that Grisham kept out over 7 queries for his first manuscript. Each time a rejection came in he sent out another query. Follow the same pattern and you will begin to see your approval rates go up (and your pay follow).
5. Be consistent – write good, quality content for each job and you will see good, quality results come from those jobs.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the first interview in our series.  We’ll be packaging them together in a free report. If you’re interested in receiving it, please let me know by emailing info@freelancewritingbusiness.com.

For more information about writer, Kathryn Lang, feel free to visit her at:

• www.kathrynlang.com
• www.successfulfreelancewriter.com
• www.proverbs31life.com
• www.bestfamilyfinance

Posted under Interviews