![]() ![]() You have to start entry-level before you can be appointed to a manager, and prove your people-and-deadline wrangling skills to be promoted to executive. Have an anchor client - and give it time to grow.įor a traditional, 401K-included career, think of the ladder. If a client is going to require multiple edits, I need to know they’ll pay for that with a higher rate or I’ll be paid a good hourly rate.” 2. Clients who don’t know what they want and don’t provide clear directions will eat up your time and not pay you for that. It takes time to get to know a client, so one-off assignments that are low paying - even with a high hourly rate - aren’t worth it. “My goal is to earn $100+ an hour, so if I don’t think an assignment is going to net me that or more, I either negotiate or turn it down. So what does this mean? Being unapologetically picky about who she works with: Asking for a raise when it’s warranted.Charging - and sticking to - late fee requirements.To get here, she focused on a few things: In the past 15 years - nine of which she was freelance full-time - she’s grown her business from $40,000 to six figures, with around 60 percent coming from content marketing and 40 percent from journalism. In addition to securing sources, transcribing interviews, optimizing content for web, sometimes building the piece in the CMS, going through editing rounds and, eventually, seeing the direct deposit come into your inbox, you’ve likely logged upwards of five or more hours on a single article.įor Ann Adams,* who brought in $103,000 last year, being strategic about her energy exerted per client proved to be the most impactful on adding zeros to her income. Emphasize the value of your time.ĭepending on the story or project, getting from assignment to payment is a time-consuming process. Here, writers who make $100K or more share their secrets for success 1. While they might not choose to spend it on shoes or pay for an overpriced apartment in a pricey metro area, they are able to support themselves and their families, all from their resilience to pitch, secure, complete, invoice - and repeat. Plenty of writers, from journalists and content specialists to ghostwriters and SEO superstars, have a six-figure income produced from their words. (And annoyingly, paying plenty of taxes.)Īnd though my mother might disagree, I’m not that special. Today, I would consider myself successful and financially independent, reaping in far more than I ever made while on salary. As a digital nomadic journalist, my Instagram account will take you around the globe - from Japan to Colombia - to arrive at a comfortable income, I worked and freelance full-time for five years.īefore that? I held countless internships, wrote for free to collect bylines and went to every last networking event I was invited to - even the ones where I could barely afford a single cocktail. I was first mesmerized by the idea of becoming a writer as a 5-year-old with a tape recorder, but I quickly understood the hustle required to transform my pipe dream into a profession. But it takes time - and often, a shift in your attitude toward the job description of a “writer.” I should know - I’ve been working at it for, well, nearly my whole life. But ask any writer you know about how they make ends meet and chances are high they’ll present a laundry list of their countless gigs, that when added together, actually make a sustainable income.Įven though many publication staffs continue to shrink and the days of $2/word pieces are few and far between, it is possible to accumulate wealth as you check off magazines from your byline bucket list. From Carrie Bradshaw’s infamous sprawling Upper East Side apartment funded by a single article a week to the massive office of a newly-30-year-old magazine editor in ’13 Going on 30,′ a wordsmith’s profession is often illustrated as luxurious. Perhaps because screenwriters are responsible for the plot lines, many films and television shows glamorize the lifestyle of a journalist. ![]()
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