Freelancing is not an easy life, but it is possible to make decent money doing it. Unlike fiction writing, whether you either hit it big or barely struggle along, it’s possible to make a good living, say, $50-100K, by just doing a good job.
The trick is to move “upmarket” — to the higher-paying pubs — as quickly as you can. That means collecting a lot of clips and immediately presenting them to the next editor up in the food chain. In general, business writing pays more — and business features are just as easy to write as any other feature. Don’t overlook business-to-business publications — regional business magazines, trade publications, and newsletters.
They pay well and generally (though not always) have lower writing standards, so you don’t have to be quite as polished to earn the same amount of money when you’re just starting out and don’t have your writing style down yet.
Although you probably think you do. The longer I’ve been a writer, the more I’ve come to be aware of the deficiencies in my own work. And when I started out, I thought I was Hemingway!
