Your Turn: Does Freelance Writing Only Mean Client Projects?

freelance or free-lance free′·-lance′ (frē′lans′)

noun

a writer, musician, artist, etc. who is not under contract for regular work but whose writings or services are sold to individual buyers

There was a point in time when my definition of freelancing had to do with not being married to a particular boss. When I first began it meant having a flexible schedule and one or a variety of clients. As my career evolved I’m adding other more passive income type projects to the definition. For example, blog, ebooks or books. Not every freelance writer agrees, however.

I thought this might make an interesting discussion for the FWJ community. What is your definition of freelance and does that only include client projects?

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Posted

April 8, 2010

Freelance Writing

david

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6 responses

Caroline G. Keyser

April 8, 2010

To me, freelancing just means that you work for yourself and sell your services to potential buyers–whether that’s magazines, corporations, individuals, the government, or whoever. I don’t think we should set limits on who we can have as clients just because we use the word ‘freelance’ in our job title.
.-= Caroline G. Keyser´s last blog ..Editor’s tip: Eliminate the ‘duh’ statement! =-.

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Heiddi

April 8, 2010

Hiya Deb. I feel that freelancing isn’t limited to client projects. As writers, we can do our own thing. I write non-fiction articles for blogs and websites, but I also like to write essays, songs, etc. Freelancing includes such creative endeavors not linked to a client, but connected to our creative natures. Great post once again! :).

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Rosemary

April 8, 2010

Freelancing is whatever produces income, IMHO. Passive income is great, but I don’t seem to make much from any of my blogs. ‘Got any secrets?

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Anne Wayman

April 8, 2010

For me it’s both clients and my own work. I include even my pottery in the freelancing with the goal of making $600 some year to take it out of hobby status… a long way to go on that one.
.-= Anne Wayman´s last blog ..Tweets From Freelance Writers =-.

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Wendy Sullivan

April 8, 2010

For me, freelancing means a variety of clients – newspapers, SMB, PR work and even television appearances… I don’t consider my unpaid contributions to blogs (even my own) to be part of my business.

Wendy
.-= Wendy Sullivan´s last blog ..Out of my comfort zone =-.

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Dave B

April 9, 2010

I agree with the others who say that “freelance” doesn’t have to include only paid work for clients. I definitely consider my passive income/blogging etc. as freelance work.

Rosemary: I find it hard to make much money with my own blogs; most of my blogging-related income comes from other sites such as Xomba.com, where writers get some/all of the AdSense income from their posts. For one thing, sites such as these have lots of contributors and content, so they tend to have a higher page rank than most individual blogs. So they show up closer to the top in search results.

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