A freelance writer friend once admitted that she was only an adequate writer but, boy, could she market her stuff! With 30 years of nonfiction freelancing behind her, she’s doing something right. I’ve always envied her self-marketing skills and aspire to someday be even half as good as she is. Yet as a full-time freelance writer of commercial nonfiction and marketing materials for the last eight years, I’ve learned a few things about getting my work (and, it follows, myself) out there. Otherwise, I’d be wheeling my iMac around the streets in a shopping cart.

Being a freelance writer comes down to this: If you don’t promote yourself and your work, you’ll starve. To avoid that fate, you must practice Shameless Self-Promotion, or SS-P. This can be tough if you’re shy or if you’re unsure of yourself or your abilities (and what writer hasn’t stomped through that mine field?). But the sooner you gather up your courage and practice this simple skill, the more successful you’ll be.

Now, SS-P doesn’t mean becoming an insufferable bore with no sense of tact or of knowing when it’s appropriate to bring up the topic of your work. In fact, a good practitioner of SS-P is humble but assertive. You don’t have to take out an ad during the Super Bowl or cram your business card into the hand of everyone on the street. The idea is simply to let people know – in ways comfortable for you – that you’re a good writer and you’re available, then sometimes following up on that initial contact. If you want to get formal about it, call it networking. If that term intimidates you, just think of it as talking about how you make a living to people who seem interested.

It’s crucial to remember the key point to SS-P: You can never anticipate all the doors that one contact, event, or action might open. So it pays to remember that anyone can be a potential bringer-of-work. While one individual might not have need of your skills, she might know another person, or a dozen, who might.

By far, most of the work I’ve received as a freelancer has come to me from SS-P.

In the beginning, when I knew it would take time to get established as a magazine writer, I concentrated on finding local business clients. I told all my contacts from my final corporate job (as a writer for a utility company) about going independent and handed out my new business cards. It worked. A printer referred me to a jeweler friend of his who hired me to write and coordinate a newsletter. My computer technician referred me to a small book publisher. He didn’t have work for me until a year later, but I ended up writing about a dozen books for him. Another printer introduced me to a freelance editor, with whom I’m still working. And he introduced me to his successor at the publishing company where he was later employed, and that firm is still a client. More recently, a friend at the Chamber of Commerce tipped me off to a project that provided a third of my income one year. Because I did a good job, that client still calls me occasionally with more assignments.

See? You just never know.

I have also approached potential clients on my own. Just one example: When I was a freelance editor of a tiny business magazine, we received a publication that promoted small businesses. I contacted that publisher and began writing for him. Some of the small businesses I subsequently profiled asked me to do additional writing for them. (Of course, I first made sure there were no conflicts of interest here.)

I joined various groups that I thought might produce some good connections. Even when I couldn’t afford to join, I was sometimes able to attend functions as a guest of a member, and made a few contacts that way, some of which led to work. It can literally pay to be creative like this in your SS-P forays.

Naturally, successful SS-P requires you to perform as advertised. Be professional. Deliver work on time, be courteous to clients, do absolutely the best job you can do. Even if you have a dozen clients, treat them all as if they were your only one.

For me, the heart of SS-P is never discounting any contact. Of course, many contacts won’t pan out (think of rejection letters here, or people who want your help writing their novel but can’t or won’t pay you), but a good number might prove to be very valuable. SS-P is just one more tool in the freelancer’s bag of tricks. You’ve just got to keep the faith and remain visible.

Barbara Stahura is a freelance writer now happily living and working in Tucson, Arizona. Contact her at barbara@clariticom.com or visit her website at http://www.clariticom.com. 

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