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Inside the Cover Book Review Review by Liz Scott
Six-Figure Freelancing: The Writer’s Guide to Making More Money By Kelly James-Enger Random House Reference 2005 320 pp. Writing-related
When I take my part-time freelance writing career full-time, this is a book I will keep next to my right elbow at all times. Kelly James-Enger has written a useful, engaging handbook about making a good living as a freelance writer. The book’s conversational tone, its nuts-and-bolts approach to creating a strong writing business, and the authority of an author who’s done it herself make Six-Figure Freelancing both fun to read and inspiring. James-Enger approaches freelance writing as a business rather than a hobby or a creative outlet. Right from the outset, the goal is financial success, and that goal seems both realistic and attainable.
Unlike many guides for writers that emphasize writing techniques and instructions on how to pitch stories, Six-Figure Freelancing focuses on techniques for making serious money in the writing business. The first, and arguably most important section of the book addresses mindset. James-Enger lays out the realities of making big money in writing, including the kinds of people who can and should go for it, and those who might want to rethink full-time freelancing as a career choice. Later in the book she goes into the fiscal virtues of the corporate copywriting market. Though she admits that corporate work is less glamorous than books and glossy magazines, her corporate clients are stable and generally pay top rates.
Six-Figure Freelancing does address the topic of query letters and self-promotion. But the focus here is less on writing the perfect pitch than on writing the perfectly efficient pitch. She suggests templates, standard formats, and other time-savers that keep the query letters going out quickly, so that you can spend more of your time on the pieces you’re being paid to write. In fact, the gist of many of the topics in this book comes down to time-saving and time-management techniques. Because James-Enger does not endorse the notion that freelance writers need to work 18 hours per day to get by, she goes into great detail on how to pack the most money-making work possible into a 40 hour work week.
Though Six-Figure Freelancing has lots of good basic information, it is not a beginner’s manual. The book is geared toward full-time freelance writers who intend to make a hefty living at their craft. James-Enger assumes that her readers have a number of clips in their portfolio as well as basic freelancing skills and knowledge. Towards the end, the book gets to a few truly advanced topics, such as avoiding burnout and the answer to the question “What’s next?” after you achieve your six-figure income goals.
Perhaps the best part of this book is the refreshingly positive tone. Too many writers’ guides dwell on the negatives-- the low average income rates, the hard work, the small number of success stories. Six-Figure Freelancing is realistic about the work and the challenges, but it doesn’t get stuck there. Instead, it accentuates the positive-- the fact that you can do this. There are writers out there who make more than $100,000 per year, and if you work not just hard but smart, you can join their ranks.
Liz Scott is a part-time freelance
writer and full-time technical writer from the San Francisco Bay area. Her
life's dream is never again to begin a book with the sentence "Insert the CD
into the CD-ROM drive."
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