Everything I know about being freelance

All the things I've learnt - and what I wish I'd done differently

Tomorrow I am joining the ranks of the gainfully employed. Yes, guys, after almost two years of freelance life, I'm taking a job on the features desk of a magazine. I am very excited - I've never actually worked at a magazine and this one is a special one, plus there was a feeling of 'rightness' in how the opportunity came about so I'm super grateful and, I have to admit, nervous. It's been a long time since I've been the new girl at an office.

It's also going to be quite a change. I'm looking forward to a lot of things - a new challenge, a regular paycheck, a routine, colleagues, the benefits of being at a title - but I'm also a little flummoxed at the idea of having a boss after so long, of interacting with HR, of not being able to spot a story and sling it to whichever publication I feel like, not pootering off to yoga whenever I feel like a stretch (I sometimes wonder whether the ability to do this was the true highlight of my freelance career) or long phone calls with my fellow freelancer pals on slow afternoons (shout out to Emma, who almost always picked up).

I've been thinking about my experience of freelancing, the pros and cons, what I wish I knew, the best bits of advice I could bestow to others, what I wish I had done differently. So I thought I'd write it all out - partly to help anyone else who may be toying with the idea (I think many people dream of being their own boss) and also perhaps for myself - I wouldn't be surprised if at some point in the future I found myself venturing into the freelance trenches again.

How I like to imagine myself as a freelance journo tapping out a comment piece

So here it is, everything I've learnt about being freelance...

IT'S BLOODY DIFFICULT

I cannot sugar coat it: being a freelance journalist is up there with the most stressful job I've ever had. I'd put it as a tie with my first 'proper' journalism job which was at a press agency, working on and writing exclusive stories that landed in national newspapers and, sometimes, on the front pages of those papers. We each had targets, a number of thousands of pounds we had to hit each month, written on a whiteboard right by our desk, which we made by selling stories to newspapers.

I've never had a job that required me to use every ounce of resilience, persuasion and quick thinking in my possession. Incidentally, I've also never been paid so little.

Isn't it funny that the higher up you go, the easier the jobs get? Have you noticed that? Is it just journalism? In comparison to that job, a staff position at a tabloid newspaper, renowned to be a difficult place to work, which paid me triple, was a walk in the park. But on the other hand, while that first job was the toughest I've ever had, it was also the most exhilarating and, in its own way, fulfilling gig - and, as is so often the way with these things, it taught me so much.

Being freelance was probably just as tough but in a different way. The actual work of being a freelance journalist - spotting stories, writing pitches, landing commissions, conducting interviews, writing up features etc - really isn't that hard, once you've built up that experience and you're not new to the game. No, the tough part about being freelance is handling everything but the actual work. It's the inevitable worries about money. It's learning to cope with financial uncertainty. It's having to chase late payments. It's the loneliness of being without an office, without a team. It's also the loneliness of the enterprise - no one else is invested in your freelance career. The downside to not having a boss is that you don't have a boss: it's all on you. It's the constant hustle - the search for stories, the anxiety of not having ideas, the hunt for opportunities, the never-ending scrabble - that makes being a freelance journalist one hell of a tough gig.

And, in all honesty, not everyone is suited to it. I know plenty of journalists who probably could not go freelance - perhaps they are a little too dignified, they don't have the required scrappiness. Also, some specialties - for example, investigative journalism - do not lend themselves to a freelance career. But yes, no doubt about it, it's a tough gig.

#21 The truth about being a freelance journalist

YOU WILL BECOME SO MUCH BETTER

I don't think anyone regrets going freelance even if they jump back into a job at some point. I certainly do not regret it. For all the stress that I mentioned above, going freelance taught me so much and gave me opportunities I could never have dreamt of before, at my staff job, constrained to one publication which - in truth - I was not particularly aligned with. The concerns of the readers of that publication did not match my own concerns - the things I wanted to write about did not match up with the things they wanted to read.

The joy of being a freelance journalist is the freedom to pitch your wares at all different publications. I wrote some pieces I was really proud of and for some publications I'd always wanted to write for and I felt I achieved far more as a freelance journalist than I had in my previous role.

You will also learn so much. And you will learn a skill that I will forever be thankful to have learnt: you will learn how to make a living for yourself. It may not be as big a living as you would like it to be but it is a living. Very few people can make a living outside the structure of employer-and-employee and what a wonderful thing to know that, if the shit hits the fan, you can strike out alone and make a liveable wage. To me, that's freedom. What a thing to have in your back pocket.

GET USED TO SILENCE

Oh, I hate this one. Oh, the time spent crafting a really quite brilliant pitch, clicking send, waiting to hear back from the editor you are sure won't think twice when it comes to commissioning such an obvious work of genius and then.... crickets. Particularly when you have built a relationship with an editor and you feel there is a simpatico there and then... they can't even be bothered to reply to your pitch to say, 'not one for me, thanks'. Urgh!

Well, all I can say is... it really is not personal! It feels personal. It feels like a slight. And yet, it really isn't. Actually. The best advice I can give - I have taken this myself - is send the pitch off and then just forget about it. Don't refresh that inbox. Just leave it. Go for a walk. Feel sunshine on your face. And remember, the person giving you the silent treatment is not a machiavellian creature with a penchant for sadism (though I have wondered this) but just an overworked editor, in the year 2025, trying to make it through the day and do a good-enough job to squeak through.

IF IN DOUBT, PITCH

The plus side of the silent treatment is... pitch that bonkers piece that may not work but that you'd actually love to write. You might as well! The worst that can happen is they won't reply! One freelancer told me to shoot for the stars and it's so true. There are pieces swilling around in my mind that I wish I had just pitched. Go for it! There is nothing more galling than reading a piece you thought of a month ago but never bothered to pitch, in a newspaper, done well, under another person's byline. So yes, when in doubt, pitch.

Another freelancer told me he pitched two ideas a day. I was never that prolific. And I would caution: make sure your pitches are good. They don't all have to land as commissions but make sure they are all thought out and viable. You don't want an editor who doesn't open your emails because you sent over a flurry of crappy pitches. But yes, looking back on all the pitches I've sent, I've never regretted pitching, but I have regretted not pitching. (Good God, is that not a lesson for life?)

How to pitch a story

DO A GOOD JOB

This one seems obvious but I don't think it is. I tried to do the best job I could with all my commissions. For me, that meant I tried to write it as well as I could. But the most important thing (yes, more important than how it's written) in journalism is that you file on time and to word count. So if they ask for 1000 words at 3pm, don't give them 1700 at 9pm. I'd also add that I tried to file copy that was already 'subbed' (I'd already checked it for spelling mistakes and grammatical issues etc) and I also tried to be clean legally, and by that I mean that I'd crossed all my Ts and dotted my Is, I had all my interviews on tape, I'd flagged anything that seemed legally dodgy etc. In this day and age, with cuts happening at pretty much all media organisations, you can't rely on editors and teams to sub your copy properly - and it's going to be your name on the piece so you'll be the one who looks bad if there are spelling mistakes or obvious factual errors.

Also, the way I saw it was that if you could do a 'good job', the editor would be more likely to use you in future. I found this was the case. I can think of only one commissioning editor who I worked with just once. Pretty much everyone else I ended up working with multiple times and that's because I did the above and I tried to make it friction-free. If they wanted edits, I did them. I liaised with case studies. I did shoots if they wanted. I tried to make it a smooth process for everyone involved.

Here I am, trying to do a good job

DEVELOP YOUR OWN ETHICS

This was one of my favourite parts of being freelance. After working at a press agency and publication, where often how the source was treated or how the story was written or edited was taken out of your hands, it was great to be in charge of that side of things and develop my own ethical code. I wanted to offer the people I interviewed some form of 'aftercare'. So, when a story was published, I would either text or call them to check in, see how they had found it, commiserate about the comments if there were any mean ones, that kind of thing. I also decided that if I was going to 'ghost' a story - that's when you interview someone and then write a piece in the first person as though they've written it themselves - I wanted to give them a read-through of the final copy. I feel that if the story presents words coming out of their mouths that they might not actually have said (when you ghost someone, you're often trying to get the gist of what they said down in readable form) they should have a chance to listen to it and flag anything inaccurate or anything they absolutely would not have said.

I also learnt by trial-and-error what publications I wanted to write for and which I didn't. I did one story for one newspaper and felt grubby afterwards. It had a sensationalist slant and I felt like I had had to cajole the source a little too much who then complained. I also felt the publication had not respected another player's right to privacy. One of the wonderful things about being freelance is that you have the option to go: ok, I don't want to work with that newspaper again. And I didn't.

THE RULE OF THREE

I decided that when I took work on, I would want it to tick off one of three boxes: either it was good for my career in a certain way, or it paid well, or it was just damn fun. Now, in all honesty, sometimes I did just have to take work that didn't tick any of these boxes because I was broke and needed some cash, but I still think the rule of three is a useful way to evaluate work if you are in the fortunate position to be sifting through assignments. Some pieces I wrote for a certain newspaper were not particularly well paid but the paper was prestigious and it made me look good being in its pages. On the other hand, one newspaper wasn't particularly prestigious but it paid the best of the lot. Some other jobs - not enough, in my opinion! - were just downright fun. As long as a piece of work is ticking one of those boxes, I would consider myself lucky.

ALWAYS ASK FOR MORE MONEY

You gotta ask…

We have to get down to brass tacks. Always ask for more. I suspect this is true in any walk of life but it is particularly true in journalism where stories are so nebulous and rates, I have found, so ranging. Never accept the first offer without asking for more. In almost all cases, the first proffered rate is the jumping-off point and it should be viewed as such. I don't have a percentage to give you but I would say that about 80 per cent of the time I've asked for more money (the 20 per cent when I didn't was with a certain publication that I was just so thrilled to get into that I didn't think of the pounds and the pence... more fool me), and about 75 per cent of my requests for more money have been successful. They may not have given me the exact figure I asked for but they offered a better rate than the initial.

Also, if you ask for more money, the worst that will happen is they say no! And if that's the case, and you still want the job, you can reply, 'in this instance, I can make this fee work'. Also, beware any commissioning editor who acts as though you are asking them to personally open their purse and give you their hard-earned dosh when you ask for a higher rate. Sweetpea, it's your billionaire owner's moolah I'm after, not yours, chill out!

How I make money and reflections on my first six months as a freelancer

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, SAVE YOUR MONEY

Ok, this might actually be my top top top tip. Firstly, if you are going freelance and you are choosing your jumping off point (as in, you've not been pushed by being made redundant) I would absolutely recommend you wait until you have a little pot of money at the ready as a nice little cushion before taking the plunge. In an ideal world, this would be three months' expenses but definitely have at least a month's worth tucked away to make things a little easier. This is because it is hard to get going as a freelancer at the beginning and, also, because, through no fault of your own, as a freelancer you will experience cash flow issues. You will have done work but you'll be waiting around for the payment, meanwhile the rent is due or the mortgage is coming out of your account and the bills are piling up. This is just the way it is.

On a similar vein, save, save, save. I don't think you have any choice as a freelancer but to put money aside every month to build your emergency fund. That's what I did after nine months of being freelance. I put aside 20 per cent of every invoice for tax - please, please, please, do this! the taxman is a terrifying boogey monster and you must be able to pay him when he comes calling - and I put a further 10 per cent into an emergency fund.

The way I saw it was I was just buying some peace of mind when I put that money aside. And it was so helpful! When payments were late, I just moved money out of my emergency fund to pay my mortgage and topped it up when the payment came in.

One of the great lessons that being freelance has taught me is the power of saving. I couldn't help but curse my former self for neglecting to formally put aside anything from my previous lovely regular staff salary. This is something all of us can learn. Even if you're broke as f*** and £10 a month is all you can put aside, put it aside! Put it into a high yield savings account (yes, it sounds v impressive but you can sort yourself one with about three finger taps on the Monzo app) and watch as it earns money, just sitting there, while providing you with that all important peace of mind. No one wants to wake up in a sweat because a paper hasn't run a story the fee of which you were planning on using to pay rent. That is not good for anyone's mental health. Save save save.

DON'T BE PROUD

The writer and content creator

Katherine Ormerod

has a great highlight reel on her Instagram account, titled 'My CV', where she honestly takes you through her career. I really recommend checking it out. The bit that really stayed with me was when she said

"When you work for yourself you can't be a snob. I have done ALL SORTS - written high end property brochures, corporate programmes. I've written full books for people I wouldn't follow on Instagram. You just have to keep bloody going."

I could really have done with that memo when I did a monumentally idiotic thing early on in my freelance career. I think I'd been going for about three months when I got asked by an editor at a paper if I fancied three shifts a week on the features desk. I said yes and then quit the gig after about six weeks. In my defence, I think I was quite scarred by my previous role at a publication, was giddy on the freelance freedom of writing whatever you wanted and I didn't want to get pinned down by a publication again so soon. I also misread the economic climate. My head was still in the halcyon days of 2022 when you could stick out your thumb and a great job would roll up. I did not realise the economic headwinds had changed and the labour market was about to get as tight as... a pickle jar lid (does that analogy work?). But I was also proud. I felt I was too good for that gig and, spoiler, I was not. I left the cushy three-day-a-week job and well, let's just say I had plenty of time to repent of that decision when I was desperate for work that simply was not coming in.

Ormerod is right - the pay-off to the sheer freedom of being self-employed is that you cannot be a snob. You have to take work that you might otherwise have turned your nose up at. And actually, in my experience, some of that work really was quite enjoyable. I wrote reports for a market research company which was quite interesting. I went to a school in deep east London to interview kids who had got outstanding A level results for a PR company. I read to-be-published manuscripts and prepared reports on them for the books desk of a national newspaper. None of this work was particularly glamorous but it kept me ticking over.

DO IT RIGHT

This is one of the things I wish I had done differently. Make the most of the freedom of being freelance. I wish I had decamped to a surf town in Morocco for a month or two of my freelance career. I didn't do enough travelling. I have other regrets - projects I should have had the audacity to go after. Also, enjoy the quiet periods. This is very difficult because you are likely terrified about money and convinced you'll never work again. But do enjoy them. It will get busy again. I don't regret walks in the park or going to yoga or the cinema in the afternoon. In fact, I wish I'd done more of that. I never once bunked off and went to the National Portrait Gallery - isn't that a travesty?

FIND YOUR FREELANCE ANGELS

Befriending fellow freelancers, seeing and calling them regularly to rejoice or commiserate or ask for advice was not only a joy, it was a necessity. You can't do this solo so find your freelance angels. I could not have done it without mine.

IS IT VIABLE?

I'm a big believer in being honest and upfront about this stuff and so I do have to tell you that I am - sadly - not at all sure that being a fulltime freelance journalist is viable anymore. With rates stagnating and budgets shrinking, I really do struggle to think of anyone I know who makes a decent-ish living doing straight-up freelance journalism. The people I know who make it work are supplementing it with teaching work or books or content creation or some other far more steady, usually more lucrative sideline. If I went back to it again, I would be looking at what work I could do alongside it to make it a more robust proposition.

So there you go - I hope it was helpful or at least interesting. Let me know in the comments if there's anything else that should be on the list. One final note, my experience as a self-employed person made me feel vast admiration for people who are forging their own path - it's not easy, and they deserve those kudos!

Other things...

Black Doves

I know I am ridiculously late to this show... I think it was the hot ticket over Christmas (?) but I went home to Suffolk and my parents and I guzzled down the entire series (six hour-long episodes) in two days and I don't regret it! It's about spies at the heart of the British government who have to solve the riddle of the apparent murders of the Chinese ambassador, a hair stylist, a tabloid hack and a civil servant. It stars Keira Knightley, who has no right to continue to look that beautiful, and Ben Whishaw, who I just ADORE. It was such a fun romp of a show and prompted me to ask lots of annoying questions like, 'Do you think there's any cabinet minister who is really married to a spy?’ and ‘Do you think there are real assassins who go to cafes in Soho for breakfast?’

40 Things I Know At (Very Nearly) 40

I love Sophia Money Coutts's writing and this, her list of the 40 things she knows at 40, is fantastic. In particular number 28!

"Change your WhatsApp settings so that nobody can see when you were last online, and they can’t see what colour your ticks are. This means you can’t see when someone else was last online, and you can’t see their ticks either. I did this about six years ago and haven’t thought about ticks or when someone was last online since. Enormously relaxing."

I did this few weeks ago after developing an unhealthy habit of checking when a certain person was online and I can tell you that Sophia is correct. It is enormously relaxing. Also, it's just common sense. I don't need to know when anyone was last on Whatsapp or whether they've read my messages. Enough of the information overload! Let's just let each other live and ignore messages if we so please.

Ok, I've rambled too long as it is, thank you as ever for reading, I really appreciate it and I'll see you next time xxx