7 Truths About Freelancing From Home

Deb Ng over at Freelance Writing Jobs has a cute post on freelance writers that made me grin. It's the Top 10 Ways to Tell You’re a Freelance Writer. While I was laughing, I started thinking about some of the things I hear when I tell people that I write for a living. What to tell them or what I have said, too.

“Oh, wow! I read a lot.”
This one is always good for a smile. You explain nothing, they're just impressed that you can string words together.




“It must be nice to stay home all day and not have to work.”
Uh. Excuse me? While I don't willingly wake up at 4 A.M. to get work done like some freelancers I know of, that doesn't mean I don't work. I spend quite a bit of my day-each and every day- working on something or another. From about 9 A.M. to 11 P.M., how many people that 'work' have those hours?



“Neat! What kind of book have you written?”
I'm working on two supernatural novels. One is Horror and the other is Horror Romance. I've also sent a manuscript to an agent for a toddler board book. Annnnd....there's a book on pregnancy in the works. Yep, my interests run the gambit. But, no nothing has been published yet.



“Oh. So you've been in magazines?”
Technically, yes. For a year I was a columnist, then contributing editor to an online magazine. There's been a few articles in a local parenting magazine here in New York and in Louisiana. No, I haven't been in O, Cosmopolitan, Woman's Day, or the Weekly World News.



“If you don't have any books written and you're not in those magazines, what DO you write?”
You can watch the people begin to float away mentally when you try to describe blogging, web content, SEO, and how to write for the web. I swear, if you ever really want to start the Zombie Apocalypse, broadcast a blogging SEO seminar across every radio station and every television channel.



“Why aren't you rich?”
Here's the part of trying to explain that it doesn't matter how good you are, if no one replies to your email, you're out of a job. Or article. Sometimes people don't pay up. It is hard for people outside of this career to understand that we work globally in many cases and it can be impossible to collect payment from skips.



“Why don't you get a real job?”
Because I love being with my kids. Hanging out and having coffee with my husband while I pore over job posting. I love the creativity, the glowing emails from clients, the long nights, and yes-even the rejections.


And guess what? I have a REAL job.