freelance

Writers from various disciplines have long been utilizing mainstream social media – Twitter, Facebook, Google +, and Quora, for example – to promote their work and interact with other writers and readers. However, here are ten platforms specifically geared towards the literary community.

Writers-Network: Created in 2004, Writers-Network is a large online community devoted to pointing creative writers toward success. There’s an emphasis on poetry, but apparently writers of all creative genres and forms are welcome and active on the site.

Inked-In: If the wordplay of this site’s title doesn’t draw you in, there are plenty of other pros. Part of The Burry Man Writers Center (a resource for freelance writers and researchers), Inked-In is a network for writers, artists and musicians.

Gather: With the tagline “Fresh Perspective,” Gather offers just that. According to the site, thousands of journalists post original content, and millions of users join in conversation about various subjects.

Book-in-a-week: Book-in-a-Week’s motto is “BIC HOK TAM:” butt in chair, hands on keyboard, typing away madly. The first full week of every month, you can use BIW’s learning management system to reach goals you’ve set for yourself. The site promotes a “let’s work together” approach.

Trigger Street Labs: If you’re writing for the screen, Trigger Street Labs might be the network for you. It’s a community for writers and filmmakers, and it’s open to scouts looking for talent.

Suite 101: Suite101 is the premier place for online journalists, freelancers and experts on various topics. Writers can get paid for posting original content, and the site offers a big peer network.

Writertopia: Writertopia is determined to create the ultimate resource for the writing community, and it starts with making sure every member is serious about perfecting his or her professional writing skills. The network also bridges the gap between the virtual world and the real by listing dates for events, readings and workshops.

We Like to Write: We Like to Write is a new social network for writers and bloggers. Professional and amateur writers are welcome to connect and debate, as well as collaborate with each other on projects.

WritersCafe.org: WritersCafe.org makes it easy to make friends with other writers and enter writing contests. It also has topic forums that range from inspiration to publicity to marketing.

Zoetrope Virtual Studio: Francis Ford Coppola launched a version of this website in 1998 to encourage short story submissions for his magazine, Zoetrope: All-Story. The Virtual Studio was created when a large writing community formed around the original website. Virtual Studio not only accepts various genre submissions for the magazine, but also allows workshops and critiques.

The ability to work from home, a fexible timetable and moving towards an independant career: Working as a freelance designer seems pretty appealing to a lot of people. But every deal of working as a freelancer should be considered well before a decision is made. For being successful the idea of the every day-work life should be brought down to a round figure.

Today we introduce 10 keys to work successfully as a freelance designer:

1. Diciplin and commitment

Working as a freelancer is quiet diffrent as working as an employee. Everything is up to you: no one sets you working hours or gives you tasks to work on. Your career is your own responsibility now, wich can be great but also difficult sometimes. You need to work disciplined and hit it up. That’s why the first years as a freelancer are probably the most exhausting ones. Hold the line!

2. Time management

This is a pretty large topic, but to put it in a nutshell: A to-do-list seems old fashioned but helps you to work efficiantly. What I mean is, that it is important to organize your working hours. Being well organized also helps to maximize your strenghts and minimize your distractions.

3. Communication

It is a keenly important skill to be able to communicate effectively with clients and customers. Therefore it will help you to understand their needs and wants as well as to understand their business. In addition to that you need to land your business in first place. Here it is helpful to build up a customer service. Give your customers and clients the feeling of being reliable and accessable.

Many people who are not working as freelancers presume that it is much more comfortable than having a 9 to 5 job in a company.

Whom of you doesn’t have a friend that asked you to bring a parcel to the post office? Or wanted you to pick up his child? Most of them think you can decide when and how long you want to work. Mostly they don’t know that you also got meetings with your project partners or have to fulfil deadlines.

Another example is that they want you to do some little favours. They don’t realize that it costs money and time. But what would you say when a friend asks you: “Can you help me to design my homepage? Or: “Could you help us to build our wedding photo book?”

“Living the dream”? Now that you’re doing what you love, you might not love it so much. You don’t always get to use your creativity to make art – now you’re photographing uncooperative children or designing text-heavy web pages. And in your spare time, do you really want to sit at a computer or pick up a camera?

Besides there are other problems you have to deal with as a freelancer. For example the lack of social contact, that you would have in an ordinary office.

It is not good to work alone at home. Even if you don’t want to, there are always distractions: doing the laundry, washing the dishes, feeding the cat and more. People shouldn’t be by themselves all day… just think of Tom Hanks in “Cast Away”.

One solution against loneliness are coworking spaces. You’ve never heard of it? Visit projektwerks blog division coworking(LINK) to learn more about it.

Another point is that you are responsible for your work. Therefore you have to do self-marketing. You might be the best photograph, designer or graphic pro in town, but if no one knows about it, no one will hire you. So working as a freelancer means that you also have to know how to market yourself.

Aside from marketing, self-employed creatives also have to handle all kinds  of business affairs: IT and accounting, for example. Is there a freelancer that you couldn’t find in the internet today? I don’t think so.

That’s quite a list of gripes, but still, would you give up the freelancing life to go back to the 9-to-5 world? It seems that many freelancers value their freedom too much to return to having a boss and having to stuff their feet into close-toed shoes each day. Besides, the coffee you brew at home is usually far superior to that burned-tasting sludge in the office.

Do you always love to be a freelancer? Would you ever go back? We’re looking forward to your comments.

Inspired by: fuel your creativity

The DJV (Deutscher Journalisten Verband which means german alliance of journalists) published the conditions of contracts for the use of articles of freelancing journalists in germany. It is an overview which is shown in lists, examples and articles on duties and the market. Here you find a summarisation of the report.

To get an overview over the market I’ll shortly explain the field of work. It contains the work for daily and weekly newspapers, consumer-, trade- and professional-journals, private broadcast stations and those under public law, online services as well as press offices of companies administration departments. The functions of a freelancing journalist generally are e.g. furnishing informations, reportage (in text, pictures, radio-, film- and television-stories) or the realisation of newspapers, magazines or online-services. How freelancing journalists achieve their employment differs. They can supply extern articles, offer services or do both.

The minimum day rate should be over 250 Euro because nearly half of this amount deducts for the operating costs. Then the freelancing journalist still needs to pay the social insurances and taxes. Therefore a day rate from 250 Euro just seems to be quite high, it’s obvious that in the end there will only be left less than 90 Euro. If one works 20 days a moth the journalist will have a monthly income of 1.800 Euro. This is quite low for german income-standarts. Additional complicationg factors are off-times like illness or holidays.

Here you can see an calculation-example:

You will find the whole report here: DJV

Coworking is increasingly becoming a major issue. Therefore projektwerk has created a small summary about coworking spaces in Germany. There will be then a more detailed representation of individual spaces, including specific offerings for projektwerk user.

the list can be found here.