What’s it Like Getting Started in the Freelance Business?

by Katelynn Watkins

I’ve been writing and coming up with stories for as long as I can remember, but I started doing so professionally with freelance articles while I was still in undergrad at UNC-Asheville.

I was a mass communications major, so several local and regional magazines liked having us around to pick up what their other freelancers couldn’t, and I edited a lot for fellow students and in my internships.

After college, I tried juggling a freelance career and a part-time marketing gig, then took a full-time job with one of the nearby hotels when the owner of the agency realized she couldn’t afford even part-time help anymore.

I still freelanced when I could, but that was also when I really dove into writing my novel.

Getting Started on a Writing and Editing Career

Eventually, my husband and I realized we’d exhausted Asheville’s resources for starting our respective careers, and I decided to go back to school for my master’s degree.

We relocated to Wilmington, where I still write freelance, though it did drop off a bit when I got accepted to Emerson College’s online MFA program.

I took a full-time job with a marketing agency here to help keep us afloat while I chipped away at both my degree and my book. I finished the program earlier this year, in May, right after establishing a professional web presence and gaining my first official editing client since undergrad.

From here on out, it’s all about gaining momentum, utilizing all of the marketing strategies I’ve learned, networking, and when my brain starts to protest all the business stuff, focusing on the words – mine or someone else’s.

What Led Me to My Passion for Making a Good Manuscript Even Better

My happy place is always going to be in fiction. I love to read it, write it – doesn’t matter. Give me a good story and I’ll talk about it until your ears stop working and I’m blue in the face.

I’m not sure that I discovered it so much as it’s been a part of my life since even before I could read myself.

I just happened to find that I both enjoyed and was talented at writing and editing, which led to my passion for taking a good manuscript and helping to make it even better.

I Can’t Market Myself if I’m Not Being Myself

One of the things I find works best for me – and will sound like a cliché – is to retain my voice in everything I do.

I can’t market myself if I’m not being myself. That means being comfortable dropping an occasional curse word where appropriate, like I would in normal conversation.

I don’t sugarcoat things, but I’m not rude or overtly abrasive. In social media posts, I ask for feedback about related topics, open the floor for questions, comments, poll votes, and I always respond to the feedback I get.

When work is slow, I do recon and make friends.

Hashtag’s are a Freelancer’s Friend

Every little bit counts, but novels will always be the most lucrative for me personally, and for me as a businessperson.

So, when I advertise, I look for the communities that are looking for someone to read full-length manuscripts. Say what you want about them, but hashtags are a freelancer’s friend.

Recently, I added creative development consultations (scheduled talks to work through issues writers are having in rounding out their manuscripts) and book reviews to my repertoire. They came from that feedback I mentioned, and from thinking about what I would want as a writer.

Advice for Other Writers: Embrace Criticism

Develop a thick skin.

Criticism is part of the game, but it’s better to embrace it then to brace yourself for it.

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An avid lover of stories, Katelynn Watkins currently lives and works in Wilmington, North Carolina, as a freelance editor and has contributed regularly to regional and local magazines – WNC magazine, North Brunswick Magazine, Wrightsville Beach Magazine, Cape Fear Living, ELEANORA magazine, and more.

Watkins has also earned an MFA in Emerson College’s Popular Fiction Writing and Publishing program, and a BA in mass communication from UNC Asheville. She spends any free time perfecting her novel, and when she takes a break from the computer screen, likes to explore the coast, stay fit, explore new hangouts, people-watch, dance, and yes, read a good book.

For more information about Katelynn and her work, please see her website, or connect with her on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Goodreads.