Análisis de vínculos externos de los colectivos juveniles

Well, it isn’t always like that. As a matter of fact, it’s almost never like that, and to be ab-solutely truthful i would have to admit i can’t remember a single day of freelancing that was even remotely like that. Sure, i take some days off. Yes, it’s true that i seldom dress up for work. given, some of the jobs are exciting. But all in all, the freedom of freelanc-ing has been greatly exaggerated. Most freelancers have offices, and most of them spend their nine-to-five day in that office, trying to make a living.

Being a successful freelancer doesn’t necessarily mean having time to work on your golf game, or writing for high-profile national magazines. i once read that a good farm-er is one who can make enough money to keep on farming. the same is true of freelance writing: if you’re making enough money to keep afloat, you must be doing okay.

Building a specialty can be vital to maintaining your freelance career. In fact, many free-lancers start out with a specialty interest, and the desire to write about it. I’ve been writing about science and medicine for more than ten years, and here are a few observations:

• Specializing can be important to financial and career survival. If you can say, “I know architecture, I’ve been writing about it for years,” it’s helpful when you’re looking for jobs, or when you’re trying to sell yourself. The best markets in freelancing provide up-to-the-minute, accurate, understandable information about specific fields. The best way to do that is via specialization.

• Don’t be intimidated by specializing. That is, you don’t need to be an architect to write about architecture. Sure, it helps to know something about it, and have more than a passing interest. But the important thing is to become familiar with the terminology, be able to communicate familiar concepts, and cultivate contacts in the field.

• Once you do specialize, the world tends to get very small. Treat your sources as well as you can, particularly when you’re starting out. Some sources will want you to read quotes back to them. Depending on the type of assignment you’re working on, you may want to accommodate them, or at least negotiate something with them. Calling people back to comment on what you’ve written also gives you a chance to do more reporting, and to cultivate them as regular sources. Maybe some of your sources, par-ticularly the higher-placed ones, will be very concerned about whether they can trust you, and they will remember if they think they’ve been burned.

to sPeciaLize or not ...

i often think of a freelancer as an artisan, not unlike the silversmith Paul revere:

He lived upstairs, worked downstairs, and was as active in the community as he was in his own profession (recall his famous ride?). Before the birth of large corporations, virtually everyone’s work life was organically related to life in the community, by both proximity and function. As it happens, today’s economic climate allows for a certain amount of artisanship in the field of writing; people who can fill that niche are able to make a living.

that being said, there are lots of talented people who have tried freelancing and returned to office work; likewise, there are others who have left the daily grind and hightailed it back to the home office. i began freelancing while on a science writing fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley, doing pieces for the San Francisco Examiner and San Jose Mercury News. Later, when i took a job with the Harvard Medical School news office, i continued to do occasional articles for the Boston Globe, the Patriot Ledger, and the Boston Herald, as well as other publications.

the notion of full-time freelancing—as opposed to after-hours, weekend freelanc-ing—occurred to me in the same idealized way that it strikes a lot of people: “be your own boss,” “more time for writing fiction,” “tennis at three.” these were the ideas

float-ing around in my head. two children, a mortgage, and a car loan have dashed those dreams, but i’m still a thriving small businessman, i still decide more or less how i’m going to spend each day—as long as i spend it working—and i still have the sense of arti-sanry and identification with my work that i think only freelancing can provide.

WHaT’S in a FreelanCer’S ToolBox?

As i think i’ve proven often enough, you don’t have to be a gifted writer to freelance.

You just need to be willing to gather information and write it up clearly. that, in a nut-shell, is what most freelancers provide: fresh information served hot. (See the sidebar on specialization.) However, the news many writers aren’t prepared for is that freelanc-ing is hard work, and it requires plannfreelanc-ing, risk-takfreelanc-ing, and dofreelanc-ing a few thfreelanc-ings most people aren’t used to doing on a daily basis:

• Working alone

• Marketing your services

• Editing your own work

• Motivating yourself

• Being your own office manager

• Doing other work for which you have no training

Are you prepared to do these things? Erin Martin was a public information officer at a large Boston teaching hospital until a merger forced her to reconsider her position. She knew freelancers who were making $100 an hour writing public relations copy for local firms, and decided to take a stab at it herself.

“the work was there,” says Martin, “but i didn’t like the isolation. the telephone man came to install a new line and i wanted to have lunch with the guy. i didn’t like freelancing very much. i’m much more comfortable in an environment where i interact with other people.”

Luckily for Martin, she managed to find another position quickly, where she now hires many freelancers. However, many would-be freelancers find they have difficulty getting adequate work. i receive any number of calls from people who are simply look-ing for new clients, or advice on how to find them. the reality is that the vast majority of assignments come by referral, and that the best time to develop a client base is before you go out on your own.

Marketing your services is an unending part of the life of a freelancer. As long as you’re peddling your own services, you will need to put your products and abilities in front of the people with the power to buy them. this means going to professional meet-ings, having lunch, making calls, small talk, and friends. Keep in mind that none of this is a replacement for good writing and editing, the most important components of a good marketing effort. But personal relations with editors and managers make getting repeat business much more likely.

Many freelancers are unprepared for the level of writing and reporting they will have to reach to satisfy their clients. Bob Whitaker, editor of CenterWatch, a newsletter

that follows the clinical drug trials scene, says that many freelancers are surprised when he asks them to go back for additional reporting.

“Some freelancers think they can do a couple quick interviews without really under-standing the subject,” he says, “and then use their writing skills to cover that up. i need someone who can report stories in a thorough manner.”

then there’s the Big Mo: motivation. i can’t tell you how often people ask me how i motivate myself to go to work in the morning. My answer is that there’s no better moti-vator than a mailbox with a paycheck in it. However, i find many people can’t make the connection between working in December and eating in January; if you’re one of those people, keep commuting.

One of the hardest things to get up for is the everyday running of your office. i often tell new freelancers that their most important job is collecting receipts so they can keep track of their expenses. those receipts are worth money, and when i started off, i collected everything, even if it was for a cup of coffee. now i’m a little more selec-tive, but i’m always thinking about my expenses and how they’ll affect my earnings and taxes. (See the sidebar on financial habits.) As i write this, i’m getting ready to prepare my taxes, something i never look forward to. i also have to make all the decisions about what equipment to buy, when to buy it, and when to get rid of it. it gives one a whole new appreciation of the job an office manager has to perform.

Office management may sound imposing enough, but this may not even compare with some of the professional work you’ll do. in the quest to keep a steady stream of cli-ents, and to find interesting and rewarding work, i’ve written all kinds of things i’d had no experience writing before: market analyses, video scripts, slide shows, advertising copy, you name it. if you need work, you may have to expand beyond your comfortable area of expertise and try some new things.

if you’re ready to do all these things, and take some unforeseen chances, then you have what i consider the basic traits to become a freelance writer.