Browse the All Freelance Writing collection of news and updates articles below.
This section covers site announcements, industry developments, and other timely issues that may affect freelance writers, online publishers, and the writing business more broadly.
Some posts here focus on what’s changing at All Freelance Writing itself, while others take a closer look at trends and developments worth paying attention to.
In the more than 17 years All Freelance Writing has been around, I’ve often shared my New Year’s resolutions, goals, and plans with you. Some years are successes. Some years go far off-track. And most are a mixed bag. But this year, I’m doing something a little bit different: exploring goals vs focus areas. This is something I’ll talk more about over on my broader
Will they, or won’t they? That’s the question many writers and publishers face right now—whether or not they’re willing to publish AI content or use AI tools in their businesses. They have legal and ethical AI concerns. And that’s fair. Are there ways to engage in ethical AI use in your freelance writing business? Absolutely. But to do that, you first have to be aware
If you’ve followed developments around freelance writing, blogging, SEO, or technology in general in recent months, you’re aware of “generative AI.” In particular, you’ve heard about—and might have tried—an AI content tool called ChatGPT. And if you’re like many of our fellow freelance writers, you might have some concerns. Namely, is ChatGPT a threat to your freelance writing business? We’ll get to that. But first,
March 10, 2021 – UPDATE: The PRO Act passed the U.S. House of Representatives and will make its way to the Senate. The act previously failed in the Senate, and this is the most likely time we could see amendments to remove the freelance-career-killing ABC test. Remember, this is the first step in codifying the ABC test in federal law. The Biden administration has
I recently caught up with fellow freelance writer and author of The Well-Fed Writer, Peter Bowerman. One topic that came up in our conversation was professional ethics and some of the problematic behavior we’ve seen in the writing community in recent years. Or, as Peter put it, we discussed the issue of “ethics creep.” What I’d like to do today is explain what this means.
It’s that time of year again. No doubt, if you haven’t already, you’ll start to see freelance industry surveys. They might summarize 2020, or they might offer trend predictions for 2021. Industry surveys can be fun to review, but be careful about using them to make serious business decisions. Let’s look at why industry surveys can be interesting. Then we’ll go into some common flaws
Over the past 13 years, All Freelance Writing has published over 3000 posts. There are still about 1500 in the archives after post merges, purges, and some being split off onto other sites. But it’s still a lot of content and doesn’t even include things like the podcast and numerous tools and downloadable resources. The vast majority of that content was written with beginner freelance writers in
In my last update here I let you know that the All Freelance Writing blog would no longer be updated regularly but that the site as a whole would continue to serve as a resource through more frequent updates to the freelance writing job board and writers’ market database, as well as the freelance writer directory. And I’ll also be updating older content in the
I’ve been working this week on the next Scrivener template in my writers’ resource collection — a mystery novel template. While it won’t be ready for release this week, I want to give you a chance to weigh in. Tell me what you want from a template. What would help you write your next mystery novel? When I was moving the first draft of a mystery novel
Setting goals, tracking your progress, and adapting when necessary are all important parts of running a business. So it doesn’t matter if you’re a freelance writer, an author trying to sell books, or a blogger trying to make money from your blogs. Goals are vital to your success. Now that we’re in April, it’s a good time to check in on any goals you might
The year is almost over, and that means it’s time to evaluate progress and set goals for the New Year. So today I’d like to share an example with a follow-up from my previous progress check-in and also some new goals for my writing business in 2015. 2014 Year-End Check-In This year was very good in some ways. But in others I didn’t come close
October marks the start of my favorite time of year: when we hop from one holiday to the next. It kicks off with Halloween and continues straight through New Year’s Day. There’s decorating. Shopping. Family time. And a crazy work schedule. Fall and the beginning of winter are probably my most hectic time of the year as a freelance writer-blogger-publisher, largely because I have so
This week is my last work week of 2013. That means it’s time to take a look back at my progress this year — both my successes and failures. And it’s time to think about goals and resolutions for 2014. You can find mine below, and I hope you’ll share some of your own in the comments. Let’s start with some of my biggest goals
Normally I post my quarterly business goals and plans at the beginning of each quarter, and I try to post a follow-up in the next update to let you know how I did. Plans always unexpectedly change in one way or another, but this past quarter might have been the worst. As you might know, I took off for an extended leave of several months
For close to two years I’ve been revamping my writing business to focus more on ghostwriting. This change in strategy has done amazing things for my career. It’s made me fall in love with freelancing all over again and helped me develop a focus, security and stability that I’d felt was lacking before. Like many freelancers, I’d always dabbled in ghostwriting. But I didn’t really
As you might remember, All Freelance Writing was supposed to be nonexistent at this point. It was scheduled to be merged with two other sites and relaunched as AllFreelanceWriting.com back in July. Clearly July has passed, and this site is still here. I’ve been MIA for several months. And I’m ready to share a few updates on what’s happening and what the new plan is
Update: I’ve decided to extend my vacation until Monday, January 7th to spend some more post-holiday downtime with family. I will not be back to regular posting here until that week, but our other contributors will continue to post on their usual schedules. This week was my last work week in 2012. I’m now on vacation until January 2nd. I hope you’re all enjoying a
Yesterday on Twitter I noted that I finally made a decision regarding the book I’m working on — The Query-Free Freelancer — and whether I would pursue a traditional publisher or opt to self-publish the book. I’ve chosen the latter. I put a lot of thought into this over the last few months, and was already leaning towards the self-publishing route. But recent events in
Note: This post originally appeared at FreelanceTheater.com on February 9, 2010. The Freelance Theater audio play series is now a part of All Freelance Writing. One of the sometimes best / sometimes worst aspects of freelancing is how much time you’ll spend working alone. While it can be nice to avoid the politics and drama of a traditional office environment, there is also no 5pm
Note: This post originally appeared at FreelanceTheater.com on October 30, 2009. The Freelance Theater audio play series is now a part of All Freelance Writing. Have you ever had a “vampire client” — one who seems to suck the life out of you? Maybe they don’t pay enough so you push yourself to the edge of burning out regularly as you cram in countless projects.
In Yo’s last post, she mentioned the ups and downs freelancers face. Today I’m going to share a story that incorporates a bit of both. First, it’s an excellent case of query-free freelancing attracting more than commercial writing clients. On the other hand, it also shows how breaking one of my own rules ended up being a waste of time on a day when when
I haven’t had a “real” vacation in about 12 years. After college it was just about not having the money to go (nonprofit work at the time paid far from well). Then I was going through the startup phase in my business (PR firm them), so there simply wasn’t time. Then it was client issues — when you’re on retainer as a consultant, you have
Today I’m going to give you a quick tip for better query-free freelancing: give things away for free! People love freebies. If they feel they’ll get something for nothing, they’ll often stop and take notice even if they would have otherwise passed you by. Freebies are especially important during growth phases where you’re trying to expand your visibility or reach within your target market. To
Being a freelance writer can be stressful at times. That stress may be because you have a lot of work going on at once, or because work is slow and you’re stressing while you try to find new clients. No matter what the reason is, you have to deal with the stress before it completely consumes you. I’ve been particularly stressed with work lately. It’s
It’s easy to get stuck in a certain way of working. Sometimes our methods can become stale and negatively affect our productivity as writers. So this week’s challenge is about scheduling, and how mixing it up once in a while can keep your work fresh. If you think you’re already working as productively as you possibly can, there’s no need to take part in this