The state of freelance writing is abysmal... or is it?

The rise of AI, budget cuts and a nosediving economy. It's easy to blame this for not getting much freelance work, but what if that's not it?

Evolve or stay still? Photo by Jossuha Théophile on Unsplash

It was a casual LinkedIn post by a fellow journalist that made me yell at my computer. I swear at my computer a lot anyway - I blame the patriarchy and being perimenopausal - but I was so fed up of seeing statements like this: “Gah! Freelancing is such a nightmare these days, there’s no way to make it work”.

I have heard a variation on this daily. In a Facebook group of science writers that I’m in; in conversations with friends; and on LinkedIn. The reason given for the deathly state of freelance writing is almost like a fill in the blank game. One day it might be AI. Another day budget cuts or a crappy economy. Maybe another day, it’s that publications are treating journalists like dirt. The reason it bugs me so much is I don’t think it’s true. Not entirely anyway.

Now, I’m not here to gaslight fellow freelancers. If you have been making a decent living from a particular income stream and you’re noticing that work is drying up a bit, then who am I to argue? And maybe you’re right that editor are more demanding, or companies are paying late, or whatever it is that is making you feel that freelancing is harder than ever.

But there are a few things at play to explain this and I don’t believe that “freelancing is just shit now” is a valid explanation.

For one thing, this idea that things are “worse than ever” is how human beings often feel. I have heard “the economy is bad” since I started freelancing in 2005. And in that time, have both earned pennies and also a six-figure salary - in the same economy. Some publications have always treated freelancers like crap, like lowly insects who should be grateful for crumbs, and others have been more decent; this is not a new thing in 2024.

Basically, there was no magical time when freelancers didn’t have any problems. Sure, there may have been a heady period when journalists were paid expenses to report on stories from across the world. But guess what didn’t exist back then? Free phone and video calls, free transcription apps, free translation apps, fast wifi, all of which means you can work from anywhere. Yes, I am that grandma who marvels at this, given that when I studied at university I had to go and look up a scientific paper on microfiche in a LIBRARY. If those words don’t mean anything to you, google them.

What can make freelancing tough is mining the same revenue stream for years and when it looks like it’s drying up, bemoaning it on social media rather than pivoting and finding new income streams to apply your skills to. If you are a freelance writer and have mostly written for National Geographic, for example, then your freelance business is not writing for National Geographic. That is just an income stream. Your business is being a freelance writer and those skills can be applied to web writing, social media writing, copywriting for apps, writing video or podcast scripts, researching… any number of things.

Just because the one thing you’ve been making a living doing isn’t working anymore, it doesn’t mean freelancing is dead, it means you need to remember you are a business and innovate. Think of how else you can use your skills. Think of what new skills you can learn. Strategise how you can bring in new clients. Plan a rebrand. Network. Do something.

But if you are going to throw your hands up and do literally nothing else, then maybe freelancing really isn’t for you. Businesses evolve and grow all the time. If you are not doing this, you are not behaving like a business, and if you’re not going to act like a business owner, then of course freelancing is going to feel diabolical.

The market changes all the time, and so does business. Just as many of these shifts are positive ones that make things easier to be freelance, as there are ones that threaten our livelihood. It’s your call as to whether your freelance career adapts, evolves or dies.