What to expect from The Art of Freelance

Giving you the nitty gritty on how to make your freelance life thrive

When I first became a freelance science writer back in 2005, I was armed with just a laptop, tonnes of energy and excited grin. I had worked for The Lancet and New Scientist and loved the publications but not the constraints of office life.

But now, woo hoo! I was working for myself. I didn’t have to listen to anyone about what time to start work, how many coffee breaks I could take, or attend any tedious staff meetings. On the other hand, I also didn’t have a fixed salary (hello anxiety, my old friend), paid sick leave or holidays, or a subsidised retirement fund. I didn’t know how much to charge, how long to spend on a project, how to find new clients, how to file my taxes - few creatives are ever taught this – and the learning curve was steep. Apart from a few years as a staff writer at the World Health Organization headquarters, I’ve been freelance more or less for the past 20 years.

About a decade ago, I decided that being a good writer wasn’t enough; I wanted to seriously level up the way my business was running. Over the past few years, I’ve became well-versed in personal branding, negotiation, finance and other business skills, and once I got the hang of these, my freelance life was transformed.

I don’t work weekends or evenings unless it’s to develop my own business; I take a lunch break every single day; I pick and choose my working location (as I’m a lucky sod who lives in Barcelona, that can mean the beach), and I earn about triple what I first earned when I started out.

This didn’t happen because of luck or having a wealthy family. It happened when I learned the art of getting paid what you are worth rather than what a client wants to pay; of tackling your money mindset to overcome limiting beliefs of your earning potential;; of future-proofing your skills so that no matter what new tech comes along (AI for instance), you will still have work.  

Through this Substack I want to hand over those skills to you. I want to share my hard-won knowledge and skills to give you more autonomy over your freelance life. How many of us go freelance dreaming of a work-life balance, only to work even more hours than we did as staff, earning less money, and with less stability? Or who work for clients we hate, who treat us like staff yet don’t offer us any staff benefits, and who we are constantly chasing for payment. That is not the freelance life I want for you.

As more and more creatives become freelance, either through choice or crumbling job economies, I want to show you how you can actually have a dream freelance career of doing work you like, getting paid well, and not working around the clock. If you’re a scientist wanting to make the switch to science writer, I will show you how you can turn your side hustle into a full-time job. And a heads up - this may come with some tough love. As with many things in life, building a thriving freelance career does require a little effort, so I will be that encouraging friend pushing you to thrive.

Every Tuesday, I’ll share posts on topics like how to decide what to charge, how to organise your week so you aren’t always working overtime to catch up, how to diversify and find new clients. I’ll also share the mistakes I’ve made over the years, and how I’ve learned from them (we grow by failing, right?). Once a month, I’ll host an Ask Me Anything session in which you can literally ask what you want. I mean, if you ask me why dating apps are such a bin-fire, or how to stop the 2am panic over the fact that we are steadily burning this planet to a crisp, I’ll do my best to answer, but I’m best placed to answer questions on the business of freelance.

And I want us to become a big fat freelance community. Tell me what issues are top of your mind. Hang out in the monthly chat and share your wisdom with the rest of us. A collective is always more powerful than the individual.

For the rest of 2023, subscriptions are going to be entirely free. If you’re here and reading this, this is the time to subscribe to squeeze as much juice as you can from it (and share it with your fellow freelancers so they can benefit too). Even after I move some content over to paid, there will still be a few posts a month that will always be free.

So now you know what to expect, let’s go!