All lovers of reading, at some point in their life, have surely come to dream what it would be like if they became an independent writer who could publish all those ideas that they have in their heads. The truth is that the world of literature has had to adapt to changing times and, despite the fact that many people used to have it within their reach, today writing books is a challenge.
The publishing world has become a hermetic environment in which it is difficult to access if you do not have contacts and fake self-publishing publishers have crept onto the internet trying to steal your talent. That is why the most reliable and recommended alternative has ended up being self-publishing yourself. In this new article we are going to tell you everything you need to know about how to be a freelance writer.
What is being a freelance writer?
In the strict sense of the word, an independent writer is anyone who carries out his books without the need for a publisher or intermediaries. In this sense, he himself is the one who writes, designs, distributes and sells his copies, keeping 100% of the profits.
It is a modality that has become more and more fashionable and that competes very closely with the big publishing labels. Today it is very unlikely that the big publishers such as Planeta Editorial or Random House will knock on your door with an editorial proposal. However, if the opportunity does not come, you can always go to meet it, taking control of the situation.
Freelance writers are artists who start from scratch and end up becoming their own developers, printers, distributors and promoters. However, you don’t always have to do this hectic journey alone. Luckily, currently there are self-publishing platforms such as CoolLibri that accompany you and advise you throughout the process so that you can print your book and publish it.
Can anyone be a freelance writer?
Many people who like to read and have taken the first notes and sketches of their literary ideas have surely asked themselves the question of whether they would be able to become a freelance writer more than once. Finally, within the tertiary sector, the product that a writer offers is a book and, in this sense, if what you have is a manuscript, this is the basis for achieving it.
However, despite the fact that finishing a novel, an essay, a magazine or any other literary text can be quite a challenge; not everything is resolved once the last letter is placed. Like any other freelance job, once you get a quality product, the next step is to polish it, move it, publicize it, legalize it and put it on the market.
That is why, so that you do not find yourself helpless in the middle of the process, many platforms take charge, without interceding in the artistic process or in the production of the book, in advising you and offering you the experience at the hands of professionals so that, if you do not have professional knowledge about design, layout, types of grammage or binding, they take care of it for you.
How to start being a freelance writer
If you have decided that you are going to embark on an adventure and the universe of literature, and you are going to work to be an independent writer, it is necessary to know what are the steps that will have to be followed to make it a reality.
Writing
The first thing you should do is have an idea in mind that you want to develop and, with a lot of discipline and planning, start writing until you have the manuscript ready. Do not believe the typical image of the writer whose essence lies in the outbreaks of inspiration. The truth is that authors of the stature of Ernest Hemingway, far from their stereotyped image, had a routine and took the writer’s task as a job to which they dedicated many hours.
Edition
Once the manuscript is finished, the next step is to carry out a professional correction that you can do yourself, although ideally it should be done by an expert to be able to assess the content in terms of form and substance. With your text ready to publish, you’ll need to decide how you want your book to look. To do this, you must submit your text to the entire editing and layout process, incorporating the margins, squaring the text and choosing the best format for the book.
Printing
When your manuscript has become a finished file, the next step is to get it to print. You must choose the type of paper that best accommodates in case there are illustrations or only text and select the measurements, whether it is a pocket book or standard. Once decided, a number of copies will be determined and you will have the finished book in your hands.
Legalization
Now remains, perhaps, the most tedious step; the legal process. You must assign your book an ISBN code in the Official Institution and also calculate the PVP for which each unit will be sold, as well as the barcode. In this way, the book will become registered, protected and with the capacity to make sales with it.
Promotion
You already have the book ready and legalized. Although now you are supposed to start seeing the fruits, it is really at this point that the real challenge begins. You must make your book known. To do this, as a freelance writer, you have many tools at your fingertips. Social networks like Tik Tok or Facebook are a window to the world to promote and do marketing.
In addition, you can always show your talent through the internet in blogs or on Youtube with videos made from your iPhone. There are online platforms such as CoolLibri or Amazon that offer you their online libraries to give visibility to your work, whether it is a physical electronic book.
Keys to be a good writer
As you may have seen, the path to being an independent and self-published writer is an adventure full of challenges but also with many lessons. Finally, you will not only be the creator of your text, but of all its production. However, as much as design, appearance, promotion and its synonyms have weight, ultimately what is important, when it reaches readers, is its content.
Offering people a powerful story or text is a great responsibility and that is why nobel artists wonder what is the key to becoming a good writer.
It can be affirmed that a part of the success resides in the talent, but almost as important with this is the organization and the follow-up of a literary plan that could be summarized as:
- Read and never stop learning: art has always worked based on imitation. The best school to be able to write well will always be to read a lot and be up to date with both the classics and the news.
- Establish a writing schedule: writing is a job like any other and, therefore, you must have a discipline. Being autonomous, you must be the one who sets schedules, objectives and achievements.
- Structure your ideas well before writing: don’t write like crazy. If you have an idea, write everything down before developing it and create diagrams and flowcharts so that everything makes sense and coherence.
- Generate believable characters: If you are writing literature, the basis of the actions falls on the characters. You must be able to create fictional characters that generate empathy with the reader and that are credible to support the text.
- Keeping pace and narrative tension: The quality of your writing lies in your use of language. For this, you can justifiably use literary resources that are capable of maintaining the tension and rhythm so that the reader is hooked and wants to continue reading.
- Don’t aim for perfection: It can take you months to finish a book, and in all that time, you’ll most likely obsess. That is why, you should keep in mind that it will never be perfect for you. You have to have patience and an open mind when publishing.
