My So-Called Freelance Life: How to Survive and Thrive as a Creative Professional for Hire

Description

Tired of clocking in and losing out? Want to pursue creative, fulfilling work on your own time and also make a living in the process? My So-Called Freelance Life is a how-to guidebook for women who want to avoid the daily grind and turn their freelance dreams into reality. Michelle Goodman, author of The Anti 9-to-5 Guide and self-proclaimed former "wage slave," offers tips, advice, how-to's, and everything else a woman needs to pursue a freelance career. Confused as to whether you should tell your clients that the odd gurgling sound during a conference call is emanating from the infant sleeping on your shoulder? Goodman answers all of the unusual questions that may arise for women exploring the freelance world. Far more than your normal business guidebook, My So-Called Freelance Life blends candid, humorous anecdotes from a wide variety of freelancers with Goodman's own personal experiences as a creative worker for hire. Whether you're a freelance first-timer or a seasoned creative professional, copyediting queen or web guru, My So-Called Freelance Life is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in freelancing. "

Michelle Goodman fled the cube in 1992 to become a freelance writer and has yet to look back. She is author of The Anti 9-to-5 Guide: Practical Career Advice for Women Who Think Outside the Cube (Seal Press, 2007). Her reported pieces about alternative careers, human mating rituals, and popular culture have appeared in Salon, Bust, Bitch, Bark, the Seattle Times, and the San Francisco Bay Guardian. Her essays have been anthologized in Single State of the Union: Single Women Speak Out on Life, Love, and the Pursuit of Happiness and The Moment of Truth: Women's Funniest Romantic Catastrophes. In 2006 she was a writer-in-residence at Hedgebrook. Michelle's freelance writing career has allowed her to work with everyone from book publishers to high-tech empires to peddlers of new-age products, wrangling text on pet accessories, video games, voice recognition software, marital aids, home colonics, and just about anything else that can be sold. A frequent speaker on the freelance writing life, Michelle has participated in panel discussions at Northwest Bookfest, Richard Hugo House, and the University of Washington. She also teaches classes through Mediabistro, the Editorial Freelancers Association, and Richard Hugo House in an effort to help aspiring cubicle expats avoid the same mistakes she made early in her own solo career. Born and raised in the Garden State, Michelle received her B.A. in journalism from George Washington University. In her former 9-to-5 existence, she worked as a newspaper reporter, publicist, book editor, and web community editor. Michelle lives in Seattle with her eighty-pound lap dog, Buddy.

"Since we're all sh**ing our pants over the current economic situation, this book couldn't come at a better time. My So-Called Freelance Life saunters its way through the ins and outs of becoming a successful solo professional, whether you're a newly graduated 20-something trapped in a monotonous cubicle job or a new mom looking for flexible hours. Having accumulated a great deal of experience on the topic, Michelle Goodman (author of The Anti 9-to-5 Guide) leaves no paperweight unturned, explaining how to get started, maintain a budget and schedule, gather/weed out clientele, and legally cover your a**. Goodman includes a bevy of relevant links, contacts, organizations, and advice on everything from negotiating your hourly rate to when to quit working for the Man. While her book thoroughly covers every fundamental career intricacy you can imagine, wit and hilarity are also seated firmly within. (She even quotes Peter Gallagher on The OC, thus actualizing the poetry of my heart.) Not only is this book an incredible guide on how to get started, but it's also inspiring and oddly comforting. "You can't hitch your entire creative career on one big break--or one fat failure," Goodman writes, "you have to keep moving forward, reaching for bigger and better." It's a book you will feel compelled to keep in your personal library (probably between your college dictionary and your religious tome of choice), or you can be like me and sleep with it in your arms." —Bust Magazine "I love this book! I've never had a 9-to-5 job, but it took me years to burn through my conditioning as a woman (that taught me my work wasn't worth much), my conditioning as a Gen Xer (that taught me I shouldn't take my work seriously), and my general fear of organization and success. My So-Called Freelance Life would have saved me half a decade of bumbling around. A must-read for established and hopeful creative professionals." —Ariel Gore, author of How to Become a Famous Writer Before You're Dead: Your Words in Print and Your Name in Lights "Michelle is a freelancing superstar, and this guide is packed with indispensable information and stories from the trenches. With advice on everything from handling missed deadlines with grace, to creating a killer portfolio, My So-Called Freelance Life will show you how to make your dream career a reality and help you feel like you're not alone in going solo." —Lauren Bacon and Emira Mears, authors of The Boss of You: Everything a Woman Needs to Know to Start, Run, and Maintain Her Own Business "A witty Seattle writer who has weathered 15 years as a freelancer pens a sage and encouraging guide for others hoping to cobble together various projects for differing employers into a sustained career." —Seattle Post-Intelligencer "Michelle Goodman has done what so many of us are terrified to do (and may all be forced to do in our looming recession economy): cut the strings for a completely freelance existence. Luckily, she made all the mistakes first, then compiled her wisdom... a well organized how-to book about overcoming all those fears that keep us clinging desperately to our cubes." —Seattle Weekly