How free is Freelancing?

                                

                        

I consider the ups and downs of being a freelance businesswoman and creative, and why it is sometimes a battle to be taken seriously.

It’s a stormy day in what promises to be a sweltering summer, and am I relaxing with my feet up on this ‘day of rest’? Don’t be silly, I’m self-employed! Time off? You must be joking! Whilst you nine-to-fivers can make plans for the weekends and evenings, every time I do something other than my actual job, I lose money. So, I work seven days a week, every evening and a bit of Saturday and Sunday morning. Yes, I love what I do, and you know what they say – if you love what you do you never work a day in your life. Well, it sure feels like hard work sometimes, I can tell you.

 

I have three things I do which I can call work – my main income is as a private tutor; my secondary incomes are performances or acting, and writing. Tutoring can be a fairly lucrative profession when you are as highly qualified and experienced as I am. But I live in Ipswich, so although I might seem to charge a slightly higher rate than others in the area, there is a ceiling rate for this town which is nowhere near the London rates – or I would have no clients. Everyone knows that for the most part, creative professions barely keep them in bread and water, and although one or two well-paid things have come my way, it’s the tutoring I rely on to pay the bills.

 

So, how did I get here? I didn’t intend to be a freelancer. My backstory is as twisty as one of my books, but a potted history is that a drawn out divorce many years ago become intermeshed with the workplace – let’s just say that the support I received was distinctly underwhelming. Two pieces of advice: be careful who you marry, and if you’re going to have a ‘disagreement’ with your employers, watch your back for stabbers. I won’t bore you, but let’s just say over a period of three years, I had some major fights going on, and none of them were my fault. I’ll put you out of your misery: I emerged victorious, but it cemented my decision that it was time to change my career path. I left my job in October 2013, but in June, I had already been preparing to set up a business. I had a name, an accountant and three clients. I had an advertisement with Yell, and I had work with an agency too. By October, I had 26 clients; by Christmas I had over 36 and that, thankfully, has been constant for the last 12 years. 

 

At first, I did some agency work in the daytime, but gradually I made enough money not to need it. Also, I re-married during this period. Having daytimes free meant I could have time to create, but I was worried over lockdown that I might lose income from tuition. I needn’t have been – all my students were happy to learn online for that period, and in fact I took on a lot more work. I teach people in other towns, cities and across the world. Over lockdown, I wrote a poem, and a ghost story, both of which were published for payment. I wrote a lot more and soon I had two books – one poetry collection and one book of Gothic stories. They were both published by different publishers in 2022. During that time, I was offered work in shows to perform my poetry and to play Kate Bush on stage, giving me professional credentials, and then I discovered a brilliant local theatre company where I am very happy to combine my other commitments alongside acting. I have a long theatrical and performance history, but I didn’t really return to this part of my life until a few years ago – I am so glad I have had the opportunity to be on the stage again. Two more books followed – one poetry and the most recent and most successful so far, my debut novel. I will have a re-release of the first book out soon, a sequel to that, and another poetry book done – all before Christmas, and I am 36,000 words into my new novel. I still feel I need to do more… 

 

So, what do I have to complain about? I’d never want to return to ‘the workplace’, but I’m sure what I am about to say will ring a few bells with you authors and other sole traders alike. Firstly, people don’t always take you seriously. With my main business, people sometimes assume my ‘woman’s wage’ is ‘pin money’. They think that because I am married, I am a doing it for a hobby or something. One major problem I encounter is late payment. On occasion, even though I have a ‘contract’ people sign up for, I have had 13 people 10 days late paying me, which means my bank account is short of over £2000! This is no joke – I don’t make ‘extra’ money – it is vital income to meet the cost of living. Not only that, but sometimes people leave and disappear without any explanation, or the notice period they agreed to, which leaves me short of a client to fill a space at late notice, and there's very little I can do about it. I am lucky that I usually fill those spaces, but it is quite stressful. I rarely get a bad client, but when I have done, it is usually because they are trying to get something for nothing. Another issue is that I don’t get paid over the holidays, or any day I cannot work. I usually mark exams in June to cover August, but sadly the exam board ‘forgot’ me this year, so now I am scrabbling around looking to do supply work until the end of term.

 

The problems of being a freelance ‘indie’ author are much the same: my main gripe is when people don’t take it seriously. I know that there is perception that there’s a whole lot of rubbish on Amazon but just consider that The Martian was originally a self-published book and hold that thought. There are other printers and publishers out there, but they cost money. A LOT of money. I don’t mean the vanity presses, I mean good publishing houses who will promote and edit, who won’t print any old book – but you still have to pay them to publish your book. And of course, you should expect to pay for services, but many of people don’t have the money to spend on this. If you don’t want to play the waiting game with a traditional route, I believe small independent publishers are amazing. There is a submission process, and Urban Pigs Press, as an example, are highly selective, only publishing a few good books a year, to really focus on those. A minority of bookshops won’t stock books printed on Amazon – and I respect their choice – but I just can’t afford to spend £2 – £5,000 to use another printer. Another little irritation is that you hear a lot of success stories in every creative industry, but when you look a bit deeper, they often know someone, who knows someone else and so on. Even in 2025, I’m afraid that if you don’t have money or connections, you will have to work that little bit harder. Oh, and when you do put yourself out there, you’ll be called pushy – just sayin’. 

 

Which leads us to self-promotion. I do think I am quite good at it, but my biggest enemy is time. Just lately I find myself spending too much time on social media, so I am trying to find a balance. Now, promotion, covers and editing – they are things you might consider spending money on. But I’d avoid some of the people who just contact you on Instagram, wanting your money. I’d really like to have a little nag here though. My tutoring business has loads of 5-star reviews – I get the students up 3 grades. People read those reviews and therefore, I always have clients. But I am really struggling to encourage my readers to leave reviews. It really makes a difference to authors, and what I dearly wish is that more people will spare 5 minutes to do this.

Finally, one major downside of working from home is that you are obliged to juggle with the housework because you are the one sitting in the mess. So it can be distracting and annoying. I've often heard male authors giving great advice to write 1000 words every day. But I suspect they have someone else cleaning up for them to afford them the luxury of being able to shut themselves away to just focus on their work. Meanwhile, in my world, I'm often doing all the household chores and then I blink and it's midday before I can get started. What I need is a wife! (my husband is going to be annoyed I said that so I'll just issue a disclaimer - he does do a lot of the cooking, which is definitely damage limitation in the kitchen. Have you seen me trying to cook? It is not pretty.) 

 

I am aware all this sounds a bit negative. However, I do genuinely think that working for yourself is brilliant, and despite the pitfalls I wouldn’t have it any other way. I have the freedom, most of the time, to do my creative work – I just have to be organised. (hmm). Furthermore, I don’t have to answer to anyone, and I can be myself. I think my takeaway would be that it’s not always easy, but the rewards are your own. What you do need, especially to be a writer, is to have an unshakeable belief in your work. After all, if you don’t believe in yourself, no-one else will. Get out there and make friends with other writers and you’ll soon find that we are all similar. Making connections with others is invaluable. And my final piece of advice is to keep going, no matter what. 

Enjoy, and see you soon,

Virginia.