Write you are…

When I first started freelancing, my work fell into two main categories: commissions I’d got by pitching and work for my old employer. I often pitched “cold”, ie to editors who didn’t know me at all (sometimes I broke in on the first go, sometimes it took several tries – and sometimes I gave up). Gradually, I built up relationships and a reputation, and found myself pitching less. Now, I’m lucky enough to have a few clients who just send me commissions, but I still do some pitching.

I’ve gone through my accounts for the year so far and produced some statistics on my freelance work from April to now, some of which have taken me completely by surprise. I’d find it interesting if someone else did it so I figure some people might be interested in mine, plus from my point of view it’s been really useful to see what’s actually working.

Types of work
Writing: 87%
Subbing: 13% (this would have been higher had I not taken a month off)

Print vs. online
Print: 56%
Online: 44%

Types of print work:
Consumer magazines: 55%
Staff and membership magazines: 26%
Trade magazines: 10%
National newspapers: 9%

Writing – subjects covered:
Film: 29%
Music: 22%
Design: 22%
Health/real life: 15%
Social/political issues: 5%
Media: 5%
Food: 2%

This was a pleasant surprise. I didn’t relise I’d got more income from film than anything else.

How I got the work:
Word-of-mouth recommendations: 51%
Regular clients where I made the initial approach: 21%
Pitches to editors who already knew me: 10%
Clients who approached me with work: 9%
Work I got by answering ads on Gorkana: 9%

This one blew me away. I knew I’d picked up quite a bit of work from word of mouth recommendations, but I hadn’t stopped to count up just how much – so I’m amazed to see it’s more than half. To break it down further, 43% of my work came from editors recommending me to colleagues on other sections or other publications in the same company and 8% via recommendations from fellow freelancers. Reputation really is everything.

For me, this was worth doing because I currently spend more of my time and energy writing and researching pitches than I do on networking and relationship-building – I’ll be rethinking this now I’ve seen these stats.