✍️ 3 Reasons Why Novelists Should Start as Freelance Writers
It's subsidized writing practice!
I’m sitting in the airport in Ottawa, headed back to the U.S. after my memoir ghostwriting trip. It’s been a successful three days of interviewing my client and their friends, family, and business associates, and I’m excited to dig into their book draft in 2025.
I find it funny that even when snow was falling from the sky, all of the Canadians I met made a point to let me know how lucky I was to be getting such warm weather :)
Never mind that I had just left ~ very lovely ~ 80-degree weather in Phoenix. I miss the sun already!
In today’s newsletter, I’ll be sharing a bit about why I think freelance writing is the perfect foundation for a writer wanting to become a novelist.
✍️ New Writing Job Board Comes Out Tomorrow!
If you missed the last issue of my writing job board, check it out at the link below:
🫖 Sunday Tea: 3 Reasons Why Novelists Should Start as Freelance Writers
If you explore the “day jobs” of most novelists, you’ll find that many novelists started as journalists before their breakout book.
It makes sense, right? If you cut your teeth as a journalist, you’re spending your days learning how to tell real-life stories on a deadline. You have editors giving you feedback and helping you refine your writing, and you can get inspiration from the sources you’re talking to and from the research you’re doing.
In essence, journalists get paid to learn how to write and tell stories.
While journalism is a bit more of a precarious career path these days, I think there are lucrative freelancing niches (like memoir ghostwriting and newsletter writing!) that have the same benefits — but with higher pay if you build your freelancing career right.
Here are 3 reasons why I think novelists should start off as freelance writers:
You get paid to hone your writing craft. In the past 8 years of being a memoir ghostwriter, I’ve written dozens of books and had to consistently learn how to spin my clients’ stories into books people want to read. I’ve gotten paid to continue to hone my craft and learn how to improve my writing — which means my freelancing not only paid my bills, but it also subsidized my learning!
Freelancers meet tons of new people and get inspiration from everywhere. I’ve been flown out to beautiful places like Vienna, Austria and snowy Ottawa, Canada to meet new people for my freelancing. Even if you’re just working remotely, you still get exposed to different types of clients and topics every time you take on a new project! As fiction writers, we have to live life to write about life, and freelancing can help us step outside of our own bubble and learn more about others and the world.
If you build your career right, freelance writing can give you tons of time flexibility. While it takes time to build up your freelancing portfolio and client roster in the beginning, once you’ve got a full client slate and are charging appropriately, life becomes wide open. These days, I enjoy tons of time flexibility and can wake up and work when I want to.
If you want to learn my methodology of how to thrive as a freelance writer, you can pick up my book Six-Figure Freelance Writer: A Holistic Guide on Finding Freedom in Freelancing.
🗞️ Writing News: Book Industry Updates
Sofia Coppola partnering with a UK-based publisher to launch her own imprint, which is what a lot of high-profile people are doing these days.
The Cut also lamented how lame publishing parties have been recently, and how they were cooler in the past.
I keep seeing doom and gloom when it comes to traditional publishing methods on my feed. Probably because self-publishing and alt publishing is here to Creator Economy-ize the book world soon!
I know I’m overdue to write a think piece on self-publishing, but I’ve been busy writing and editing my novel and running around Canada, so I’ll dive into this topic more in 2025.
📚 Author Corner: Finished Map for The Ash Trials
The map is finally done for my upcoming romantasy book The Ash Trials!
Before: (my rough sketch!)
After: (the finished product!)
I love working with designers to put together beautiful assets for both my own books and my clients’ books! Plus, it just makes the story I’m working on feel more real.
If you need a map designed, you can hire Melissa here.
💻 Latest Blog Posts on AmySuto.com
✨ Wellness for Writers: Workouts for Wordcount
On my third day of my Ottawa trip, I didn’t want to go to the gym.
It was snowy and dark outside at 4pm. Who wants to go to the gym in that kind of weather?
But I put on my sweatpants and Hokas and marched my way to the second floor gym in my hotel and got a workout in.
After 20 minutes of running on the treadmill, I was flooded with inspiration and energy.
When I returned to my hotel room, I showered, changed, and meandered down to the hotel jazz bar to eat a buddha bowl of veggies and rice while also working on a more detailed outline for the next sequence of The Ash Trials. I ended up writing 3 pages of material that set me up for success for the next day’s writing session.
When people ask me how I’m able to juggle my book ghostwriting projects with my creative work, I often point to working out as an immediate energy and creativity booster.
So even if you don’t *want* to go to the gym, the benefits of doing it anyways are huge.
If you want more words on the page, spend more minutes in the gym!
🎥 Video of the Week: Month 17 Update on Growing My Substack from $0/Year to $96,000/Year (In-Progress!)
I’m 17 months into my journey of growing this Substack newsletter and sharing my learnings with y’all in real-time. If you’ve kept up with me on this newsletter or on my YouTube, you’ll know that there have been lots of evolutions and ups and downs.
📸 Photo of the Week: Turning 30 in Cappadocia
When I was looking back at my 2024, I spent time reminiscing about my 30th birthday spent watching the hot air balloons in Cappadocia, Turkey! You can read my travel guide here for my favorite things to do in Istanbul and Cappadocia.
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Sending creativity and good writing vibes your way,
-Amy
I'm a writer of spiritual messages, a few are going to be turned into books. But I'm very dyslexic and my writing requires a lot editing, first from myself and then I send it to a friend for a final look, because there's things I just don't catch.
I stay away for freelance for this reason, but I'm curious if you think I should try it. I mean I don't really understand what freelance writing is.
Thank you!
Thank you for these great tips on getting into freelance writing Amy.
I’ve been working with a company for almost 2 years now as a content writer — which is great and it’s really helped me learn more. However, I’m starting to feel demotivated and uninterested in the topics I have to write about. The end goal is go to freelance, but I’m not sure how to make that move yet. My hope was to build up some freelance clients on the side of my day job, but I know I won’t be able to do that because it would be a conflict of interest with the company’s values. Added your book to my TBR list and looking forward to diving in!