✍️ 3 Ways to Strengthen Your Freelance Writing Portfolio
How to present your work in order to make writing your job.
Before I dive into today’s newsletter, I wanted to start on a somber note. I lived in Los Angeles for nearly a decade, and while I’m no longer in the city, it’s scary to see what’s happening with the fires right now.
I know some of you are in LA — I hope you’re doing okay and getting the help you need. If you’re in LA still, the LA Times compiled a list for different resources that may help.
If you’re in a position to donate, The Cut created a list of places to donate to support those affected by the fires.
Stay safe out there — it’s been a crazy start to the new year, and I hope 2025 brings some better news for us all.
Now, some round-ups of some recent articles and shout-outs:
In case you missed it, I was interviewed by the awesome Leigh Stein for her Substack Attention Economy about my work as a freelance memoir ghostwriter:
Attention Economy is one of my favorite publications here on Substack for writers, so you should go and subscribe to it if you aren’t already.
Also, shout-out to
for including my book Six-Figure Freelance Writer on her list of 2024 reads:There are some other great books on her list, as well! You can find more of Bea’s writing on her Substack, What’s On Your Plate?
P.S. if anyone reading this has a penchant for writing book reviews, I’d be happy to send you a free print or e-book copy of my book Six-Figure Freelance Writer. If you dig it, it would be cool if you left a review on Amazon, Goodreads, and/or your Substack. Just reply to this email and let me know if this is you!
In today’s newsletter, you’ll read about:
✨ 3 tips for landing better, higher-paying writing jobs by revamping your portfolio
✍️ A round-up of this past week’s writing jobs
📚 My rewriting routine for my upcoming romantasy book The Ash Trials
✍️ New Writing Job Board Comes Out Tomorrow!
Did you miss it? Here are the writing jobs on this past week’s job board:
Freelance copywriting for a mental health startup that pays between $30-$75/hour.
Get paid to read crime fiction books!
A freelance proofreading job for an upcoming romantasy book
If you missed the last issue of my writing job board, check it out at the link below:
🫖 Sunday Tea: 3 Ways to Strengthen Your Freelance Writing Portfolio
I noticed a HUGE difference in my income as a freelance writer after I revamped my writing portfolio.
Here are the 3 things you can do to strengthen your freelance writing portfolio to win better, higher-paying writing work:
Don’t have a writing sample for the type of job you want to land? Write it yourself! A few years ago, I wanted to do more copywriting in the tech space. However, I didn’t have very many samples of things like landing pages I could share. So, I gave myself a prompt: create a fake landing page for a fake company I made up — an ethical grocery delivery startup called Traitor Jen’s. You can see my landing page for Traitor Jen’s here! I was upfront in my portfolio with the fact that this wasn’t for a real company, but the portfolio piece still packed a punch even though it was self-generated. The first time I shared this portfolio piece with a client, I landed a freelance gig writing a tech company’s landing page — and the short assignment paid over $10,000. Great samples = great opportunities!
Compile all of your best writing pieces in a PDF — not a link, not a Word doc. A PDF. So often when I’m trying to forward writers’ applications to clients for the featured posts on the writing job board, links are broken or word files won’t open. Even if you have a portfolio website that is stunning, I still think it’s important to have a PDF version of your portfolio with your photo, hourly rate, bio, contact information, and samples of your work. You don’t want something like a broken link or unwieldy word doc to get in the way of the client checking out your work!
Hire a designer to design your portfolio PDF and website. As soon as you’re able to, I highly recommend hiring a professional designer to create a stunning website that hosts your portfolio — and a matching PDF portfolio. They can create the PDF in a program like Canva for you so you can have control over updating it yourself with new samples, but you really want these things to be visually eye-catching. Personal branding does make a difference as a freelancer, and it allows you to charge higher rates.
Want to learn all of my tips, tricks, and strategies for how to grow your writing business? Get my book Six-Figure Freelance Writer (which is free on Kindle Unlimited right now!)
📖 Bookish News: Romantasy, Publishing as a Side Hustle, Make Six Figures Writing Books
The girls love romantasy, and I can’t blame them. Although I would slightly disagree with this article and say that this genre is defined by more than its “spicy” scenes.
Some entrepreneurs are making stupid amounts of money republishing classic lit works that are in the public domain — but this also points to a broader problem in the self-publishing space.
Make six figures writing books — I spill my secrets in this interview at Attention Economy!
📚 Author Corner: My Rewrite Routine
I’ve been deep in rewrites for my upcoming romantasy book The Ash Trials, and here are all of the elements of a good rewriting routine:
Start your rewriting session by going for a walk. I find this helps me clear my head and movement always helps aid creativity.
Journaling when I get stuck. If I find myself stuck in a scene, I take a break and journal. This helps me get out of my head and back into the flow of a rewrite.
Adding new music to my project-specific playlist. As a quick break, I’ll add to my project’s Spotify playlist, or I’ll go and find more inspiration for the Pinterest board I make for each book. Crafting the “vibe” around your world can help stoke creativity and get you back into the mood to crush your rewrites.
The rewriting process can be daunting, but I’ve found that most of the difficulty lies in keeping yourself mentally unblocked! Don’t let your insecurities or fears keep you from sharing your stories with the world. We need your art ❤️
💻 Latest Blog Posts on AmySuto.com
📸 Photo of the Week: Singapore Dreams
Singapore was one of my favorite destinations of 2024 — read my travel guide here!
👀 Follow me on Substack Notes and Instagram for more!
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Sending creativity and good writing vibes your way,
-Amy
Interesting article on the "bro" that's re-publishing public domain works! I've been noticing this for the last few years, mostly because I was trying to find physical copies of particular books for my research (specifically books on commercial rose production in the late 1800s / early 1900s). I don't do well with reading PDFs on my computer or iPad, so a physical book is a must when it comes to research! For a brief second, I thought about re-publishing public domain works as well, but it looks like many people are not quite successful and I'd rather spend the time and energy on my own books. I also wonder how many people are flooding the market with "the classics" when other specific nonfiction works may be more profitable. Who knows. I don't think there's anything wrong with it, but at some point why "share all your secrets" and flood the market further? AMAZON IS SO FLOODED WITH CRAP. Interesting article, though!
I'm reinvigorating my writing career after some time off. I have lots of print samples of writing from newspapers and magazines and have struggled to get them to look clean in a pdf. For example: some are in a wide format magazine and the text shares the page with ads. When I scan them you see the page crease shadow. Any ideas?