New to this

[shrimataji108]

Hi

I am very new to this, in fact, I have never done it before. However, I have self-published four books on Kindle, and through work, I am always writing something either for the website and company Facebook or working on my own next story.  

So to be perfectly honest I need to take control of my life and slowly go back to being self-employed. Can anybody advise what I could expect to be getting myself into and what sort of writing work could a new starter be doing?

Any help would be appreciated.

Kind Regards

Gordon

[lysis10]

are you one of those people that get to sit on fb all day as a job?

I'll never forget interviewing for this one job and the CIO walked me around the office and I saw these chicks sitting on fb and I thought "haha pwned he saw you" and they kept facebooking and he says to me "yeah, they get paid to sit on fb all day." haha

[bjungquist]

Hi Gordon,

Welcome to Upwork. I'm not an expert on what you can do, but I'll shoot a few ideas at you. Seeing as you have self-published books, I would see if you could get an editing or proofreading job with people writing books or short stories. While some clients may want to hire people who fix grammar, spelling and what not, you could bring ideas to an authors story that may help them with polishing their finished product. Even more, if you can fix grammar, spelling, punctuation and whatever else I'm missing from proofreading, I could see that benefiting the client as well. Also, since you have done writing for your company, maybe you could see if you could whatever you did for your company for others or similar tasks. Just a few ideas, good luck. 

[khadija08]

Hi everyone! 

I want some guidance to succesfully get projects on upwork. I am working hard and consistently sending proposals but being new on upwork, i am not getting the desired response. Though i am an experienced content writer in various niche still finding it tough to get projects on upwork. Any suggestions? 

[versailles]

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@Khadija K wrote:

Though i am an experienced content writer in various niche (...)

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Yeah. Sure.

[lysis10]

Comments like that make me think of this tshirt I would wear at the startup when they would drag us into whiteboard meetings. It said "I bring nothing to the table." It was so lulzy when noobs were there. 

I don't think she's joking though lol

[tlsanders]

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@Khadija K wrote:

Hi everyone! 

I want some guidance to succesfully get projects on upwork. I am working hard and consistently sending proposals but being new on upwork, i am not getting the desired response. Though i am an experienced content writer in various niche still finding it tough to get projects on upwork. Any suggestions? 

---

 Khadija, you are not qualified to offer English copywriting services. I don't mean this as a criticism, but encouragement to find the area in which you excel and focus on offering those services instead. 

After noticing the errors in your post here, I looked at your profile and samples.

Your overview, while generally grammatically correct, is stuffed with formal language and overblown vocabulary that would never be used in a copywriting setting. Your samples are filled with errors in tense, agreement issues, missing articles, and colloquial errors. You simply don't write well enough in English to successfully offer this particular service.

[petra_r]

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@Tiffany S wrote:

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Khadija K wrote: . Though i am an experienced content writer in various niche

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Your overview, while generally grammatically correct, is stuffed with formal language and overblown vocabulary

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 It is actually stolen in its entirety from one of 100 "top employable skills" self-help sites / blogs / blabla on the net.

[lysis10]

lol these people I swear

don't let a few million bad apples spoil the bunch

[colettelewis]

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@Gordon C wrote:

Hi

I am very new to this, in fact, I have never done it before. However, I have self-published four books on Kindle, and through work, I am always writing something either for the website and company Facebook or working on my own next story.  

So to be perfectly honest I need to take control of my life and slowly go back to being self-employed. Can anybody advise what I could expect to be getting myself into and what sort of writing work could a new starter be doing?

Any help would be appreciated.

Kind Regards

Gordon

---

Starting out:

Have you made any money from your books?

If not, you should think about how you will pay the bills; if some money, then you should ask yourself if you can meet demand, sustain delivery, and if it is enough to pay the bills; if a lot of money, find an agent to market you and live on royalties to come - not to be recommended unless you are a bestseller and even then . . .

On Upwork find an untapped niche and stick to it.

Final note. Contrary to another post here. Writers do not necessarily make great editors and even less, great proofreaders.

[datasciencewonk]

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@Nichola L wrote:

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@Gordon C wrote:

Hi

I am very new to this, in fact, I have never done it before. However, I have self-published four books on Kindle, and through work, I am always writing something either for the website and company Facebook or working on my own next story.  

So to be perfectly honest I need to take control of my life and slowly go back to being self-employed. Can anybody advise what I could expect to be getting myself into and what sort of writing work could a new starter be doing?

Any help would be appreciated.

Kind Regards

Gordon

---

Starting out:

Have you made any money from your books?

If not, you should think about how you will pay the bills; if some money, then you should ask yourself if you can meet demand, sustain delivery, and if it is enough to pay the bills; if a lot of money, find an agent to market you and live on royalties to come - not to be recommended unless you are a bestseller and even then . . .

On Upwork find an untapped niche and stick to it.

Final note. Contrary to another post here. Writers do not necessarily make great editors and even less, great proofreaders.

---

 Agreed. 

I'm both. But, I separate the two functions. 

And having both skill sets as an FL can get gnarly.

Client: Revise this.

Me: Ok, what specifically do you want revised? Please indicate where and what needs revision in the document.

Client: (Silence)

Me: Do you have an editorial process in place?

Client: No. But, I want it to be more robust.

Me: Give me an example.

Client: I don't have one.

Me (internally): Oy vey.

Where is Anthony's post when I need it? LOL.

[wendy_writes]

Gordon, as a writer I can and do often edit my own work for character development, etc. but would never in a million years dream of editing and proofreading my own work for grammar, syntax, etc.  I'm too close to it; I know what I intended to say - so what is on the screen or page is often what I think is there - not what really is.

For Kat - Anthony's thread:

https://community.upwork.com/t5/Coffee-Break/I-feel-your-pain/td-p/389338