Richard Morgan’s great blast about freelancing
Richard Morgan has this great post on his freelance life, Seven Years as a Freelance Writer, or, How to Make Vitamin Soup. Wise, warm and witty, it offers a cautionary look at the ups, downs and maddening misbehavior by editors and supposed friends that freelancers face.
Morgan is interviewed by Nieman Storyboard editor Andrea Pitzer (I found out about it from a talk Pitzer gave to us incoming Nieman Fellows last week). One salient exercpt:
There’s a part of The Awl piece where I describe it as “choosy begging.” People emphasize the choosy part when they fantasize about being a freelancer, and not the begging part. But there’s so much freelancing you have to do that’s just 300-word stories.
Current freelancers will get knowing grimaces — and grins — from Morgan. Aspiring freelancers should read him closely — he’s telling it like it is.