When work suddenly drops off a cliff without warning it can be shock to your finances, mental health and ego. So just what do you do when commissions dry up and how do you dig yourself out of a freelance slump to return to a stasis of regular work? FFJ co-director Lily Canter explains how she handled an extended period of freelance uncertainty.
My 2022-23 financial year ended on a high with a sizeable ALCS payout. In March 2023 my earnings were three times higher than any other month that tax year and I was feeling good. Since going freelance in 2017 my network and commissions had grown year-on-year and I felt confident that I would never struggle for work. I had the occasional week or two when things were a little quiet but no extended periods of no work or no responses to pitches.
And then April 2023 happened and a series of events appeared to align the freelance stars against me. Firstly an editor who regularly commissioned four pieces a month from me moved to a new publication. Her replacement was unresponsive and in her new job she did not have a commissioning role. Suddenly that regular gig was gone.
Then another editor on a different publication told me their freelance budget had been slashed and nearly all their content was being written in house. That saw the end to another two to three commissions a month.
I turned to another editor who always commissioned me, come what may, and it turned out she was taking a couple of months off and not commissioning anything.
Another editor who regularly commissioned me told me her budget was spent until the end of June, and all of a sudden I had lost four regular sources of work.
At first I wasn’t worried. I sent out a load of pitches knowing that my strike rate was usually 100%. But nothing stuck. I concentrated on finishing the commissions I did have but as the weeks went by I started to worry that I had no work lined up for May or June.
A ray of hope appeared when an editor contacted me saying he might have some work for me on an investigation but then this never materialised. More weeks went past and things were not getting any better. For the first time in six years I started to get worried.
Proactive steps
It was time to get proactive. My pitches were not landing with the editors I normally wrote for so I needed to reach out to old contacts whilst also making new ones.
Before rebranding as a running and fitness specialist last year I wrote a lot of personal finance stories. So I decided I needed to tap into this well again. I contacted a couple of money editors I previously worked for, with story ideas and one of them responded. He commissioned a piece so I sent him more ideas, and he commissioned three more. This started the ball rolling in the right direction.
I also contacted a news editor I worked shifts for more than two years ago to ask if she had any remote shifts. She did, and she offered me a week’s worth.
My next step was to extend my contact base. I asked a features editor for the name of the person who covered reviews on their title. I got in touch with them, introduced myself and explained that I had good PR contacts so could get hold of gear to test. It turned out that this editor was struggling to get hold of samples to test, and through my own networks I was able to get some within a couple of days, which helped her out of a bind. Having impressed her with my networking skills she started to commission me for regular reviews.
Things were starting to look up. I kept pitching and although not all my ideas were picked up, editors started to come to me with stories they wanted writing as they could see I was looking for work.
I also made contact with an editor at a magazine I hadn’t written for before. I initially sent an idea to the web editor who said she had no budget. So I asked who I should contact on the magazine and she copied me into an email with the magazine features editor. Although my idea was too newsy, the features editor asked me to pitch evergreen content, and I now feel hopeful that this could turn into a regular gig once I nail my first commission.
And I know I’m not the only one in this position. A lovely listener to the FFJ podcast recently got in touch to say that despite having 10 years of experience in Fleet Street they were “not prepared for all the challenges and nuances that freelancing brings”.
“Despite having work for the first 2.5 months of freelance life I haven’t had a commission for over 3 weeks despite sending off about 7 different exclusive story pitches to dozens of different editors (gulp). What I’ve taken from the FFJ community is just how important mental resilience and perseverance are, so I’m just going to persevere with pitching different ideas until someone bites.”
Ticking off the long term list
This whole period of uncertainty lasted about two months but fortunately I still had money coming in from work completed earlier in the year. I also had my March bonus earnings to keep cashflow balanced. The biggest hit was actually to my ego, as I suddenly felt like an inexperienced freelancer again, scrabbling about for work.
But I also made sure I kept productive and I ticked off things that had been on my to do list for ages, such as updating my website and some FFJ admin work like putting our Quick Guides on Amazon.
By the time things started to pick up the editor on extended leave had returned and commissioned three stories straight away and I had several reignited and new contacts to work with.
Prior to this blip I had been cruising along, perhaps overconfidently, with editors coming to me more than I was going to them. So this was a really useful wake up call that I needed to stop coasting along. It reminded me that I need to continue nurturing and expanding my network of editor contacts.
June’s commission spreadsheet is now looking very healthy and I feel much more confident that July will soon fill up too, especially with shift work to cover staff holidays.
But the quiet period has been a great reminder that resting on your laurels is not an option as a freelancer.
Triumph of the week
Returning from a week off work and ticking everything off your to do list on day one.
That feeling when
An editor loves your pitch but has no budget to commission it.
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Bye for now!
I'm totally feeling this myself. Work has been especially slow this year and pitches aren't landing super well. I've been reaching out to new editors and trying my best to connect with new clients and it can definitely feel like such a slog.