Developing the skills to have entrepreneurial success as a book publishing professional is often the easiest part of working with authors and publishers as a long-term freelance book designer and typesetter. Successful freelancers can spend more time marketing their skills and looking for new clients than they do working on paid jobs and projects.
Staying Freelance is a candid look into the many things Andrea Reider did to establish, grow, and maintain her freelance book design and typesetting business over the course of 30-plus years. One of the main takeaways is that it's more important that you try out new ways to find clients than overthinking and coming up with a single master plan.
The most important factor in finding new clients is timing-finding companies that are open to new freelancers because they are growing or have recently lost a valued employee or other freelancer. The best way to have good timing is to reach out to as many people as possible and hope to connect with the right person at the right time.
Loving the work you do goes a long way toward dealing with and surviving the inevitable downtimes that always seem to be right around the corner. Staying Freelance offers many thoughts and ideas on how to achieve success, overcome the dreaded feast-or-famine cycle, and maintain a steady business for the long-term.
