The Well-Fed Writer: Financial Self-Sufficiency as a Freelance Writer in Six Months or Less (Paperback)

The author assumes readers can write competently so the focus of the book is the business side of marketing and selling yourself as a freelance copywriter.

Even for writers who have never had a word published the author shows how to offer your services for free so you can build a portfolio to present to potential fee paying clients.

Included are example letters and brochures - which may not win creative awards but they make a good foundation to build on. And, even a sample script for cold calling potential clients.

The author shows a host of outlets that require copywriting services that aren't limited to the advertising agencies.

The writing style is informal and breezy. I enjoyed the book and begining to use some of the suggestions, I still have a long way to go before I get that villa in the Caribbean.

Tim McGuire

I started my management consulting firm part-time at home in 1976, and it took me many years to learn all the lessons that are outlined in this excellent book. My only personal regret is that he did not write a book focused solely on being a well-fed business book author. In fairness to Mr. Bowerman, I should tell you that he does give good insights into how to get assignments writing business books as a ghost writer.

With the title of the book, Mr. Bowerman shows why he is in the right profession. He writes punchy, compelling copy. That style accentuates the messages from his clear, well-organized mind about seeing freelance commercial writing as a business.

He makes a good case for being able to earn $35-$85 an hour (depending on the type of work you do) for 20+ hours a week. If you want to earn more, you can. I found his claim of being able to get up to financial self-sufficiency in six months to be credible if you live in a reasonably large metropolitan area.

Many people thinking about becoming professional writers are nervous about their skills. Mr. Bowerman does an excellent job of pointing out that clients don't write as well as you do now. He also directs you to the types of assignments that are easiest for a new freelancer to handle such as brief product brochures for small companies.

If you are like me, you will be most impressed with the business system parts of the book. How do you get clients? How much do you charge? How do you get paid? How do you follow up to get repeat business? How do you handle dry spells? How do handle having too much work? In each case, he has found a simple system that anyone could comfortably follow. To make things even easier, he has included samples of his marketing materials, his samples that he shares with prospective clients, and provided sources of lists. Since he is a male, he also took the time to interview some women freelancers who work at home in Appendix C.

The only limitation that I saw to his approach was that it will be easiest to pursue by someone living in or near a large city. He lives in Atlanta, for example. Many of the opportunities he describes will not exist in a small town with little local business. So the income opportunities will be much less. The book would have benefited from a section on how to do distance freelancing. The challenge there is in getting jobs, since the system described here depends a lot on face-to-face meetings.

If you are seriously interested in freelance commercial writing, part time or full time, I encourage you to read this book.

By the way, if you are interested hiring in a freelance commercial writer, you can easily assess if Mr. Bowerman is right for you by reading his book.

After you have finished The Well-Fed Writer, I also encourage you to think about how you could organize a similar system to handle the rest of your writing career. Most of the concepts would apply just as well there.

Write on!

The book is a rather breezy, engaging read and worth picking up if you fancy putting together copy for press releases, promotional literature and the like. But be warned that it's not aimed at folk like me who think "freelance writing" should be more than crafting clever copy for underarm anti-perspirants and internet banking products. But I guess if you've got to eat, you've got to eat.