Nuts & Bolts
Business of Freelancing

Put Your Eggs in Many Baskets: Working with Job Placement Agencies

By Linda Wolfe Keister, WIW Member

A serious freelance writer or editor hopes the hen will one day lay the golden egg. Until that miracle happens, the freelancer collects many and varied baskets to gather opportunities for promoting his or her talents and experiences. The WIW Job Bank is just one of those baskets. Beyond the Job Bank, however, baskets wait to be filled. One of those baskets is the professional job placement agency.

In the Washington area, several editorial agencies explore writing and editing opportunities with government and private organizations, write proposals, secure contracts and then search for professional freelancers to do the work. The freelancer has the advantage of not having to compete directly in the marketplace or having to collect the fee when the work is done. The agency handles that kind of hassle. On the other hand, the freelancer shares the fee with the agency and generally accepts a lower rate than if he or she had secured the assignment independently.

To keep the job pipeline full, a successful freelancer will establish and maintain a good working relationship with an agency. Such a relationship helps fill the pipeline when work is slow, opens doors to new opportunities in genre and industry and provides networking with other writers and editors on the job. How does a freelancer find editorial agencies and establish a relationship with them? I went to the Northern Virginia Yellow Pages, found a long list of publication professionals—individuals and agencies—under "Editorial Services."

Many agencies ask freelancers to submit a resume, take a qualifying test and present copies of published work. Some may also favor individuals with professional certificates from publication programs offered at local universities.

For the past 15 years, Linda Wolfe Keister, former WIW vice president and a long-time WIW member, has secured a variety of temporary jobs from Communicators Connection, including the opportunity to help a congressman develop a book. Linda works as a freelance editorial consultant, teaches copyediting at George Washington and Georgetown universities and is the author of The Complete Guide to African-American Baby Names (Signet, May 1998).