Compiling a commercial writing bid

If you're getting into commercial writing as a way of making money, you won't get far unless you have a strategy regarding the compiling of your bids. Don’t worry, though, because I've got some suggestions that will boost your chances of being successful. I'm making one assumption and that is you've already signed up with one of the main freelancer sites.

Before we begin, I need you to completely accept that the PRIMARY objective is to win work, not reduce the time you spend putting bids together (although I will help you avoid wasting time).

My first rule is that all jobs are not created equal – some are fantastic, some are mediocre and some are <insert expletive of your choice>. Having used the freelancer website’s screening facility, go through each of the projects that you feel able to take on and make an assessment of:

• How much the job interests you
• What the total payment's likely to be
• The track record of the client
• Whether there's likely to be more work from the client

If you want to be mathematical, set up a scoring system but here's what I'm looking for:

How much the job interests you

You want job satisfaction and you'll be alone with this writing for a long time.

What the total payment's likely to be

It takes just as much time and effort getting started on a small job as a big one and most clients won't expect to pay you for this set up cost. Consequently you get a better return on your initial time investment if it's a bigger project.

The track record of the client

See how many invoices they've paid, how much they add up to and how long they made the freelancers wait. Look at their disputes record. Do they have a 'tame' writer? If so, why aren't they using them? Is your price just a stick to beat the regular guy with? What reviews have they given out and what did the jobs relate to?

Whether there's likely to be more work

If you can get to be that tame freelancer, you’ll be in the enviable position of being able to negotiate future work or even just get it 'on the nod'.

Having established the above, stream the bids into 3 categories along the following lines:

1. Professional client, good track record, interesting job, good return.
2. New client, OK job, reasonable return.
3. New client, not very appealing job, moderate to low return.

Tackle all the 'A' jobs then the 'B' ones and only do the 'C' ones if you've time and if the number of bids you are limited to by the freelancer website permits. If you're heavily restricted in this respect, don't waste bids on Category C jobs.

It's very important to learn that it's far better to send out half a dozen properly targeted bids than a hundred or more 'one size fits all' quotes. If the client has to make guesses about you, they just won't bother. It's very simple.

Now the bid itself.

If you were to pretend to be a client (I'd never suggest such a thing) and put up an imaginary job, you'd get a number of responses, most of which would be:

• Badly written
• Generic (i.e. they're just a copy and paste affair)
• Irrelevant
• Confusing regarding the price

Would you choose someone who does that?

Consequently, you need to make sure that your bid:

• Comes well written, is grammar and spelling checked, is lucid and properly set out.
• Demonstrates to the client that you have actually read and understood what will be required.
• Establishes that you are capable of carrying out the project to a good standard.
• States the price in an unequivocal manner.

This may seem obvious but, in the heat of the moment, it's so easy to forget. Create a checklist, just like pilots use when they're taking off, and stick to it religiously
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The bid needs to answer the following questions:

• Who are you?
• Why do you believe you are capable of doing the job to a high standard?
• What do you charge?
• Can you prove what you say?

Obviously each of these needs to be carefully thought through. For example, if you're bidding to write a non-fiction book, your knowledge of the subject matter is paramount. On the other hand, if it's fiction, then describing your writing experience is going to be more likely to succeed.

Always address the job. Even in the most clear-cut of bids, find some snippet of the project briefing that you can mention in your tender just to prove that you've read the job description. Most of your competitors will only have scan-read it at best so this simple act immediately makes you stand out from the crowd.

Isolate the client's core requirement and state how you have the experience and knowledge to tackle it. Leave them in no doubt that they’d be in good hands if they chose you.

By targeting your quote you can leave out irrelevant rates. Thus, if the bid is for editing, why include your hourly rate for cover design? If your bid is accepted, it IS a good idea to include your other rates on the contract that you will be required to draw up however don't confuse the client with all this now - stick to just quoting for what they've asked.

If you can, send 3 to 6 samples of your work. Make sure that these are as relevant as possible and that each bears your name - ideally as a footer and as a watermark <Format, Background, Printed Watermark in Word>. You should then turn the samples into pdf's before sending. Unless you are acquainted with a client, for all you know, they could be just collecting writing samples that they can use themselves.

Beware of sending a former client copies of items you wrote for them because that might be deemed breach of their copyright or distribution rights and you may be putting your head in a noose.

And the best way of assessing your bid (apart from the price)? Pretend you're the client and your bid has just come through by email – if the price was right, would you give you the job?

Clive West spent 16 years as an estimator in the highly-competitive construction industry. In that time, he literally submitted thousands of tenders and drew up countless hundreds of contracts. Since then, he has gone on to become a very successful and sought-after commercial writer.

He is also co-owner of indie publisher Any Subject Books and you can see more about them on their website or on Facebook.

Click on the link to see a complete list of the books published by Any Subject Books Ltd.

Ghostwriting for would-be wraiths, banshees and poltergeists

No more spectral jokes - promise.

Go to any of the numerous freelancer sites and you'll find plenty of jobs advertising 'ghostwriter required'. This service can be quite lucrative and it’s certainly a definite step up from living on a combination of air and hope. That said, ghostwriting jobs are not without their share of 'issues' and I'd like to look at some of those now.

Just to be clear, ghostwriting is the act of turning someone else's ideas (which may be a complete plot, a partially-written book or a simple idea) into a 'finished quality' piece of writing for which the ghostwriter receives no credit or acknowledgement beyond the payment of their agreed fees. From a ghostwriter's perspective, the job is without risk - they get paid even if the book bombs - but, if the book goes on to become a bestseller, there's no kudos either.

Don't consider ghostwriting if you can't accept that because otherwise it will seriously get you down.

The first thing to understand is that it(usually) costs nothing for people to post their jobs. This invariably means that every dreamer who's ever romanticized about being an author will be putting forward their ideas in the hope that they can turn their vision into a bestseller. With so many of these people clogging up the freelance sites, it's easy to waste lots of time putting in bid after bid and then never hearing a word back.

You can, however, save time and give yourself a better chance of being successful by a little judicious screening. Here are some things to look out for.

Spinning

This is the act of turning someone else’s work into another ‘original’ by replacing proper nouns, adverbs and verbs to make the new book seem different. Two things to consider here – can your morals stand the notion that you are plagiarizing another author and, since the client is placing minimal importance on the talent of a writer, can you accept that the remuneration is likely to be very, very low? And I mean LOW.

 

Incoherent ideas

A client needs to have figured out the finished book’s length and its subject matter in order to have arrived at a realistic budget figure. If the project briefing then leaves you in doubt as to what you will be engaged to write about, you will almost certainly end up spending hours on SKYPE attempting fruitlessly (probably) to extract this information from the client. Later, if and when it goes wrong, you’ll be the resident villain of the piece and you may struggle to get paid.

 

My story needs telling

It’s fair to say a large number of published autobiographies are only on sale because the ‘author’ is a famous personality, and it’s also true that being famous does not guarantee your story is a ‘good read’. Stories of the famous are, however, definitely commercial since people always want to read about the lives of the stars. In the likely event that your particular customer isn’t one of the glitterati, does their autobiography inspire you? Is there enough material to fill a book? Don’t forget that your work will involve dragging lots of details out of your client – work that they probably won’t expect to be charged for.

 

I’ve written something which needs polishing

This sort of client probably requires you to act as an editor but you’ll also be expected to fill in the missing pieces, sort out the plot holes, make the dialogue more realistic etc. It’s quite difficult picking up a story like this and it will involve a number of readings through before you start, along with considerable note-taking. You need to allow for this when quoting. Again, it’s quite likely that the client won’t expect to pay.

Obviously there are some people who’ve got a good idea for a story but don’t have the confidence, time or experience to write it themselves. These are the best jobs to go for but, before you put in a bid, look and see what they’ve given as an expected budget (most freelancer sites require clients to have a stab at the final bill figure). A typical novel that has been written by a native English-speaking ghostwriter will cost between $2,000 and $3,000. Thus, if the budget is ‘$500 or under’, there’s a good chance that either they don’t have any idea of final cost (and thus probably won’t go ahead with it) or that they’re only interested in getting the content written at the cheapest price possible and without regard for its quality.

Ghostwriting is an excellent way of making money and keeping your hand in but it’s easy to waste time on bad clients or thankless jobs. As you’ll see in my next blog, you can grapeshot every job you come across or you can ignore the lower grade jobs and concentrate on the better ones.

Clive West is co-owner of indie publisher Any Subject Books and you can see more about them on their website or on Facebook. For details of their book submission criteria, see their writers wanted page.