"Freelancing" sounds romantic and adventure riddled. An Engineer for example evokes pictures of dirty hands and a sweat covered brow, a dentist of a man grimacing as the patient opens their mouth and an insurance salesman as boring. A freelancer though enjoys the image of residing in a country setting, sitting at a table in the garden with a glass of wine and a typewriter sitting idly to hand. Or of a wanderer, a heavy booted, lost to this world walker who every so often jots down notes in a well thumbed notebook.

Reality though states otherwise. The Engineer is a highly skilled expert who may spend most of his time in an office; the dentist is well paid and most likely takes pride and enjoyment in his work whilst the Insurance salesman is well - an Insurance Salesman.

Writing articles without a steady wage is an extremely hard if not impossible way to earn money. Often the ability to obtain a decent return is not through the skill or level of writing produced but through contacts or good will. Today, where thousands of excellent writers working for newspapers and magazines earn suitable wages there are equally thousands more who struggle onwards, faithful in their ability and ever hopeful of becoming noticed.

To be under-the-eye of the powers above is harder than the actual writing process itself. An article can be written, edited and presented within a morning of frenzy and brain emptying activity. From waking up and scrubbing the teeth to opening the empty fridge in the search for lunch a 5000 word essay or article can be produced - as suitable for immediate printing in some magazine or newspaper.

The next step though is where the light hearted turn to other occupations and give up, all thoughts of ever getting noticed wiped away: the semi strong take a job and try to write freelance in their spare time and where the strong willed just keep on going whilst living on baked beans and water. This last grouping of writers keep on attempting to market the article that only took a morning to write but it may be months if not years before it gets to publication. They become desperate souls searching for an outlet thus ignoring their prime purpose - that of writing.

The Internet

The Internet has been pushed in recent years as a means of allowing unknown writers to have their works published. And yes, the Internet is now filled with gazillions of articles, essays and stories written by as yet unknown persons and previously unpublished authors and they are all freely available for anybody to read. The Internet has given to the freelancer an opportunity to see his/her work published albeit only on a token, one horse outfit Web-Blogger whose site may shut down within a week from lack of interest. It may be that the work is published on a good and informative site but typically the return on the article will be zero.

Owners and Webmasters of sites love to have articles available that are relative to the goods that they offer. There are though so many writers around that these websites can find articles to upload for free from a variety of sources. And should an article be submitted by some desperate and searching writer they will typically respond with "Thanks, we would love to publish you article but as we are a non-profit site we cannot afford to pay you for it".

Traditional methods of submitting works are still common and preferred by some of the larger and paying print media. These though are extremely hard to get into and even harder to establish a relationship with. They may accept the one article and pay accordingly but for the desperate and financially stricken freelancer this is not enough.

The Internet is progressing and changing rapidly and it is without doubt that the traditional outlets will turn to the Web for the means to receive all submissions. This leaves the budding freelancer with only one option - the Internet. The World Wide Web will become the only place to look, to market, to search, to submit and to hope on. Whether articles accepted will be paid for or published in the print media will still be a massive task to accomplish that is not for the light hearted.

The situation then is this: After a mornings high activity of writing and editing an article, days and weeks if not months will be spent on marketing it - trying to find a paying outlet. Thousands of budding and potential authors are following this path eagerly and with desperation and most will fall along the way.

The Solution

With the rapid growth of the WWW and the prospect of all submissions and marketing being made through this medium a method has to be found to use it rather than giving up on it. To get past the momentous challenge and scope that the system presents, to use it to help and to better a writers work and to market a writers material is the challenge ahead.

One method that is gaining ground is for authors to have and to set up their own websites. In this way all their material is presented on their own site and in what ever manner they see fit. The setting up of these sites is not difficult and is getting easier with time. The end principle here is that any writer can write a piece, upload it to their own site thus making it readily available for anybody to read. Should a piece be accepted by a publisher it can easily be removed from the site should it be required so for copyright reasons

One of many stumbling blocks that exist with this mode of presentation is the fact that editors and publishers do not like it. They most certainly do not want to trawl and search the Internet and through hundreds of sites to find articles - they want articles to come to them. They want to sit in their offices and have submissions sent directly to their doorstep from whence they can pick and choose, they want to be the hunted not the hunters.

Looking at the traditional path that writers follow: that of writing an article and then spending months on trying to market it the prospects are not very good. Then looking at the idea of having ones own site: with all material presented and then progressing from this base then life does seem rosier.

The future and prospects available to writers will all stem from the Internet and whether we like it or not it will become (in short order) the only means to market and to promote ones own work. It is then here and now that writers should be looking towards this medium for their own promotion, not to be caught up as the searcher but to become the searched, to have a site that is known and listed in the correct places and to spend more time on writing than on marketing.

The future is uncertain as the Internet changes faster than most can keep up with, but the idea is to have something worthwhile for others to see. In basic form to have a site worth viewing is the start. If many likeminded authors and freelance writers could group together to present many sites under one name, or used the combined power of many to draw publishers and editors out then the road to success is clear. Do not confuse this grouping of like minded people as becoming a member of a large website where hundreds of writers showcase their works as this is something else. Many sites exists where authors and writers showcase works and list their skills, in return for hundreds of adverts, mass competition with thousands of others, a cluttered up email box and no response from Editors.

A grouping of four or five similar budding authors and freelance writers, each with their own website and a link to the others would suffice. Sites without adverts, newsletters and promotional features: without gimmicks, annoyances, guest books and counters and without lengthy links to endless sites that only serve to confuse. Sites that simply portray in uncluttered and basic style an authors work, easy to read and easy to see what the author is made of. And in turn these four or five sites can be linked to each other to form a grouping of either diversified topics or similar ones so that editors have no choice but to visit these sites in search of material.

Editors it is time to be the hunted.