{"id":1744,"date":"2015-01-28T10:53:21","date_gmt":"2015-01-28T18:53:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/?p=1744"},"modified":"2015-02-11T17:35:05","modified_gmt":"2015-02-12T01:35:05","slug":"5-books-every-freelance-writer-should-read","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/uncategorized\/5-books-every-freelance-writer-should-read\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Books Every Freelance Writer Should Read."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"5<\/a><\/p>\n

You are going to be surprised by this list. If you want to build a successful writing career in 2015, all of these books could be a huge asset for you. I’ve built my writing career based on the ideas in these boks. They’re not your typical books about writing.<\/p>\n

These books are all about getting results. In general, these books are not about improving your writing.<\/p>\n

Success as a freelance writer largely depends on your ability to market yourself and your writing. If you want a stable writing career and good clients, your success will largely be determined by your ability to find clients. That takes marketing and strategy.\u00a0 There’s no other way to do it, unless you’re incredibly lucky. And even if you are incredibly lucky, you’ll be even more lucky with the right knowledge applied at the right time.<\/p>\n

1. Tested Advertising Methods<\/a> by John Caples<\/strong> was first published in 1964. I credit this book to much of my success with internet marketing and writing for the internet.<\/p>\n

Most people think I’m crazy. How could a book from 1964 be so helpful? The answer is simple: Old school direct mail advertising is nearly identical to internet advertising in several important ways. Direct mail advertising is all about getting the reader to take action. The same is true with internet marketing. And it’s absolutely true with most good writing. If your writing moves people to act, you know you’ve done a good job. This book will show you how to do that.<\/p>\n

2. The Four Hour Work Week<\/a> by Timothy Ferriss<\/strong> was definitely published in the age of the internet. When I first read it, I had already built myself a business that let me work just 4 hours a week. I spent a lot of time writing poetry. I also spent a fair amount of time working. I falsely believed that I had to at least try to work 8 hours a day, like everybody else.<\/p>\n

The book gave me the confidence to know that I don’t have to work hard in order to succeed. I stopped stressing about whether I should work eight hours a day.<\/p>\n

This book helped me realize how important it is to work smart. If you work smart, you don’t have to work hard. You get to make choices. I currently work a lot more than four hours a week, but I work on my own terms. And that gives me a lot of joy.<\/p>\n

3. The Art of Learning <\/a>by Josh Waitzkin<\/strong>. This is one of my all time favorite books.\u00a0It’s a memoir by a former chess champion who decided to become a martial arts champion. He succeeded. It’s both a great read and full of valuable ideas.<\/p>\n

One idea has stuck with me for a long time. It’s called “smaller circles.” The idea is simple. Martial artists often have what seems to be a “magical” ability to make their opponents fly. With just a small movement, a skilled martial artist can push someone, and make them fly ten feet away.<\/p>\n

How is this possible? By slowly honing a very specific skill, until they are so good at it that it seems impossible. I’ve built much of my career by getting very good as certain specific types of writing. For example, I’m very good at writing text for email sign up pages. I’ve written such pages that get 85% of visitors to sign up. This used to seem impossible to me. But, because I’ve continually worked on improving this aspect of my writing, I now achieve such results regularly.<\/p>\n

4. Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works<\/a>.<\/strong> This book gives you 2 questions that you’ll need to answer before you find success as a freelance writer. The first questions is this: “Where do I want to play?” If you want to play basketball, you need to play on a basketball court. Better yet, you want to play on home court. The same is true of freelance writing. You want to carefully choose your market. What kind of writing career do you want? Who are your competitors?<\/p>\n

This leads to the second question: “How will I win?” By focusing on a winning strategy, you’ll know you have a path to success. Spend time answering these questions. Think about how they interact with each other. Define winning. Define the game you want to play. And give yourself a strategy that will let you win.<\/p>\n

For freelance writers, these are especially important questions. Think about it this way: There are countless people who want to make a living as a poet. But, the odds of this are rather low. There are very few jobs for poets. But, there are jobs. For example, most successful poets make their living as professors.<\/p>\n

It is extremely rare to make a living selling your poetry; it is rare, but less rare, to make your living as a professor, while still being a poet. When you’re trying to achieve your dreams, go for the path of least resistance. Don’t water down your dreams, but don’t fight battles that aren’t necessary.<\/p>\n

Another way to think about this: You’re unique. You’re different than me, and different than everybody else. That means that what works for me won’t work for you. I’ve managed to combine my skill as a computer programmer with my skill as a writer.<\/p>\n

This combination has allowed me to build my business. It might not be the right combination for you. What skills do you have, or want to develop, that can give you a unique advantage? When planning your strategy, plan to “play a game” that works for you, based on your unique strengths.<\/p>\n

5. The Davinci Code<\/a> by Dan Brown.<\/strong> This is a thoroughly mediocre book.\u00a0 But it is magical. I read it in one sitting. My wife read it in one sitting. Many of my friends read it in one sitting. Any piece of writing that can hold so many people’s attention, for so long, should be thoroughly studied. It may be a mediocre book, but it has power. If you can understand and harness that power with your writing, you will be able to accomplish a great deal. This is true even if you are writing non-fiction articles. Many writers have built their careers by learning how to create engaging articles. Read this book. Study how Dan Brown did it. And harness that power in your own writing.<\/p>\n

Have you read any of these books? What books would you recommend to your fellow writers? Share in the comments below.<\/p>\n

Sincerely,<\/p>\n

Jacob Jans
\nFreedom With Writing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You are going to be surprised by this list. If you want to build a successful writing career in 2015, all of these books could be a huge asset for you. I’ve built my writing career based on the ideas in these boks. They’re not your typical books about writing. These books are all about…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1744"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1744\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1863,"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1744\/revisions\/1863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}