Proactiveness

My two favourite stops to look for freelance writing and editing job leads each morning are Freelance Writing Jobs, a network site out of the US with a daily list of leads culled from from the web, and Canadian Freelance Writing Jobs, a blog focusing on jobs and contract positions for writers in Canada.

Both are run basically by individuals who perform this great service to their fellow writers. And both, I think, take some abuse when they lapse in giving this free service. Which is just stupid, but when something’s free I guess we come to expect it and depend on it. But on those days I don’t get *my* leads, it sort of kicks me in the butt and reminds me I should be a bit more proactive in getting work instead of waiting for that perfect gig to present itself.

For starters, Angela of CFWJ posted this list of where to get gigs other than Craigslist. To her tips, I would add going to events, both with writers and with business people who aren’t writers. I have also been exploring the world of bidding sites, both government ones and ones designed for freelance contracting, like Elance. The government ones, like Merx (in Canada), are maddeningly hard to browse and require some patience with hoop-jumping to register for. If anyone has experience with Elance to share, I’d be glad to hear about it.