Don't Just Email: 7 Innovative Ways to Follow-Up Without Dreading It

When I wrote my last blog post, I talked briefly about the follow-up process and how it is, in my opinion, the place where all the magic happens in a sale. Some of you weren't crazy about that notion, because I'd wager you feel like a follow-up can come across as a mix between begging and harassment. While I certainly understand that, having been on the receiving end of countless follow-ups of that type myself, I'm here to tell you that it doesn't have to be that way.

One of the mantras that we share at Gloryhound is to be constantly in the service of others, and in order to do so, you need timely feedback from your customers, good and bad. Imagine yourself a waiter in a restaurant, the customer is the diner - to make sure they were getting what they wanted, you'd check on them from time to time, yes? Think of a follow-up as your time to check on someone you'd like to be taking care of, and not just as a harassing phone call or email - and that brings me to our point, today: Don't limit yourself to just those outlets, either!

Here are seven ways to make a follow-up not only more interesting for you, but more service-minded for your customer, and really leave a great impression:

1. Go there in-person - If you want to get a company's business, you should go there in person. As an example, if you're an artist or writer and a studio you'd like to work for isn't too far from you, then take a day trip to check it out. Many offices will welcome the opportunity to give freelancers a tour, if they ask to do so and call ahead in advance.
2. Find common ground - Stop and think: what are the things that make you want to do work for a target organization? If you love coming up with designs for skateboards and want to work for a skate company, then I'm going to assume you have an interest in the sport itself. Get tickets to a local event and tell your prospects you'd like to invite them out. Chances are, they might already be going, and you can meet up with them. This is a great way to get to know someone and their business, as well as show your enthusiasm for their niche.
3. Attend an industry event - This is an easy one. If you're a comic book artist, you should be going to comic book shows. Even if you can't present your work at a table or booth, you should go as an attendee. If you've never been to a convention or other event within your industry, you're likely to be very surprised by who you meet, and that can lead to some big-time deals.
4. Send a sample - My friend Dan Miller, founder of the 48 Days seminars and book series, recently answered an inquiry from a listener, live on his podcast. The gentleman was asking if Dan would be interested in picking up a sequel to one of his books which the guy had already written, in exchange for a percentage of sales. With the work already done, Dan leapt at the opportunity and signed the him on, immediately. This is not uncommon! If there's something you want to do, to produce, to write, then do it! Send it off and see what happens - with the work done, the company gets a great glimpse of what you can do and will recognize your hustle.
5. Send a gift - This one is trickier than it sounds. It's tacky to send an edible arrangement to a curator, yes, but it's not so weird to send a hand-crafted thank-you of some kind. When I show my leathercraft work to galleries or merchants, I often will send them a small piece, such as a small mask or other stand-alone, with the thank-you note written on the back. I'm charmed to see my little thank-you's hanging near the reception area on subsequent return visits, and people who see them will of course, ask where they came from and who made them, leading to more business, even if I don't get the client right away.
6. Offer to be of assistance in another way - This is the old "work like an intern" technique that is possibly one of the more effective strategies for getting in with a company you'd really like to do some business with. If a studio isn't hiring artists, they're probably still in the market for a guy to sweep the floors. If they don't need writers, they may yet need someone to help them layout pages in pre-press. A number of jobs that, let's be honest, often pay less and have none of the glory of your dream gig, are available right now, at your dream company. Caveat: despite the low-to-no pay, and lack of glamor, you must take these opportunities to connect and show your work ethic, seriously. Understand that if you do a great job, your efforts will very likely pay off, and the company will be more likely to take a chance on you for the job you want, in the future.
7. Use social media - And as I said in the previous entry, this does not mean you should be using social media to harass, stalk or otherwise bother your prospects. Social media is great to keep up with people, to find out where a company whose business you want, will be showing their wares, and to bridge that gap between a faceless submitter of artwork to in-the-know talent.

I hope this brief guide does well to open your eyes to the possibilities of engaging your prospects after your first submissions packet has been mailed or you've given your initial pitch. Remember - to be successful, you must be service-minded. Once your customer gains confidence in what you can do for them, the deal will close on its own!

How to Submit Your Art to Comic Book Publishers!

Last week was a big one for yours truly. The times have been tumultuous in my life over the past several months, to say the least – getting Sylvanna officially ready to go, a big move in October, and balancing some tricky and ill-timed family health issues to name a few. It’s all culminated with me resolving to go full-time with freelance once more, and thus putting together some work samples to send out to publishers for the first time in a great number of years.

So! How does one go about getting work in comics, anyway? I like to think this blog could, thus far be a great resource for those looking to put their time into the effort of making great comics, but I’ve not gotten an entry around to show the actual submission process – so let’s cover that, today!

The first task is to gather some work around. In my latest submissions, I was primarily looking to get work as a penciller/inker, so that’s what I sent the most samples of! Here’s what’s in my submission packet, this time around:

·         Three pages of penciled comic book pages featuring a subject I’m very comfortable drawing, and one which I know how to draw very well.

·         Three pages of inked versions of the penciled pages.

·         Four more inked pages  from a different type of story with different characters in a different setting which utilizes a wholly different style, as well.

·         One inked cover image.

·         Four really nice pin-ups - some in color and some black and white. 

A few notes about my samples: They were submitted as (no more than) 800px wide JPEGs, and each was under 500KB. When sending in samples, keep them big enough to show your nice details, but small enough to not choke your editor’s email. The total size of ALL the attachments you send should be under 10MB and preferably under 5MB. If they want to see a larger version of something, you can always send that along, later.

Along with my samples, I also sent a cover letter! It went something like this:

Dear _______ (always use the actual editor’s name when you can!):

My name is Dawn Best and I am currently in the market to take on some freelance work. I thought I would start with some of my favorite comic book publishers (and this is very important – they SHOULD be comic books you would LOVE to work for and could do great things for – don’t just mass-send to everyone unless you’re interested in doing sub-par work for a comic you might not enjoy). I feel _____________ (the publisher’s name and even better, a specific title) might be a great fit for my style and would be interested to see what you think of the attached pieces.

I will be at __________ (convention or meet-up – this paragraph is optional but it is HIGHLY recommended that you go to comic conventions if you want to work in the comics industry!) and I noticed you will be as well. I’ll be sure to stop by and meet some members of your team in person, regardless of whether you can use me at this time or not. Looking forward to it!

 

All the Best,

Dawn

Feel free to copy that whole thing and fill in the blanks. Try to remember to change my name, too! Cover letters should be to the point, speak of your intentions and what you can do for a company, and promise to follow-up in some way!

Let’s talk about the follow-up, which is a step that is as important as your initial submission. Remember: you’re a salesman, and in a very general sense, salespeople average a sale for every 9 follow-ups they make. In comics, it can be a bit higher, but depending on how you go about it, you can cut out a lot of that time and that means cutting out a lot of wasted effort.  Either way, if you’re not following up, you’re making an amateur mistake – it’s RARE that someone gets hired on after a single submission packet has been sent.

Since most comic book editors don’t readily post their direct phone numbers (with good reason) what then, are your options for following up? Here are but a few:

Go to a convention: Meet the editors, writers and artists who already work for a company you’ve targeted, in person. If the editors or artists who work on the title you’re specifically looking to get into aren’t present, do NOT snub the people who ARE there. Talk to them, ask them what they like about working for the company and be honest about your intentions to break-in, yourself. These people are a wealth of information and will likely have great pointers about what they’re looking for in a submission packet, and if there are any new and exciting properties they’re considering for the future. Get a business card and keep in touch. In putting a face to your name, they’ll have an easier time remembering you, and if nothing else, you can use the information gleaned from such encounters to make a second, even better-targeted submission packet.

Attend a portfolio review: This step usually requires you go to a convention and track down editors in the same way as the first example, but not always. Sometimes companies hold open portfolio reviews on their forums. I know a few companies who ask for submissions to be placed on their public forum so their audience might first consider the work, as well as the editors. Traditionally, you’d sign-up for a portfolio review with a company at some point during a convention, agree to a time, and sit down with an editor to discuss. Don’t even think about coming to a con and plunking your work down in front of an editor without an appointment unless you want to make the editor angry! When the editor has time, that means they are taking a few moments away from what is a very busy schedule to meet with you and give you some instant feedback. Don’t rush it and don’t blow them off! They want you to succeed. Even if an editor doesn’t think you’re ready yet, they’ll remember your work, your face and the impression you made for next time. Keep pushing yourself and keep improving.

Find the publisher on Twitter and follow, don’t stalk, them: It’s poor-form to get online and follow your favorite publisher the same day you send in your submission packet and immediately Tweet to them: “Hey, just sent you my submissions – Please hire me!” If anything, and you really were interested in working for the company, you should have been following them long before your submission packet went out. Keep up with them for a while, and pay attention to what they’re sharing on social media. Follow them wherever you can – Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and others. Retweet them when something interesting comes up. Once in a while, feel free to send out something like this, “Great work on (your favorite book here), I loved it when ______ happened! If you’re ever looking for freelancers, I’m open and would love to work with (your dream-team) in the future.” Make sure you’re polite with your interactions and your pitches are well outnumbered by your praise of their work!

The follow-up process, let’s be honest, is where the magic happens! As I said – it’s rare, even as a seasoned pro, to get work with a single packet sent out, these days. You gotta get serious and you gotta take a close look at what your editor wants to see when you’re set on working for them. Most editors are so busy and get inundated with so many submissions that even an email stating that they received your packet is impossible. If a few months have gone by and you’ve gotten no response, then it’s as good as a rejection letter.

You shouldn’t fear these, “thank you for the interest” notes. If anything, you should take them, hoard them and frame them. Statistically, you’re more likely to succeed, the more times you try and fail. So long as you keep improving, you will eventually make it, but where most artists fail to become what they want – that is, paid professionals at their favorite book, is right here. And the reason is simple. These people fail to take the rejection letter for what it is: a piece of paper telling you that you can do better. That being the case, there are only two ways you can screw up your ultimate goal, here. The first is that you can see the rejection letter as more than a piece of paper and as some big scary dream-crushing monster which bars you from ever considering doing work in comics ever again.  The second is to not do any better than the work you’re cranking out now. This is time for honesty – you can do this, but you must improve your game, first. That means it’s back to the drawing board and, hopefully, back to seeking out advice on what, specifically, you can do to raise the bar!

Remember – if you’re really serious about the work being done by a publisher, then editors there will want you to succeed because they want people who are passionate! A dedicated fan one day can turn into an inspired and inspirational teammate who can take their book to the next level. Don’t miss out on becoming that person! Do your homework, do lots of submissions, expect rejection letters but keep trying! You can do this – all you need is love!

How Not to React to Criticism of Your Writing

Not too long ago, famed author Anne Rice stirred up controversy when she supposedly had fans attack the Facebook pages of people who were critical of her works in reviews. I felt this could serve as a lesson for anyone who dares to put their work out there to the public - no matter how famous you are, someone isn't going to like the work you do, and you'll often find yourself in a position of defending yourself and how you go about it.

For the record, "sic 'em, boys" is not generally the preferred method.

Did Anne really tell her fans to attack? No. Should she have pointed out the review? It's within her right. What's the problem? She had huge amounts of fans and only asked they be civil, later.

This is hardly Anne's fault, but I'd wager, could have been thought-out better. Some fans are crazy enough to camp out on their adored favorite writer's front lawn, after all, or at least threaten to, so why should it be surprising that they'd stalk one of her bashers? On the internet, that goes double due to the relative anonymity of everyone.

Here are a few ways you can handle criticism without stirring up trouble:

• Understand that everyone gets critique. Everyone. People will hate you when you write or draw something one way, and an entirely different group of people will hate you when you do the opposite. You can't please everyone, and the sooner you stop trying to, the better your writing will become.
• Realize that taking time to cater to haters does nothing except take time away from your true fans. Your fans deserve 100% of your time - always and with no exceptions. They're who you're writing for, and long after your detractors have moved on to trolling someone else, your fans will still be there expecting wonderful things from you. Don't let them down.
• Know that trolls exist and learn how to spot them. If someone criticizes your work in a very vague manner ("You suck") and/or you find your arguments going in circles when you engage someone about their dislike of your art ("Shut up, you suck"), then you're not dealing with a legitimate critique and you should forget the insult and move on. Simple as that.
• Know when critique should be taken seriously. Editors, publishers, reviewers, panel judges and other professionals have limited time to look at the abundance of work they are handed each day. If you don't get a response, which is normal, then assume your work wasn't up to their standards. These people want you to succeed - really, they do! But they would be doing you and your potential for greatness a disservice if they rewarded your work with a publishing contract/feature/a gold star and it was sub-par. Be your own worst critique and strive to do things that challenge you.

It's sometimes hard to see one critique pop up in a sea of praise, and we often focus on the negative more than the positive, but keep these tips in mind. Sooner or later, you will have critics, and it's up to you to keep this most important goal in front of you: Keep improving and keep creating!

Special Announcement: Gloryhound Teaming Up With Comics Crux!

Hey all! Going to take a little aside from the usual journal entry, here, to make a very special announcement!

A new series of tutorials is in the works, as part of a collaboration with our friends at Comics Crux! For a year now, Comics Crux has striven to be the comic book resource of choice for people who read, write, draw, love and live comics! Gloryhound Network, the home of the how-to for breaking into creative work, is thrilled to be partnering with them by offering a boatload of new tutorials which will be featured on their site at http://www.comicscrux.com!

These tutorials will be comic and webcomic specific, and we're hoping, will be a valuable asset to visitors of both Gloryhound and Comics Crux. It's a win-win situation!

Expect more, soon as the tutorials wrap-up and get ready to be posted. I hope you're as excited for this new partnership as I am -- we're poised to become the number one resource for people interested in pursuing careers as comic book creatives on the internet!

All the Best,

Dawn

Tips on Experimenting With Writing

Matt sat down to the game I’ve been programming for fun last night. For as little work as I’ve gotten to do on it, there’s been a myriad of cool scripts and other gadgets I’ve been able to edit and plug in, which have made progress on its production easier. So much so, that I’ve started to get into programming the actual scenes of the story, in fact.

"Too much dialogue!" he said, and I agreed with him. I'm not a mind-blowing writer and I still draw far better than I write. But I am well-practiced and more importantly, I love learning. I write too long. Ask anyone who’s read my fanfiction. I had to learn to edit things down and to be okay with doing so, and a lot of my technique for writing today relies on typing every little thing down and tearing half of it out, later. I learned this through experiment -- writing things for fun and employing new practices that I hadn't tested yet.

Recall the series of posts that began here: Creative Writing From Start to Finish. To break it down, my writing technique looks something like this:

• Get ideas
• Turn ideas into breakdowns, character profiles and backdrops
• Turn breakdowns into story beats
• Turn story beats into a story
• Inject themes and subtext
• Edit the whole thing down

It's all well and good to follow this formula, but enjoying the process of writing would be impossible if I didn't switch things up once in a while and try new things. I get lots of enjoyment out of writing, but to turn the process into a formula can make for a very boring time, so I need to try new things and break some of my own rules once in a while.

Here then, are some new things I've been testing with fun-for-me projects like the aforementioned game, and some paid projects as well:

• Working a plot around a theme without force. And the words 'without force' are the important ones, here. It's generally considered bad form to plot around a theme, because it doesn't feel natural. Indeed, your subtext should serve your plot and not the other way around. What's been working for me, however, is to write out enough of the story to know when a theme is beginning to rear its head, develop it, and not bend the plot out of shape if it's not a perfect fit. Tweaking a theme is far superior to tweaking a story, and can produce some satisfying results.
• Inserting a plot device (or two) at random. This one is a bit tricky because it immediately registers a big fat "DON'T" from my brain when I try it. I've found that this is due, mostly, to my brain having not figured out what will come of the plot device and its intended purpose, when it shows up at a point that doesn't make any sense. But that's beautiful, too, because if I'm not expecting it then I hope my reader isn't either. I'm also forced to work with it and use ideas I hadn't been counting on using to reconcile it.
• Writing towards one resolution and going an entirely different direction. I picked this up from Kevin Smith's experience directing Red State. In an interview I saw, he talked about having the story written to a point where the next thing to do in the progression seemed obvious, so it was decided to do something entirely different instead, to keep the audience on its toes. Like the randomly appearing plot device I talked about above, jerking your story around in new and surprising ways can be a frustrating but highly effective way to break out of your comfort zones as an author. Too, notice I didn't say 'opposite direction', here. If you do this, keep in mind that it's sometimes just as easy and therefore just as expected to take a story one way and do the exact opposite. Try to do something really wacky and off the beaten path, instead.

You may try some of these yourself, and indeed, you may try others. If you need help getting ideas, I suggest going back to my How to Write guides again and inspecting points where you can bend the rules a little (or a lot) and giving it a go.

It's important to note that when you experiment with your writing, any weird thing you're going to try has the potential to go very, very wrong. But that's okay -- this is a creative exercise, after all. You may feel more comfortable doing this type of work with your side projects, therefore.

Even if you're not getting paid to mess around with a story, it's important to take it seriously enough that it serves the highest purpose of writing: It makes for a good read.

Why Charging More (or Less) Matters

My previous blog entry on knowing your value sent a fair bit of questions my way, and a good amount of discussion in equal measure. I thought therefore, I'd jump on some of that stuff and write a second post to cover a few of those things - most specifically questions centered around the idea of charging more over charging less.

I'll say that some people were a little angry that I didn't discuss the discount process when it comes to art, and the competitive nature of art in general as it pertains to what is sold on the internet, at conventions and elsewhere. It's true - most people you can commission on the internet for art are priced so ridiculously low that the typical layperson who only wants a pretty picture drawn will seek out the cheapest option, rather than what would suit their needs best. There's little room to specialize.

Or so you would think.

Hear me out -- I'm not saying making a quick twenty bucks on Deviantart for a sketch is bad business, because it's not and that goes double if you're just starting out. I'm also not saying you need to be a famous artist to warrant a higher price all the time. Rather, you have to consider yourself part of the equation when you are striking deals over your art. You have to consider what's worth your time, and what you'd genuinely enjoy doing, over the money. Don't follow the money because it'll never be creatively fulfilling and you'll never get work. Follow work you love and money will naturally follow. I guarantee it.

Let's take an example. I go to conventions a lot throughout the year. I'll often sit next to artists charging $60 and up for sketches, and most of them are worth every penny and quite often, take a substantial amount of the day for them to complete.

I however, I charge $40 max. It's not because I'm not as known -- often I have more published credits to my name than people around me charging more. It's a simple matter of supply, demand, and the worth of my time. I know that roughly half of my customers at any given show will come to me with a request for some kind of cartoony animal, which will take me approximately half an hour to draw well. Then there will be another 30% or so who want some kind of pin-up girl, which is something else I'm quite good at turning out with good quality in a short span of time. The remaining 20% will have more difficult requests which might take longer, and true I may tweak my prices for those, but I won't, often.

I charge low because it's rare that I run out of customers before I run out of time at conventions. These customers almost always want a sketch that doesn't take more than 30 minutes to complete. The math is simple: Ten sketches at $40 a pop ($400) versus three at $60 ($180) over the course of a convention is much more preferable.

The other side of the coin (no pun intended), which would be charging higher prices than a competing product, is even easier to argue for. Consider the benefits of a higher priced item, first:

• Items set at a higher price have a higher perceived value. Again, see the previous blog entry on value for a lesson in this concept. In a nutshell, this means that people will, if the product appears to be of quality, take into consideration its overall worth as a factor when making a purchasing decision, noting in their minds that although it is more expensive than another artist's work, it must be worth more to be sold at such a price.
• Higher-priced items attract higher-quality clients. And I'm not saying rich people are better people, here. The people willing to spend larger sums of money on things tend to view them in higher regard, take better care of them, and that means, as an artist, they're also seeing you in higher regard.
• People who are not just looking to score a discount are more likely to call you back to do further work in the future, if you do a quality job for them. Broke people often don't call again, because they're more interested in swinging a deal. Too, if you set up a down-payment on the work you will be doing, as you should, the person requesting the commission is more likely to pay the balance when the job is complete.
• Higher prices mean you won't be wasting your time on unfulfilling work. The fewer the people you have asking you to draw their Twilight Sparkle recolor for $5, the better, am I right?

As I said -- to command higher prices, you don't need to be famous or already established. All you need to do is make sure the job you do is an excellent one.

I hope this elaboration on the last entry has been of use to you. More posts about value are sure to follow, as this certainly is a hot topic. Remember to value yourself first and above all else, value your time, and value your art.

Getting Work You Love: Working as a Freelancer

Welcome to the last part of our three-part series on finding work you love. During the first week, we covered getting published. Last week, we touched on finding work as a creative, in-house. This week, we’ll discuss freelancing, which is a blanket term for working on your own, either at home, in-house, with a single outfit or with many. In fact, freelancing takes on so many forms, it’d be impossible to cover them all in one blog post, so this is going to be a pretty broad discussion. The good news is, you may find the tips and pointers here could also be applicable in any job situation!

So! Right off the bat, I think it’s important that we start with a few definitions of terms I’ll be using, in case any of this is new to you.

· A freelancer is a person who works on their own, usually engaged in one or several projects which benefit themselves. Freelancers do not employ others. My work as an individual artist currently falls under the category of freelance since I do the work myself as a means to make money for myself.

· An entrepreneur is someone who starts a company, usually with the intention of building it into a business. They may start out as freelancers. Entrepreneurs may also hire freelancers to help get the necessary tasks accomplished for their company, and may even have full-time staff they employ. My work with Gloryhound could be considered an entrepreneurship situation. I hire freelancers from time-to-time for one-shot projects here and there, but also take on much of the work myself.

· A business is a company or other money-making operation which can run and be profitable without the need of its owner. Businesses hire freelancers and employees alike. Gloryhound does not operate as a business, because I am still integral to its success and I frankly have no desire to turn it into such a thing until it becomes able to sustain more than myself on a payroll situation.

· Capital is money. Venture capital is money invested into a business or entrepreneur to get things started with the understanding that a certain percentage of the company will be owned by the investor until it is profitable enough to buy the investor out. If the business goes under and the venture capital is lost, unless an agreement is in place that essentially marks the money as a loan, the investment doesn’t need to be paid back. A loan is given to a business as any loan is – with the understanding that it will be paid back, usually with interest, even if the business fails.

Some of that may sound complicated, and you may be wondering exactly why someone would choose to be a freelancer at all. To most freelancers, the answer is as simple as the implied freedom, itself. To others, it’s the only means by which they can get work at all in a given field, such as consulting. Still to others, it’s the best way to earn a passive or secondary income stream, or a means to get one’s foot in the door for a career change.

Whatever your reasons for becoming a freelancer, you will always go into such work with the understanding that you’re trading stability for freedom. Stability is a relative term, of course. In our time, it’s not unusual for companies to surprise hard workers with layoffs, even during an economic upswing. Freedom, too, is relative. You may find that while you’re free to go to Starbucks at any hour of the day or night, browse the internet on a whim or simply take a week off, you’ll still need the discipline to do the work that’s necessary to eat and pay the utility bills. The long and short of it is that freelancing isn’t for everyone, but that’s okay. More often than not, a combination of steady income from a regular full-time or part-time job can help cushion a full or partial transition into freelance work.

As a creative, your first step in becoming a successful freelancer should be to gather materials together for a portfolio. You’re probably tired of hearing me say it after two other entries advising the same thing, but it really is that important. Persons looking to go 100% freelance and especially those just starting out have the most necessity to keep several portfolios, as they may be keen to do several types of work in order to make the mortgage for the month. Often, as a freelancer goes on with his or her career, they will narrow their efforts down to just a handful of things they’d like to be commissioned to do, narrowing that list down to just one or two as their reputation and list of clientele builds.

Finding work should be a near-constant priority for you, but luckily in the age of the internet, it isn't difficult to access resources which can help you. Sites like Elance and Craigslist offer "gigs" and other one-shot jobs which you can place a bid for. Placing a bid is just as it sounds - you bid to do the work in the alloted time, show them your portfolio, name a price, and wait to hear back. Most freelancers actively seeking work will start their mornings by placing several bids to projects they're interested in, each day, until they are selected. Indeed, it may take several tries and there never are any guarantees, but the more bids you put in, the more likely you'll have a callback.

Selling yourself properly, as always, requires you know and understand your own strengths. You should be cold-calling or sending submissions to places that do work similar to the work you enjoy doing, to be most effective with your gig-search. If you want to be a comic book artist, send comic book samples, not pin-up art, to companies you'd like to work with.

Local businesses often need writers, illustrators or graphic designers for one-off projects such as brochures, newspaper ads, blurbs or other promotional material. You may even find odd-jobs such as painting storefront windows. Keep your portfolio handy - have it online and easy-to-access via smartphone in case you come across a place you may like to do business with throughout your the day.

Turning things around promptly and being professional about handling the work you have coming in is as essential as landing the gig. If a client doesn't give you a clear deadline, then assume it is due, yesterday. Don't slack off just because your job isn't of the punch-in from 9 to 5 variety. Set aside certain hours of your day to get the work done. If you have an outrageous deadline but a golden opportunity with a project, don't be surprised if you have to cancel plans you've previously made to get it done.

Get money up front, always. I usually ask for at least half, depending on the work. Most businesses and entrepreneurs will lay out a cost breakdown, and some who do the same type of work over and over again will clearly display their rates on their websites -- that's a great way to present your expectation of compensation to the client and allow for negotiation.

Always, always, always have a contract in order for your work. There's nothing worse than a client who doesn't pay, excpet for a client who doesn't pay when there's no contract in place, obligating him to pay. Search online for sample contracts that lay out expectations of payment for services rendered, and tweak those to the job you are doing.

Hopefully, most of your clients will be good ones! You should keep a book of references from these, with letters of recommendation from each one if you can get it (and most are happy to write one). Have your happy customers send a short letter talking about the excellent service they received from you and the job you did. Use this to promote or take it with you when talking to business prospects and scoping a new gig.

You will of course, have to deal with taxes at the start of every year, just like everyone else. You'll fill out a 1099-Misc form, which will require itemizing each and every dollar you made and the things you spent money on for your freelance or business endeavor. Entrepreneurs and businesses will, throughout the year, issue W9 forms to the freelancers they employ, to show the IRS that money was given to a person to perform a task, and they in turn will fill out the appropriate tax forms when April rolls around. Taxes can be pretty hard on freelancers, and especially new ones. I advise people that the safest way to assure you've got enough in the bank to pay "the man" is to hold back one-quarter of what is earned for each gig, for tax purposes. Depending on your state and your tax situation, you may wish to hold back more. I have heard some people advise that half is optimal, though from my experience it seems a bit excessive.

When your freelancing endeavors become profitable enough to warrant employing others, consider seeking out freelancers to join your team. Delegating tasks you yourself don't enjoy doing, or those you know that someone else can do better, is a great way to run a small business.

I hope you've enjoyed this brief look into the various jobs available to creatives in the working world and how to break into them. I will be doing more entries like these in the future, and hopefully in greater detail. For now, love what you do, and get out there and work in what you love!