I’ve been recommended Fiverr for a year now, and several members of the writing groups I’m in have also used the service.
It’s like eBay, but for freelance professionals. You can use it to find artists, copy editors, book designers, marketers, website developers — anything you need.
Prices start at just $5 for small projects, such as a quick edit of a photograph.
Professional writers outsource
It might feel like “cheating” the first time you hire someone. After all, if you’re a professional writer, you should be able to fix your own typos and write your own biography, right?
Wrong!
Professional writers are exactly the opposite. They know that they need to focus on what they do best, and leave everything else to the experts.
Plus, there are all those English majors and artists out there desperate for work. Why torture yourself doing something you hate, that you’re not good at, and that takes you a great deal of time, when a talented creative person can do it better and faster?
Everything you hate doing, and are bad at doing, or just don’t have time to do — there’s someone out there who loves doing that thing and would just be over the moon if they got paid to do it.
Here are some things you can outsource:
- Proofreading
- Structural editing
- Press releases
- Social media campaigns
- Cover design
- Book layout
- Creating ebooks
- Website design
- Book blurbs and author bios
- Photography
- Original art
Look for newbies and experienced pros
The way I find people is either by looking for people who have a lot of reviews and years of experience on the platform, or for new people just starting out with a couple of good projects and low rates.
New freelancers use this platform to find their first clients, then increase their rates until they have enough regular clients to bring them the income that they want, and drop off the platform.
Those freelancers who stay on the platform long-term usually either work very, very quickly to make up for low rates, or they are based in countries with very low costs of living, or they offer low “teaser” rates on sample work then charge significantly higher rates for complete projects, or they manage large teams of creative workers.
If you have a very small budget, look for either people just breaking in — there’s a lot of starting artists out there and underemployed English majors out there trying to make a go of it as copyeditors — or be willing to work with people based overseas.
There are also people who are trying to break into freelance and failing because they’re bad at it. They don’t work with customers well, or just don’t have the skills. They’ve been bouncing around Fiverr and other freelancing platforms for a while, but aren’t putting in the effort to improve. You want to weed out these people as soon as you can.
If they over-promise, for example, if their profile says they can do absolutely everything, or if their profile is too generic and too good. I know, too good? But there’s folks out there who steal examples of great book covers — even published works by major publishers! — and try to pass it off as their own in their portfolios. And they’ll get friends to write glowing reviews. First, report them to Fiverr whenever you see them — do everyone a favor by helping weed these people out!
And if you work with someone and they’re really bad, leave an honest, and specific, review. Don’t be vague and angry. Be specific — what did they promise that they didn’t deliver? What specific mistakes did they make? Were they rude and unpleasant?
Don’t downgrade someone just because you don’t like their particular style — the art you hate may be perfect for someone else’s project. But if the art they send you is totally different from what they have in their portfolio, say that!
And if you do have a good experience with someone, leave an honest and detailed positive review. Let them use your work as a reference in their portfolio. Recommend them to your friends. You want to be a good customers so they’ll want to work with you again, and other freelancers will want to work with you as well.
One guy I can recommend right away for science fiction editing is Victor Serrano. I’ve used him a couple of times, and will be using him again for my next round of copyediting. He was extremely thorough, responsive, and easy to work with. He’s a former English teacher and a science fiction writer himself. His personal website is here and his Amazon author page is here.
Start small
When you are ready to hire a freelancer, whether for copyediting, art work, or marketing, start with a small trial project.
Figure out the smallest possible task that you would want to have done.
Instead of copyediting a full book, maybe have someone copyedit one scene.
Instead of doing a full print-ready book cover, get a low-res cover draft or a single illustration.
Instead of creating a full marketing strategy, have someone write up a short press release.
Write a very, very, very specific description of what you want. If you’re looking for editing, say whether you want structural editing — does the plot make sense and character motivations feel authentic? — or proof reading — making sure all the commas are in the right places? — or something in between? Do you want them to comment on a Google Doc or use track changes in a Word doc? Do you want them to edit to a particular stylesheet, or British spelling, or be familiar with, say, medical terms? Do you want them to fact-check?
The more specific, and the more narrowly focused, the better.
Then put that query out to bid, so that anyone on Fiverr gets back to you who’s interested in your project. And also send it directly to freelancers who look like they might be able to do what you want. Hit a variety of backgrounds and experience levels to get a good sense of what’s out there.
Now you’ll have bids coming in. For your first project, if you can afford it, choose three or five different people and have each of them do that one small task. Or maybe different versions of the same task — have someone edit Scene 1, and someone else edit Scene 2. Then pick the person you like and have them to a second project, or a slightly bigger project, and then, once you’re comfortable with them, have them do big things, like a whole book, or a whole marketing campaign.
Going out for bids is a pain in the butt. So once you find someone, try to send as much work their way as you can. Having a regular person to work with is wonderful. And if you develop a relationship with them, even better.
If you get really big and successful, and use someone a lot, put them on retainer. A freelancer’s life is tough, and income streams are extremely uneven.
Fiverr expenses are tax deductible
If you write professionally, or plan to, or make any sales at all, then you have a small business and all the money you spend on Fiverr is tax deductible. I have a separate bank account for my business and pay all my Fiverr expenses out of that, and at the of the year just download my account statement into a spreadsheet and voila — my business taxes are done.
You can also use a separate credit card for these purchases. Or just write them down however you track your business expenses.
I generally put Fiverr down as miscellaneous office expense, or marketing expense.
You can also pay freelancers directly, if you find them yourself. If you do, you will need to send them a 1099.
I’ve been using freelancers for a long time, and I use eFileforBiz to create and send them 1099 forms. It’s $4.50 per form, and if you only have one or two freelancers, it’s not worth the effort to hire an accountant or an accounting company to do this. All you do is fill out an electronic form with the freelancer’s info and how much you paid them, and they send it to the freelancer, both print and email, and file it with the US government. Obligatory disclaimer: I am neither a tax attorney nor an accountant, just someone who’s been doing it for a long time.
Other websites like Fiverr include Freelancer.com and Upwork.
There’s a million other ones, too, but these three are the only ones I personally would recommend. They have a solid reputation in the business, and have good financial and other systems in place.