Bowness’ Book Offers Advice for Freelancers

Reviewed by Lisa Timpf

For Suzanne Bowness, a layoff years ago turned out to be the springboard to a new calling as a freelance writer and editor. In The Feisty Freelancer: A Friendly Guide to Visioning, Planning, and Growing Your Writing Business, Bowness shares what she’s learned during twenty-plus years of freelancing.

Written in an approachable, clear style, The Feisty Freelancer offers helpful advice for setting up your business, pitching articles, and pricing and marketing your services. Bowness also provides tips for collaborating with editors and clients, and for staying motivated while working from home.

Topics like setting up domain names, tax considerations, useful tools and technology, and insurance are also covered. Among the chapters I found most interesting was one in which Bowness shares a day, a week, and a year in the life of a freelancer.

Many of the chapters end with exercises to help would-be, or current, freelancers think more deeply about their strategies, brainstorm article ideas, or plan next steps. The inclusion of exercises is perhaps a natural for Bowness, who has taught writing courses for fifteen years.

The Feisty Freelancer is forthright about the pros and cons of freelancing. While working freelance offers flexibility for scheduling and control over the topics and projects you work on, the “feast or famine” nature of the work and the need to stay disciplined can pose challenges. Bowness encourages anyone considering a freelance career to consider the drawbacks as well as the benefits.

Over the years, I’ve acquired a several books about freelance writing. Some, given the shifting landscape with respect to print newspapers and magazines, are becoming less relevant with time. The Feisty Freelancer offers an up-to-date perspective, and discusses more recent phenomena like blogs, social media, and artificial intelligence language models.

Another benefit to Bowness’ book is its range. It doesn’t focus exclusively on writing for web sites and magazines, it also talks about freelance editing, freelancing with corporate clients, and other topics.

The fact that the book is written from a Canadian perspective was a bonus for me. While Bowness’ strategies are applicable for freelancers from other locales, finding references to Canadian publications, taxes, was a pleasant change from some of the other books I’ve used in the past.

Throughout the book, Bowness emphasizes the value of networking and drawing on the experiences and support of colleagues. True to that sentiment, she includes a Q&A with responses from a number of fellow freelancers at the end of the book. Like the “day in the life” section, I found this particularly interesting.

Participants in the Q&A included journalists, teachers, copywriters, ghost writers, authors, podcasters, editors, and other types of freelancers. Some, like Bowness herself, do more than one thing in the freelance realm. As Bowness points out, full-time freelancers sometimes find it helpful to diversify income streams.

The Feisty Freelancer also provides a list of resources for writers, including books about writing, practical guides, podcasts, writer/editor job sites, and writer/editor associations. While some resources, like The Elements of Style by W. Strunk and E.B. White, were familiar, others, like, Elements of Indigenous Style: A Guide for Writing by and About Indigenous Peoples, by Gregory Younging, were new to me, and I appreciated being made aware of them.

The Feisty Freelancer is a book I would have welcomed when I started to be more serious about writing. Though I’ve been writing freelance part-time for a number of years, I still found much of value in Bowness’ book. I plan to circle back to the exercises now that I’ve done my initial read-through.

Nicely packaged on quality paper, The Feisty Freelancer is worth a look for folks who are contemplating dipping their toes into freelance writing, while still offering something of value for freelancers who are seeking tips to enhance their business.

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About the Author

Suzanne Bowness is a writer, editor, and communications consultant. Since 2002, she has written for publications and clients through her business CodeWord Communications. Suzanne is a longstanding part-time writing teacher with a Ph.D. in English who has been a long-time volunteer with professional editorial associations. She lives in Campbellford, Ontario.

Book Details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Dundurn Press (Jan. 7 2025)

• Language ‏ : ‎ English

• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 288 pages

• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1459755014

• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1459755017