Freelance Writers - Use These Agencies to Find Jobs
By: Kern Carter
Tags: Recruitment, Freelancers, Freelance, Freelance Writing, Recruiting

Image by John Schnobrich

One of the loudest complaints from any writer is the way they are compensated. Over the last week alone, I’ve had two writers tell me that someone offered them $270 to write a 70,000-word book and $20 for a landing page. I wish I was kidding, but I can’t make this stuff up.

I’ve been freelancing long enough to know that these stories are all too common. For whatever reason, the demand for content is at an all-time high but the value people place on creating that content isn’t. Clients and companies are trying to get away with severely underpaying writers and it’s ridiculous.

This was the motivation for my post that detailed how much freelancers should be charging. I gave a baseline for popular gigs such as 500 word articles, landing pages, email campaigns and even ghostwriting full books. The popularity of that post, along with the dozens of emails and messages I received thanking me, showed me that writers really didn’t understand their own value and people have been taking advantage of us for far too long.

How recruitment agencies work

It’s actually pretty simple. Recruitment agencies work for both the employer and the client. It’s their duty to match you, their client, with contracts from employers. When a recruiter thinks they’ve found a match, they’ll pitch your portfolio or resume to the employer on your behalf. This step is important because it doesn’t relegate you to the common pile of candidates. Employers expect that the recruiter has done the work of vetting the potential candidate and so your chances of getting interviewed for the position increases significantly.

Recruitment agencies livelihood depends on securing contracts for their clients. So if they’re not scoring large contracts, they don’t get paid. That’s all the motivation they need to not ever entertain those $20 contracts I mentioned earlier.

Try these recruitment agencies

I realize something: not many writers know about recruitment agencies. The best thing about working with recruiters is that you know they’re not reaching out to you unless the money is worth it. Personally, recruiters have helped me sign my biggest contracts. I’m talking about 6-month contracts that ended up paying me $1,500/week.

Unfortunately, when I speak to writers, many of them don’t know these agencies exist. But they do, and they’re great. So I’ll list a couple that I’ve worked with or know about:

Find the best fit

Like any other partnership, you’ll need to find the right fit. The agencies I’ve listed above all incorporate creative contracts into their portfolio. You can expect to see job opportunities for Content Strategist, Copy Writer, Digital Strategist and more. But they’re offerings, customer service and they way they operate all differ, so you have to do some work to figure out which agency works best for you.

In my experience, you’re not obligated to work exclusively with any recruitment agency. That means there’s nothing stopping you from working with several at once. But I would suggest that you research the agencies I’ve mentioned and build a relationship with the one you believe is the best fit.