A Manual For Freelance Academic Writers: Taking The First Steps

There’s a huge market these days for freelance writers for a wide variety of content, from articles for online magazines to content for companies’ business blogs. If you can write well, you can easily find paid gigs to bring in a substantial amount of money. Freelance writing is an incredibly flexible line of work, allowing you to work from your own home, at your own hours and at your own pace. There are many types of freelance writing work that you can consider. The most common jobs are for people to write blog articles to help companies build their brand’s web presence and connect with audiences of potential customers or clients. There are also people who need writers for materials like whitepapers and nonfiction ebooks. However, if you’re interested in academic subjects like biology, astronomy, sociology, or history, and you excelled at writing about these topics in high school and college, then academic writing could be the perfect niche for you to focus on. Academic writing is a specialized skill that has further demands for research, documentation, and rigour than basic blog articles, so people who can do this kind of writing effectively are in high demand.

Here are some places online where you can look for freelance work as an academic writer:

• Job boards and classifieds websites. Job boards and places like Craigslist are some of the best places to look for academic writing jobs. You can easily search for freelance jobs and gigs nationwide or locally, focusing on clients who are looking for an academic writer.


• Bidding websites. There are many websites, like Elance and Odesk, where you can bid on jobs and gigs as a freelance writer. Most of these websites will allow you to filter search results by “Academic Writing.” as well as specifying search terms like “history” or “astrophysics” to try to look for specific fields of knowledge. These jobs often involve helping college and graduate students edit and refine their papers, or assisting people in turning their original research into articles for thesis projects or academic journals.


• Social media. Many social media sites are great for networking with people who may find themselves in need of your academic writing services, from professional researchers to grad students in scientific and technical fields. You can also provide links to your portfolio, allowing prospective clients to see what you’ve done in the past, so they can determine whether you’d be a good fit for the work that they need done.