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Third World Freelancing
By Melissa Koosmann
About two years ago, I decided to change my life. No longer would
I drift along in a dead-end job, wishing to be a writer and doing
nothing about it. No longer would I devote tiny scraps of time to
lackluster articles and stories that had little hope of getting
finished, let alone published. I wanted to live my dream and have
an adventure, too.
My husband, fortunately, loved the idea, as long as he could come
along. So we researched the most far-flung places around the world
where he could continue his career in the astronomy field. After a
whirlwind of discussions and preparations, we found him a job and
left our old life behind. I started a full-time freelance career…
from South Africa.
Crazy as it may sound, freelancing from a developing country works
great. From the beginning, life in South Africa gave me dozens of
new writing ideas. I researched the travel and educational markets—
two areas I’d never felt qualified to approach before—and pitched
stories about my new home. Now that I had all day, every day to
write, I dared to pitch big projects as well as small ones. Almost
before I knew it, I landed contracts to write travel articles and
educational books.
I was finally getting paid to write—but not much. Because of my
location, my small income wasn’t a problem. The cost of living in
South Africa is relatively low, so money stretches further than in
the United States. I can’t get by on a dollar per article, but I
can survive when I need to spend a little longer than I expect on a
project, or when it takes a few extra weeks for a check to come
through. I have time to develop my craft and produce work that
makes me proud.
For an unfettered freelancer with a certain thirst for adventure,
moving to a developing country is a real option. However, it does
come with extra challenges. I make (and frequently enact) multiple
back-up plans for meeting deadlines in case my Internet service fails
or my power goes out. Overseas mail takes longer and costs more, so
I keep a stash of United States stamps and use them on my SASEs, which
I address to my mother-in-law in Montana, who kindly opens my mail
and relays editors’ responses to me. Because my editors and I live
in different time zones, I occasionally have to arrange a business
call at midnight.
Moving to South Africa changed my life and affected my writing,
but it wasn’t the key to my success. In the end I succeeded for a
more mundane reason: I changed my behavior. I stopped allowing a
lack of confidence to sabotage my writing process. I cultivated a
habit of hard work, devoting hours every day to research and writing.
Looking back, I realize I should have done those things at home in
the first place. What I lacked—and what I’ve gained during my
improbable journey—was commitment.
Bio:
Melissa Koosmann is the author of Meet Our New Student
from South Africa, Monumental Milestones: The Fall of Apartheid,
and Going to School Around the World (all from Mitchell Lane
Publishers, 2009). She has also published many articles about
South Africa and other topics. You can read about some of her
experiences in South Africa at www.capebulbul.blogspot.com.
If you have questions about freelancing from overseas, you
may e-mail her at melkoosmann@yahoo.com
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