Well, this year certainly isn't drawing to a close on the note I wanted. This fucking horrible AB-5 bill that passed back in September sometime has really thrown a wrench into the machine as far as my professional copywriting work is concerned. Generally speaking, I don't tend to pay too much attention to what's going on with politics and all those laws unless they affect me, so I actually didn't even know about it... until I received an email a little over a week ago from the hiring manager at BKA Content, a writing agency I've spent the better part of the last year (and a lot of my professional time) working for.
She was basically letting me know that the company was terminating all of their California writers at the end of the year because of this bill, and since I do indeed live in California, that definitely includes me. For those that don't know what the bill says, it basically requires any outlet working with California freelance writers to bring us on as full-time employees with benefits and all that jazz if we submit more than 35 published pieces to that outlet over the course of a year. The bill actually wasn't very well thought out, so it's quite unclear whether or not it even applies to copywriting agencies, as they're marketing businesses and not publications. However, a lot of agencies and platforms are erring on the side of caution by dumping all of their California writers regardless.
That really sucked for me, because I'd really grown to like writing for BKA. I'd worked my way up to the point where I was on some of their most interesting teams. Because of them, I had the opportunity to write for major companies like Papa John's and AutoZone, as well as a multitude of different small businesses. I wrote content for a sober house, a cookie delivery company, an anti-aging skincare company, and many more this past year. Best of all, I didn't have to wait for someone to assign me whatever boring-ass content they decided was right for me. I got to personally select my assignments and work as much or as little as I wanted on any given day. It was perfect -- was. Don't even get me started on the amount of income I'll be losing thanks to that contract going in the crapper.
I've been scrambling like mad ever since trying to find some suitable replacements for BKA, and I've actually found a few (including two I really like so far). Who knows if they'll eventually decide to dump all their California writers eventually too though. I really hope not, because I don't really care to go back to doing nothing but one-off projects for random clients like I did when I first started freelancing, but I guess I'll do what I have to do. I've been praying like mad that these new solutions stick though. If they do, I'll be in what could be excellent financial shape going forward. I've never been terminated as I would personally define the word, so getting dumped by BKA has obviously really hurt my pride, but... it is what it is. I guess at least I can say it was a working situation I cared about and that taught me a lot about myself as a professional writer.
All this thinking about my future as a freelancer has gotten me thinking about how badly I need to branch out as a writer in general though. Freelance copywriting is fine. Some of the experiences I've had more recently, especially over the past year or so, have even taught me to take pride in it on a level I don't know that I used to in the past. It's not all I want to do with my writing talent though, and I've known that for a very long time.I want to be publishing things under my own name and giving myself a voice for a change, so when I haven't been investigating new work opportunities lately, I've been looking into some new avenues for my own writing. To start with, I just opened another Blogger blog to use as a fully visible Cat Olson Copywriting platform. I want that to be a place I can link to from professional platforms to showcase my voice as a writer, as well as put up some samples of my writing.
I also opened a portfolio account on Journo Portfolio and plan on filling it with some different samples of my best writing. I want to add some of the excellent work I've done while employed by BKA Content and other clients, as well as upload a few custom samples written especially for my portfolio. I'm running into a lot of writing opportunities that call for either live links to content I've published under my own name, a portfolio, or both, so it sucks that I currently have neither. Plus, linking prospective clients to something like that just really makes a lot of sense for the future.
Last but not least, I opened an account on Medium, as well as signed up for their partner program. I'd love to try my hand at publishing some of my best informative personal writing there and see if I can earn some sweet lettuce for it. Medium articles would be incredible for linking to as well, especially if I ever managed to write anything that got popular or caught anyone's attention. Plus, I know so much about so many things. I'd love to put some of my knowledge out there in a capacity that allows me to take all the credit for it for a change.
I've been using it to record ultra-raw, uncensored versions of my various thoughts and feelings about life lately, and I think it's been good for me. I feel less frustrated with people in my daily life as a result, and I feel less inclined to just always be leaning on my relationship when I need support or to get something out. Much like my childhood diaries did, it's been helping me figure out how I really feel about things I just really can't discuss out loud with anyone as well.
I'm technically supposed to be writing in it every day, and that's what I promised myself I'd do when I first started with Day One, but I've since abandoned that idea. Some days I just don't have much to say, while others I have tons. Still other days -- like the days surrounding the news of my pending termination from BKA -- I'm just too overwhelmed by strong feelings I haven't processed yet, and I find I neither want to think about nor write about them.
So I suppose in general the past couple of months have seen me growing and diversifying a lot as a writer. I was thrown into the process rather reluctantly, but in a way, I'm glad something finally kicked my butt into exploring some other options for myself. It's becoming clear to me how desperately I needed to do that, and I'm hoping maybe the whole BKA thing was just God's way of nudging me in the right direction. I guess we'll see.
No comments:
Post a Comment