Q: I live in a foreign country and while there is certainly a market for commercial writing in English here, I think that I would still like to work with companies in America as well, either to supplement my work or as the bulk of my work. Your tips are good for US residents, but do you have suggestions for non-US writers? Since you constantly discuss the importance of face-to-face meetings in the book, do you have any suggestions for someone in a remote location? Is it feasible to build new clients without meeting them in person, and if so, what is the best way to do this?
A: While you can certainly shoot to work with companies in the US, if you feel there IS a good amount of work in your own country, why bother? I say that because it WILL be a lot harder to work remotely with companies. You’d have to be just as good as any US writer, and just as available, yet given the time difference, you’d be up in the middle of the night! Your best bet would be to try to apply the same principles in your own country. No, you may not make as much money that way, but it would be more feasible. Another idea is to approach US (or other English-speaking) companies in your country looking to market to people there and help them craft marketing materials in your native language. OR target companies in your country looking to market to English-speaking countries and wanting materials written in proper English.
While it’s true that face-to-face meetings are becoming less important, it will always be harder to build up a clientele away from your geographic area, and certainly in a foreign country. There are no magic formulas for landing work overseas—a lot of contacts, a lot of follow-up and working hard to make the experience indistinguishable from working with someone locally, for the client. And that’s the tough part. You have to ask why they would work with you if they indeed have more accessible resources. Either because you bring a special expertise to the table, you do amazing work that they can’t get elsewhere, they just don’t know of any other writers, or because you DO make it so that they can’t tell the difference between working with you and working with someone locally. Given the difference in time zones, that can be tricky. Not impossible, but more difficult.