# Anyone here do remote, flex-time writing (technical, medical)?



## zuren (Feb 13, 2015)

I'm a new member who has always operated with a homesteading/self-reliant mindset but only recently stumbled onto this forum.

I'm curious if anyone here does any freelance, flex time writing from home for extra income? I currently work full time as a clinical data manager and have 14 yrs. experience in general biological/pharmaceutical research. I have been a coauthor on several scientific publications so I'm considering doing some medical/technical writing on the side. 

For some background, I moved my wife and 6 mo. old from the east coast to have a better standard of living and get away from the rat race. I took a position with a company in March 2014 that I thought was stable and growing but it turns out that I was wrong. Nine months later we had a layoff that also involved our office going in a new direction. I was fortunate to keep my job but in the aftermath, I'm getting uneasy. An executive VP for our division came for a visit and stated that closing the site was an option so that did not instill any confidence regarding our future. All of this has me thinking about a Plan B and what I can do in my spare time after work to bring in some extra cash now that could possibly become something that keeps us afloat if I do lose my full-time gig.

There seems to be some demand for freelance writers with professional backgrounds. I'm curious to know if anyone here has done anything similar and has found success? I would love to hear your experience and thoughts!

Thanks!


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## anne_ke73 (Mar 16, 2015)

Hi Zuren, I'm a full-time freelance writer. I don't do scientific or technical work, but I know that it is in demand. Check out Elance if you haven't already done so - you can get an account for free and work as much as you want. I've met all of my best clients there.


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## Cash (Apr 24, 2007)

Specialty writing seems to be a high demand these days. I earned my living freelancing articles about Maine before I retired several years ago. A neighbor freelances articles in the home security and medical technology fields and always seems to be busy. BUT ... the freelance business has changed a lot in the past ten years. Before I retired, all my work was going to paper and ink publications. These days, my neighbor works almost exclusively in the online market. 

One tip: In each article you sell, try to include a unique phrase or specialty word. Then every couple of months do a google search on those words and/or your name (if it's a bylined article) to see if anyone else has picked it up without your permission. 

Also, it's more difficult in these days of online publishing, but try to make sure you sell only "first world publication rights" or "first North American publication rights." That way the rights to the article revert to you 60 or 90 days after publication and you can resell it elsewhere. I've found that the real key to making money freelancing is being able to give an article a new slant or focus and reselling it to another outlet. (Always put in a caveat at the end to the effect of: "This article contains information originally published in XXXX" or "A different version of this article originally appeared in XXXX.") My personal record was six resales based on one original article, each slightly rewritten to appeal to a different market.


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## zuren (Feb 13, 2015)

Thank you for your replies. It is encouraging to hear that my skills/background may be in demand. My full-time employer may be stabilizing a little; they announced that they would be hiring people to replace those we have lost post-layoff. I think this buys me some more time.

anne_ke73 - Could you please comment more about your experience with Elance? I had heard of them before, poked around the site, and looked at some reviews. I seem to find more negative than positive reviews of Elance. People claim there are many scams on the site. Is this just the vocal minority that has an axe to grind because they were 'wronged' and want an audience or are there deeper issues? My initial survey of the site tells me that I would be interested in projects that do not get many proposals due to the specialized nature of the topic.

Cash - Thank you for your insight! This advise is invaluable.


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## JHizzle207 (Mar 24, 2015)

I work remotely in IT and I think about 25% my time is writing. Apparently I'm good at it (they call me the chief wordsmith), so every time they need a proposal, documentation, or scope of work it ends up on my plate.

I work hourly, and based on my hourly rate I pull on average of probably 1500/mo just on writing. That's just for the one company I work for, I could probably triple or quadruple that easily if I went to a few similar companies and offered services just for that.

I actually have experience in your field, my previous job was the city rat race where I was network administrator for a public pharmaceutical company. Research phase companies are always writing papers, you may be able to get in as a vendor there to help scientist with their papers. I have a friend that works remotely for INC research and does very well, that may be worth looking into.


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