Why hello there! I'm unfortch Canadian so we don't use Yahoo or Aim (seriously, it's weird -- we only use MSN messenger)

I spent the last four years working in ad agencies, and have been freelancing officially since May 08. I was a bit of a job whore in my agency years and my city has a reeeaaally small advertising community, so I kinda got to know everyone. When I made the decision to go freelance, I had been offered one decent-sized contract that I knew could support me for a month or two, so I just took it and hoped for the best. Thankfully, the rough economy has actually been GOOD for me, as a lot of agencies have a lot of work but don't have the budget for a full-timer, so they just call me up and give me work when they've got it. I've also done my fair share of networking to accrue some personal clients (like the aforementioned restaurant). It's harder to sell clients on your services as a writer; but luckily, I have a few great freelance designers, art directors, programmers etc, so I have the luxury of pitching full solutions for smaller businesses at like, a quarter of the cost they'd pay to engage an agency.

I feel your pain on the snobby, egotistic creatives. If you want to stick with advertising, my only advice is work the shit out of your portfolio. Find a junior AD friend and try and hammer our an ad over beers once a week. I find it can be hard to get out of a niche within your particular agency once you're in it (for instance, I couldn't for the life of me get out of the role as "interactive copywriter" at my first job, when I worked for an agency that did both web and traditional), but I put together a decent portfolio, shopped it around and found a traditional gig a couple months later. You could probably do the same... Granted, I know the economy ain't what it used to be.

If you're interested in freelancing, advertising obvs isn't the only way to go -- but I think it's probably the best paying. I occasionally write reviews for a local mag my friend runs, and the pay is shite. My suggestion would be to leverage your network as best as you can... offer to write brochures or do up ads for friends and family with side projects or small businesses. It's not always glamorous, but a good way to get your name out there and get referrals! I haven't even bothered to get my portfolio online because I'm lucky enough that reputation keeps me busy. Word of mouth is where it's at!

Good luck, and if you have any questions whatsoever, drop me an email at heather@heatherwritesstuff.com

Hello friend! This is fan mail. I'm still too angry about the Jezebel editorship's rationale for posting that picture in the thread on stillbirths to be able to comment publicly. But I really wanted you to know how much I appreciated your good sense and beautifully-written response to Megan. Thank you for articulating that so adroitly, because I couldn't have done it half so well, nor would I have gotten out of there without using every last variation of the word "fuck" that I know. And that's not very fucking ladylike, is it?