Choose Your Clients, Promote Like Hell: The Business Side of a Writing Career
Featuring Richard Lowe on NetBuilder’s World, hosted by RJ Stewart
TL;DR: What This Conversation Establishes
- The freelancer’s first power is saying no. Richard turned down a $200,000 client because the alarm bells were ringing, and protecting that judgment is the whole point of working for yourself.
- Contracts aren’t optional. A statement of work defines scope and revisions, and it’s the best defense against scope creep that quietly turns a small job into a huge one.
- “Build it and they will come” is the biggest lie in business. You promote before you write, while you write, and harder whenever things are slow.
- Consistent blogging compounds. A couple of pieces a month, published to your blog, LinkedIn, and Medium, builds an audience and the consistency search engines reward.
- Network on purpose and keep your integrity. Work a few dozen connections a week in both directions, and never do anything you’d dread a client finding out.
What You’ll Learn
- The freelancer’s first power is saying no. Richard turned down a $200,000 client because the alarm bells were ringing, and protecting that judgment is the whole point of working for yourself.
- Contracts aren’t optional. A statement of work defines scope and revisions, and it’s the best defense against scope creep that quietly turns a small job into a huge one.
- “Build it and they will come” is the biggest lie in business. You promote before you write, while you write, and harder whenever things are slow.
- Consistent blogging compounds. A couple of pieces a month, published to your blog, LinkedIn, and Medium, builds an audience and the consistency search engines reward.
- Network on purpose and keep your integrity. Work a few dozen connections a week in both directions, and never do anything you’d dread a client finding out.
Richard Lowe, The Writing King, joined RJ Stewart on NetBuilder’s World for a conversation aimed at freelancers and small-business owners. Less about how to write a book than about how to run the practice around it: choosing clients, drawing the line on scope, and the marketing discipline that keeps a one-person business alive.
It’s a candid look at the business mechanics most creative people avoid, from a writer who spent decades in corporate technology before betting on himself.
Richard Lowe is The Writing King, a professional ghostwriter and author who has written 113+ books under his own name and ghostwritten 54+ more for clients.
Before writing full time he spent 33 years in enterprise IT, including two decades as Director of Computer Operations and Technical Services at Trader Joe’s.
Full transcript of the conversation follows.
From Corporate Burnout to the Leap
RJ: What got you into ghostwriting? I imagine you wrote your own books first.
Richard: Long tech career. I started in the 1980s as a VP at a startup, did VP of consulting at a couple of computer companies, and was senior designer on the SCADA control systems for water districts, designed three of those. Then I went to Trader Joe’s as Director of Technical Services and Computer Operations for twenty years. By 2013 I was done with corporate. I was the point man getting calls around the clock, I’d headaches and aches the doctor couldn’t explain, and I realized it was pure stress. So I took the leap, like jumping off a cliff blind, not knowing if it’s rocks or a river at the bottom. I joined a small ghostwriting outfit, then realized I could do it myself for a lot more. The day after I quit, I landed a $10,000 book, and the day after that a $15,000 book. That proved it.
The Freelancer’s First Power: Choosing Your Clients
RJ: You said you vet your clients. A lot of new freelancers take anyone who’ll pay a penny.
Richard: Two weeks ago I turned down the biggest client I’d ever have had, a $200,000-plus engagement. The alarm bells were going off everywhere and I kept ignoring them, until I couldn’t. He wanted me exclusive to him, we hadn’t even signed, and I was already stressed. We hadn’t gone on the first date and he was ready to propose. I could see an abusive relationship coming, so I said no. That was the third one I turned down that year. The reason I left corporate was to escape that stress, so why would I import it? Part of finding your market is being honest about who it is actually for. Mine is senior executives building a career who can afford the work. Choose your clients, and don’t choose the jerks.
Contracts and the War on Scope Creep
RJ: A lot of freelancers skip contracts and just do the work.
Richard: A professional works off a statement of work. It’s a bit like a prenup: what are the deliverables, what are the limits, do you get one revision or two, and what happens if it ends? I write as I go and get paid as I go, so if a client wants to leave, they leave, they own what I’ve written, and there are no refunds to fight over. The real enemy is scope creep. I managed software projects where a $100,000 job crept to $500,000 one little change at a time, and nobody could say how. You stop it at the beginning: sure, we can do that, it’s an extra day, here’s what it costs. About ninety percent of the time the answer becomes, eh, it’s not that important.
The Blogging Engine
RJ: I preach blogging to my clients constantly, for SEO and staying relevant. Tell us about your experience with it.
Richard: I usually set up a retainer, a fixed number of words a month, which gives the client a budget and gives me even cash flow. Two pieces a month is the sweet spot, not so fast it’s overwhelming, but steady enough that the algorithms reward the consistency. I have them publish in three places: their own blog, LinkedIn, and Medium, which uses a canonical link back to the blog so it doesn’t count as duplicate content. Then they have to promote it, because a blog post just sits there otherwise. And what you want isn’t likes, it’s comments. LinkedIn and every other platform care about comments, because a comment means somebody actually took the time to say something.
How Richard sets up client blogging so each post builds an audience.
Build It and They Will Come Is a Lie
Richard: The single biggest thing I learned in business is that “build it and they’ll come” is one of the most false statements ever. I see it in coaching all the time: a writer pours their heart into a hundred-thousand-word book, and nobody buys it because nobody knows it exists. So the real mistake isn’t the writing, it’s the silence after. You promote before you start the book and while you’re writing it. And when business dips, for any reason, holiday week, slow season, whatever, the answer is always the same: promote more. It doesn’t even mean spend money. Don’t pour cash into Facebook or Google ads unless you truly know what you’re doing, the keyword “ghostwriter” runs over a hundred dollars a click, and that’s a click, not a lead. And be wary of the get-rich-quick courses; I burned thousands early on chasing things that turned out to be flat-out scams.
Network on Purpose
RJ: You prioritize networking more than most freelancers do.
Richard: You can’t engage thousands of connections, so I work a few dozen a week, a ten-minute chat or a couple of genuine comments, and figure out which relationships matter. It has to go both ways. My network includes publishers, editors, proofreaders, authors, entrepreneurs. I called a guy I used to work with at Trader Joe’s just to talk, and he turned out to be running a company now and asked me to write a guest blog, I didn’t even bring it up. That’s the point of a real network: a few hundred genuinely engaged people who can help you and whom you can help.
Professionalism and Integrity
Richard: You also have to act like a professional, and that’s mostly about respecting people’s time. If the meeting’s at four, be there at four. If someone won’t respect your time, they probably aren’t a professional. And keep your integrity, which I’d define the way I once heard it: ethics is what you do when nobody’s looking. Assume your clients can tell when they’re being lied to or overcharged, because they usually can. Do the right thing and you never have to dread them finding out what you’ve been doing. That’s the standard I hold myself to, and it’s why I keep a published code of conduct.
| Area | Richard’s rule |
|---|---|
| Choosing clients | Heed the alarm bells and don’t choose the jerks |
| Contracts | Work off a statement of work: deliverables, limits, revisions, exit |
| Scope creep | Stop it at the start by naming the extra time and cost |
| Promotion | Promote before and while writing, and more when business dips |
| Networking | Work a few dozen connections a week, in both directions |
| Professionalism | Respect people’s time; if the meeting is at four, be there at four |
| Integrity | Ethics is what you do when nobody’s looking |
On Fear and Doing It Anyway
RJ: I love that you’re not afraid to step out of your comfort zone.
Richard: Five years before this, you couldn’t get me on a stage to save my life, and now I’ve done well over a hundred podcasts and a lot of public speaking. The fear of making a fool of yourself is wildly overrated. The worst case is somebody laughs, and I’ll laugh with them. It’s the same thing I tell authors: your first book will be awful, your second less so, and by the fourth you’ll have a good one, but you have to write the first three. If the writing itself is the gap, that’s fixable; I’ll coach a writer or point them at the fundamentals first. For people who’d rather hand it off, I also do book and writing coaching, and I capture a client’s voice by writing the opening pages and refining until it sounds like them, usually within a few pages.
Find Richard Lowe at TheWritingKing.com.
Quotable moments
Choose your clients. And don’t choose the jerks. — Richard LoweShare on X
Build it and they will come is one of the most false statements I’ve ever heard. — Richard LoweShare on X
If your business is down for any reason at all, the answer is the same: promote more. — Richard LoweShare on X
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you decide which clients to take?
Trust the warning signs. Richard turned down a $200,000 client because too many alarm bells were ringing before a contract was even signed. The freedom to refuse work, even big work, that would import stress is the main reason to be self-employed.
Why does a freelance writer need a contract?
A statement of work defines scope, revision limits, and what happens if the engagement ends. It’s the primary defense against scope creep, the gradual pile of small additions that can multiply a project’s cost without anyone noticing.
How often should I blog, and where?
About twice a month is ideal, consistent enough to satisfy search engines without overwhelming you. Publish to your own blog, LinkedIn, and Medium using a canonical link so it isn’t treated as duplicate content, then promote it. Aim for comments over likes, since comments signal real engagement.
What’s the most important business lesson for a writer?
That “build it and they’ll come” is false. Nothing sells itself. You promote before you write, while you write, and more whenever business slows. Promotion, not the work itself, is usually what’s missing.
Your story could be a book
The conversations I have as a guest all circle the same idea: the people doing interesting work usually have a book in them. If that’s you, let’s talk about turning your expertise into the book that outlasts the work.
