To date, ISMPP has offered these opportunities for Freelancers in Pubs:

• Discounts on registration for the ISMPP Annual Meeting, ISMPP European Meeting, ISMPP Asia Pacific Meeting, and ISMPP Academy. Current discounts are announced on the Freelancers in Pubs email list, or email me directly

• The Freelancers Community at ISMPP Connect (available to ISMPP members who are logged in to the website)

• The ability for ISMPP members to search the Member Directory for members who are Consultant/Freelance (available to ISMPP members who are logged in to the website)

• A discount for freelancers to sit for the CMPP Exam in September 2023. This was a one-time opportunity in honor of the creation of the ISMPP Freelancers Community—and a number of freelancers successfully passed the exam! At this time, the discount is not anticipated to be offered for future CMPP exams, but freelancers are still encouraged to pursue the Certified Medical Publication Professional credential. More info below!

To connect with Freelancers in Pubs near you, reach out to these members (please only contact these members if you are geographically in the same area):

• Spain/Europe: Marcel Ruiz

• Germany: Ana Antaloae

• Montreal/Quebec/Canada: Smitha Dutt

• Toronto/Canada: Noelle Ochotny

• Boston: Samantha Santangelo

• Ann Arbor/Michigan: Noelle Ochotny

•  San Diego: Christos (Chris) Evangelou

Don't see your location? Let me know your LinkedIn and I'll add you to this list so you can meet other freelancers in your area. 

For ISMPP members, a few suggestions:

(1)  Join the Freelancers Community! How to do this:

• Log in to ISMPP. At the top of the screen, navigate to Member Center/ISMPP Connect. Press the green Login button if needed

• After you are logged in, click the following link (from this page): Freelancers Community

• Click “Join Community” at upper right

• For technical issues, contact Suzanne Fraga at ISMPP, who has kindly offered to help

(2)  Designate your “Type of Company” as “Consultant/Freelance” at your profile with the ISMPP organization (My Profile). ISMPP members who are logged in at the website can search the Member Directory for members who are Consultant/Freelance (so they can hire us). 

(3)  Update your ISMPP Connect Profile so it appears as you want for freelance colleagues and potential clients. Include social media links and contact information so clients can reach you.

Pro Tip #1: Under "Social Links," connect to your LinkedIn and other accounts.

Pro Tip #2: When editing your Bio, click the HTML button and use HTML code to create a clickable link to your professional website. (Here's the code you'll need: <a href="https://www.mywebsite.com" target="_blank">My Website</a> )

(4)  Become a CMPP! If you work in pubs, becoming a Certified Medical Publication Professional indicates your expertise and commitment to Good Publication Practice. Impress clients with your professionalism! Watch our recorded Zoom session with Danita Sutton, ISMPP Director of Credentialing, to learn more about Freelancers and the CMPP.

There are many resources available to support freelancers in developing their business. These are some I've personally relied on or were recommended by others on the email list:

• Optimize LinkedIn (#1 way new clients will find you)

• AMWA Freelance Directory

• EMWA Freelance Directory

• ISMPP Member Directory (find potential clients and be found; available to ISMPP members who are logged into the website)

• Editorial Freelancers Association (Job List and Member Directory)

• Peter Llewellyn: MedComms Networking and the Workbook

• Emma Hitt Nichols: 6-week course (with potential for subcontract work) and the HittList 

• Lori De Milto: The Mighty Marketer Freelance Success Blog and 7-week course, Finding the Freelance Clients You Deserve (self study or with coaching)

• Eleanor Steele: MedComms Mentor (mentoring, online courses)
  Learn from Eleanor about coaching & mentoring

• Sarah Nelson: Green Pen Solutions (mentoring, training)

• Ilise Benun: Marketing Mentor (blog, podcast, coaching)

• Ed Gandia: High Income Business Writing (podcast, newsletter, coaching)

• Mario Morel: Technology support including Microsoft 365

"How do I get my first freelance job?" 

We were all there at some point, so congratulations on joining us on this journey! As you can imagine, the answer depends on where you're starting from. Following are my thoughts—and these are only my thoughts! Others will offer their own perspectives, but this is the advice I would give if I were speaking with you directly.

Context

This group (Freelancers in Pubs) is focused on the world of industry-sponsored publications, which are articles in peer-reviewed medical journals and medical congress activities (abstracts, posters, oral presentations) reporting research conducted by pharmaceutical, biotech, and device companies.  This is a specialized niche in the private sector best represented by the professional organization ISMPP. If you come from academia and have written academic journal articles and presentations/posters for academic meetings, you already have a lot of the core skills needed. However, the world of industry-sponsored publications has its own norms, practices, ethics, SOPs, etc ... and you need to understand those to bring value to potential freelance clients. 

Knowledge, Skills, and Credentials

This is a difficult topic, because the last thing I want to do is discourage capable and well-qualified people from a terrific career. As you read this, keep in mind I am focusing on medical writing for peer-reviewed publications, which is just one form of medical writing. If you decide that publications are not your niche, there are many other types of medical writing to explore.

Your ability to work as a Freelancer in Pubs depends on (1) your relevant knowledge and skills and (2) whether potential clients will view you as having the needed knowledge and skills. Unfortunately (if you do not already have a bunch of letters after your name), (1) and (2) are not necessarily the same thing. 

(1) Needed knowledge and skills: You will be reporting on research findings, so you need a solid understanding of research methods and practice. Most likely you gained this understanding by working for several years in a research setting. You need to understand the basic statistics used in clinical research. You need enough knowledge about biology to understand and accurately describe disease pathophysiology and how drugs work. You will be writing for a clinician/researcher audience, so you need to be able to write fluently at that (scientific, technical) level. Most of us are stronger in some of these areas than others, but you need to have decent proficiency in all of them.

(2) What your clients will be looking for: Your potential clients will typically screen for academic credentials that (they believe) demonstrate you have the needed knowledge and skills. 

• A PhD in the biological/biomedical sciences is the most common credential for medical writers in publications, because anyone who completed a PhD in these fields has conducted a substantial amount of research and has written about their research in technical formats (ie, dissertation, journal articles, conference presentations). These experiences transfer well to medical writing for publications. 

• PhDs in adjacent fields can often find a way in. My PhD is in research psychology, so I leverage my training in statistics to write about complex data sets—and I stay away from animal models!

• PharmDs bring a strong understanding of PK/PD and may thrive writing up drug development and Phase 2 studies. 

• Clinicians (including MDs) bring valuable perspective on real-world clinical practice and the patient experience.

• Folks with good language skills and some background in science have a lot to offer as medical editors, and a bachelors degree is often seen as sufficient. 

If you don't have a higher degree, you may be able find a way into medical writing for publications. You'll need to demonstrate your ability to understand research methods and findings and to write at a technical level in order to attract potential clients. Unfortunately, you'll probably never convince some folks that you are qualified, so you'll always face challenges in cultivating a base of clients. As mentioned, other types of medical writing—for lay or patient audiences and for educational purposes—are less likely to "require" an advanced degree and may be a more natural place to start. 

As a final consideration: Writing for medical publications is challenging work for any of us, no matter how well trained and experienced. To be a good writer for English-language medical publications, you need to be ... a good writer in the English language. You need a strong command of English syntax, diction, and grammar. Many native English speakers (including many science PhDs) are not especially good writers. And if English is not your first language, it will be especially difficult to write fluently for English-language publications. 

MedComms Experience

Beyond your educational background, your path to freelancing will depend on your experience in #MedComms. What do we mean by that? Many/most pharma and biotech companies employ "publication leads" who oversee the company's publication programs. Some pharma companies maintain an in-house staff of medical writers and editors. 

Beyond the in-house staff, much publication development and medical writing is outsourced by pharma companies to medical communications agencies, and many medical writers and editors find full-time employment and freelancing opportunities through agencies. Freelancers in pubs can also get work directly from pharma and biotech companies (typically smaller companies that don't use agencies) or from independent academic authors.

Why is medcomms experience important for a new freelancer in pubs?

1. Your potential clients don't want to train you. Your clients will expect you to have already a good understanding of pharmaceutical research and the norms of writing industry-sponsored publications. Since they are hiring you by the project, it's not worth it to them to spend time training you or providing in-depth feedback on your drafts. 

2. Your network of contacts from the medcomms world will help you land freelance jobs. Most freelancers in pubs probably got their first freelance assignments from their previous employers (eg, medcomms agencies) or from people they worked with in medcomms in the past.

Of course, this is just my perspective, and some people have successfully moved from academia directly into freelancing. I can't guide you in how to pull that off, but I would say: (1) you will need to make it your business to learn all about the world of industry-sponsored publications (ISMPP resources are a good start) and (2) you will need to hustle and be resourceful to get those first opportunities. (If anyone reading this has good resources to share on this topic, please let me know!)

Bottom line: If you are new to the world of industry-sponsored publications, I advise that you first work for 2-3 years at a medcomms agency to learn the skills and make the contacts. This investment of time will give you a launching pad for a future freelance career (and of course you get paid in the meantime!). Eleanor Steele, the MedComms Mentor, offers some terrific advice.

Launching a Freelance Career

If you already have medcomms experience and are contemplating the jump to freelancing, I am excited for you! I went freelance in 2017, and I would never go back. Although you will need to spend time hustling (ie, marketing) and running your business, it's worth it for the freedom and control to work on your own schedule, with people you like, and on projects where you can do your best work. For good, experienced writers, there is plenty of work out there. 

Set up your freelance business. At a minimum, figure out the tax structure you will use, open a business checking account, create an email address, and develop a strong LinkedIn profile that clearly conveys your status as a freelancer. Putting up a business website also helps to establish you as a freelance professional and explain yourself to potential clients. Lori De Milto, the Mighty Marketer, has a wonderful range of free resources to guide you in setting up and marketing your freelance business. 

Set your rate. There are good arguments to charge by the project (vs by the hour). However, most medcomms agencies pay hourly rates, so that will likely be your path of least resistance at first. Ask around, check out salary surveys (AMWA [see pg 36], EMWA, Zenopa), and be prepared to state your rate when speaking with potential clients. Clients can always push back if they think your rate is too high, and you can decide to go lower if needed. However, if you start too low, it can be difficult to raise your rates (with those first clients) later. (Of course, new clients will have no idea how much you charged your previous clients. 😄)

As an example, when I went freelance in the US in 2017, I knew that my previous employer was paying $125/hour to our (experienced) freelancers, so I started at that rate. I've since raised my rates significantly. Of course, I had more than 10 years' experience as a medical writer when I went freelance; with less experience, I would likely have started lower. And remember this was several years ago.

Get the word out. When you're ready to launch, the simplest move is to reach out to former employers and colleagues and let them know you are now freelancing. You may find that's all you need to get going. 

Work your connections. If an agency is an ISMPP sponsor, that means the agency does a lot of work in pubs. Make a list of agencies. Leverage your LinkedIn. Do you know anyone who works at these agencies? Do your friends know anyone? Send an email and ask if that "insider" can pass your resume along to someone who hires/manages freelancers. Sometimes the right contact at an agency is not hard to find, but a personal recommendation still goes a long way. 

Be persistent. I'm writing this in 2023, which has been an up-and-down year in the industry. Some agencies have stopped sending work to freelancers and are not adding to their freelance pool right now. Don't get discouraged—you only need 2 or 3 clients to establish a good base. Keep those connections active!

Do excellent work. Your freelance career will only be as strong as the product you produce. As I learned from Brian Bass, don't let anything get in the way of delivering your very best work (and always on deadline). It's far easier to get more work from existing clients than to cultivate new ones—and far more rewarding. 

Consider getting the CMPP, which demonstrates your commitment to high-quality work in publications.

More advice from successful freelancers

Good Luck!