Comments on: Freelancer’s Survival Guide, Money, Part One

By: Kris

Kris — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 07:03:00 +0000

Thanks, Audrey, for the offer. One of the Game’s designers owns a major gaming company. We’ve talked about marketing the Game for years, but the problem is that 90% of what happens seems random. Only with the instructors explaining why something happened does the Game have any value. So far none of us, including several Gamers, have figured out how to bottle that part of the Game. When (if?) we do, we’ll market it.

By: AudryT

AudryT — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 05:02:15 +0000

There are a lot of aspiring freelancers out there who could use that game. As you yourself said, most people really don’t understand what managing your own money is going to entail when they strike out to be their own boss, and even those with a basic understanding of finances can end up making big mistakes.

Is it something you could transform into a board or card game? I ask because I recently discovered a DIY company called The Game Crafter (http://www.thegamecrafter.com/home) which allows individuals to develop and sell physical games without having to launch their own business for doing so. When I was reading your post, I immediately thought to myself that if you could utilize such a company to sell the game you’ve devised, you might save a lot of prospective freelancers a lot of hard-earned heartache, and make a little extra money while you’re at it.

I & my husband are accustomed to being self-employed (as well as to starting businesses), but I know a *lot* of newly-published or soon-to-be published authors who want to write full-time for a living, and I would love to be able to point them to a resource like that game. If you do decide to get it published in some form, please let me know so I can offer to be a beta-player, or at the very least let others know about it.

By: Karen T. Smith

Karen T. Smith — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 15:04:17 +0000

It sounds fantastic, and is a great concept. People learn best when they’re actively participating in the learning. I apologize for not being clear in my post – I work in eLearning. It seems to me there’s an opportunity to leverage what you do in your workshop in an online environment (thinking like a businesswoman – in a fee-to-play kind of setting, ala iPhone app business models of very low cost and/or some content free, additional content available for a fee.)

By: Kris

Kris — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 04:56:46 +0000

We do an actual role playing game for writers, Karen. Dean, Loren, and I invented it and are constantly tinkering with it. We provide it for writers at various workshops to teach them how the profession works. It’s a good experience, at least they say it is.

By: Karen T. Smith

Karen T. Smith — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 04:43:37 +0000

Wonderful post, Kris, thank you for making it available.

I wish I could save everyone from the stress I had in my early 20s with a stratospheric credit card bill. My frustration always came back to this – I’m a smart woman. How did I get myself into this mess?

You’re onto something in your post here about wanting to provide a game-like experience to freelancers (both those who want to go into the freelance environment, and those already in it.) I would love to talk more with you about it – am also going to reach out to Loren Coleman. Loads to think about.