Tag Archives: coaching services

Writing Coaches: How Much Would YOU Pay?

There is a practice in other freelance disciplines where those with a lot of professional experience market themselves as coaches available to help less experienced freelancers. In the voiceover industry, coaching seems to be a career unto itself –if you can schedule enough seminars, boot camps and other instructional sessions.

Freelance writing is quite different, near as I can tell; I’ve only seen a few websites where such services were offered for a fee, and none of those I’ve encountered have the same kind of professional and reassuring approach common to the established coaches I’ve found in other fields. A great example: when I decided to start sidelining in voiceover work to supplement my freelance writing income, I took the advice I’ve seen in every book and on every website about the craft. I hired a vocal coach to work with me one-on-one. My new coach, Jeff Lupetin, works in association with Acting Studio Chicago. The rates are VERY reasonable but would still make an outsider cringe until they learn how much other people charge. I count myself lucky to have found a skilled, engaging coach at reasonable rates.

I don’t pay hundreds of dollars per hour, the coaching is spot-on and valuable, and I feel in the short time I’ve been doing voice work as a freelancer (as opposed to doing in-house work, which I have quite a lot of experience doing), the coaching is definitely an important part of playing the freelance VO game.

The question: Should freelance writing newcomers and intermediates have the opportunity to pay for career coaching and critique if it legitimately helps advance their work? Continue reading Writing Coaches: How Much Would YOU Pay?