Q&A with Wudan Yan of The Writers’ Co-op

'Keeping in touch goes a really, really long way in finding new work'

A big thank you goes out to

wudan yan

— a journalist and executive producer and host of

The Writers’ Co-op

— for her thoughtful answers to questions about supporting freelancers, finding additional clients and adjusting rates.

These answers have been edited and condensed for brevity and clarity.

How does The Writers’ Co-op support freelancers?

The Writers’ Co-op supports freelancers first as being an educational resource through the podcast I executive produce. It’s intended to be an audio handbook for freelance creatives and helps people understand how to come up with a business plan, how to increase their rates, how to think about negotiating, how to think about getting new clients, increasing their confidence, how to pitch or how to think about career progression. For me, this is all information I wish I had at the beginning of my freelance career almost a decade ago. Showing people what is possible and what is considered to be best business practices, not just from my vantage point but from the experts I bring in, helps educate other freelancers on how they can also be inspired to run their own freelance businesses.

The second is through community. We have a psychologically safe and inclusive Slack group where Patreon members of The Writers’ Co-op have access to everyone else. In true co-op fashion, I believe that people learn really well from others. And a question for me from the start was how do I create a space for that to happen? That Slack group is definitely one way by which freelancers can support one another. Freelancing is typically known to be very lonely. I, for sure, did not know what other people were doing. Was something normal, was it wrong for me to approach a client in a certain way? Getting support from others is so, so clarifying.

The Writers’ Co-op also supports freelancers through workshops. There’s an educational element that kind of mirrors what’s on the podcast, but then there’s also a lot of space for people to learn from one another. We also have webinars that dig really deep into something that is more didactical, that people, my guests would have varying experiences that can really help inform how freelancers can solve a particular issue, be it time and project management or a webinar to help educate people about what SEO is.