Resource library
Each listing below is a real organization or tool we've used or vetted. We link out directly, note what's free, say who each one is best for, and date when we last checked it. Not sure where to start? Pick your situation below. Nothing here is sponsored.
Start with your situation
Your path
Start with a dated, polite reminder that cites the contract and invoice. If a second notice fails, check whether a freelance protection law covers you: it gives you a formal complaint path and, in most places, extra damages. Elsewhere, small claims court is usually the fastest route.
The resources below are in the order we'd use them.
Your path
Don't sign under deadline pressure. Compare each clause with a model contract, pay closest attention to which rights you grant, the option clause, and when rights revert to you, and get an expert read before you sign.
The resources below are in the order we'd use them.
Your path
Read it against the red-flag list first. Mark anything that grants all rights, work for hire, or open-ended indemnification, then propose specific changes in writing. A model contract shows what fair terms look like.
The resources below are in the order we'd use them.
Your path
Work out your floor first, then check what the market pays for this kind of work and this client. Quote above your floor, never below it.
The resources below are in the order we'd use them.
Your path
Save copies and dates of the use before anything changes. Check whether it could be fair use, then register the work if you haven't: registration determines what you can recover. Get legal advice before sending a demand.
The resources below are in the order we'd use them.
Your path
Set aside part of every payment, track expenses from day one, and plan for quarterly estimated payments. Price your work so the tax is already covered.
The resources below are in the order we'd use them.
Your path
For a project, search grants and fellowships by genre and deadline. For an emergency that keeps you from working, emergency funds move faster than grants; check eligibility first.
The resources below are in the order we'd use them.
Your path
Choose where to look based on what you write: pitch calls and jobs for journalism, rate-stated listings for editing, and open reading periods for essays, fiction, and poetry.
The resources below are in the order we'd use them.
A step-by-step builder that produces a plain-English freelance agreement covering scope, payment terms, deadlines, and late fees. Developed with freelance legal experts. A good default when a client has no paper of their own.
Best for: You need a contract fast and the client hasn't sent one.
Verified
The state's own template for meeting Freelance Isn't Free Act requirements: names and addresses, itemized services, value, rate and method of payment, and the due date. Useful anywhere as a checklist of what a contract must say.
Best for: Freelancers working in New York, or anyone who wants a contract that meets a strict legal checklist.
Verified
Clause-by-clause sample language for book deals with commentary on what each term does and how to improve it. The Guild has published a version for roughly seven decades. Essential before signing with any publisher.
Best for: Comparing a publisher's book offer against fair, author-friendly terms.
Verified
The National Writers Union's member-run committee helps writers in disputes with hiring parties and offers feedback on contracts before signing. One of the few places a freelancer can get collective backing when a check goes missing.
Best for: Union members facing nonpayment or unsure about a contract before signing.
Verified
Median per-word, per-hour, and per-page rates for writing, editing, and related services, from a survey of more than 1,100 Editorial Freelancers Association members. Updated annually; includes a rate estimator and converter. Best single benchmark for quoting.
Best for: Pricing editing, copyediting, and per-word writing work.
Verified
Anonymous, searchable rates submitted by freelance media workers, run by the National Writers Union's Freelance Solidarity Project (one of several rate-sharing projects, alongside Who Pays Writers). Search a publication before you quote.
Best for: Checking what a specific publication actually pays before you quote.
Verified
Our own tool. Start from the income you need, add overhead, divide by billable hours, and convert to per-word, per-article, and per-day figures. Built for the moment an editor asks "what's your rate?"
Best for: Working out the minimum rate that covers your income and business costs.
Verified
The U.S. Copyright Office's plain-language guide for writers: what protection you have automatically, why registration still matters, and the group registration options for short online works and periodical contributions.
Best for: Understanding what you own from the moment you write it.
Verified
Register your work online. Timely registration is what lets you pursue statutory damages and attorney's fees if someone lifts your piece; without it you are limited to actual damages, which for most articles is close to nothing.
Best for: Registering a piece so you can enforce your rights if it's copied.
Verified
Line-by-line contract reviews, copyright questions, and dispute intervention for members. Covers freelance agreements as well as book, agency, and option contracts. The Writer's Legal Guide is also available to members by chapter.
Best for: Members who want a lawyer to read a book, agency, or freelance contract.
Verified
Clear explanations of fair use, permissions, registration, and enforcement, with case summaries. Read it before quoting at length, reproducing images, or building a piece around someone else's work.
Best for: Deciding whether a quote, image, or excerpt needs permission.
Verified
The original 2017 city law: right to a written contract at $800 and up, timely and full payment, and protection from retaliation, with double damages and attorney's fees for violations. The Department of Consumer and Worker Protection handles complaints.
Best for: New York City freelancers who need to file a nonpayment complaint.
Verified
The primary source on Schedule C, Schedule SE, self-employment tax, and quarterly estimated payments. If your net self-employment earnings reach $400 you owe SE tax; this is where the rules live.
Best for: Quarterly estimated taxes and self-employment tax rules.
Verified
Benefits marketplace (health, dental, disability, retirement), advocacy behind the Freelance Isn't Free laws, and local meetups and events. Membership is free.
Best for: Finding health insurance and other benefits as a self-employed writer.
Verified
Several hundred vetted contests, grants, and fellowships for poets, fiction writers, and nonfiction writers, with a deadline calendar and a submissions tracker. P&W reviews each program's practices before listing it.
Best for: Finding contests, grants, and fellowships by genre and deadline.
Verified
Grants for established freelance writers hit by an unexpected emergency that prevents them from working. Run by the American Society of Journalists and Authors; check the eligibility rules before applying.
Best for: Established freelance writers facing an emergency that keeps them from working.
Verified
A paid community for freelance writers and journalists: a weekly opportunities newsletter tracking pitch calls, jobs, fellowships, and grants; a database of more than 2,500 commissioning editors; and a members' forum.
Best for: Journalists who want a steady feed of pitch calls, jobs, and fellowships.
Verified
Searchable databases of literary magazines, small presses, and agents, with submission guidelines and open reading periods. The place to start for essays, fiction, and poetry rather than service journalism.
Best for: Placing essays, fiction, or poetry with literary magazines and small presses.
Verified
Clients posting to the Editorial Freelancers Association's job list must state the rate, which filters out a lot of noise. Listings skew toward editing, but writing and content work appears regularly.
Best for: Editors and writers who want listings that state the rate up front.
Verified
The labor union for freelance writers across genres. Grievance and contract support, rate-sharing databases, press passes, and advocacy on copyright, freelance rights, and AI policy. Divisions for digital media, books, translators, and Spanish-language writers.
Best for: Freelancers who want collective power, grievance help, and a press pass.
Verified
Founded in 1948 for independent nonfiction writers. Member-to-member rights and fees database, client connection events, virtual pitch slams, and a deep archive of professional development sessions. Professional membership is $179 a year.
Best for: Independent nonfiction writers who want peer pay data and editor connections.
Verified
The oldest and largest professional organization for published authors and freelance writers in the U.S. Free legal help for members, advocacy on copyright and fair contracts, and a library of webinars on the business of writing.
Best for: Book authors who want legal help, contract reviews, and advocacy.
Verified
Professional association for editors, writers, indexers, and other editorial freelancers. Publishes the industry's reference rate chart, runs courses, and maintains a member directory clients actually use.
Best for: Editors and editorial freelancers who want training, rate data, and a job list.
Verified
Nothing matches that search. Try a broader word, or clear the category filter.
"Verified" means we opened the link and checked that the listing still matches the source on that date. Costs and terms can change, so confirm details on the organization's own site.
Contract red flags
None of these is automatically a deal-breaker. Each is a place to stop, ask what it means for you, and negotiate or price accordingly.
What belongs in every contractYou stop being the author in the eyes of copyright law. The client can reprint, resell, adapt, and license forever without paying you again. Price it like the asset it is, or offer first serial rights plus a limited license instead.
Functionally the same as all rights with friendlier wording. Ask for a term limit, a territory, or a reversion clause.
Ties your check to a schedule you don't control. A piece can sit for months or be killed. Push for payment on acceptance, or at least on a fixed date after delivery.
If the publication drops the piece for reasons unrelated to your work, you should be paid a percentage (commonly 25 to 50 percent) for the labor already done. Silence on the point means zero.
"Until the client is satisfied" is an open-ended obligation. Specify the number of rounds included and the rate for more.
You promise to cover the client's legal costs for any claim arising from the piece, even ones caused by their edits or their headline. Limit it to your own breach of warranty, and ask whether they carry media liability insurance.
Barring you from writing on the same subject for anyone else for a period of time. For a freelancer this is a direct cut to income. Narrow it to directly competing publications, shorten it, or charge for it.
Lets the publisher alter the work and remove or change your byline without consent. Increasingly common in contracts from large media companies.
Newer language granting the right to use your text to train or fine-tune machine learning systems. Strike it, or carve it out as a separately licensed use.
Ghostwriting and some brand work comes with confidentiality, which is fair. A clause barring you from ever listing the client or showing the work, with no end date, is not.
"Content as needed" or "articles for the website" with no count, length, or deadline is how scope creep gets written into law. Itemize deliverables. New York's statute requires it.
Glossary
Common questions
No. Most freelance writers in the U.S. operate as sole proprietors and report income on Schedule C. An LLC can offer liability separation and, in some cases, tax options, but it adds filing costs and paperwork. Talk to an accountant once your income is steady; don't let the question delay your first invoice.
Sometimes, on your terms: a piece for your own site, a guest essay somewhere whose readers you want, a cause you'd volunteer for anyway. Never for a company that is making money from the content, and never because "exposure" is offered as payment. Exposure is what you get from pitching well.
Check two sources before you answer: the EFA rate chart for medians by type of work, and the FSP rate-sharing database for what a specific publication has paid others. Then run our calculator to see what you need. Fair is where those overlap.
Send a dated, polite written reminder citing the contract and invoice. If that fails, a second notice stating next steps. In New York State, New York City, and the other places listed in our state and city law table, freelance protection laws give you a formal complaint path and, in most of them, extra damages. Elsewhere, small claims court is faster and cheaper than most people expect, and union members can bring in the NWU grievance committee.
By default, yes: copyright is yours the moment the words are fixed. You keep it unless you sign it away through a work-for-hire clause or an all-rights assignment. Registering with the Copyright Office is not required for ownership, but it is required before you can sue, and timely registration unlocks statutory damages.
