As 2010 came to a close, I started cleaning out some old e-mails and notes to myself.

Most of it deserved to be deleted, but I ran across a note to myself to pass along a link that has some good advice. Definitely not for the “delete” button.

It’s from Jeremy Tuber, a friend I’ve pointed you to in the past. His book, Being a Starving Graphic Artist Sucks, is must-reading in my opinion.

His article, It’s Important to You, So Why Don’t Your Clients Give a Crap?, rings true with me, especially in the direct market design world.

Unfortunately, looking at the sites of beginning designers, quite a few spend more time talking about themselves and things clients couldn’t begin to care less about. Maybe that’s just normal if you don’t feel you have a track record to talk about.

If you feel yourself being pulled in that direction, resist. Talk about what’s important to the client. When you demonstrate that you understand what’s important to them and can deliver, you’ll land more clients.

On another note, this month marks the 5th anniversary of this blog which originally started on a whim over on Blogspot. I hope you’ve received some value from it over the years.

Thanks for reading!

Just finished reading The Wealthy Freelancer by Steve Slaunwhite, Pete Savage, and Ed Gandia.

Before I go any further, I’ll tell you that I was quoted in the book. And in a pleasantly surprising move, they sent me a copy. (Thanks, guys!)

So with that out of the way… Get this book!

I’ve complained before that, as freelance designers, there are not a lot of books for us, especially compared to our colleagues in the copywritng field. There is Being a Starving Graphic Artist Sucks which is a fantastic boook. But beyond that, it’s a bit thin.

The Wealthy Freelancer, though, is not specific to copywriting even though that’s what you may know the three authors for. Freelancers of any type will get something out of this, including designers. (I can’t recall anything in the book that wouldn’t apply to us.)

I’ve been freelancing for a while and have learned quite a lot in that time. So I’m always thrilled to learn something new, or read about a new spin on things. This book is full of that type of material.

The first thing that grabbed me was in the first chapter. It’s The IDEA Matrix for Mindset Mastery. A lot of beginning freelancers could stop after reading that and feel they got their money’s worth.

Over on page 192, they made a great point about about dealing with client e-mail that every freelancer should consider.  (It’s a change I made after I read it. Wish I had figured that out on my own years ago.)

I don’t do “reviews” and this shouldn’t be considered one. And, frankly, their website will do a far better job of telling you about the book than I can.

But when I run into something really good like this, I want to mention it so you can explore it further and consider it for yourself.

I will say what a said when talking about the “…Starving Graphic Artist…” book: If you’re going to buy The Wealthy Freelancer, commit to taking action on what you read. Simply reading the book isn’t enough.

I’ve run into too many people who read books like this for the momentary high or boost of enthusiasm they get. But a week after reading the book, they haven’t done anything with the information.

If you don’t consider yourself a “wealthy freelancer” right now, and read this book but take no action on it, you have to question whether you really want to be one.

You can’t walk away from this book with finding a least a couple of things you can start doing immediately. If you can’t find something, it’s not the book… it’s you.

So if you’ve been struggling a bit and feel this book is for you, make a commitment to take action on what you read. If you do, I think you’ll find yourself making far more progress than you have to this point.

Warning: I’m going to be very direct today. If you’ve been spinning your wheels trying to get your freelance design business running while making excuses along the way, you may not want to read this.

This year, I’ve been thinking a lot about where I am with my business and where I want to be. Overall, I’ve had a lot of success, but have been thinking it’s time to take it to a much higher level. When you start seriously focusing on that, an amazing thing happens: The right people and circumstances seem to appear out of nowhere. (You may have heard the old saying, When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.)

But while this has been going on for me, I’ve also been running into a lot of hopeful copywriters and designers who are, as I phrased it a moment ago, spinning their wheels. Obviously I don’t know the details of everyone’s circumstances, but here’s what I can tell you based on people I’ve talked to since I started as a freelancer some years ago. About 5% of the folks who want to make a change in their career haven’t done so for valid reasons. For example, in addition to working a full-time job and managing a family, they’re also responsible for a seriously ailing family member.

The trouble is, the other 95% seems to think that they’re in that valid 5%. Those “95%” folks are certainly busy, but these days everyone is busy and probably struggling to some degree. Yet the ones who are serious about making a change find a way to do it, even if it means sacrificing what little free time and resources they have. In fact, I dare say it’s impossible to make a career change without some level of sacrifice. Unfortunately, these people won’t face the reality that they’re never going to get around to making a change. They fool themselves by reading and posting on blogs, or buying (and even reading) books that they’ll never put into practice.

Doing that gives you the illusion of making progress. But if you’re never taking what you’re reading and putting it into practice, the best you can say is that you’re becoming a professional reader or web surfer. Of course, if you’re not getting paid for that, strike the word professional from the previous sentence.

That brings us to Jeremy Tuber’s book, Being a Starving Graphic Artist Sucks. I’ve mentioned Tuber’s other book, Verbal Kung-Fu for Freelancers, here. As for BASAS, I just finished it. At just over 500 pages, this isn’t a glossing-over of how to succeed as a designer. This book covers so much, it’s simply easier for me to link to the book’s table of contents so you can see for yourself what it covers.

Pleasantly, this is an easy read. Tuber gets right to the point on each topic, so you’ll move through the book at a quick pace. If you’re a struggling designer and can’t find at least one action step from each section, you’re simply not paying attention.

But here’s where I want to tie things in to what I said earlier about the folks spinning their wheels. This book is filled with many, many ways to get off to a great start and begin notching some victories. Even if you’ve been freelancing for a bit, I think you’ll find helpful hints or new distinctions on certain topics just like I did. For example, if I had better known and appreciated the difference between a logo design and a concept design when I was starting out, I might not have developed such an intense distaste for logo design. (See page 47 in the book.) And the chapter, “Think Only Kids Tell Stories?” (page 267), should be required reading by every designer who thinks hanging a virtual OPEN FOR BUSINESS sign is good enough.

So, bottom line, I recommend this book without reservation for those who are serious about putting the advice and ideas to use.

Having said that, don’t bother buying this book (or any other for that matter) unless you intend to put it to use. You know if you’re one who has been making excuses about starting a freelance design career. As we approach the beginning of a new year, this is a natural time to start planning what you intend to do in 2010. Not what you would like to do, but what you intend to do. If you intend to make a design career happen, this book is going to help you. If you simply like the feeling that you’re making progress when you’re really not, save your money. In fact – and this may be harsh, but I’ll say it anyway – it may be time to get really honest with yourself and move on to something else. There’s no shame in giving up a “dream” if you’re never really going to move it from a dream in your head to real, measurable action.

I’m hoping you’re going to make it real and just need a kick in the rear-end.

By the way, if you do consider yourself serious, also look into Tuber’s iTunes album, From Zero to Graphic Design Hero. If quiet reading time is hard to come by, having something you can listen to during your commute or when you and your iPod can get away for a bit is a great use of your time. Tuber’s calm and friendly voice will walk you through some foundational items that will help you build a strong and successful graphic design business. From iTunes, you can see the topics and hear audio samples of each chapter.

I’m not very good at reviewing products. I know whether or not I like something, but my ability to really articulate why in a traditional “review” is a bit lacking.

But I never want that to stop me from passing along something that I think may help other freelancers, especially when the product is targeted toward freelance designers.

Not that long ago, I included an article from Jeremy Tuber here on the blog. He’s the keeper of the Being a Starving Graphic Artist Sucks website. Conveniently enough, that’s also the name of a book of his that I’m still working my way through.

When I bought my Kindle, one of the first books I downloaded was another book by Tuber, Verbal Kung-Fu For Freelancers. I finally finished it this past week.

If you click on that link, you’ll see all the topics he covers. Bottom line: this is a great resource for common client questions/issues and how you might deal with them.

Now I’ll be honest with you… I wouldn’t deal with some of these situations the way Tuber would, nor is he suggesting that you do. His responses are simply suggestions of how you could deal with similar situations when they come up. And believe me, they will come up.

In fact, I think one of the biggest values of the book is the simple matter of exposing you to the wide range of situations a client can throw at you. And by reading his suggestions on how to deal with them, you’ll start to form your own responses based on your experience, your personality and your situation at the time. Sometimes your responses might be similar to Tuber’s, other times you might take a totally different approach.

If you have no ideas of your own about how to respond, go with what Tuber suggests. The advice is coming from someone who is having success as a freelance designer. That’s the type of person you want to be taking advice from… the “been there, done that” type of person.

Not knowing what to expect is one of the biggest stress points of beginning designers. So when you have a book that lays out over 100 possible scenarios and how to deal with them… well, I trust you can see just how valuable that is.

With Christmas just around the corner, do yourself a favor and treat yourself to Tuber’s two books and his iTunes program. It will help lay a great foundation as your get ready to tackle 2010.