Book Review: The Science of Choosing (the Right) Clients

The Science of Choosing (the Right) Clients. Jennifer Brown Banks. PDF, 24 pages.

Reviewed by Brian Johnston.

There are many talented, aspiring writers among us. But for many writers, including myself, figuring out where and how to even begin a writing career can be a daunting task. As difficult as creating a great piece of writing can be, often times that is the easy part. Many writers have trouble finding opportunities to get the word out about their work and achieving the ultimate goal of getting paid for doing what they love.

Jennifer Brown Banks attempts to guide aspiring writers through this process in her new book, The Science of Choosing (the Right) Clients. Banks holds a business management degree and draws from her experience in professional writing to pen this short book.

The focus of the book is on how to identify the right clients, people and businesses, who will pay writers for their work. The biggest strength of this book is that it offers inspiration for writers and helps them to understand the importance of putting a proper value on what they do. Writers should not allow clients to take advantage of them. Rather, they should know what their services are worth and approach clients accordingly. I actually found her insights on how writers should value themselves to be applicable to other areas of my life as well.

Banks describes several characteristics of both good and bad clients, citing a few examples from her professional career, so that writers can identify them ahead of time. Many writers are not naturally inclined to be outgoing people who aggressively market themselves, but Banks stresses the importance of people and business skills, which are just as critical as writing skills in order to have a successful career in this field. Banks definitely knows her stuff, and her experience shows.

There are lots of helpful tips in the book that will benefit both new and seasoned writers. However, the book is limited in scope. While the author does list several places that writers can go to find paid gigs, the book lacks specifics on how to actually get clients or to solicit people and organizations for work. In fact, other than briefly discussing blogging, Banks provides little detail about the type of professional writing she has done. In discussing the different types of clients, good and bad, additional specific examples from the author’s experiences would have been helpful. Punctuation is also a concern; the excessive use of commas in particular was at times distracting.

Despite the book’s shortcomings, this is useful for people who are trying to make a living as a writer. Banks clearly has a passion for what she does and a desire to help others succeed. Those who have lots of questions about becoming a professional writer will not find all the answers here and will need to pursue further research, but I walked away feeling more confident in my abilities and valuing my skills much more. That alone makes the book worthwhile.