Introducing ‘Outstanding Invoices’: a new Substack about creative freelancing

I’ve joined Substack! Like almost every writer in 2025, I thought: “Why not add yet another platform to my marketing efforts?”

In all seriousness, starting a Substack has been something I’ve been thinking about for a while. I started writing as a hobby at a young age. But once a hobby becomes a job, part of the magic can sometimes get lost in all the pitching, negotiating, NDA-signing and brief-scrutinising that comes with turning a skill into your main source of income.

When you write for money, it’s hard not to think of every project you do in monetary terms. How much am I charging? Shall I put my rates up? How much will I be taxed? What markets should I target? Am I going to be able to pay for everything?

Outstanding Invoices aims to be a little bit of an antidote to the freelance hustle. There’s no set brief, no strict editorial calendar, no official brand guidelines to follow. Just an honest look into the ups and downs of freelance life from people who have been there.

The Secret Lives of Freelancers: How 17 People Build (and Balance) Their Incomes

I decided to finally launch the Substack after I wrote a post on LinkedIn that got way more traction than I was expecting. Wanting to find out more about how other freelancers in the creative industries made things work financially, I asked: “Do any of you have ‘another job’ alongside your freelancing?”

As it turns out, lots of us do! So I followed up on some of the responses to create my first Substack issue, a piece looking into how 17 freelancers manage portfolio careers, multiple income streams and side hustles.

The piece showed an amazing diversity to what freelancers do and how one of main benefits of working for yourself is the freedom to build your own job description and earn money the way you want.

Support Outstanding Invoices

I’ll be building up ideas and content for future issues over the next few weeks. In the meantime, if you’d like to support its launch, you can read my first post here.

If you’d like to subscribe to Outstanding Invoices to get future issues delivered straight to your inbox, you can do so here.