Interzone

Contributor: Mat Coward

Mat Coward didn’t go to university, has no family contacts in the media, and yet has made a living as a freelance writer since 1986. In other words, he shares the same lack of background as all those would-be writers who buy writing guides. The only difference is their dream is his reality: full-time writing. He is perfectly positioned to tell them how to do it, how not to do it, and why they’re probably better off in their pensioned day jobs anyway.

Mat is one of a dying breed, the truly freelance writer. Not quite a writer, not quite a journalist, but a freelance writer. He’s written and sold just about everything imaginable to just about every imaginable market: books, TV, radio, magazines, newspapers, small press, fiction, reviews of everything from books to restaurants, columns, jokes, videos, stand-up material, greetings cards, comic strips, badge slogans, fillers, links, poems… And still he struggles to pay the bills every month. Hey, if he can make a living as a failure, so can you!

• homepages.phonecoop.coop/matcoward/