9 creative marketing and business books for freelance
Are you looking for ways to develop as a creative professional? Taking the leap from employee to full-time freelancer means it’s more important than ever to keep learning on your own, especially how to run a business.
When I quit my job, I didn’t know which resources to start with and went down a rabbit hole of frantic, last-minute “oh crap what do I include in my contract?” type Google searches and online articles before finding some gold nuggets.
Below are the gold nuggets (nine books, to be exact) that will help you get a solid start to building your freelance business. These are great books to keep on your shelf and avoid the last-minute panic searches. 😉
Pin me to bookmark this article! ⤵
As a quick overview, here are the books I will be covering:
Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin
Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon
Show Your Work by Austin Kleon
Keep Going by Austin Kleon
Freelance, and Business, and Stuff by Amy and Jennifer Hood
Mind Your Business by Ilana Griffo
Graphic Artist's Guild Handbook of Pricing and Ethical Guidelines
Pocket Full of Do by Chris Do
Creative Strategy and the Business of Design by Douglas Davis
1. Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin
If you’re looking to improve your marketing game, you must read Seth Godin’s books, such as This is Marketing.
Tribes has short anecdotes and analogies that will teach you how to lead in both small and large business settings.
Don’t feel like a leader? Godin emphasizes that anyone can lead even when you aren’t in a “labeled” leadership position. What you need is a desire for change, a drive to act on it, and a mindset focused on giving rather than getting.
2. Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon
The next few are Austin Kleon books. I really love how his books are compact, short, and easy to finish. More importantly, they resonate!
I highly recommend Steal Like an Artist if you are just starting out. Kleon easily communicates the difference between how to properly “steal” and the wrongs of directly copying or plagiarizing work.
I see a lot of wrongful copying online all the time, and most of the time with emerging artists it is completely unintentional.
This book helps to prevent you from making that mistake, and also teaches you smart ways to generate creative ideas. Some chapters to pay attention to are:
Don’t wait until you know who you are to get started
Write the book you want to read
Side projects and hobbies are important
3. Show Your Work by Austin Kleon
Show Your Work is filled with practical self promotion tips that you can apply immediately. Read this book if you’re looking for encouragement, especially if you hate the idea of promoting your work.
As Kleon aptly puts it, “it’s not self promotion, it’s self discovery.”
4. Keep Going by Austin Kleon
Feeling burnt out and don’t know what to create next? Check out Keep Going! Austin Kleon shares tips and encouragement on how to power through the marathon of the creative journey, and I found a lot of them very helpful!
5. Freelance, and Business, and Stuff by Amy and Jennifer Hood
If you do any freelance at all, you should really look into getting a copy of FABAS by Amy and Jennifer Hood.
It’s filled with so much important information that I didn’t have a clue about like handling quarterly taxes, hourly vs. flat rate pricing, insurance, accounting, checklists for when you’re just starting out, and more.
Their funny, casual writing helps a lot especially because this book covers the “boring” but incredibly necessary side of business. Plus, they’ve included awesome posters of their work that pairs with each chapter.
6. Mind Your Business: A Workbook to Grow Your Creative Passion Into a Full-time Gig by Ilana Griffo
Mind Your Business is a useful workbook to fill out when you are starting your business. Ilana Griffo covers tons of topics, such as building a brand, marketing tips, planning out pricing, financial and legal stuff, business models, and more.
I love that this is a workbook you can write in with an organized structure. Bonus motivational lettering included.
7. Graphic Artist's Guild Handbook of Pricing and Ethical Guidelines
The Graphic Artist’s Guild Handbook isn’t one that you read, per say, but OMG you need it. You’ll be using it frequently for pricing and contracts that you can’t find easily (if at all) on the Internet.
It will help to keep your rates fair and competitive among other creatives, and give you a better idea of what your work is worth.
It’s a great starting point for pricing and I refer to this book all the time.
8. Pocket Full of Do by Chris Do
I’m a big fan of Chris Do’s teaching on The Futur and was very excited to get my hands on Pocket Full of Do! Don’t let this little book deceive you — it’s packed with content covering topics like creativity, pricing, marketing, and more, that Do easily breaks down to bite-sized nuggets of information.
You can consume this book quickly. I loved how the bold graphic design beautifully pairs with each topic for a dose of visual inspiration and impact.
The design makes it very easy to scan, which is perfect if you don’t consider yourself a big reader (or feel like you have time to read).
You can simply pick up the book and browse to a topic of interest and get insight out of it immediately.
My favorite quote: “Failure is tuition you pay for future success.”
9. Creative Strategy and the Business Design by Douglas Davis
To be honest, Creative Strategy and the Business of Design is quite dry (it reads like a textbook), but was one that I wished I had known about before I worked as a graphic designer at my old agency.
Douglas Davis breaks down common business jargon and the creative strategy process in an easily digestible way for creatives to leverage when working with clients and client services.
It’s dense, but if you touch design at all and especially if you talk to clients, you should check out this book to learn how to speak the language of business.
Happy Reading!
I hope you enjoy these books as much as I did! May they help inspire you to keep creating and be fearless with your marketing and business tactics.
If you’re curious about what I’m currently reading, follow along my stories on Instagram and read with me! 😊
