I bet you didn’t even know that there was a freelance resume conundrum, did you? It’s pretty basic – the typical resume format of objective, skills and as much employment history as you can come up with just doesn’t work for freelancers.

Say Betty is a freelancer – she has a regular gig writing for a local magazine, and another one blogging. On top of that, she’s always querying magazines and she has a fair number of clips. Now, in theory, it would be nice if Betty could get jobs based solely on those clips, because your writing abilities should be more important than how long you wrote for Regional Auto Magazine.

But a lot of editors want to see a resume, especially if you’re querying out of the blue. So, how can we give them a resume that doesn’t make us look like flakes that jump from publication to publication?

How about a template better suited to our needs?

• List your name, email address and phone number.
• Throw out the objective. If you’ve written an excellent query letter, you shouldn’t need an objective.
• List publications your material has recently appeared in. A bulleted list should do well here. Think CV here, rather than resume. You can also list projects, such as PR campaigns here.
• Your skill set should include styles you’re familiar with (AP, Chicago, etc.), topics you can write about effectively and any other related skills.
• Include relevant work history, but don’t clutter it up. If you were a technical writer in corporate America, include it. If you flipped burgers, don’t.
• Education is, of course, required. I’d recommend including internships and certifications under education, rather than giving them their own section.
• You can list any affiliations you hold, such as the Freelancer’s Union or the Association of Women in Communication. It’s not necessary, though.

That sounds a lot less stressful than making Betty wonder if she should include that month she spent as a contractor with the local public relations agency under her work history.*

Make sure that you have good clips to send out with your resume, however. Examples of the excellence of your writing are more valuable than the most polished of resumes.