1127 Bonus. In this bonus segment, we look at how AI is disrupting the freelance writing industry with author Suzanne Bowness. She shares her strategy for experimenting with different AI tools and the importance of being "conversant" in them for clients. We also look at the challenge of losing clients to AI but gaining new ones who were dissatisfied with the machine-generated text.
1127 Bonus. In this bonus segment, we look at how AI is disrupting the freelance writing industry with author Suzanne Bowness. She shares her strategy for experimenting with different AI tools and the importance of being "conversant" in them for clients. We also look at the challenge of losing clients to AI but gaining new ones who were dissatisfied with the machine-generated text.
Find Suzanne on her website, Codeword Communications.
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Mignon Fogarty: Greetings, Grammarpaloozians. We are here today with Suzanne Bowness, author of the fabulous book, “The Feisty Freelancer.” Suzanne has a PhD in English and teaches writing and freelancing at Humber College in Toronto. The book captures the lessons she's learned from a 20-plus year career as a freelancer.
In the main episode, we talked about finding good clients, how to pitch them, and more. And now we're going to talk about AI. So Suzanne, welcome to the Grammarpalooza segment.
Suzanne Bowness: Thank you so much.
Mignon Fogarty: Yeah. So you said in July that you used your slow time wisely, scheduling using your slow time to learn new tools, and that AI was the thing you decided to learn about this year. So, what are you seeing from clients and in your work when it comes to AI?
Suzanne Bowness: So I was actually terrified to write the final chapter in the book about AI; it was published, you know, finished up a year ago, as books go. And I was like, oh my gosh, so many things will have changed by that time. And they have. So I find I'm always trying to update my knowledge and my learning and that kind of thing.
So I did do an experiment this summer where I downloaded five AI tools just to see how they work, to be careful about them, such that if my clients are using them, I can be conversant in them. They all have, you know, more similarities than differences, so it's a case of like, if you learn one, you can learn the others more easily. As I've heard from clients, I've learned to, and I think my advice would be to not assume anything about a client's position on AI because some are using it. I think all are using it, but some will say they're using it and share that, and then others will say they're staying away but possibly are using it. But everyone's experimenting, so join in the experimentation. That's what I'm doing, and I always say that I'm open-minded, and I will follow their lead because it's true; we're all in this new world. We're exploring this new tool. It is scary in the sense that it has a real power to disrupt our industry.
But I mean, I started my business before social media. That was a real disruptor as well. It changed things a lot, but it didn't end it. So I'm looking at AI in a similar way or trying to, and trying to figure out ways to use the tool, knowing that some people will just use the tool instead of using Sue the writer, and those will not be my people anymore, I suppose. But there will still be people who see the value of good writing. Already, I've lost clients to AI and just figured out that, hey, that blog post is not written by me anymore. And, clearly you're using someone or something else to write your posts. That's not my client anymore. Similarly, at the same time, I have also gained clients saying, you know, we were using AI and it just wasn't what we were looking for in terms of a tool.
And so I gained a new client through that. So those are just a couple of examples. And then also, I'm seeing AI clauses and contracts now, right? Saying about giving specifics about whether they use it or not, whether you can use it or not. As a freelancer, the most common is to say that we don't put our proprietary content into an AI. I'm also already a little bit conscious about that, and I would never put a client's work into AI without explicit permission, because I still think we're learning about how the tools are being trained, that kind of thing. And so, like, if they're being used for training, I don't want to be involved in helping put that work from clients into the AI. And so I don't use it that way. But I have used it myself and, yeah, I'm learning along with everybody else.
Mignon Fogarty: Do you find that you're getting any different kinds of work from clients? Like are you being asked to clean up AI-written text?
Suzanne Bowness: Actually, I haven't yet been asked to clean up AI text, that I know of. And edit things that could use some work, kind of thing. So who knows? Actually these days, how do I know, right? I mean, but not explicitly. And I've certainly, you know, in my experimentation with AI, used it to clean out my own text, and I found some good substantive recommendations.
And even, you know, I used to send out my work to my virtual assistant as a proofreader. And now sometimes I've used AI as a tool to catch those typos, right? I've used different sorts of technologies all along to help me with that. And so now AI is the latest technology. So it's that, it's another tool, another thing I can use that's helpful.
Mignon Fogarty: Have you tested it only with writing or are you testing it for sort of the backend administrative stuff in your work as well?
Suzanne Bowness: Oh, I tested and had a terrible experience actually when I tried to have it update my contact spreadsheets. It made up at least half, if not two thirds of the contacts. Just made them up.
Mignon Fogarty: Oh my gosh.
Suzanne Bowness: Yeah, different colleges that I was reaching out to. And so I learned that by trying to send an email to fake address@university.com and they started bouncing back.
And then I looked and I realized it was fake. I was quite disappointed in that, and I would not task that again. You know, if it was an assistant I had hired to do that, I would fire them. Right. So I had to, which was really quite disappointing because that was a task that, you know, is quite tedious, and I was hoping that I could outsource to AI, but not yet.
I'm imagining it'll improve at some point, and, yeah, so that was quite surprising. And then I've also used it as, like, I just did a workshop in which I used a leader who helped us use AI as a business development tool for planning, like, what's next in your business? Decision-making and stuff. So it's interesting to think about, like, you know, some of the prompts we're asking, like, what are the holes in my idea that I can't see, kind of thing, right? So you look through, you know, ideas and do planning, I think might have even more potential there. So I
Mignon Fogarty: Yeah.
Suzanne Bowness: I'm open to experimenting with all kinds of ways of using it and then, you know, figuring out what are the ways that they'll be most helpful to my business and to my clients.
Mignon Fogarty: And you also teach college students, so what are you seeing sort of among your students and what are you telling them about the future with AI in the world?
Suzanne Bowness: Well, I'm telling them that you came here to learn to write, so learn to write. You know, don't just, I mean, I know learning to write is also learning how to use AI, but in the first place you just want to have them be good writers. Right. And I think there's nothing that can replace that. And so I have them, you know, become good writers, learn to write the form themselves. And then, you know, there's no question that they'll be using AI in the future. So figuring out how to use the prompts and that kind of thing. But, figuring out how to master the craft and then maybe you can incorporate AI as an assistant later or figure out how clients use it.
But, learn to write. But then I also recommend that, you know, when I started my business, I had taught myself HTML and how to make a website in Notepad, and then moved up to like the WYSIWYG editor and stuff like that as a way of standing out from all the other writers who were looking for their internships.
And I got my first internship on the skill of knowing how to do online stuff. And that was my first job too, as an online editor. So I used that as my differentiator. And so I'm always telling students, like, look for these days. And I think it might be AI. So just like I taught myself to code in Notepad, I'm saying, learn all about AI so you can become the person. Because there are so many busy editors who don't have time to respond to your emails. They're the ones who need the help in learning about how to use AI in their workplace. So if you can become the new student editorial assistant who can do that, like that gives you a real hand in getting the jobs, kind of thing. So I would say like 10 years ago, I was telling students like, become a social media wizard. Now I'm saying like, learn AI, right? Like whatever you can use to help yourself stand out.
Mignon Fogarty: Yeah. Wow. As someone like out on the front lines, I really appreciate your perspective. That's great. And so again, the book is The Feisty Freelancer, and now we—I. My favorite part, I would love to have your book recommendations. You know, this episode will go out to Grammarpaloozians when they're starting to think about their holiday shopping. So what are some novels that you've read that really stuck with you or that might make a good gift for, you know, a friend or a loved one?
Suzanne Bowness: Yeah, so I wanted to share one of my favorite novels that I've recommended for a long time and I used to; it is by a Canadian author named Carol Shields. All of her books are really great, and possibly the one that's most known is The Stone Diaries, which won a Pulitzer Prize, and it's also very good. But the one I really like the best is called Larry's Party, and what I really like about it is that it goes very deep into a character study. So all of the chapters are focused on different parts of Larry as he emerges from a young man to a very successful man later on. But it's really interesting in a different way of looking at characters. So I really like Carol Shields' Larry's Party. It came out quite a few years ago, but it's still awesome and I still reread it fairly regularly.
Mignon Fogarty: Oh, that's great. Yeah, no, we love older books like that. Just because it was published a few years ago doesn't mean it's not great.
Suzanne Bowness: Yeah. And then I would say, I guess the next one is one that I'm reading currently. I'm in the middle of it, but I've read a lot of his books before, is Revenge of the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. And so his books are always ones that I tend to give away as gifts, especially if I know somebody's a reader but I'm not quite sure what they're into. This latest book was published in October 2024, and he was mentioning in the introduction that he is revisiting The Tipping Point, a famous book from 25 years ago, but then it goes into just all sorts of different directions. And what I like about that writing is that it looks at familiar topics in a new way or that kind of thing. So I think it's a really nice example of nonfiction, which I do read quite a bit myself. And, you know, in terms of learning about new topics.
Mignon Fogarty: Nice.
Suzanne Bowness: Yeah.
Mignon Fogarty: Wonderful. And what's your final recommendation?
Suzanne Bowness: People are always asking me about writing books. So, I always give the standard, and I agree with the standard recommendation, Stephen King's On Writing, for example, or Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird. But one that I don't hear about all that much is Norman Mailer's The Spooky Art. And again, it came out quite a few years ago; I think I was just looking at it in 2003, but it's full of advice from his life and the writer's lifestyle and thoughts on topics from business to craft. So it's one that I offer to people if they are looking for a new writing book, which I am always looking for. I just came across it in a used bookstore, and I really liked it.
Mignon Fogarty: Oh, that's great. Yeah, I haven't heard of that one. That's wonderful. Love a new writing book. Well, thank you so much again. We've been talking with Suzanne Bowness, and the book is “The Feisty Freelancer.” Suzanne, where can people find you online?
Suzanne Bowness: They can find the book at book@thefeistyfreelancer.com. So it's feistyfreelancer.com, and I post everything about the book, any new courses that I'm doing, new podcasts. So that's where you can find me.
Mignon Fogarty: Wonderful. And we'll put all those links in the show notes. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend, maybe someone who wants to be a freelancer, and tell them about the book. And don't forget to follow or subscribe wherever you're listening. And if you are a grammar enthusiast, thank you so much for your support. We really appreciate it. That's all. Thanks for listening.