Melissa Brewer at Freelancewriting.com has a lot in common with Britney Spears in her latest interview: she likes to use "quotation marks" very liberally. But that sort of reminds me of a favorite "Chris Farley" sketch from "Saturday Night Live" so that's all right. According to her,

There are hundreds of corporations and government agencies that award large contracts to agencies and groups every year. They don't hire freelancers because their project needs typically require a mixture of graphic design, desktop publishing, editing, and long-term communication strategies. Corporations and government entities typically have a budget and a regular contract with an agency for marketing, PR, and other communications that MUST get used by the end of the fiscal year, or it will be allocated to another area. This is great for the vendors that they hire; last minute projects are thrown in their laps with bigger-than-anticipated budgets. And usually, they need to outsource to pick up the pace...So how does a freelancer gain access to these opportunities?

Read on to find out.