The author of mediabistro's Get a Freelance Life speaks with Dylan Stableford on having a thick-skin, editors who want real-life vaginal barbell stories and her own life as a freelancer:

mb: What has your freelance life been like?

MR: Like every freelancer, I have experienced ups and downs. But you can't let bad days, slow months, dead-end stories and unpleasable editors get you down. Fortunately, bad days are followed by bright ones, where primo assignments pour in one after the other - and your editors appreciate your hard work.

mb: What is the most fun part about being a freelancer? What's the least?

MR: The great thing about freelancing is that you can follow your own interests. If you find yourself intrigued by a random topic you overhear people discussing in line at the grocery store, or you want to know more about a subject your friend mentions in passing, you can learn more about the topic - and then get paid to tell other people about it too!

Read more here and read an excerpt from the book here.