How To Think Outside the Box When Developing Multiple Revenue Streams
May 20, 2013 By
Before I went full-time freelance nearly six years ago, I secured a permalance copyediting gig, an internship at a web magazine, and freelance publicity work from my former employer. I figured that — beyond that — I would just frolic about, getting assignments at a variety of magazines and magically paying my bills. And it [...]
One Quick Tip for Revitalizing Your Writing Life
May 7, 2013 By
Those who have been reading this blog for the past, um, forever know I’ve been in a bit of a writing slump. I’ve been feeling burnt out on the same old same old, lusting after lit mag credits, and wondering how to find a balance between the two. As a result, I just slowly… stopped… [...]
Is It Worth It To Drop Several Hundred Dollars on a Writing Conference?
April 29, 2013 By
I am a cheap bastard. Instead of spending money on pricey project management systems, I run my life through Google and GQueues. I avoid paid teleclasses and webinars in favor of business books that I dog-ear and pore through over and over again. I even married a web developer so I could get him to [...]
How Do You Bribe Yourself Into Getting Busy?
April 25, 2013 By
Those of you who follow me on Twitter may have noticed that I’ve been having a little bit of trouble with motivation these days. Monday, April 22, 2:27 p.m.: “I just picked up a book, slammed it down, and shouted at myself, ‘You can read that if you get shit done!’ Obviously losing it.” Tuesday, April 23, [...]
The Guru I Don’t Want To Be
April 3, 2013 By
A little over three years ago (holy crap), I launched Career Coaching for Word Nerds, a career coaching service for beginning freelance writers. I did it because, for several years, I had been receiving emails from writers pleading for advice, and I realized there was a real need for the help I could provide. Besides, the [...]
Why Freelancing Is Like Juggling a Bunch of Flaming Chainsaws
March 29, 2013 By
I went full-time freelance almost six years ago, and I feel as if the entire expanse of it has been one big experiment in finding (and maintaining) the right balance. And I’m not talking work/life balance. Please. Let someone else write 2,000 words about work/life balance, and whether or not I, as a woman, can [...]
What Got Me Here: Self-Education, Goal-Setting, Hard Work, and a Helluva Lot of Privilege
March 14, 2013 By
When the Nate Thayer / Atlantic kerfuffle occurred, I cycled quickly through a series of reactions. First, I felt a knee-jerk “Damn the man! Save the empire!” swell of joyful rebellion. Then, after reading senior Atlantic editor Alexis Madrigal’s response — an explanation of the limits of digital publishing — I felt recognition. That’s when I wrote this on [...]
Where the Magic Doesn’t Happen
January 29, 2013 By
My husband and I have been in our new house now for just over three months. And though the boxes have been unpacked, and the items inside (mostly) put away, things are not… quite… there yet. Almost every room needs to be repainted (and, at the moment, the walls sport splotchy blobs of spackle). We [...]
A Continuing Education in Drawing Up Contracts
January 24, 2013 By
Things I Am Good At: Writing about sex. Banging out listicles. Line editing. Connecting with other writers and editors. Making lemon pound cake. Singing in the shower. Mimicking the sounds my cats make. Things I Am Not Good At: Covering my ass when I draw up and/or sign a contract. I’ve been a full-time freelancer [...]
What Kind of Writer Are You?
January 18, 2013 By
My writing partner once told me I was the most business-y writer she knew. To be honest, it hadn’t occurred to me that there was any other way to be. That was why, when I sent out an LOI last month in response to a call for book reviewers and learned that the position was [...]