| Back to Home > Bulletin Board > Media Issues > Topic: Feast or famine ... |
Topic: Feast or famine ...
| Author | Message |
| HisGirlFriday | Posted – 8/6/2007 10:00:28 AM | show profile Last month I was so overwhelmed with assignments I was practically having panic attacks. Now I'm looking at an almost blank calander and I'm equally anxious. Of course when things get slow that gives me plenty of time to think about the fact that I love writing essays but no one wants to publish them; that I'm approaching a milestone birthday and I haven't written a book yet ... etc, etc, etc. So my more-experienced brethren - how long did it take for you to not panic everytime the "famine" starts to set in? |
| recovering_jersey_girl | Posted – 8/6/2007 1:49:50 PM | show profile | email poster Sorry, I'm not "more experienced" at this...I just wanted to reply to let you know I know *exactly* what you're going through...My July was absolutely crazy; now it's dead but I'm still too tightly wound to be productive with my downtime! Plus, I'm starting to feel those twinges of self-doubt now that I don't have more work lined up. I've enabled my e-mail if you want to chat/commiserate further :-) |
| candylilacs | Posted – 8/6/2007 2:31:44 PM | show profile Tell me about it! My first few months of the year were always pretty lean and I recall June being lean, too. Then August-September were huge. I always had my most assignments at that time. I think because they were trying to get evertything done before the holidays. October was less exciting, but Nov.-Dec. were pretty dead. I don't know how much of the feast is the writer thinking as you just did, "Omigod! How am I going to live!" and then pitching like crazy and then having a crazy, crazy couple of months. I think you should set some weekly goals for yourself. Like: I will pitch 3-5 queries by Friday. I will redo my portfolio by the end of the month. I will go to three networking functions. Or, since you are trying to write a book: I will write one chapter by Sept. 15. Working is good, but you also need to have other goals, too, along with them. Especially since you want to do other things, too. So, keep pitching, but also set up career goals, too. Good luck! ------ http://www.mswritesguide.blogspot.com |
| sue ellen mischke | Posted – 8/6/2007 2:34:01 PM | show profile Sorry...I bolted out of the freelance world and took a full-time job that I love. There's always going to be ups and downs. Sometimes the downs get better and aren't as low as when you first started, but they are there. I think if you start to manage your income to account for lows, then it will be less stressful. For instance, if a good month is $8,000 and a bad month is $500, then you have to balance your budget accordingly to account for your monthly average net take-home pay. |
| writesonwater | Posted – 8/6/2007 3:33:48 PM | show profile | email poster Oh I completely understand. See my related panicky rant on sources. THere's no middle ground. No paycheck in the mail, guaranteed. I feel I must take every assignment because I don't know when my last meal will be for a while. July I invoiced like crazy and I'm still sleep deprived. I would have to say that while there are peaks and valleys of freelance business, the valleys aren't as low as they used to be, and the peaks are higher. |
| Lotus665 | Posted – 8/6/2007 6:22:40 PM | show profile It sounds obvious, but when you have a feast, SAVE a good chunk of the money for your famine times. That is how I survived a recent lull when I had to turn down work due to family problems. I tapped those savings. Now I am waiting for a decent sized invoice to come through from work I did recently and I'll soon be back on track. You can bet I will set aside anything I can from that for a rainy day! |
| seeattleme | Posted – 8/6/2007 6:55:02 PM | show profile Figure out which months are faminine and get another job--could be a two week stint factchecking or copy editong, or doing something totally different (like filling in at a book store, or getting some work at a bar. Anything to get you busy during those periods, because those periods will come again and again. Also, when calculating how much you make per year, go by year totals, not by what you make in a given month. What you make in a busy month or three month period (say the big fall issues) should cover twice that time period's costs--six months, say. So you should be living off about a third to half of what you are making during those big months. That's how freelancing works. And pray to God another 9/11 doesn't happen. Cause that can shoot freelancing to hell for an indefinite period. |
| writesonwater | Posted – 8/7/2007 1:09:32 AM | show profile Agree on the saving and looking at the big picture instead of the month-to-month windfall/drought cycle. My bigger problem has been actually budgeting my time and energy -- do I take every little thing that comes in and then scramble if a big fish hops in my freelance boat? This has eased somewhat with the adoption of certain regular clients, but it's still cyclical. In a leap of faith, I recently offloaded some small and small-pay work which I'm hoping makes sense. |
| worm | Posted – 8/7/2007 9:01:22 AM | show profile Three years It took about 3 years for me to stop with the panic cycle. For me, the issue was not financial. During the famine times, it began to feel as though I would never get another assignment, which made me fear for my chosen career rather than my checkbook. Then, the jobs would roll in and I would relax. You need to go through a few cycles of this before your brain and body begin to adjust. Now, during the "famine" times, I'm confident something else will appear, so I'm comfortable enough to enjoy the time off. Good luck! |
| HisGirlFriday | Posted – 8/7/2007 9:12:00 AM | show profile Great suggestions, all. Thanks! Like worm, I think my biggest issue is not that we will starve. The Husband will start a new, better-paying job in a month and I do sock away my checks when they are rolling in. Rather, I wonder whether I made the right choice to go out on my own. I'm about 2 years into this so hopefully I only have one more to go! I love it, w.o.w - I do that too - take every last scrap of assignment, never saying 'no' until I'm booked solid! :) My other problem is that I have a client whose pay is not great but I'll take the work if things are slow - times like these I wonder whether to pitch high or take the easy but not great money. And candy - great idea about weekly goals. I think when I look at that empty calander it's too easy to just putter away the few hours I have each day to work when The Kid is at school. I'm off to tinker with a FOB pitch and an essay - hmm... have them out by Friday? Thanks! |
| reporterwriter | Posted – 8/7/2007 11:18:04 AM | show profile Friday, I'm detecting some business practices in what you say that aren't in your best interest and may be contributing to your worry. The first is taking every scrap of assignment that comes your way. You should not have to do this; you should be able to say no sometimes. The reason you should be able to say no relates to the second thing, working for bad pay. At two years into freelancing, it's time to get into the groove of seeking better-paying markets and dropping the low payers. It's how businesses are built. In addition to saving during the fat months, nothing fills in the slow months like regular monthly gigs. Try nailing down a few of them among different publications. |
| JimmyG | Posted – 8/7/2007 11:19:54 AM | show profile I am the major source of financial supoort for my family (my spouse works part-time for what amounts to grocery money and health insurance) and I can tell you there have been many times in the last five years when panic over a lack of work was the norm. Things turned when I stopped chasing the big paydays, book contracts and the 3,000-word in-depth dream assignments and starting making a decent living one handful of money at a time. In the process I've been fortunately to develop several steady clients that at least give me a solid, if not affluent, financial base of support. The rest of the work that comes in is the difference between ordering out and eating frozen pizza on a Friday night. And I've been fortunate enogh that I haven't had to pitch an article except to a client upon request in close to four years. It's been said a zillion times here, but I'll say it again: Freelancing is a business. If you treat it like a hobby or an aspiration you may find creative fulfillment and yet never make any money at it. If you need to support yourself or a family, you have to find out what you can write that sells and concentrate on doing it. Don't worry that you haven't yet written a book by the time you're 30 or that you're not doing someting "important." Establish a base of income, which means at least three or four steady clients, and worry about garnering top-drawer assignments and literary accolades later on. |
| mkelly | Posted – 8/7/2007 11:26:51 AM | show profile I started freelancing in July 2001, and it wasn't until spring of 2004 that I felt really comfortable and never worried about where the money would come from next-- but 2002 and 2003 were horrendous recession years, so my experience might be a bit off kilter. I had huge years in 2004 and 2005 (before going FT again in 2006) and found that the more challenging skill in freelancing is knowing how to master too much business, not too little. |
| WordyBird | Posted – 8/7/2007 12:34:48 PM | show profile I haven't jumped in yet, but I'm going with the JimmyG school of thought: a few regular, steady projects for a few regular, steady clients, and build on top of that. I did freelance full-time for a year in my mid-20s. I put half of every check into savings. Just, zip, pretended I had only gotten paid half of what I actually did. This took care of the quarterly tax bill and the lean times. Not sure if I'll be able to do that now, but I'm hoping that 15 years later, my experience and portfolio will lend themselves a little more readily to success. |
| seeattleme | Posted – 8/7/2007 5:20:51 PM | show profile And be preapared for when your regular gig editor gets the axe (happens usually 5-10 years, some times more, usually when the magazine starts having any troubleas compared to ad pages in the previous year--which just came out, BTW). One your editor goes, you usually go with her--new editors like to bring in their own people. The bigger and "better" the magazine (by better, I mean the better money-maker) the more this holds true. A steady gig in most mag speak is usually a year to two years. And that means a column, because even a spree of assignments couldn't be assigned to all twelve issues all year round. Take that two week fact checking gig. And coach writing to high school students. |
| JimmyG | Posted – 8/7/2007 6:02:40 PM | show profile Maybe I've been lucky, but I'm now on my third editor with both mags in which I have a column, and on my second with the web site with which I have a retainer. It helps a lot if the people you're dealing with are overworked--there's not a lot of time or effort available to make a change unless the client is takign off in some new direction editorially. But, yes, even with a solid base you should expect a certain amount of client turnover (somewhere there's got to me a formula, just as in real estate you have to assume a 10 percent vacancy rate for apartment buildings). But then I know a lot of people on the editorial side who seem to be looking for new jobs very three years, so it kind of evens out. |
| seeattleme | Posted – 8/7/2007 6:14:21 PM | show profile yeah, this weird slash and burn stuff for whatever reason doesn't generally apply to the men's --or male run--magazines. It's the women's mags I was/am referring to. but you have been lucky if you've lasted three editors. that or you're just very good at what you do. Cause no matter how overworked anyone is--there's always someone willing to do the work. Course my in law has worked at a magazine that's gone through two editors, and just has massive layoffs. He lasted. Of course, his dad is buddies with the CFO of the company and the founder of the magazine--that helps. |
| writesonwater | Posted – 8/7/2007 8:25:58 PM | show profile There's definitely a churn rate that makes hedging bets a good thing. Even promotions and lateral moves can mean reestablishing connections. As noted, overworked staffers are my ace in the hole as a freelancer, both for writing and editing. I'm observing an interesting phenomenon for one lower-paying client -- having trouble selling less interesting stories to freelancers, so full-time writers are having to take up the slack and writing the boring stuff. If it paid more, I'd do it -- but it adds insult to injury when an assignment pays low AND is grindingly boring ... |
