Freelance writing resolutions

Writing wise it's not a resolution but a goal.
To market The Freshman Writer better, write up a biz plan for it, and market myself as a writer. Oh and get published in the Lifestyle section of Latina mag (essay).

I've usually had freelance goals rather than resolutions, and usually they were money targets (worked like a dream!). Next year, however, I'm aiming for something different. I'm happy with what I'm earning, and I have decided I'd rather have more time than more money, so these are my resolutions for 2009:

• spend my working days being more efficient (ie less foruming and aimless surfing, more getting down to business), in order to free up more time so that I can:
• take two days off each week to work on my novel rather than freelancing.

plaidearthworm said:

Has anyone made New Year's resolutions for their freelance careers yet? My main one is to keep my regular editors from going gray by trying to turn all my work in early (my next deadline is Feb. 2, we'll see how that one goes, LOL).

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Like thousands of budding authors I am trying to get on the ladder. Does anyone know anything about Torrance Publishing Inc, and their system of Subsidy publishing? What is it?

Happy New Year to all.
Bealings.

I haven't heard of Torrance -- did you try searching for them on this forum? I did that with Irene Goodman and found great results.

I've got a ton of writing goals for 2009! I'm focusing on my new pitches, recycling my old ones, earning a few thousand a month, blogging 7 times a week, and writing one Suite article a week. (the details are on my Quips and Tips for Freelance writers blog -- I won't list them all here, it's too much work).

And, I've found that breaking my goals into a daily and weekly "to do" list really helps me achieve them.

Bealings said:

Like thousands of budding authors I am trying to get on the ladder. Does anyone know anything about Torrance Publishing Inc, and their system of Subsidy publishing? What is it?

Happy New Year to all.
Bealings.

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Bealings, I recommend posting this on the Bewares and Background Checks forum. And BEWARE of subsidy publishing. I don't know your circumstance or anything about that publisher, but if you really want to go that route, something like Lulu is usually better.

Lauiepk great post on the goals. You've done such a great job. I hope to be like you when I grow up. P

I'm just about to write them all down! I have several in mind, but I need to plan and implement them so that they are truly achievable goals for this year. But first, I need to finish 2 reviews that are due by tomorrow. I would rather finish them today and then work on my resolutions and goals.

1. Top of the list is to produce everyday. With No Guilt.
2. Second is to work on all my projects equally.
3. The most important goal for me is to get into a routine that works for my lifestyle. Not so easy, but it would make the first two goals work!

Hey Plaidearthworm, Good Luck with your New Years Resolution! Mine is to actually aquire editors to sell to. Pennies are great but dang!! I have to really get cracking and working!

God Speed Plaidearthworm.

I do goals instead of resolutions, too. Resolutions, I tend to forget/ignore. Goals, I tend to work toward.

My goals for 2009 are on my blog, but here are they are too:

* Acceptance and publication in a national glossy, sich as O, Woman’s World, Figure, Glamour, etc.
* Submissions to 36 publishers/agents for book manuscripts. (This would be 3 submissions a month.)
* Write a creative tips ebook.
* Write a KNOWS ebook.
* Query $80/day five days a week (toward the ultimate goal of going full-time with freelancing).
* Update all blogs 3x a week.
* Minimum of 2 articles for Bukisa a week.
* Minimum of 2 articles for eHow a week.

Jen,
How has your experience with Bukisa been?

I agree with Jen about setting goals rather than resolutions and mine are:

1. Publication in a big-name glossy newsstand magazine
2. Make at least $100/mos. as an affiliate through my blog and social networking
3. Exceed 2008's freelance income (which will not be easy between the economy and the baby)
4. Blog at least 5 X a week on BabiesOnline and at least 2 X a week on my own blog.

That's it...combined with keeping up with all my regular clients that should be plenty to keep me busy!

Dawn

2009 goals

Submit as many essays as I can each week ... no less than five.
Query $50/day five days a week
Not feel guilty for writing when I could be with the horses or working on the farm with hubby
Get published in a national glossy that is not a niche market

that'll keep me plently busy I think

Sounds like everyone has great plans for the coming year! Happy New Year's! Need to get posts up at my portfolio, FW, and examiner. We'll see if I can get it done today.

Hi ya'll. Mine are a combination resolution/goals, and like Laurie some of them are broken down into weeks and months so I'm just listing the general all purpose ones here. The ones that I hope/plan to do each and every month (yeah, whatever)..

Ok, here goes, *taking a deep breath*:

1. Actually post here at AW at least once a week rather than just lurking and cheering everyone on without telling them.
2. Read and comment on at least one blog of fellow AWer once a week.(I usually read more than one a week, commenting, not so much, that's what I'm going to change.)
3. Post on my scholarship blog 3X week.
4. Post on my general blog once a week.
5. Complete the ROAD proposal
6. Actually send the ROAD proposal out (this is important, it can't get published if it isn't sent out)
7. Submit at least 4 queries/month. Yeah, yeah, I know. But, I'm going to actually commit to sending queries out. Again, can't get published, and make money writing if I don't send stuff out.
8. Submit 9 entries in the OWFI contest. Since I won't be able to enter the contest next year I need to get several in this year. Plus, I have most of the stuff written, I just need to polish it up a little, print it out, and send it in. (Ok, so I'm not going to do this one each month. I figured if I wrote it here it'd be more real and I'd actually follow through and submit all or most of them)
9. Write at least 1000 words/week on my romance story.
10. Write at least 1000 words/week on my western.

I have both the romance and the western started, I figure if I write 1000 words a week on each, that gives me something different to work on when I don't want to do anything else and I'll have 2 books at the end of the year that just need to be edited and can start making the submission rounds. It's an idea anyway.

That's it, I have some more but they're more specific to certain months or times. I also have a couple of personal goals/resolutions, but they're listed on my refigerator.

Happy New Year everyone, and good luck with all your goals and resolutions.

CatMuse33 said:

Jen,
How has your experience with Bukisa been?

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I thought I'd try them out for a while. I've had very favorable response from readers, but the earnings so far are very low. I think it might only be usable for things I can't find a home for otherwise. With that said, I may be striking the "2 articles for Bukisa a week" goal. We'll see, though. Right now they're doing site maintenance, so it shows my earnings as $0. lol

Here's my Bukisa profile.

Just posted my last entries at my portfolio, FW, Examiner, and Sky's blog! Have a happy and blessed new year my compatriots! Thanks for sharing the madness! Hugs

ritinrider said:

2. Read and comment on at least one blog of fellow AWer once a week.(I usually read more than one a week, commenting, not so much, that's what I'm going to change.)

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ritin - what a great idea! I'm like you, I read plenty but never comment. Can I steal this one from you and add it to mine??

ravenlea said:

ritin - what a great idea! I'm like you, I read plenty but never comment. Can I steal this one from you and add it to mine??

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raven, feel free. Glad I had something someone could use. Usually I'm the one stealing ideas from others. Of course, that's one of the things I love about this group we share (borrow, steal, tweak, etc.) each others ideas.

Hi everyone. *waves* Perfect thread for me to start off the new year. My #1 resolution is to generally get back on my freelance writing goals, and especially figure out a way to keep it regular, taking into consideration my full time job, kids, friends, and love life. Part of this resolution is to hang out more here at AW, including participating in JHS threads.

So, keeping up ten queries/month. $1000 this year. Three national clips this year. Teaching my writing class, and developing new ones, and actually getting some income from that. Maintaining my goal chart. Just basically keeping the whole cycle of querying and submitting going.

Hi again.

Hi Autodidact! I need to get into a regular groove with my writing too.

ravenlea said:

ritin - what a great idea! I'm like you, I read plenty but never comment. Can I steal this one from you and add it to mine??

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I should too! I just wrote on another thread how I don't often comment on blogs online because I'm shy online, and here I see this. Maybe I need to kick my online shyness this year.

My goals:

1. face my fears and put myself out there to start finding freelancing jobs.
2. keep working on the non-fiction book.
3. work on my self esteem as a writer.

Only one: Not give up yet.

Willowmound said:

Only one: Not give up yet.

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I hear ya! Don't quit; Just keep going!

I've been lurking and learning a lot on AW for several months now, and this seems as good a time as any to step forward and say 'hey!'

I made the decision sometime in mid-2008 to focus on earning my income from writing, and I've been taking stock of my progress and making goals for 2009 recently. I've taken some minor steps, such as signing up for Suite101 and publishing a couple articles there, reading a lot of threads and books about freelance writing, applying for a writing postion for a local wine blog and getting it, bookmarking sites that post daily freelance job listings...

But the biggest step by far is the one that has been the most difficult: I decided, despite these trying economic times, to drop 25% of my client list at the end of the year (I am self-employed in an area totally unrelated to writing) in order to free up time to focus on my writing. It's been interesting to see my friends' reactions! Some act like I am giving up my day job and taking a foolish leap into the unknown (although I am actually just giving up 'part' of my day job, and will still have plenty of work left to pay the bills), and others are giving me their wholehearted support, and are even pleased that I have finally taken this step towards becoming a full time writer.

All I've ever wanted to be is a writer--I've been writing and publishing fiction for years now, and I've structured my life in a way to support the habit. But...I don't want to wake up when I'm 50, doing what I'm doing to pay the bills now...so: I've got about 3 and a half years to make this freelance writing thing work.

I looked up the word 'resolution' in the dictionary, and one of the defintitions helped me to structure my 2009 writing goals: it said "the act or process of resolving: as a: the act of analyzing a complex notion into simpler ones." So, I broke my very overwhelming list into categories, which are:
-Fiction goals
-Self-promotion goals
-Non-fiction freelance writing goals
-Blogging goals
-Essay writing goals

Wow--once I did this, it made everything seem so much more managable! And from there, I can break them down--by category--into weekly and monthly goals.

Looking forward to really turning the fire up under this thing!