treat it like a business

You're right!

I'm going to work on this! I've written brief plans on a piece of paper somewhere but nothing too serious. And I go days without writing, although I also go through phases of writing for hours on end, day after day. But consistency is the key, right? I'm really going to mull this over. Any advice on writing a plan?

Lavinia

Getting there!

I just started following a writing schedule last week. I've started small, pretty much going for whatever projects would pay. I'm a stay-at-home mom too so I've got to work around the interruptions, but I regularly work six to seven hours a day.
Where are you getting jobs that pay $50/hour??

Jenn

Business

Food Writer said:

for the first time in over 14 years of freelance writing, I feel like I finally GET IT!

I am going to open a small retail store soon and to that end took an entreprenuerial development class form the Small business development center. the teacher hammers home that each new business must have a business plan. And I mean a 30 page business plan, including financial projections, advertising, marketing, payroll, sales goals etc.

three days ago I was just sitting around and I had a flash that if treated my writing business like a BIZ I might make more money. Instead of sitting around waiting for inspiration and editors to knock on my door, I need a reading schedule, a cooking day each week, and I also need to look at the income I need/want to make and plot a way to make those sales. It's already working - for starters I dumped the jobs that pay me less than $50 an hour, and got back to networking with other writers.

How many of you plan out your work, your marketing and your expected/desired income and then follow through?

(the follow through part is always my biggest challenge.)
Pam

Click to expand...

I do. Writing is a business, whether you treat it like one or not. Dumping jobs that pay less than fifty bucks an hour, however, is not wise for most writers in most situations. If you can fill all your time with such jobs, then fine, go for it. Most writers can't. You don;t want to turn down even fifteen bucks an hour, unless you know you can fill it with something better. Any profit is better than no profit, and smaller jobs can be used to get larger jobs.

With freelancing, of course, secondary rights and reprint rights can be far more valuable than first rights, and many a job that has paid me no more than five bucks an hour initially has also paid me thousands with subsequent reprint sales, alll for basically no extra work.

I had one article that earned me ten dollars up front, or about a dollar an hour for the time it took to research and write it. But I was certain it was a subject that could be sold many times over, so I wrote it. Subsequent reprint sales, however, have been very good, and I've brought in a little better than $4,000 for that one article, or roughly $400 for every hour spent researching and writing it.

In otehr words, it isnt wise to look only at money made up front. You have to look carefully at down the road money, which may be far more than fifty bucks per hour, when all is said and done.