What I’m listening to: Starman by David Bowie
For someone who was away for two weeks, I jumped right back into work with little effort. Since I’m still on UK/Netherlands time, I was up early and got busy. By noon on Monday, I’d finished a draft and a revision, then on to a call in the afternoon.
It caught up with me to some extent yesterday. I was still up early (5:30 this time), but could not for the life of me get writing. So I spent 20 minutes cleaning my desk, filing accounts paid/received, and thinking of next steps on a new project. That helped. I started writing at 10 am and managed to get the project organized on paper, plus some of the transcribing done. Today, more of the same.
Since I was away, my monthly assessment is a tad late. However, that doesn’t mean I’m skipping it. Nope, I’ve skipped one in the last what? Three years? The only way to push yourself to reaching your goals is to keep yourself accountable.
So let’s account for our time last month. I’ll start:
Queries:
I sent one. No response at all. Not unusual as this editor likes to call when she has a minute instead of responding in email. I’m hopeful.
LOIs:
I scaled back on these recently — for reasons I’ll explain in a minute — so I sent seven. No word from any of them, and follow-up notes will go out this week.
Social media:
January was a case of clients coming to me, in particular via social media. I had two new clients contact me — one through LinkedIn and the other through a Referral Key account I nearly deleted two weeks prior. The first will be talking with me tomorrow and the second is aligning her priorities and budget before coming back around.
Job postings:
No, I don’t browse the job listings, but I include it anyway. Sometimes a job listing will show something that I apply for, but it’s so rare these days (one or two a year at best). Instead, I’d rather make direct contact and nurture the relationship.
Referrals:
I had three referrals last month. Only one wasn’t a good fit, and I’m currently getting agreements in place with one client and have ideas in front of the other client.
Existing clients:
There was plenty of work from existing clients the minute the calendar page turned. I invoiced three of them in January with one other client still on the fence with revisions (so that invoice is delayed).
Poetry:
I sent one submission out. I’m being much more selective, so the number of submissions that went out last month reflects that. I received a rejection from two I’d sent back in November, so onward with other poems.
Earnings:
Had I been able to invoice that on-the-fence client, I’d have surpassed my goal by $2K. As it is, I hit the goal nearly exactly. Not a bad start to the year.
Bottom line:
Word of mouth and referrals are beginning to pay off quite well. My social media presence is also benefiting me in terms of how many new client prospects are reaching out. While not all of them are buying, the fact that they’re the ones reaching out shows that half the battle is simply showing up.
While I haven’t put too much attention toward LOIs, it’s time to pick that up again. The conference is in a few months. I may not be going thanks to a lack of hotel space (which has been a problem with this conference for the last three years), but I can still make the connections and build the relationships.
Marketing, while it’s not at the forefront of my efforts these days, will continue at a more relaxed pace. I have a few marketing ideas to put into play. If they work out, I’ll write a post explaining what I did and what the results were.
Writers, what were your results for January?
What’s working? What isn’t?
How are you intending to improve your results for February?
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