Comments on: Monthly Assessment – May

By: Kimberly Ben

Kimberly Ben — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 03:30:51 +0000

May was slow for me. Mostly because of personal circumstances beyond my control. Several of my existing clients are also sending less work my way. Time for me to activate high-voltage marketing techniques. Can't stop now.

By: Melissa Donovan

Melissa Donovan — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 04:40:13 +0000

Weird. Sounds like May was similar for both of us. One of my ongoing clients postponed for budgeting reasons and I’m ramping up marketing too. Oh, and I definitely only pursue gigs that post a rate. Otherwise, you’re in a blind bidding war.

By: Irreverent Freelancer

Irreverent Freelancer — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 21:29:12 +0000

May was a great month for me after four months of billing only about 60% of what I like to. June looks pretty good too, but I’m slacking a bit on the marketing because of my busyness. I’m aiming to fix that issue this week. I brought in one new client in April that spilled over to May, but most of the pickup came from former clients I haven’t worked with in a while–a good case for one of your regular marketing strategies, Lori: keeping in touch.

I hope you keep that promise to yourself. I’m so busy writing for other people that my personal projects are always getting pushed to the backburner. I think it’s important for us to take a step back sometimes and remind ourselves why we became writers in the first place.

By: Lori

Lori — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 15:22:01 +0000

Gabriella, have you considered a gig in politics? You just made a sucky month sound fantastic! LOL

Devon, I hear you. It's time I get myself going on my fiction work. I've made a promise to myself I intend to keep. :)

By: Gabriella F.

Gabriella F. — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 14:02:38 +0000

Oh, boy, am I embarrassed to report that my May was horrid--and it was all my fault.

I just had no motivation. I obviously need a vacation! So after about a week of working at a snail's pace, I finally told myself that I should just take it easy in May and rejuvenate. The result was less revenue than I need to pay my monthly bills. Oy!

I'm okay with that because I have savings and obviously I needed the mental break. In addition, I already have assignments for June that may rival my best month ever.

So I can proudly report that May stunk to high heaven!

On the new business front, I've been equally unmotivated. However, I appear to have fallen into a good gig. A big client is launching a new Web site, and I've already been told the client may want half to all of my time for six months. Not sure how I'll juggle that, but I'll deal with that when the time comes.

Viva la slacker!

By: devonellington

devonellington — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 12:54:48 +0000

May was better than April. Finances were up, although still not where i want them. DIXIE DUST RUMORS released (early!), so I'm on the promo wagon for that. I've got some stuff coming out in June, and some possibilities for longer-term material coming up.

The fiction is outpacing and outpaying the business writing at this point, which is just fine with me.