Opportunity knocks. Should you open the door?

When you’re a first-year freelancer, you can’t afford to turn down opportunity.

I mean that quite literally. You have to eat and pay bills, right? Having a plan for your business is good, but a plan alone won’t put food on the table. And since your first year of full-time freelancing is unlikely to bring you wealth, it’s a good idea to at least consider every chance that floats your way, no matter how far afield it might take you from your business plan.

“The First-Year Freelancer,” shares tips and lessons I’ve learned in my first year as a solopreneur. Join the conversation on LinkedIn or Twitter.  

This can be one of the frustrating aspects of being a solopreneur. You think you have a course mapped out, and then the dictates of necessity and circumstance require you to find an alternate route.

However, when you learn to roll with the punches, this can become an exhilarating part of being a freelancer. You just have to rekindle your appetite for adventure.

Opportunity, unexpected

My own brush with the unexpected happened in February. I got an email, out of the blue, from a startup company asking me if I’d like to teach English to Chinese children online. They invited me to apply to their company and, out of curiosity, I replied that I’d be willing to give it a try.

The opportunity with that particular company didn’t work out, but it got me thinking. I did a quick search for similar outfits and found VIPKID, a reputable company with good reviews from teachers.

I was hesitant to apply at first. I’d launched my freelance career to be a writer, after all. If I started teaching, would that mean I’d failed as a writer?

Eventually, though, I changed my frame. Having another oar in the water would make my business stronger, not weaker. I studied to be an English teacher, so teaching was another skill I could leverage to my advantage. Besides, it wasn’t like I was signing my life away. Teaching for VIPKID was, I figured, a small, reversible bet. The company contracts with teacher for only six months at a time. If I did one contract and found it wasn’t for me, I could walk away and nobody would be the wiser.

I applied and was accepted. It wasn’t a moment too soon, it turned out. A few weeks later, I got word that a major project I was working on was going to be temporarily suspended. While one profit center slowly dried up, I was able to gradually ramp up the new one. This allowed my business to survive a lean time that could have otherwise ended me. Taking that opportunity probably saved my business, and I think it’s one of the smartest things I’ve done as a freelancer so far.

Teaching ESL has been a tremendous boost, financially and otherwise. The pay is good and the students are awesome. Plus, I get to build connections with people half a world away. Not bad for part-time gig work. With luck, this experience will itself become something I can leverage in a variety of ways later down the road.

Tools for analyzing opportunity

Obviously, not every opportunity will be worth pursuing. It’s like playing gin rummy. You can’t hold on to every card that passes through your hands. You have to discard most of them, actually. In other words, you’ll have to say “no” a lot more times than you can say “yes.”

How do you decide which opportunities to pursue? Here are some factors that I’ve found can make the choice easier.

• The compensation. Money isn’t everything, but it can be an excellent tool for quickly winnowing out unprofitable opportunities. This is particularly important in your first year as a full-time freelancer. You can pursue low-paying passion projects after your business takes off. Right now, though, you need to make money. Job offers with paltry pay are ones you can easily cross off the list of possibilities. The exception would be opportunities that offer substantial other benefits, like important exposure or a chance to create a real portfolio-boosting piece. Just be sure the you can afford to take this lower-paying gig without breaking your business.
• Your existing skill set. Offers that dovetail with your existing skills are worth considering. The caveat, of course, is that these must be skills you’re actually interested in developing. Just because you spent a summer installing chemical toilets in the Adirondacks doesn’t mean you should accept similar work if you absolutely hated it the first time around.
• Flexibility (or lack thereof). Flexible opportunities — the kind that give you greater control over how much you work and when — are often preferable to ones with rigid requirements. Flexibility allows you to pursue multiple leads at a time, increasing the chance that at least one of them will become a strong income source.

The Bottom Line

Opportunity comes in many forms. Part of being a good businessperson is knowing which kinds of opportunity to pursue. This is where rubrics come in handy. They help you analyze a possibility and decide whether it’s in your best interest to follow.

I won’t claim to be an expert in this field, but I’m a lot more savvy about it that I was a year ago. Constant growth: It’s one of the challenges — and gifts — of the freelance life.

Further reading

Most of what I’ve learned so far, I learned by reading excellent books. Here are two that helped me make decisions in my freelance career.

“Making a Living Without a Job” by Barbara J. Winter. This book really got me off the ground. It has a ton of great tips on choosing, building and sustaining multiple profit centers.

“The Startup of You” by Reid Hoffman. Granted, this book is geared toward 9-to-5 folks, but it has useful insights for freelancers, too. The idea of small, reversible bets came directly from this book.

Photo credit: Gratisography

Want to avoid drifting into mediocrity? Start journaling

“The First-Year Freelancer,” shares tips and lessons I’ve learned in my first year as a solopreneur. Join the conversation on LinkedIn or Twitter.  

Home office? Check.

Laptop? Check.

Business cards? Check.

Personal journal?

When you’re piloting your own ship, it’s important to have all the tools necessary to do the job. A journal is one of them. Mine has kept me motivated and on-track more times than I can count. It also helps me avoid the slow drift into mediocrity, the death knell for any self-guided venture.

I’m currently using two journaling techniques for my professional life: Daily Success and WAWD. The latter is a semi-regular exercise I use to assess my long-term trajectory, and the former focuses on more immediate concerns. Let’s break both of these down.

Daily Success

I usually start my morning by defining what success will look like in the coming day. What would my best self do today? What do I need to accomplish to count the day a success?

My work life is always evolving, so every day’s list is a little different. A typical day’s list might look like this:

• Be highly engaged and present for each ESL class I teach this morning.
• Get my writing work done by 2 p.m. so I have time for a walk.
• Plan tomorrow’s classes with special attention to increasing student output.

This exercise helps me get my head screwed on straight in those critical first hours of the day. I can also review it at the end of the day to see where I’ve hit my targets. This practice helps me see where I am making progress and where I’m consistently falling short.

Success is always a moving target, and its definition changes depending on my priorities in the moment. For that reason, it’s important for me to define what success looks like and set measurable goals for achieving it.

WAWD

WAWD stands for “Wither Are We Drifting?” I stole this phrase from an episode of Dobie Gillis, believe it or not. In one episode, Dobie’s wise but crotchety high school teacher asks his students to write an essay on this subject. The phrase stuck with me. In the mad scramble of life, it’s easy to drift mindlessly, unaware that the current is taking you far from your destination. A quick but regular check-in with yourself can prevent you from drifting too far off course.

In my WAWD reflection, I ask myself questions about where I am and where I’m headed. These questions include:

• What new changes or developments have transpired in my work?
• What possible changes or threats might be on the horizon?
• If I continue on the present course, where will I end up? Is that where I want to be?
• If not, what course corrections should I make now to change my destination?

These questions help ensure that I’m in charge of my destiny and not simply drifting with the tide.

The bottom line

Journaling may seem like a frivolous use of time and energy in your business. But, believe me, it’s not. The work people commonly associate with self-employment — sending invoices, doing your own taxes, and the like — that’s the easy part. The hard part is setting your own trajectory and maintaining it over time. Journaling is a powerful tool for doing just that.

Plus, it’s fun. Your journal allows you to observe how you change over time. You gradually see yourself gaining confidence, taking bolder risks and growing greater trust in your own abilities.

Working for yourself is one of the greatest adventures you can take. You’re going to want to remember the journey. Do your future self a favor and write it down now.

Do you use a journal for your professional development? If so, how has it helped you grow? Leave your thoughts in the comments. 

Photo credit: Gratisography

2 ways to keep your freelance business afloat

This series, “The First-Year Freelancer,” shares tips and lessons I’ve learned in my first year as a solopreneur. Join the conversation on LinkedIn or Twitter.  

CEO. CFO. Employee.

When you’re self-employed, you’re all of the above.

Keeping your ship afloat requires a lot of work. If you’re bootstrapping it, then you’re doing most of that work yourself. In addition to making your clients happy, you’re also in charge of tracking your time, income, and expenses.

Sound boring? It used to sound boring to me, too. Then, I actually started doing it. Now, the bookkeeping is one aspect of the freelance life I love the best. (Well, aside from working in my own space.) I love updating my spreadsheets. The numbers tell the ongoing story of my business, which was only a dream a year ago. They also give me unique insights that I use to gauge my business’s health and make better decisions.

But, to glean all those goodies, you first have to do your homework. Let’s start with the more obvious metric you should be measuring: Your money.

Tracking your finances

Financial tracking is more than simply recording what you spend and what you earn. A good tracking system will align with your business’s financial goals, and it will keep you constantly appraised on how close you are to achieving them.

Why do you need financial goals? Because your enterprise is a rudderless boat without them. Goals give you a direction. Even if you don’t reach them, they’re still a powerful tool for keeping you moving forward. I didn’t come close to reaching my income goals in my first six months of freelancing. Still, the fact that I had goals reinforced that I was serious about being successful. That helped me pull through the lean times.

Now that I’ve gotten off the ground, my spreadsheets are an indispensable tool. For example, take the spreadsheet I use to track my earnings from VIPKID. Each month has a separate worksheet. This is where I track the classes I’ve taught and my earnings for each one.

At the top of each sheet, I track my gross and net earnings. (I hide the gross earning figure from myself, actually. This way, I’m only thinking about my net income.) A simple formula allows me to calculate my monthly deductions: 20 percent for taxes and 8 percent for future business investments. These include purchasing new equipment and attending professional development events.

Another cell shows me the difference between my current gross income and my income goal for that month. I’ve enabled conditional formatting, so the cell automatically turns green when I meet or exceed my goal. A quick glance at the cell tells me if I’ve met my monthly goal. Here’s what last month’s sheet looks like:

It’s a lot of information to track. But each piece of data tells me something about how I’m doing and where I’m headed. If my bookings decrease, I can notice it immediately and take action.

A key truth I’ve learned about freelancing: You have to convince everyone that you’re going to be a smashing success, even if you don’t feel like one just yet. And, the first person you have to convince is yourself. Committing to financial goals and tracking your progress toward them is one way of showing the world — and yourself —  that you mean business.

Tracking your time

An advantage of being a freelancer: You work from the comfort of your own home.

A disadvantage of being a freelancer: You work from the comfort of your own home.

We’ve all been there. Doing that load of laundry seems like so much more fun than researching the article that’s due tomorrow. Resist the temptation. Wasted time is the kiss of death for your freelance business.

Tracking your time is a powerful way to kick the procrastination habit. Think of it as clocking in. You, as the boss, expect you, the employee, to show up to work. Tracking your time is one way to keep yourself accountable.

When aligned with your per-project earnings, time tracking is also a great way to see exactly how much your time is worth. Again, I return to my trusty spreadsheet for an example.

Consider this: In February, I accepted some content marketing work that paid $28 per piece. I accepted the gig thinking that the blog posts would be fairly quick to put together. I soon learned this wasn’t the case. The topics were dense and unfamiliar to me, so it took me about 3 hours to write each post.

Little of my work was paid by the hour, yet I knew the exact hourly rate for each of my projects. My time tracking spreadsheet automatically divided the time spent on a project by the project’s payment amount. For most assignments, I was earning about $20 or more an hour. For these blog posts, I was only making about $6 an hour. Yikes.

After doing a few of these assignments, I gracefully told the client (a content generation site) that I wasn’t the best fit for their needs.

Tracking my time and comparing it to my income not only alerted me that I was working well below my target income. It also gave me the backbone to turn the work down. This is important. When you’re a freelancer, there’s a huge temptation to take any work that pays money. But this, I quickly learned, is the path to ruin. You have to have the courage to walk away from any opportunity that doesn’t pay you what your worth.

The bottom line

If you’re a freelancer, you’re automatically a businessperson. You need to track the same metrics that a company would use to measure its success.

There are probably a host of other metrics I could — and should  — be tracking, but tracking my time and finances were the ones that really got me off the ground.

For me, self-employment is all about self-empowerment. Gathering and analyzing data puts me in the driver’s seat. I have all the crucial information I need to make decisions about my business. That’s true freedom, folks, and it’s definitely worth the work.

What tools and processes do you use to track your finances and time? What other metrics do you track? Leave your thoughts in the comments. 

Photo credit: Gratisography

The Freelance Files: Issue 11

New Series: The First-Year Freelancer

Next month marks my one-year anniversary as a freelancer. And, although I won’t claim to have the whole thing figured out, I know one thing for certain: I know a lot more now than I did when I started.

A year ago, I had just barely escaped an institutional smash-up that decimated the ranks at my library. After applying for library jobs all over the region, and finding them in extremely short supply, I knew I had to adjust my strategy. I tried freelance writing more out of desperation than anything else. I bet the farm, hoping it would work. Knowing what I know now, I wouldn’t have made such a large gamble. (More on that later.) Fortunately, though, my gamble paid off.

Since then, I’ve learned a lot about managing my business of one. In this new series, titled First-Year Freelancer, I’m going to share what I’ve learned so far. I’ll share tips on topics like:

• Tracking your finances and your time
• Being savvy about new opportunities
• Making small, reversible bets
• Taking ownership of your business and your life

If you’re a freelancer, what handy tips have you learned? If you’re not a freelancer but are thinking about starting the journey, what would you like to know more about? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Current gigs

After focusing mainly on teaching ESL or several months, I now have more writing work lined up. I’m doing some business writing for the healthcare industry. It’s proving to be pretty interesting. I covered rural hospitals in my past life as a newspaper reporter, so it’s fun to return to an industry I’m familiar with.

I’m still teaching, of course. VIPKID has proven to be a great supplement to my writing business. Since all the classes take place in Beijing time, I’m up in the wee hours of the morning (2:30 a.m., anyone)? The benefit is that I still have a good half a day or more to write. Plus, I’ve made a decent 80 bucks before most folks have even gotten into the office. Boom!

In case you missed it, VIPKID is a Chinese startup company that connects Chinese students to native English speakers via video conferencing technology. The company’s rapidly growing, and they’re in desperate need of teachers right now. If you have a bachelor’s degree and you’re interested in teaching, too, check it out here. 

Jam of the Week

I love some bubbly, upbeat techno-jams to get my brain in gear. My new favorite artist, Mrs. Jynx, never fails to deliver. This album is a refreshing break from the darker, edgier side of electronica. Give it a listen.

spotify:album:2GjXHLcqqyAEQdBQc1P4cn

Inspiration

“Two things everybody’s got tuh do fuh theyselves … They got tuh go tuh God and they got tuh find out about livin’ fuh theyselves.” – Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God

The Freelance Files: Issue 10

Gigs this week

Humane Pursuits published a profile I wrote about Erika Babbitt-Rogers,  a Laramie resident who owns and operates Wyoming Worm Wrangler. It’s been a while since I’ve written a profile — that’s newsroom-speak for a human interest story that focuses on a single individual — and this piece was a good opportunity to get back in the game.

Of all the news story formats, profiles are one of my favorites. They give you a chance to explore the world from someone else’s viewpoint. This type of writing also gets you out of your own head, which is a big bonus for introverts like myself.

Anyway, big thanks to Erika for driving me out to the family farm north of Laramie and showing me around. Thanks also to the Wyoming Women’s Business Center. Without their monthly networking meetings in Laramie, it’s unlikely that Erika and I would have connected in the first place.

Jam of the week

When I’m working, I like to pipe feel-good music straight into the old brain box. It’s a nice kick-start to the day, especially when I’m up at 3:30 a.m. preparing for my ESL classes or trying to wrestle a tough sentence into submission.

And this, my friends, is the feel-goodiest jam of them all, courtesy of Craig Chaquico. Enjoy.

Inspiration

This comes courtesy of Nellie Tayloe Ross, the nation’s first woman governor:

“At any moment of despair … this thought should give us courage — we can prepare for future responsibilities only by meeting credibly that which each day brings.”

Have a good weekend, friends.

 

 

The Freelance Files: Issue 9

Gigs this week

A few months back, I wrote about the newly rechristened Los Angeles Chargers’ plans to leave San Diego. They’re not the only NFL team planning to move. The Oakland Raiders have eyes on Las Vegas, where they hope to relocate and build a new stadium.

The relocation isn’t set in stone, and the Silver and Black still have several hurdles to clear. If they do make their new home in Las Vegas, though, it will be one more piece in the state’s plan to solidify its standing as a tourism hot spot. To read more, check out my story at VT Pulse. 

 

Jams of the Week

If you like your music a little on the weird and dreamy side, check out this track. Spotify served this up to me in a daily mix, and I can’t stop listening to it. It’s equal parts atmospheric and unsettling, like the opening track to your favorite creepy movie.

Speaking of creepy stuff, my husband and I recently finished watching “Stranger Things.” Wow. The series perfectly captured that mix of yearning, nostalgia and disquiet that I associate with the 80s. The score was pitch-perfect, so I was thrilled to see it available on Spotify. Check it out.

Inspiration

Imagination is more important than investment, and enthusiasm is more powerful than cynicism.

Have a good weekend, friends.

The Freelance Files: Issue 8

Last week was a busy week. Before you could say, “Holy Oxford comma, Batman!” it was Sunday night, I had nary an issue of The Freelance Files to show for it.

Anyway, here’s the installment that should have run on Friday. I hope you enjoy it.

Gigs last week

Kemper Arena sold for $1

Long gone are the days when you could buy a Whopper for 35 cents.* In Kansas City, Mo., though, you can buy an arena for $1.

That’s the deal that was recently reached between the City of Kansas City and Foutch Brothers LLC. The sale will allow the developer to convert the 43-year-old Kemper Arena into a youth sports complex capable of drawing both regional and out-of-state visitors. The deal will also help the city save roughly $1 million a year on maintenance costs, a city spokesman said.

If you want to read more, check out my latest story at Venues Today.

The Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act of 2017

Last week, American Muslim Magazine published my first foray into reporting on national policy. The piece examined the likelihood of the Muslim Brotherhood being designated a foreign terrorist organization and, if it did, what possible implications that could have for Muslim organizations stateside.

Robert McKenzie, a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, was kind enough to explain exactly what the Muslim Brotherhood is. Like many people, I imagine, I had heard about the Muslim Brotherhood on the news, but I didn’t know much about it.

According to McKenzie, the Muslim Brotherhood isn’t an organization in the way that you and I might define the term. It’s not a cohesive movement with central leadership. Instead, the Muslim Brotherhood is widely dispersed, and its activities vary widely between chapters. For this and other reasons, it’s difficult to designate it as a terrorist organization per U.S. State Department criteria.

I also spoke with Hazem Bata, secretary general of the Islamic Society of North America, who explained how his organization might be affected by the designation of a group half a world away. It was an engaging interview, and I encourage you to read the entire piece if you want to learn more. AMM is a reader-driven, reader-supported publication. If you like what they do, check out their Patreon page. You can also donate directly to a story already in development.

Jam of the week

Here’s a little gem I stumbled across last week: “Deltitnu” by Aydio. If you like your funky jams infused with some vocal sampling and a down tempo flavor, I highly suggest this track. Pairs well with lazy Sundays and rainy afternoons.

Book of the week

I finally got around to reading the first volume of “The Vision,” the acclaimed comic by Tom King, Gabriel Hernandez Walta, and company. I’d heard good things about this book, and I wasn’t disappointed.

The narrative deftly examines what it would be like to be the cybernetic offspring of an android who decided to make — literally make — a family. It’s a moving story that examines family dynamics and otherness in with a depth you rarely find in realism.

Anyway, enough of me raving. Just go read it, will ya?

Inspiration

Where there is time, there is hope.

This is what I used to tell myself when I was working in newspapers and my deadline was looming near. As long as there’s time on the clock, there’s still time to turn things around.

Have a good week, friends.

 

*In case you missed that reference, it’s from a 1980s’ Burger King commercial. My parents had recorded some show on VHS — “Alf,” maybe? — and that commercial got recorded in the mix. Even now, decades later, I still find myself singing, “You could get a Whopppperrr!” Well played, Burger King. Well played.

The Freelance Files: Issue 7

Gigs this week

I spent many summers on my grandparents’ ranch in Colorado, so I know a few things about irrigation. In spring, you burn your ditches to clear out all the dead grass and gunk. After you turn on the water, you walk the ditch and keep a lookout for gopher holes. You have to plug those suckers good. Otherwise, they’ll make the ditch leak like a sieve. (Dad-gum gophers.)

I thought I knew all there was to know about irrigation until I wrote a piece about capillary irrigation mats for Cannabis Cultivation Today. If you’re an indoor grower, you can stick these mats under your plants, and the mat will help move the water to the roots. No muss, no fuss, and definitely no gopher holes. If you’re interested in learning more, go check it out.

This week, I also broke out my reporter’s kit and interviewed an honest-to-gosh worm wrangler. It’s for a piece that’s scheduled for publication at Humane Pursuits.

I accepted the invitation to write for this online publication because they value well-written pieces that encourage thoughtfulness and reflection. I particularly liked this piece, which examines the myth that good writers — or any other type of creative, for that matter — are born, not made. There’s a pernicious myth out there that if you have to work hard to be a good writer, you’re not really a writer. That’s bunkum, pure and simple, and I appreciate another writer calling it out as such.

Anyway, check out Humane Pursuits if you need some thoughtful reading in your life. Or, if you need a break from buzz-worthy kittens and hedgehogs walking teeny-tiny tightropes or whatever else the Internet does these days.

Jam of the week

I love listening to smooth jazz while I write. When I need to get down to business, I turn on this playlist. Lyrics toss a wrench in my groove, so almost all the songs are purely instrumental. The one exception is “Got It Goin’ On” by Boney James. (Why, yes, Mr. James. I do indeed got it goin’ on.)

Inspiration

Keep your head, even when everyone else around you is losing theirs. Stay level and stay loose.

Have a good weekend, friends.

The Freelance Files: Issue 6

Gigs this week

When’s the last time you quantified how much garbage you made in a week?

If you’re like me, the answer to that question is “never.” Tracking trash has never been high on my list of priorities. However, it’s just one of the tasks you have to complete if you want to be a Certifiably Green Denver business.

I spoke recently with Amy Andrle, co-owner of L’Eagle Services. The cannabis retail store was the first of its kind to receive the City and County of Denver’s Certifiably Green Denver distinction.

The program, run by Denver’s Department of Environmental Health, evaluates businesses’ eco-friendly practices and management strategies in five areas:

• Energy efficiency
• Water conservation
• Resource management
• Alternative transportation
• Business management

If you want to read more, check out the full story at Dispensary Management Today.

Fun stuff

I’m a fan of free stock images. (Namely, because I’m broke.) But, I get weary of the same old photos of writers, pencils, typewriters, etc. This week, I discovered Gratisography, and my life is forever changed.

OK, maybe that’s a bit dramatic, but seriously. Here’s my favorite one so far:

See what I mean?

Check it out. And, while you’re there, buy the man a coffee. Evil genius deserves to be rewarded.

Jam of the Week

This week’s jam comes courtesy of Welcome To Night Vale. At some point, I’m going to curate a Spotify playlist with all my favorite tunes from the weather section. For now, though, I give you “Having Fun” by Tom Milsom.

How do I describe this song? Imagine Patti Smith slamming poetry to the backdrop of flutes and syncopated drums, and you’d be close. Just listen, though. I think you’ll like it.

That’s about it for this week. Keep an eye on my Facebook page for photos, conversations and other nonsense. Also, if you’re thinking about landing a column in your local newspaper or picking up some freelance writing on the side, read this blog post first. It will help you establish a good relationship with your editor.

Inspiration

Things start moving when you do.

 

Have a good weekend, friends.

Photo credits: Pixabay, Gratisography

3 types of writers that drive editors nuts

Few professional relationships are closer than the relationship between writers and editors. A good editor can be your mentor, your safety net, your confidante and your friend.

Small things, however, can quickly erode the relationship. When the connection between writer and editor sours, it’s a misery for both parties involved.

Whether you’re a full-time writer or you’re looking to pick up writing as a side gig, it’s important to establish a solid rapport with your editor early on. Fortunately, that’s an easy task if you keep the editor’s pain points in mind.

Here are the three types of writers that drive editors bonkers, along with tips for how not to become one of them. Steer clear of these bad habits, and you’ll stand a better chance of getting on your editor’s good side and staying there.

Writers who turn in sloppy copy

Why it drives editors nuts

Few things irritate editors more than getting a piece riddled with errors. Editors are busy people, and they live their entire life on a deadline. They don’t have time to mop up a piece teeming with mistakes.

A few typos are forgivable. But a piece full of errors is the hallmark of a writer who has little pride in his work. Your editor has devoted her entire career to mastering the art of writing well and helping others do the same. She has little patience for writers who don’t take pride in their craft.

Don’t be this guy

The solution is simple: Read your work several times before you submit it. Better yet, have someone else read it, or read it aloud to a friend. Then, go back and double-check every fact and every name spelling.

Inevitably, a few small typos are likely to slip by. That’s OK. Just make sure your copy isn’t rife with misspellings, grammatical goofs and factual errors.

Writers who resist editing

Why it drives editors nuts

Editors edit. It’s their job. To ask an editor not to edit is like asking a fish not to swim.

So, you can imagine how editors get peeved with writers who insist their work is flawless and should be exempt from the editing process. Some writers will call up their editor after their work is published and argue with him over every change made to the story. (Seriously, this happens.)

Obviously, an editor should call you before making an edit that could potentially change the meaning of a sentence. And, he shouldn’t rewrite the piece entirely without consulting you. (That’s where the “mutual respect” part comes in.)

However, remember that editors are the gatekeepers of their publications, and they are ultimately responsible for everything that gets published. It’s their prerogative to make whatever changes necessary to prepare the piece for print.

Don’t be this guy

Don’t just tolerate the editing process. Embrace it. When you notice she made changes to the story, get curious and ask why. Show that you’re willing to improve and you want to learn.

Sure, it’s your writing, and you take pride in it. That’s good. However, resist every impulse to get defensive, and learn how to take corrections gracefully. Remember, you and the editor are on the same team.

Writers who don’t meet deadline

Think of a publication as an assembly line. At the front of the line is you, the writer. When you finish a piece, it goes to the editor, who maybe hands it off to her editor, who then hands it off to the design department, and so on. For the publication to come out on time, each department needs to hit its deadlines.

Remember what I said about editors living life on a deadline? It’s true. And few things aggravate them more than being behind schedule because a writer didn’t turn her work in on time.

Don’t be this guy

Be serious about meeting your deadlines. When your editor asks when he can have the piece, give yourself a buffer. It’s better to give a later ETA and turn in the story before deadline than give your editor an earlier date and fail to deliver.

Of course, delays do happen. A key source for a story isn’t returning your calls, and you’re having trouble tracking down a backup source. Editors understand this if you tell them in advance. The minute you suspect you may not be able to make deadline, let your editor know. The sooner, the better. You can earn brownie points by giving her a sampling of what you do have so far. This will show that you’ve been working on the story, not goofing off.

Your turn

What tricks have you learned for keeping your editors happy? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

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