Notes from a Hired Pen: My $124,045 freelance year

Readers!

 

It’s time for my annual wrap up! In 2024, I made $124,045, which is my third highest net income year in my 20 years of freelancing. Hooray! It’s about $12,000 up from 2023, though still more than $10,000 off my peak of $135,000 in 2019.

And since this is my most shared newsletter of the year, every year, if you don’t know me, I’m a long time full time freelancer writer who puts together this newsletter for free, and also sells $10 ebooks on how to be a better freelancer. If you’re reading this on my website, they’re on the top right of this post. If you got this forwarded as an email, click here.

You can see previous reports here: 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023.

And now a breakdown of where that money came from:

• Colleges and Universities: 33%
• Association Publications: 31%
• Business to Business Publications: 24%
• Research Institutes/Hospitals: 8%
• Consumer Publications: 2%
• Custom Content: 1%
• Freelance Instruction: 1%

 

And here it is in chart form.

A few notes on 2024:

• I’m not surprised my income was up in 2024. In 2023, I spent a lot time writing a non-fiction book proposal than didn’t sell, and then my dog Annie died suddenly — not too long after I took a month off to drive to California and back. I didn’t plan for my times off as well as I normally do, in part because one of those necessary chunks of time was very sudden. I neglected my business (even if one of those reasons was justified), and it showed.
• In 2024, I was able to plan my time off much better. I made two trips to Italy, but I didn’t take any big road trips, instead opting to go down the shore and work while sneaking down to the beach as often as possible.
• Also in 2024, I reached another big goal: I wrote a novel. Hooray again! It’s still mostly mess, but the first section is almost polished enough to start showing around (I had HOPED to have that done by January 6, but COVID knocked me down, and I was not going to try to struggle through it to meet an arbitrary deadline I set for myself). I wrote it mostly in half hour chunks, which might not seem like a lot on their own, but they stacked up. I also took a few days off over the summer to go to writer’s retreat in Upstate New York, which was well worth my time. Again, I have no idea if this will sell, but I’m proud of myself for trying something new.
• Do these splits surprise me? Not really. I am extremely choosy in deciding when I’m going to put myself through the wringer of a consumer publication process. Most of this was from the two stories I wrote for the  New York Times over the summer, which are on topics I had been wanting to write about for some time, so they were worth it for me. But I’m not going to fling out ideas that I’m only so/so on just for the sake of it. I was unable to sell a feature about running the upcoming Disneyland Half Marathon, but maybe that’s a good thing, since I am going to be taking two weeks off from running (see again: COVID) and will most likely be walking most of it.
• Some snot said that I’m not a really journalist anymore since I’m not actively pitching “big” publications, which is ridiculous, especially when 24% of my income comes from business publications. But overall, the only person who gets to decide how I want to run my business is me. I’m only just beginning to confront the toll that years of writing weekly for major mainstream publications took on me, because I was always told that being subjected to harassment, abuse and yes death threats was part of the experience. (Mostly) opting out has improved my life in incredible ways. I now have been doing this full time for 20 years. The fact that I have been able to adapt and change in a way that allows me to stay in it – and be happy in it — is what matters most to me. If anyone else is trying to judge you for the work that you do, tell them Jen said to STFU and mind their own business.

 

I’m not really at resolution person, but I do have some goals for 2025:

• Do more marketing. That’s one thing that really slid last year. Part of it was that I was busy, which is a good thing! But given the turbulent state of, well, everything, and inflation, I should be trying to find new markets, especially when it comes to B2B publishing. I love who I write for, but I need to diversify that work.
• Sell the novel. Duh, right? I do know that publishing is a persnickety business, and whether or not it sells may not be market of whether the book is good or not. I’m going to give it a go though.
• Spend the end of the year in Italy. This might not seem like a work goal, but taking off a significant amount of time is going to require a lot of work and planning. I’m also hoping to take the B1 Certification language exam this year, and while my Italian has gotten to the point that I can maintain conversations, taking this specific test is going to require a lot more work on my grammar — and that of course takes times. I also include this because it shows I’m now planning my work around my life, not the other way around, which is a very good thing.

 

I will have more thoughts on reaching 20 years of being a full time freelancer, but I’m saving that for another newsletter.

 

Until Next Time!

Jen A. Miller

Notes from a Hired Pen ebook series

Like this post? Buy Jen a Coffee!