Notes from a Hired Pen: I made $12,000 by following up this year (maybe)

Readers!

In this newsletter, I’ve written a lot about the importance of following up — on your pitches, on your letters of introduction (LOIs) and just checking in with clients you haven’t written for in a while. I tallied how much I made from following this year: a whopping $12,000 (maybe).

I add the maybe because I’m not sure if me following up lead to the work, or if these clients were going to give me the work anyway. When looking for what to include my tally, I included assignments where the client had responded directly to my follow up (and then if they gave me an assignment after that). It’s possible I’d have gotten that work anyway, but it’s not like I’m going to bug them now to ask.

I also only included follow ups I did this year. If I included all the work I got this year because at some point I followed up, it might well be half of my income. That’s because it would include one of my anchor clients, which I only start writing for after a series of follow ups got me to the right editor for my first assignment, and I now write for multiple titles within that company.

I write this now because it’s the end of the year, but also as a reminder that you’re rarely bothering people if you follow up. Their inboxes are carnival funhouses, so it’s easy for your email to get lost inside. I’ve only had one person, in the 20+ years I’ve been doing this, snip at me. And I wouldn’t want to work for someone like that anyway, so nuts to her!

 

Recent Bylines

“UNE summer sustainability fellows create impact through community alliances,” UNE Magazine

“Breaking down silos in healthcare,” UNE Magazine 

“How the learning leader role is changing amid AI adoption,” HR Dive

 

What I’m Reading

• Remember When by Mary Balogh. Most regency romances are about young people finding love. This one is about 50ish year old widowers re-finding one another again after they’d been in love as teenagers. It was OK. I often feel that today’s romance novels are 50 pages too long, but this one could have lost 100 and still worked. Since it’s part of the Ravenswood series, Balogh also had to update on every single one of those characters — many of whom came to see the book’s heroine for a visit — which was a slog.

 

What I’m Watching

• Clash of the Titans (1981). I watched it because I went to the library to see what materials they had about Malta (as one does), and this was filmed there. It’s bad. Not “hasn’t aged well” bad but bad bad. I brought this up at Christmas breakfast and my dad instantly said “that robot owl was stupid.” Harry Hamlin looked pretty good as Perseus though so good for him?
• Death in Paradise (season 11). The question I had after watching season 11 is: how big is this fictional island of Saint Marie that they have one murder a week? And why would people keep visiting murder island?!
• Cats of Malta. Speaking again of Malta! This is a short documentary about the people who feed and care for the country’s feral cat population. As someone who loves the ideas of cats but can’t live with one because of allergies (I tried the shots and they didn’t work), I enjoyed this one.
• Babes in Toyland. I watched this movie constantly as a kid, and since it ends with a toy shop and a Christmas wedding, why not? It’s not as bad as Clash of the Titans, but it is odd. There’s a whole song about how girls can’t do math, and Ray Bolger wears more makeup to make him look Spanish in this movie than he did to make him look like a Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz. There’s also a fake Laurel & Hardy, and they made Annette Funicello wear an awful red wig while Tommy Sands gets to keep his 1960s pompadour. Unfair!
• Mrs. Santa Claus. I follow a Murder, She Wrote Instagram fan account (who doesn’t), which posted pictures of Angela Lansbury in Christmas garb right about the same time I opened the Kanopy app and it suggested I might want to watch the film those photos are from. It’s set in 1910. Fed up with living in the shadow of her famous husband — who of course takes her for granted — Mrs. Santa Claus does a runner to Brooklyn, and must stay there while one of the reindeer recovers from a leg injury. She’s busy, helping with both women getting the right to vote, and ending child labor. ANd Bob Mackie did the costumes (!) Given the setting and time period, the theme of immigration runs strong here too. I watched this the day that Stephen Miller posted about how Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin were a reason to stop immigration in this country. I don’t think I have to explain to you readers here why this is phenomenally stupid. I didn’t listen to 63 hours of Frank Sinatra biography and re-learn every Italian slur in existence for a ghoul, who probably can’t step into the sun without burning up, to pretend that Italians have always been considered white. Even this made for TV movie from the 1990s knows that. Oh and his family hates him too. Fingers crossed this hypocrite gets tried at the Hague for the holidays in the near future.
• The Roses. A couple rushes into a relationship, which seems to be working OK. But then her career takes off on the same day that his tanks, and things go awry from there. This is a remake of The War of the Roses, which I haven’t seen, but now I want to. I’m not going to say no to seeing Olivia Coleman and Benedict Cumberbatch go toe to toe, but from what I’ve read, it doesn’t have the same level of vitriol as the original. I may be more in the mood for that.

 

Nail Polish of the Week

Game Theory by Essie. I wasn’t quite feeling CHRISTMAS RED so I went with this one, which is almost like the color of dried blood. Happy New Year!

 

Until next time!

Jen A. Miller (she/her)

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