Notes from a Hired Pen: Mid-year check in

Readers!

 

I have shared many of my anxieties about freelancing (and the world in general) throughout the year so far, so let’s do a mid-year check in, shall we?

I realize that I’m just one freelancer in a world of them, but I hope that by sharing my life, I might help you a bit with yours.

Concern: Income. So far, I’ve billed $55,450 and collected $51,119. That averages out to about $9,200 billed per month and $8,500 collected per month. That’s not terrible, especially given the slow down I felt coming, and how I thought the first half of the year was going to go. In general, things have felt streakier. One month I only collected $4,000; another, $12,000. I don’t know if that’s because of the state of the world, or just how freelancing goes sometimes.

Concern: Clients. My marketing, done largely in sprints in January and April, have helped me stay on an even keel. I’m working for four new clients (one science foundation, one medical association, two universities), and have expanded my footprint at existing clients i.e. instead of working for one editor at one place, I now work for two. I also reconnected with a consumer publication I haven’t written for in years (I was waiting for someone to leave the publication — he did, BYE). They’re not exactly new, but they feel like it.

I’ll also give myself a gold star because one of those new clients has already raised my rates after I asked because they had expanded the scope of the work. So real gold — and gold star!

There have been some losses too. One client has a new editor, and I haven’t gotten any work from them yet (though I’m promised I will…at some point). I lost one client outright. I’m relatively sure that me not hating transgender people played a role in that loss, but I hadn’t been working with them long, and I’d rather not partner with people who feel that way anyway.

I have a few of those “we will be assigning to you!” promises from folks I connected with in the first half of the year, and I think most of them will happen, but until I have a contract and assignment, they don’t count as “official” yet.

I’ve also been [gasp] pitching more, which is how I got back to working for that consumer publication. Pitching is not my favorite thing, but I have ideas that I want to see out in the world, so it’s time to boot up the ol’ brain again on that front.

Concern: Me. I’m still in the midst of an anxiety wave, so everything is heightened, but in addition to EVERYTHING GOING ON, I still worry about what will happen with the economy. A lot of non-profits re-start their fiscal year on July 1, and I’m concerned about potential freelance cuts to the work I do. But a lot of those folks with that fiscal year re-start have already assigned me stuff due in July, so who knows. I pushed marketing efforts to foundations, medical associations, and re-trenching into some specific consumer publications, because of how universities are being attacked by the current administration. I’m still waiting to see how that shakes out.

Overall, I felt confident enough in how things are going to reboot my Italy plans. That’s also doable because I drastically cut back on nonsense/boredom spending. I thought that would be hard, but just the opposite. It’s been refreshing.

The one thing still out there is my novel. I’ve been so focused on taking proactive measures to protect my business, and then trying to cope with the reality of [waves hands at the world], that I haven’t worked on it. I did, however, submit the Modern Love essay I drafted to The New York Times. I doubt they’ll buy it, but hey at least say I tried — and can pitch it around if they pass.

I’m still jittery about work things, but learning from what I did (and didn’t do) during the Great Recession, and acting appropriately, helped. Hopefully it’ll keep working.

Also, about that anxiety, I have been feeling better. Some of my coping techniques have worked, especially logging out of social media for most of the day, and instead bracketing my intake into specific times. And I really did oxiclean my comforter. It worked! I’m onto some t-shirts and socks. It’s one of those things, like clearing the sink/tub drains of your 100+ year old house with baking soda and vinegar, that is satisfying to do and see.

And a reminder! If you have a freelance questions you’d like me to answer in a future mailbag issue, hit the contact box. That also goes for if want to know how a specific story came together that I haven’t done a “How Did This Get Made” on, you can let me know there too. If there’s a reason I don’t want to share (because even some of the best stories look flawless after I went through hell to write them), I’ll let you know privately. Oh and if you want to buy an ebook, they’re still only $10! I’ll never raise the price on those.

 

Recent Bylines

“Practical approaches to measuring and interpreting Alzheimer’s disease biomarkers,” Clinical Laboratory News

“Using ChatGPT to prompts to enhance clinical data analysis through coding,” Clinical Laboratory News

“A conversation with ADLM 2025 Annual Meeting Organizing Chair Steven Cotton, PhD,” Clinical Laboratory News

 

What I’m Reading

• Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins. And we’re back to another aggressively fine book selection. In this thriller, Lux and her boyfriend Nico agree to take two strangers on a sail from from Hawaii to a fictional island with a creepy past. As you can suspect, things go horribly wrong. It’s the kind of book Hawkins writes, and they’re fine! I still wonder if The Villa was so engrossing because I listened to the production with a cast of narrators, while hiking through Italy, or if it was just a better book.
• Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid. I thought this book about a fictional space mission (and two women in the space program) was just OK, then I read the second half of the book in one sitting. It is a story about love, and space, and watching things you maybe can’t have — or can you? This may be her best yet. Also, I am putting my phone in another part of the house for chunks of the day. I don’t think I’d have been able to have that “finish half the book at once” experience if not.

 

What I’m Watching

• Matlock (season 1). This reboot of the old Matlock show is way better than I thought it would be (which seems to be the sentiment of critics too). I went into this blind, so the twist at the end of the first episode was a surprise to me, and I don’t want to ruin it for you too. But I will say that this, yes, is a case of the week CBS show, but there’s a much deeper story that runs through the season, about grief. It’s very good. If Kathy Bates wins an Emmy for the role, it will be deserved.
• Ghosts (UK version, season 4 and 5). I watched the first three seasons of the UK Ghosts when it was on HBO, then it disappeared. Hello it’s on Paramount+! It’s a really creative idea: a woman inherits a run down UK estate, and after having a near-death experience, she can see the souls of people who died there who have not yet moved on to wherever we go next. Another conflict: her husband can’t see them. Hilarity (and heart) ensue. If you need more coaxing to give this a go, one of the producers (who plays one of the ghosts) is Simon Farnaby, also wrote Paddington 2.

 

Nail Polish of the Week

Sun Street Passage by Nails, Inc. I have had bad luck with neon polishes, except this one! It’s VERY PINK HELLO.

 

Until next time,

Jen A. Miller (she/her)

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