When you’re pitching a complicated story, it’s important to provide enough background information to help an editor understand why this story needs to be told.

But too much background can bog down your pitch, or bury the story you really want to tell.

In this pitch fix, we’re looking at long-form journalism

This time, we’re going to look at a pitch where the author is clearly an expert on a complicated subject—but she needs a little help pulling the story she wants to write out of her background information.

Colleen Mondor’s aviation-industry pitch

Colleen Mondor is an author, blogger, and journalist. She’s written a nonfiction memoir, The Map of My Dead Pilots: The Dangerous Game of Flying in Alaska, and wants to build her long-form journalism portfolio.

Mondor submitted the following pitch to Outside, Men’s Journal, and Air and Space Magazine but hasn’t been able to place her story.

What do you think is holding this pitch back?

Dear XX:

In the 90 years since aircraft first flew in Alaska, the bush pilot myth has become synonymous with Alaskan life. Tourists are drawn to stories of mercy pilots and pictures of aircraft loaded with everything from sled dogs to outboard motors are as much a part of the state’s image as the northern lights and Denali. But the harsh truth about aviation here is that while it is consistently one of the most dangerous places to fly in the world, almost all of the accidents are preventable.

Alaska averages about 100 aircraft accidents a year which, over the past decade, have resulted in 194 fatalities. In 2013 there was a particularly devastating crash in the small town of Soldotna. That accident made national news as two South Carolina families were killed after their charter aircraft stalled on takeoff. The recently released probable cause report found the longtime Alaska pilot made multiple errors prior to departure including failing to weigh the additional cargo onboard, loading it behind the aircraft’s center-of-gravity and exceeding the aircraft’s weight limits. He was also killed in the crash.

The investigators with the Alaska regional office of the NTSB are determined to reach beyond pilot actions to find aspects of company culture, flight training or lax federal oversight that might contribute to poor decision-making. They have also joined with representatives of the Alaskan Aviation Safety Foundation and Aircraft Owners & Pilots Association to target specific aspects of the state’s aviation environment and community to affect positive change in pilot attitudes and actions. These are the people who are not willing to dismiss Alaska simply as an inherently dangerous place to fly and I think their story needs to be told.

I first worked in the aviation industry in Alaska over 20 years ago, as a dispatcher for a Fairbanks-based commuter. I also studied aviation in college and graduate school, both in Alaska and Outside, and learned to fly when I was 18. I wrote about my years as a dispatcher in a 2011 memoir, The Map of My Dead Pilots. I have worked as a journalist and essayist on this subject for years including the past three for the Bush Pilot section of Alaska Dispatch News (the Anchorage daily newspaper), and recently in Narratively magazine. Alaska aviation is a topic I am deeply involved with, and I look forward to writing about the people who are trying to change the way it operates.

Pitch Fix for long-form journalism: State your story

When I read Mondor’s pitch, I kept waiting for the sentence that began “My story will be about” or “I’d like to write about.” I was impressed by the background information and detail, but I had a hard time figuring out what story Mondor was actually pitching to these magazines and how she planned to tell it.

Mondor has one sentence that alludes to what she intends to write: “These are the people who are not willing to dismiss Alaska simply as an inherently dangerous place to fly and I think their story needs to be told.”

It’s a great start, but I want to know more

Does Mondor have a specific person’s story in mind? Is she planning to conduct interviews for the bulk of her research, or is she thinking about going more in-depth, perhaps embedding herself with Alaska’s NSTB investigators to observe their work—and their challenges—in person?

If you thought “Wait, NSTB investigators? Isn’t this a piece about bush pilots?” I wouldn’t blame you. Mondor begins her pitch with “The bush pilot myth has become synonymous with Alaskan life,” leading the reader to expect that she plans to write about pilots. When you read carefully, you learn she really wants to write about the investigators who look into why pilots crash.

This information should be at the center of Mondor’s pitch, and the entire pitch should focus on the story she wants to tell and the methodology by which she will tell it. Otherwise, she runs the risk of confusing her editors and losing the opportunity to report on an important aspect of Alaskan aviation.

Here’s how I’d rewrite Mondor’s pitch:

In the 90 years since aircraft first flew in Alaska, the bush pilot myth has become synonymous with Alaskan life. However, many people aren’t aware of the other side of the myth: the numerous preventable aircraft accidents. Alaska averages about 100 aircraft accidents a year which, over the past decade, have resulted in 194 fatalities.

When these tragedies take place, the investigators with the Alaska regional office of the National Transport Safety Board (NTSB) look beyond pilot actions to find aspects of company culture, flight training or lax federal oversight that might contribute to poor decision-making. They have also joined with representatives of the Alaskan Aviation Safety Foundation and Aircraft Owners & Pilots Association to target specific aspects of the state’s aviation environment and community to affect positive change in pilot attitudes and actions. These are the people who are not willing to dismiss Alaska simply as an inherently dangerous place to fly and I think their story needs to be told.

I’m developing a long-form article in which I embed myself in the Alaska regional NSTB office for one month to give readers a clearer picture of the daily challenges and struggles these investigators face. I’ll follow the investigators as they visit crash sites, document accidents, and work to understand the bigger questions: What went wrong? Was it simple pilot error, or were there larger forces at work here? Why does Alaska have so many aircraft accidents, and how can these accidents be prevented?

This article will be written in a nonfiction narrative style, viewing the investigators and the pilots through a human lens. Readers will finish the piece feeling as if they were there in the NTSB office with me, watching coworkers make jokes and talk about their families before they’re called out to investigate yet another accident. They’ll also learn how this type of work affects family and personal life, and what a career based on analyzing tragedy does to a person over time.

If you are interested in learning more about this topic or discussing how this story might fit into your publication, please let me know.

A bit about my background: I first worked in the aviation industry in Alaska over 20 years ago, as a dispatcher for a Fairbanks-based commuter. I also studied aviation in college and graduate school, both in Alaska and Outside, and learned to fly when I was 18. I wrote about my years as a dispatcher in a 2011 memoir, The Map of My Dead Pilots. I have worked as a journalist and essayist on this subject for years including the past three for the Bush Pilot section of Alaska Dispatch News (the Anchorage daily newspaper), and recently in Narratively magazine. Alaska aviation is a topic I am deeply involved with, and I look forward to writing about the people who are trying to change the way it operates.

Mondor’s response

I asked Mondor if she was planning to rework her pitch based on my fix, and here’s her response:

This is really really funny. I was reading over some pitches at Open Notebook a few days ago and I started thinking about how I buried the fact that there were very real people involved in my story—the NTSB investigators (and others) who are so committed to changing the statistics. I have been so worried about getting the facts straight and making clear that this would not be another “death-defying Alaska bush pilot” article, that I left out the significant human element. (Who are the point!)

And bam—you saw it too and more importantly, you made it work.

I’ll likely tinker with this just a bit to fit exactly what I want to write about but honestly, I won’t change much. Reading over it again, I’m realizing how much I needed a second pair of eyes on it. Sometimes, no surprise, writers just can’t see the forest for the trees.

I’ll be sending this out by the end of the week—thanks so much.

Do you agree with this month’s Pitch Fix for long-form journalism? When you’re pitching a long-form journalism story, how much background information do you include? What other advice do you have for Colleen Mondor?

Does your current career match that vision?

Today, we’ll look at a reader’s question about pitching “vision clients” and discuss why your freelancing vision might change over time.

First, my numbers for October:

Completed pieces: 61

Work billed: $11,734.33

Income received: $11,774.81

In October, I earned over $10,000 in freelance income — a new milestone — and I should earn over $10,000 in November as well.

These earnings are due in part to a large project that’s scheduled to complete by the end of the year, so I don’t anticipate $10K monthly earnings being “the new normal.” However, it’s a nice temporary normal.

What am I doing with these high earnings? I’ve paid off my last outstanding debts, I’m putting aside a little extra for taxes and I’m saving as much as I can for the future. Freelancing is unpredictable, so I want to be prepared for income downturns, as well as upswings. It’s what the financial advisors would recommend, right?

Advice on pitching higher-paying clients

On the subject of advice: A reader recently asked if I’d give some advice on pitching higher-paying clients as well as pitching what she called “vision clients:” the clients or publications that represent where you want your career to go in the future.

I have a lot of advice on pitching, so I’ll start with two links. If you’re looking for advice on how to write a pitch, please check out my Write Life “Pitch Fix” series, where I workshop real pitches from writers and make those pitches stronger.

If you’re looking for a specific and actionable guide on getting better clients and earning more money, I wrote an ebook for The Write Life called “Get Better Clients and Earn More Money.”

(Seriously. It’s worth reading.)  

But let’s look closely at this reader’s questions: how do you pitch higher-paying clients, and how do you go after those clients that represent the next stage of your career?

The short answer is that you pitch higher-paying clients the same way you’re pitching your current clients. You craft smart, tailored pitches that focus on how your skills and ideas can benefit that client’s audience. You also highlight your previous work to prove that you can deliver a quality product.

I often reference Shane Snow’s video “Hacking the Freelance Ladder” for a great analysis of how a writer can use the clips and connections they build with their current clients to move “up the ladder” to better-paying clients. (Watch the video. It’s so good.)

From my experience, the first steps on the ladder are close together, and don’t always represent a significant increase in pay; I remember feeling like it was a huge deal to go from 3 cents a word to 5 cents a word, for example. As you continue to build your freelance career, the steps on the ladder might feel more like jumps; instead of getting $100 more per piece, you might get offered $500 or $1,000 more per piece.

As I moved up in my freelance career, I spent less time pitching potential clients and more time working with clients who had contacted me. When you’re pitching a client, they have most of the leverage; although you can negotiate, you often have to take or leave what they’re offering. When a client reaches out to you, you’re the one with the leverage and they’re the ones who have to take or leave your rates.

Finding your “vision clients”

Which brings me to those “vision clients.”

Here’s one of the hardest truths about freelancing: you might have a vision of where you want your career to go, but there’s going to be a lot that you can’t predict. I would never have guessed that my primary freelance beat would end up being personal finance, or that I would become an editor, as well as a writer. I didn’t plan to earn much of my income through content marketing, either; when I started freelancing, I didn’t even know what that term meant.

If you had asked me who my “vision clients” were four years ago, I probably would have named a few highbrow publications that focused on intellectual and cultural commentary. As it turns out, my greatest freelance success has come from the areas where my skills match a client’s vision; in my case, my willingness to be open about my finances and my earnings, or my ability to quickly research and analyze a subject in a way that is interesting to a client’s target audience.

So here’s my advice: if there’s a client or publication that represents where you want  your career to go, absolutely pitch them. But pay attention to the clients and publications that are interested in you, even if they might be taking you in a slightly different direction. Sometimes your career might not match your vision — and that’s a good thing.

Four years ago, I couldn’t have imagined the career I have now. I didn’t know the freelancing industry well enough to know which opportunities were available to writers, or which opportunities might be the best match for my skills. But I kept climbing the ladder, paying attention to which clients were most interested in my work, and my vision changed as my career grew.

Expect your vision to change as well. That’s the best advice I can give.

What was your first “freelancing vision?” How close or far away are you from that original idea?

First, my numbers for May:

Completed pieces: 64

Work billed: $7,074.31

Earnings received: $9,463.57

Between January 1 and May 31, I’ve billed $28,701.68 worth of work and received $27,674.24 in freelance checks. That’s well over my $5,000/month income goal — I’m averaging about $5,700 a month in billings — and I have enough work already booked that I can predict I’ll continue to hit and/or exceed my income target.

Nothing is guaranteed in freelancing — my client relationships could change at any time, just like they’ve changed in the past — but I’m very happy with my 2016 earnings, both current and projected.

I also set a goal to keep my workload manageable. I haven’t been as successful with this goal as I have with the income goal; you might remember me writing about working long hours in April. However, May was a much better month for keeping reasonable hours, taking lunch breaks, and ending work by 6:30 p.m. — and it looks like June will be the same.

Lastly, I set a goal to make this column a collaboration. With that in mind, I’d like to introduce another freelancer and her set of 2016 goals, as well as her progress towards achieving them.

Q&A with Jessie Kwak

Jessie Kwak is a freelance writer and author who writes everything from B2B marketing copy to short stories and novellas.

I interviewed Kwak in February to learn more about her 2016 freelance goals. I haven’t had the chance to share this interview with you yet, so read it below and then keep reading to learn about Kwak’s progress.

ND: What is your current freelance life like?

JK: Right now I work for about five-six clients, with some recurring blogging deadlines every week, and some [clients] giving me projects just as they come up. I’m definitely getting better at understanding my workload and scheduling out my deadlines so that I don’t get as overwhelmed — but of course it still happens sometimes that several clients need something all at once.  

Along with my freelance client work, I also write fiction. I try to get at least an hour or two on the schedule every day for fiction writing and marketing, but paying client work always takes priority for me. Most of my day is spent in my home office writing and researching, though I do sometimes have phone interviews and meetings scheduled in there, too.

And some days, when I get everything done early, I like to cut out in the afternoon and hit the climbing gym or go mountain biking. It’s nice being your own boss!

What would you like to improve about your freelancing career?

Right now I’m working on becoming more efficient in my writing. I’m getting good rates from my clients, but if I squander my time dithering on research or puttering around when I should be writing, my hourly rate totally tanks! I’m pretty happy with my clients and workload, though I’d like to narrow down on my niche even further.

What steps are you taking to help you get there? Have you had success so far?

This is my third year of freelancing, and it seems like each year has had a theme. Year 1 was, “Say yes any time someone offers you money for words.” Year 2 was, “Come up with standards in terms of types of clients and pay rates, and only say yes to those people.” Year 3 has been all about narrowing that focus even farther, and being really ruthless about saying no to clients that don’t fit into my niche.

For me, [that niche is] B2B software companies who want to hire me for ongoing content marketing work (blogging, case studies, white papers, special reports, etc.) I’ve had to let go of some clients I enjoyed, but it’s been worth it in terms of sanity.

I’m also starting to say “no” to one-off projects, because the amount of time spent onboarding and getting to know a new client just isn’t worth it if all I’m going to do is a single article or brochure and never hear from them again.

Do you have an income goal for 2016?

In 2015 my freelancing income surpassed that of the desk job I left to start freelancing, even after accounting for the higher rate at which that income is taxed. It felt amazing to realize that! In 2016, I’m less interested in growing my income, and more interested in growing my free time so I can spend that time writing fiction.

That said, I’d love to boost my income to $70,000 this year, but I view writing fiction as an investment in future earnings, so I’m OK with some stagnancy so long as I can become more efficient with my time and carve out those hours for fiction.

What steps are you taking to hit your income goal? Have you had success so far?

The mechanics of boosting income and free time are the same: take on better-paying projects from better clients, and learn to work faster. The biggest thing I’m doing this year to boost my income/free time is to narrow down on the type of clients I work with. Since I’ve started specializing in working with B2B software companies, it’s been easier for me to charge higher rates. And since I’ve got a full client list already, it’s been really easy to quote higher rates to potential clients.

That’s a catch-22 of freelancing. The more booked up you are, the more confidence you have to ask for the rate you want. When I was first starting out, I’d say yes to a $50 article that required two interviews because I needed to pay rent. Now there’s no way I’d take a project like that!

The last time a potential new client contacted me, I quoted them almost twice what I currently charge my lowest-paying client, and they said yes. I was blown away — both at my audacity and by their agreement. I never would have had the guts to quote so high if I was desperately relying on winning them as a client.

What is the hardest part of freelancing for you?

Despite all my big talk about rates above, negotiating and talking about money is the hardest part for me. I’m pretty shy, and building up the confidence to believe that I’m worth what I’m charging has been tough. I just keep going back at it, and the more I do it, the better I get.

That’s one of the great things about freelancing — you can learn a lot through trial and error. If you do your best but still screw up, it’s not that big of a deal. I’ve had awkward client breakups, but I went on to work with clients who really loved me. I’ve definitely quoted too low, but then I went on to quote higher to the next client. You can constantly experiment and get better at your craft and more confident as a negotiator each time.

What do you feel like you do really well as a freelancer?

I’m great at research and getting to know a new product or industry, which is a huge selling point. Most of my clients are in really esoteric fields, and they honestly aren’t expecting to find someone who’s an expert and also a good writer — they just want a good writer who’s knowledgeable about B2B sales and willing to research the hell out of their industry.

I’m also really organized and really reliable. If I say I’ll have something to you on Monday, I’ll have it. This sadly seems to surprise some of my clients, which makes me think that if you want to make it as a freelancer, the ability to nail deadlines is almost better than being a good writer. Apparently a lot of people are flaky out there.

Basically, I try to make myself as easy to work with as possible. After the first few assignments are turned in, my clients generally start to trust that I’ll work reliably with minimal hand-holding, and that’s a huge relief to them. They want to hire freelancers who make their jobs easier, not who require tons of micromanagement and editing!

What advice do you have for other freelancers?

First up, you need to treat your business as a business. Expect to hustle, and work evenings and weekends sometimes. Expect to invest time and money in equipment and marketing and a kick-ass website. Expect to have lean months and abundant months, and budget accordingly. Expect to keep track of your finances. Expect to deliver exceptional customer service. You wouldn’t open a coffee shop without these expectations — why start a writing business without them?

Next, don’t sit around waiting for the right opportunity to come along — just get started, and experiment as you go. I’ve had friends tell me they don’t have the experience to get hired as a freelancer, they’ve only written a bunch of press releases (or something like that). It blows my mind — that’s experience, and they’re completely discounting it! You don’t need a degree, or someone to tell you it’s OK to start freelancing. If you really want to start freelancing, you’ll do it. But it’s also OK to realize that you although you like the idea of it, you don’t really want to be a freelancer. It’s not for everyone.

Lastly, when you’re getting started, cast your net wide — but always be looking toward niching down into an industry or a type of writing. You might be surprised at what you like to do! If you’d told me two years ago that I’d specialize in content marketing for B2B software-as-a-service companies, I’d have said, “What the hell does that mean?” But by trial and experimentation, I’ve found a niche I like, I’m good at, and pays well.

May 2016 update from Jessie Kwak

Last month, I got in touch with Kwak and asked if she had any updates to share on her freelancing goals.

ND: I’m curious if you wanted to share a quick update on how your goals were going. I really liked your interview and I’d love to share how your year has gone so far.

JK: It was really fascinating to read through that interview and check in with my goals. Here’s an update:

One of my big goals at the beginning of the year was to narrow down my niche and start taking on bigger projects. I was doing a lot of blogging, and the constant deadlines were starting to wear me out! As of April, I dropped all my pure blogging clients, and have been starting to land some bigger projects, like white papers and an ebook. Right now, the bulk of my work is for three clients: copywriting for a big local website agency, writing regular reported articles for a B2B software company, and doing a variety of work for an editorial consultant who works with education technology companies. I still take on random projects for other people from time to time, but I’m not planning on picking up any more regular blogging contracts.

One thing this has done is created space in my schedule for writing fiction. I’m able to take at least one day off a week to work on fiction, which is letting me get so much done! Just this month I published a novella, Starfall, and turned in a draft of a novel set in the same world, which is coming out with a small press next year. I’ve worked hard over the last few years to level up my freelance career in order to balance it with fiction, and I’m excited to be closer to that goal.

How has your freelancing year been so far? If you set freelancing goals at the beginning of the year, have you met those goals? Did anything unexpected happen? I want to hear your updates!

Also: I’m looking for volunteers for my Pitch Fix column. If you have a pitch that’s striking out, email me at dieker.nicole@gmail.com.

Pitches tied to news cycles need extra consideration before you send them off; you not only have to prove you can write the story, but also that you can write it before it loses relevance.

Let’s look at a pitch based on recent political news and see if we can get it nominated for publication.

Danielle Corcione’s current-events pitch

Danielle Corcione is both a copywriter and a freelance writer, and their work has been published in Femsplain, The Establishment, The Write Life, and many other publications you might recognize. I accepted two pitches Corcione sent to The Billfold, so I know they know how to send successful pitches.

But not all pitches land. Corcione sent the following pitch out eleven different times. Sometimes the pitch got rejected, other times it was simply ignored. Take a look at their pitch and see if you can tell why an editor might not immediately respond.

Hi [editor],

My name is Danielle Corcione. My work has recently appeared on Upworthy, the Establishment, Motherboard, and more. I’ve been following [publication’s] coverage of House of Cards, and [publication story] inspired me to apply current politics with the show.

Since Obama announced his support for Merrick Garland, I’ve wondered, “How does Merrick Garland compare to Heather Dunbar?” In House of Cards, Dunbar was a potential SCOTUS nominee. Although they’re both from a Democratic background with twenty years of judicial experience, their socioeconomic upbringings vary. For instance, the Dunbar family owns their own automobile industry while Garland’s mother ran a small business out of his childhood home. I want to further explore their political differences and similarities, in addition to the pros and cons of each nominee.

Is this fit for the ____ section? I wrote a fairly similar essay for Femsplain where I used 30 Rock to discuss conservative climate in the Midwest.

Thanks for your time and consideration.

Pitch Fix: If you’ve got a topical story, pitch it to an editor you know

Corcione’s idea is great. As a reader, I’d immediately click on a piece comparing Merrick Garland to House of Cards’ Heather Dunbar.

As an editor, however, I see two big problems with this pitch.

First, Corcione hasn’t fully researched the story. Corcione lists two similarities and one difference between Garland and Dunbar, then states “I want to further explore their political differences and similarities, in addition to the pros and cons of each nominee.”

Corcione is pitching this story without knowing what the political differences and similarities are, and without explaining what the audience will learn from reading the piece.

If this pitch came from a trusted writer I’d worked with for a few months, I might say “OK, start digging and see if you find anything interesting.” But if I hadn’t worked with Corcione before, I wouldn’t know if they would be able to find anything interesting or present it in an interesting way.

This is a fantastic example of pitching a topic instead of a story — which I listed as one of 10 mistakes that will ruin your freelance career. If Corcione had already done the research and pitched a fully-formed story instead of a topic idea, I would be much more interested in the pitch.

The other big problem with Corcione’s pitch is that it’s extremely topical. This is the kind of piece you want to run within 24 hours of Obama’s nominee announcement, otherwise it’ll look like your publication is late to the game.

There’s a little wiggle room here: An editor could accept the piece and hold on running it until the next big development in Garland’s nomination, but it would need a re-edit so it felt fresh and timely, and incorporated the latest news.

Here’s how I’d fix the pitch. First, I wouldn’t submit it eleven times. (I hope none of those were simultaneous submissions.) I’d pick an editor I knew relatively well, and pitch it based on our previous relationship. In this case, I’m going to rewrite the pitch as if Corcione were pitching me at The Billfold:

Hi Nicole,

Would you be interested in a Billfold post comparing Obama’s SCOTUS nominee Merrick Garland with House of Cards’ potential SCOTUS nominee Heather Dunbar?

Although they’re both from a Democratic background with twenty years of judicial experience, their socioeconomic upbringings vary. For instance, the Dunbar family owns their own automobile industry while Garland’s father ran a small advertising business out of his childhood home. I’d focus the piece on the way money helped both Garland and Dunbar achieve political success — Garland’s Harvard scholarship, Dunbar’s ability to campaign without Super PAC funding — even though they’re working at two different socioeconomic scales.

What do you think? I know this is a pretty topical piece, so I could get you a draft tomorrow.

Thanks,

Danielle

This pitch includes the story Corcione plans to tell: whether from humble or wealthy beginnings, money helps you achieve political success. It’s directly tailored to The Billfold, and it also addresses the topical issue by promising me a draft tomorrow if I said yes — and I probably would.

Danielle Corcione’s response

I asked Corcione how they felt about the Pitch Fix, and this was their response:

This is solid advice! I was worried how outdated the pitch might be, but you found a way to incorporate it into a previous publication I’ve been published in. In hindsight, I shouldn’t have sent this pitch out to so many people. However, I will take into account more research. That’s definitely something to make it stronger and more worthwhile to cover.

How do you pitch stories based on breaking news? Do you have additional advice for Corcione?

Here are my February numbers:

Completed pieces: 55

Work billed: $4,670.93

Earnings received: $3,330.38

I wrote nearly 56,000 words in February, with an average per-piece earning of $85. I didn’t hit my $5,000-a-month income goal in February, but I didn’t expect to. Every February, I take a week off to attend the JoCo Cruise, so I knew my “work billed” number would probably come up a little short. (The cruise is totally worth it.)

On the subject of “work billed”: It’s a little complicated this month. If I were to calculate all of the fully completed and billed work, February’s number would only be $3,420. I spent most of February doing work on projects that will be complete in March, so I’m listing the $4,670.93 number because it more accurately reflects the amount of work I got done this month — and helps me determine how close I am to my $5,000 income goal.

Taking on larger — and longer — projects

My income tracking is becoming more challenging because I’m taking on bigger projects that can’t be completed in a month. When I got started as a freelancer, I wrote six short pieces a day for content farms; now I’m working on pieces that require significant research and take several weeks to complete.

The longer a piece takes to complete, by the way, the more likely the deadline will shift at some point during the process. This has less to do with the dreaded “scope creep” than it does with the idea that it’s difficult to plan out all the details of a complicated project in advance.

As my clients and I begin working on these projects, we often find we need to go after an additional source or spend an extra day looking for answers to a question — which in turn pushes back the deadline.

What does that mean for me? Well, it’s harder to accurately track how much money I earn every month, for starters. If I spend two months working on a project, it isn’t useful to me to say “In February I earned nothing on this project, and in March I earned $4,000.” When I make my freelance spreadsheet, I need to prorate that $4,000 over the length of the project so I know that $2,000 counts for February and $2,000 counts for March — and I still need to earn $3,000 extra each month to hit my income goal.

In case you’re an accountant: This is my informal income-tracking spreadsheet that helps make sure I’m on target, not the spreadsheet I use to do my taxes! That’s a different system, and tracks income in the month it was earned.

It’s also harder to plan my workload, since I have to include overflow time for deadline changes, last-minute revision requests, and other tasks. This month, I’ve tried to solve this problem by turning Mondays into “buffer days” — instead of scheduling other work for Mondays, I’ll keep them open and flexible for whatever needs to be done. I’ll let you know how it goes!

It’s one more thing you might have to figure out, as you move up in your freelance career: How to track long-term projects against your monthly goals, and how to manage a workload that might include shifting deadlines.

Let’s switch focus and look at a freelancer who is just starting out. What are his freelancing goals, and what steps is he taking to achieve them?

Q&A with Robert Lynch

Robert Lynch is a freelance writer in Adelaide, South Australia. He recently started working as a freelancer, and has already picked up a weekly contract. He’s also making smart choices — like negotiating better rates, investing in his business and improving his pitches — to help build his career and grow his income.

ND: What is your current freelance life like?

RL: I’ve just finished university and finally have the time to pursue a writing career. At this point I’ve been freelancing for only three and a half months. In that time I’ve had some significant breakthroughs. I’ve sold one-off pieces and I picked up a regular weekly contract copyediting, which paid $170 a week. After two months at $170 per week I successfully negotiated with the client to increase my workload to [earn] $300 a week.

What would you like to improve about your freelancing career?

At the moment copyediting is my only freelance income. I’d like to build up other income streams to support me. I’ve written short stories, some accepted and some rejected. I’d like to be able to know whether what I’m writing is a good fit for a publication, so that I decrease the chance of rejection. This is something I’m sure I will get better at with time and practice.

What steps are you taking to help you get there? Have you had success so far?

I try to send one piece of fiction work away each week for consideration to be published. I write sci-fi mostly. This kind of freelancing has an 8-12 week lag from sending in the work to getting feedback, so if I send in work regularly after that initial lag I will get feedback regularly. At this point, I haven’t received feedback for the first piece that I sent away, so I have no idea whether this has had success or failure yet.

I’m also trying to view freelancing as a small business, so there are business aspects that I have focused on. I’ve dedicated a lot of time in the last 14 weeks to building a writing platform. Getting my website/personal blog (www.robert-lynch.com) built and published; building a twitter following (@BobLynchBSc); and to a lesser extent commenting and replying to content that other people have produced.

Success in this endeavour is hard to measure. People have come to my website and have read the content I have posted there. That’s good. I have no comparison on whether those numbers are high or low for a blog about a writer’s journey. I’m happy with what I have so far and I look forward to growing that following by producing content that helps other writers with their own journeys.

Do you have an income goal for 2016?

My income goal is to earn more than $500 [AUD] a week, which amounts to earning more than $26,000 in 2016. This is the minimum I can earn where I can then devote myself to writing full time. This is the number in which I get freedom from looking for work elsewhere. At the moment I’m working as a barman to make ends meet and I’d rather spend those hours writing.

What steps are you taking to hit that income goal? Have you had success so far?

I’m trying to get a few blogs published off of my site. From there I intend to start pitching regular blogging series to websites. I have already learnt a lot from your Pitch Fix series, so hopefully I will have some success. Some of these pitches will be to writing sites like The Write Life, but also some specifically science-based blogs. I have a science degree after all and since scientists are not known for their creative writing skills, I’m hoping to be able to help bridge the gap between real science and the general population. I don’t think that I’m going to build up these relationships overnight, but if I can, I see a future where I’m regularly earning as much from blogging as I am from copyediting.

Another revenue stream I see as achievable this year is to be regularly selling fiction. I have found a number of magazines and websites that will pay for fiction. By sending in regular stories for consideration for publication I’m hoping to better my writing and be regularly aligning with editor’s needs by the end of the year.

There are a few other revenue streams I’d like to try, but their ability to earn scales directly with the size of my writing platform, so they aren’t viable in the short term.

With the $300 a week I already have coming in, I think that from just blogs and stories it’s more than achievable to be earning above that $500-a-week goal.

What is the hardest part of freelancing for you?

Fitting everything in. I want to transition to writing full time this year. At the moment I’m working 15 hours a week copyediting, trying to learn the writing business, trying to write 1,000 fiction words every day, keeping an active Twitter presence, trying to start blogging, running my own website and blog (which includes fortnightly videos on YouTube), working in a bar, still looking for work that I might get using my degree, volunteering as head medical trainer at my local football club and acting as the chairperson of my local writing group. After all of these things I still need to find time to spend with my girlfriend.

Generally, I can’t fit everything in. That means that I have to prioritise those things that pay me money right now and some of the long-term business stuff suffers for it.

In order to get better at this, I’ve mapped out a time management plan. If I stick to it then I think I’ll be able to fit everything in. I don’t have a history of sticking to routines though.

What do you feel like you do really well as a freelancer?

I have a strong work ethic and I’m actively pursuing feedback or advice to improve myself.

Neil Gaiman did a commencement speech a couple of years ago where he said that to be a successful freelancer you need to do three things: Submit work on time, do good work, and be nice to work with. I am completely in control of whether the work is done on time, so I make sure that I don’t miss deadlines. Whether my work is good or not I can only know if I get unbiased feedback, so I actively seek it out. And I try to build good business relationships, which so far has got me repeat work and better pay.

What advice do you have for other freelancers?

In the short time I have been freelancing, all of my successes have come from taking risks and trying new things. In every case the worst thing that could have happened was that people didn’t like what I was doing or contractors just said no to my proposals.

If there is anything that I have learned so far, it’s that you have to take a risk to get anywhere. If you never try, you’ll never have any success.

What advice would you offer Robert Lynch? Also, what advice would you offer me, as I start working on longer projects? Share your thoughts in the comments.

This month, we look at a pitch that presents an interesting thesis but doesn’t include any sources to back it up. We also look at how to pitch a story even if you don’t have your sources in hand.

Meryl Williams’ pitch to The Atlantic

Meryl Williams is a freelance writer you might remember from her work at The Write Life and her contribution to my piece about managing a part-time freelance career.

She recently sent a pitch to The Atlantic that got rejected, and asked me if I had any insight into how she could fix her pitch.

Williams’ pitch is already pretty strong. It focuses on why her story is important and what makes her piece a good fit for the publication. Is this a case of “sometimes even good pitches get rejected,” or is there something missing from Williams’ pitch?

Here’s her pitch to The Atlantic:

To the staff at the Atlantic:

Rainbow Rowell has been having a good couple of years. The Omaha-based young adult author had her first adult novel come out last year, but on October 6 she’s going back to her roots with another YA work.

The Atlantic interviewed Rowell in 2013 for a piece about YA authors who are doing it right, and she truly is. I’ve read her four books and I have been impressed by her handling of delicate subject matter, including domestic abuse, mental illness, and addiction. But even more so, I love the way Rowell consistently sets excellent examples for young girls and women in each of her books. I appreciate the power and agency her characters display, and the strong voices Rowell gives each of them. Some of them are described as being overweight but this aspect is always a non-issue — In Rowell’s books, being body positive is queen, and standing up for yourself and your loved ones takes precedence over appearance every time.

I would like to write about how Rowell writes women for women, and about what I hope to see in her book coming out next month, Carry On. You can see previous work I’ve written on The Billfold, HelloGiggles, and the Addison Recorder. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thanks for your time!

-Meryl Williams

https://tinyletter.com/TheSleeperHit

https://MerylWilliamsMedia.com/

This is a solid pitch, and there is a lot to like about it. Williams references The Atlantic’s previous Rowell coverage, drawing a connection between her pitch and a story that worked for them in the past. She deftly works in references to her own clips, letting the editor know she has what it takes to get the job done.

The biggest issue with this pitch is that the story Williams proposes is too speculative. Writing an article about what you hope to see in an author’s next work might be a great fit for another publication, but it doesn’t feel right for The Atlantic.

As a comparative example: Colleen Gillard’s recent Atlantic article “Why the British Tell Better Children’s Stories” includes interviews with three literature professors to help back up her thesis. Adding additional sources to a story can lend validation to an idea and give it more credibility.

It’s also what The Atlantic requests in its pitch guidelines:

We’re more interested in writers who’ve done research and reporting rather than those offering up half-baked personal observations.

So that’s how to fix Williams’ pitch.

Pitch Fix: Cite your sources

Deciding at what point to contact a source — before you secure the pitch, or afterwards? — is one of the most difficult parts of the pitch process.

When I was a new freelance writer, I often got very nervous about approaching a source before a pitch was accepted, because I felt like the source would think I was unprofessional if I couldn’t place the piece.

Likewise, it’s going to be difficult for someone like Williams to reach out to a well-known author like Rainbow Rowell without having a well-known publication to back her up.

With that in mind, here’s how I’d improve Williams’ pitch:

To the staff at the Atlantic:

Rainbow Rowell has been having a good couple of years. The Omaha-based young adult author had her first adult novel come out last year, but on October 6 she’s going back to her roots with another YA work.

The Atlantic interviewed Rowell in 2013 for a piece about YA authors who are doing it right. I’d like to follow up that piece with a story about how Rowell’s work has continued to grow, and how her ability to write strong female characters influences both her readership and her commercial success.

I’d reach out to librarians, publishers’ sales reps, and women’s studies professors to speak to the three aspects of Rowell’s success: among readers, among booksellers, and among feminists. I’m also getting in touch with Rowell’s publicity agent in the hopes that Rowell will also be able to contribute to the piece.

I love the way Rowell consistently sets excellent examples for young girls and women in each of her books. I appreciate the power and agency her characters display, and the strong voices Rowell gives each of them. I think your readers will also appreciate a closer look at her work and why it resonates with so many people.

You can see previous work I’ve written on The Billfold, HelloGiggles, and the Addison Recorder. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thanks for your time!

-Meryl Williams

https://tinyletter.com/TheSleeperHit
https://MerylWilliamsMedia.com/

As you’ll notice, I completely changed the subject of this pitch. Instead of being about what one person hopes will be in a future book, it is now about how a writer found success by writing strong female characters that connected with many people.

This is the first step I’ve taken to help Williams verify her thesis. I also gave Williams a paragraph where she outlines the research she plans to do to ensure her thesis is correct.

Notice the wording of that paragraph: I don’t identify a specific librarian or professor, but I assume Williams will find at least one willing to talk to her about Rowell’s work. (There are a lot of librarians and professors, after all!)

I also write “I am also getting in touch with Rowell’s publicity agent.” The use of present tense is key. If the pitch doesn’t go through, Williams does not have to contact the publicity agent; if it does, she can send the email.

Williams’ response

I asked Williams what she thought of her Pitch Fix, and here’s her response:

Thanks for taking a look at this pitch!

This email pitches a more interesting story, and one I feel like The Atlantic would have cared about more. Plus, it would have been totally doable (and super fun!) to interview a bunch of librarians and academic folks about Rainbow Rowell’s work. I also like the loose wording about getting in touch with Rowell’s people, while making no firm commitment. I’ll need to keep that in mind for future pitches.

Maybe someday when I’m wildly famous, The Atlantic will pay for my thoughts on feminist fictional characters — but until then, this is an article I would have loved writing and reading. The good news is that Rowell has written a book a year since 2011, so maybe I’ll get another shot soon!

To our readers: Do you agree with this month’s Pitch Fix? What advice would you offer Peterson? Also, how do you address potential sources when you pitch?

Got a pitch that’s striking out? If you’d like to be an upcoming Pitch Fix subject, please contact Nicole Dieker at dieker.nicole@gmail.com.

For those of you who have been following me all year, it’s time to take a look at my numbers and what I consider my biggest freelancing accomplishments. It’s also time to start planning my 2016 freelancing goals, including my goals for this column!

Here are December’s numbers:

Completed pieces: 55

Work billed: $4,328

Earnings received: $7,492.26

I wrote a little over 40,000 words in December, completing 55 pieces with an average per-piece earning of $79. My highest earning piece was $944.

A lot of publications take time off over the holiday season, and I was able to plan a full week away from work — which also meant my December earnings were lower than my $5,000 monthly income goal. I didn’t mind, though, because my year-end earnings received totaled $63,571.12 — $3,500 more than my $60,000 goal.

In other words: I beat the freelance income goal I set for 2015.

How I achieved my goal

If you’ve been following my Tracking Freelance Earnings columns since the beginning, you might remember that in my first column, I listed my 2014 freelance earnings as $43,059.02.

In 2015, I increased my freelance earnings by $20,000. That’s the kind of raise you rarely get in a so-called “real job!”

How’d I do it? It comes down to two basic components:

I set the goal

Freelancing is different from other types of jobs because it doesn’t have specific boundaries. I can take on as many or as few pieces as I want — my only limit is the number of hours per day I am willing and able to work!

So, when I decided at the beginning of 2015 that I wanted to earn $5,000 a month from my writing, I made a commitment to myself — and to you — that I would actively work to take on enough pieces to hit that goal. If I lost an income source (and I did), I would find another one. If I didn’t have enough work to fill out the month, I’d start hustling for more.

It’s important to note I didn’t hit my $5,000 goal every month. Setting a goal doesn’t guarantee it will happen. Sometimes your regular clients won’t have the budget to assign you an extra piece, and sometimes the pitch you send out will get turned down. (If every pitch you send out gets turned down, make sure to read my other Write Life column, Pitch Fix.)

But since I was working to earn at least $5,000, that meant some months I earned $4,000 and some months I earned $6,000. It averaged out to a successful freelancing year, even though I didn’t always hit my monthly goal.

I had the freelancing background to achieve the goal

I had two years of full-time freelancing experience before I set my 2015 income goal. I didn’t go from $0 to $60,000; I went from $35,000 to $43,000 to $63,000. If I hadn’t already had two years of building my skills and growing my network, I wouldn’t have been able to achieve this goal.  

I also picked a monthly income goal close to what I was already earning; by the end of 2014 I was regularly earning around $4,500 per month, so I decided to see if I could bump that up to $5,000.

This goal was a stretch for me, but it was also a realistic stretch. If you want to set your own income goal for 2016, it’s important to choose a realistic stretch goal of your own, such as:

• Taking your highest monthly earnings from 2015 and trying to match those earnings every month in 2016
• Finding one new higher-paying client every three months
• Sending out one new pitch per week

Whatever 2016 goal you choose, make sure it’s just achievable enough that it doesn’t feel impossible. Then stretch yourself to make it happen. As you work towards your goal, you’ll probably start meeting other writers, editors and clients who can help you achieve it even faster. That’s what happened to me.

My biggest freelancing accomplishments

Hitting my freelance income goal was a huge accomplishment for me this year, but it’s not the only thing I’m proud of. Here are some of my 2015 highlights:

• Writing the comedy piece “The Economics of Neko Atsume” at The Billfold, which received enormous positive response when I published it in June and gets a steady stream of new readers every day
• Taking on additional writing and editorial responsibilities at The Billfold and being part of the team as The Billfold partnered with Medium
• Writing “10 Mistakes That’ll Ruin Your Freelancing Career,” one of the three most popular pieces of 2015 at The Freelancer
• Launching Pitch Fix at The Write Life
• Providing financial advice to high school students at SparkLife
• Funding the first draft of my novel The Biographies of Ordinary People through Patreon
• Landing my first $1-per-word client
• Earning enough money to move out of a studio apartment (with no kitchen) and into a one-bedroom
• Successfully renegotiating many of my freelance rates for 2016

I’m still working to improve my writing and connect with my audiences, but I’m happy with the work I’ve done this year.

Goals for 2016

This year, I’d like to maintain my $60,000 freelancing income. It would be nice if I grew my income, and I wouldn’t be surprised if I hit $65K this year, but I don’t expect another $20,000 jump.

Instead, I want to focus on working reasonable hours. I’ve written before about the struggle to keep my workweek around 40 hours, and I want to make it a priority in 2016. Now that I feel like I’m earning enough, I can start to put the rest of my life back in balance.

I also want to continue to build connections and new client relationships. A freelance career is an ever-changing thing, which means I always need to be working towards finding that next big job. If I want to keep my earnings constant and work fewer hours, I also need to land higher-paying assignments. That’s how it works.

Finally, I want to build this column into a collaboration. I’m going to continue sharing my monthly income with you, but we’ve had a whole year of hearing about me. What about you?

I’d love to interview some of you about your monthly earnings, as well as your freelance goals and what you do to achieve them. If you’re interested in being part of a future Tracking Freelance Earnings column, email me at dieker.nicole@gmail.com.

Here’s to a new year!

Did you achieve your 2015 freelancing goals? Write something you’re especially proud of? Share your accomplishments in the comments!

Pitching is one of the most important parts of a freelancer’s career — it’s how we get the gigs that make us money, as well as how we form relationships with editors and publications.

We’ve written before about how to identify whom to pitch, as well as how to track your pitches after you send them, but we haven’t written much about what goes into a good pitch.

So we’re going to fix that. With Pitch Fix!

Let me introduce our first Pitch Fix subject:

Connor Relyea’s comics pitch to Paste Magazine

Connor Relyea is an actor, editor and writer who has been published in The Billfold, Fangirl Magazine and more. He’s looking to build his freelance writing portfolio, and he agreed to be Pitch Fix’s first subject.

Relyea was curious about whether his pitches were too short. He wanted to showcase his expertise to editors, and wondered if that meant he needed to lengthen his pitch emails. Little did he know that I’d be providing the opposite advice!

Here’s Relyea’s troublesome pitch to Paste Magazine:

I recently graduated from the University of Missouri School of Journalism with a bachelor of journalism in magazine editing. I have been reading Paste Magazine for several months and I am looking to write for the comics section of the magazine.

I have experience writing about comic books for an independent comic book site, All-Comic.com, where I wrote reviews on Marvel and Image titles. I also currently contribute comic book reviews to a new feminist, geek magazine called Fangirl the Magazine. For the past few weeks, I have been following the Marvel Secret Wars event and providing coverage of the updates for that magazine.

My general focus has been on Marvel properties as this publisher is where I follow the most titles. Recently, it was announced that Kelly Sue DeConnick would be leaving the Captain Marvel property that she has been working on for several years to pursue work on other projects, including the TV spot with Universal with Matt Fraction. I am looking to cover the change in writers on this title, and potentially, if it is possible, secure an interview with Kelly Sue DeConnick to discuss her next steps after she leaves Captain Marvel, what she hopes to accomplish with the final lap of her run and look back on what she has accomplished over the past three years.

Relyea is off to a good start — he has clips and he has a strong set of credentials — but this pitch needs a lot of work. It’s wordy, and it focuses on what Relyea wants from Paste rather than what he can offer the magazine.

Pitch fix: Get to the point

Opening the pitch with “I recently graduated from the University of Missouri School of Journalism” makes it sound like Reylea has no experience.

If he wants to include this information, he can include it in his bio section — but he shouldn’t lead with it, and shouldn’t draw attention to the fact that he just graduated.

“I have experience writing about comic books for an independent comic book site” doesn’t provide an editor with useful information. Is that site reputable? Is the writing good?

Instead of describing his experience, Reylea should link to his clips — which should be good enough to speak for themselves.

“My general focus has been on Marvel properties as this publisher is where I follow the most titles,” Relyea writes. This comes across as “I read comics, please pay me to write about them,” which is not what an editor wants to read.

Instead of focusing on his interests, Reylea should focus on how he can benefit the publication.

On hoping to, “Potentially, if it is possible, secure an interview with Kelly Sue DeConnick”: Don’t go to Paste unless you have the DeConnick interview in hand. A magazine has no reason to respond to your pitch if it’s only about something that is potentially possible.

Also, even though it sounds nitpicky: “potentially, if it is possible,” is redundant. Keeping your pitches as clean and tight as possible shows editors you know how to write clean copy without wasting words.

Here’s how I’d rework this pitch to send to Paste:

Recently, it was announced that Kelly Sue DeConnick would be leaving the Captain Marvel property that she has been working on for several years to pursue work on other projects, including the TV spot with Universal with Matt Fraction.

I’ve secured an interview with DeConnick about her next steps after Captain Marvel, as well as what she hopes to accomplish with the final lap of her run. Would Paste be interested in this interview?

A bit about me: comic reviewer and blogger focusing on Marvel properties. University of Missouri J-school grad. Clips here: DeConnick Rocks the New Captain Marvel Title, [second link to a piece you’ve written]. Full portfolio available at [link to full resume/portfolio with active links to all articles].

Thanks,

[Name and contact info]

I sent my edit of his pitch back to Relyea, along with a few questions about the experience. Read on to learn more about how he’s changing up his pitching game.

Q&A with Connor Relyea

ND: How do you feel about this pitch critique? Are any of these ideas you want to implement in future pitches? Is there anything you disagree with?

CR: I am really thankful for this critique. My pitching needed a lot of help and all my pitches were essentially the same format as the one that you helped me with, which was probably why I wasn’t getting much work. I have taken all the ideas that you gave me in this critique and applied them to my pitches and I actually landed some more stories. (Ed note: check out one of Relyea’s most recent pieces, The Cost of a Comic Book Hobby.) I don’t disagree with anything that you gave me. It was all really helpful and I feel like I have a better handle on pitching and landing clients now.

What is your current freelancer pitch strategy? How many pitches are you sending out per week, and what is your average response?

Actually, I have been able to slow down on my pitching strategy because I was recently picked up as a local reporter for several newspapers in the Chicago suburbs….I usually send out one or two pitches a week, and normally I don’t hear back, but for some places, like The Billfold, they were really positive and I’ve started to make connections with some editors.

What advice would you have for other freelancers who send out a lot of pitches?

My advice for other freelancers is to learn how to be succinct, which is definitely something that I had to learn how to do. If you can boil your story down to a few key sentences, use those to sell your piece. Plus, editors will love you because they are juggling so many different things and it will be easier for them to decide if they want to run your work or not.

To our readers: Do you agree with this Pitch Fix? When you’re proposing an article that includes an interview, do you secure the interview before or after you pitch?

Got a pitch that’s striking out? If you’d like to be an upcoming Pitch Fix subject, please contact Nicole Dieker at dieker.nicole@gmail.com.

I closed out a big project this month — one that provided almost 25 percent of my monthly income. Because I had planned ahead, I was able to ride out the income drop and secure new work to take the project’s place.

Before we get into that, here are September’s numbers:

Completed Pieces: 71

Work Billed: $6,983.35

Earnings Received: $6,137.81

I wrote a little over 50,000 words in September, with an average per-piece earning of $98.36. My highest earning piece was $1,002, and my lowest earning piece was $35.

I really, really wanted to beat $7,000 this month. I kept hoping I could fit in one more piece to push me over the $7K mark, but it didn’t happen.

Planning for a project’s end

This month, I wrote the last column in my Ask A Freelancer series. I delivered weekly freelancing advice at The Freelancer for just over a year, and the project brought in just under 25 percent of my monthly income.

I began preparing for the end of Ask A Freelancer in July. So far, all of the columns I’ve written have lasted for about a year, and although my editors had not yet said anything about Ask A Freelancer ending, I suspected it would close out sometime in its second year. That meant I needed a plan to keep from losing 25 percent of my income overnight.

I could have structured the plan as “find one new big client who is willing to pay me an equivalent amount,” but that seemed difficult and overwhelming.

Instead, I thought of it this way: If Ask A Freelancer ends, I will need to write one new piece every week. (One piece that pays roughly what I would have earned for Ask A Freelancer, of course.)

Next, I made a list of all the clients I could contact and ask for one new piece. As soon as my editors and I started talking about closing out Ask A Freelancer, I began to reach out to my list of clients to ask them for additional work. Some of the clients said no, but enough said yes that I was able to fill in the income gap.

I also received a few new job offers after we formally announced the end of Ask A Freelancer. It was pretty clear that some editors saw, “This is the last Ask A Freelancer column” and thought, “I wonder if Nicole has more time available to write for us?”

On a related note: Look forward to my new column, Pitch Fix, coming to The Write Life this month.

It was also a good time for me to start pitching new clients, and I chose to focus on major magazines. I’ve done print magazine work before, but getting my byline in a popular, recognized publication would be a significant step up in my career. I’ll let you know what happens.

Thinking ahead to 2016

We are officially in the last quarter of 2015, which means I’m doing a lot of thinking about next year.

Nobody can predict the future, but here’s what I anticipate will happen in 2016:

1. This November, I’ll begin to reach out to my current clients and ask about the possibility of renegotiating rates. Some clients will be open to a rate increase, and some will tell me it isn’t in their budget. Still, it’s important to ask — and it will help me bring in a little more money for 2016.

2. At some point, probably before the summer, I might end up losing a client. This’ll be due to budget adjustments or — worst-case scenario — a publication shutting down. I need to start preparing for another 25 percent income drop, because it will happen eventually.

3. Also likely before the summer, I’ll land my next big client. Either the client will reach out to me directly, I’ll cold-pitch the client, or I’ll ask one of my current clients to refer me.

I’ll need to work on pitching and asking for referrals, because I can’t sit around waiting to be asked.

4. My novel The Biographies of Ordinary People will continue to gain readers and subscribers via Patreon. Right now my subscribers are growing slowly but steadily; if I want more rapid growth, I’ll have to figure out how to promote my novel.

So far my best promotion strategy is social media, and at this point my social network is well aware of the project. I need to think of additional ways to share this project with people, such as writing guest posts for other writing sites.

5. Now that I’m earning enough to save 10 percent of my income, I also need to start thinking about long-term investments. Do I fund an IRA, a Roth IRA or a SEP IRA? It might be worth talking to my CPA or another financial advisor.

One thing’s for sure: I’m still going to be discussing money and freelancing with as many people as possible, because sharing this information helps us all get smarter about our own businesses.

Do you have a plan for what you’ll do if one of your big projects comes to an end? What do you predict will happen to your freelancing career in 2016?