May 17, 2005
Eric Mayer commented on yesterday's post, to which I replied, to which he responded. What amused me about this was he mentioned juggling in his response, and that was what was on my mind today.

I was trying to figure out exactly how many projects I've got going on simultaneously. With a glance at my office's all-important white board, here they are:

1. Two short articles about molecular diagnostics, both for the same client. They're actually finished, but I sent them out to one of the "quotees" as they requested. (There's a blog entry in my future on that topic).

2. Article about medical best practices.

3. Article about online medical appointments & communications.

4. Article about 6 ways to stop smoking.

5. An article about COPD/asthma.

6. I'm in the middle of proofing galleys for the journal I edit. I'm expecting the 2nd galley proof to arrive later this week.

7. Re-writing The Devil's Pitchfork for my new publisher and prepping it for delivery, etc.

8. Working on a follow-up novel (slowly, it's slowed way down since working on Pitchfork, but I still want to tick away at it, one page a day if I have to, just to keep it at the front of my brain).

9. I'm reading Rage by Jonathan Kellerman to review.

Nine. Okay. That's pretty busy, I think. I'm also thinking about what author profile I'm going to be doing in the next month or two, getting promotional things sent out for a couple book events I'm doing in early June. I've also got a report to write for the AGT, which is probably #10, but I'm going to put it off until ... well, looking at the calendar, I see it's due a week from today, so that should move to the top of my list, I guess.

The point here isn't, I don't think, to brag and say, "Hey, look how busy I am." It's mostly to point out that if you want to be a full-time freelance writer you have to do a lot of work. Of course, if any of these paid thousands of dollars, I wouldn't (probably) be doing so many of them simultaneously. The pay rate for these ranges from about $100 per piece, which is the low end of my scale, to (not counting the books), around $1400. I've gotten paid more for other projects, but that's what the range for these are. I feel a bit like I'm spinning my wheels because so much of what I've been doing today is trying to set up interviews, but that's part of the gig, too. And I'd better get back to a couple of them.

Best,
Mark Terry