April 4, 2006
Over on Eric Mayer's blog he posts about celebrating 12 years as a freelancer.

It reminded me, that although it's been only a year and a half for me freelancing fulltime, that the gulf between working for someone else and working for yourself is pretty huge. I know a lot of the readers here want to be novelists, and I think the required mindset is pretty much the same. So here are some thoughts.

1. Your work schedule is your responsibility. Work as little or as much as necessary. But in order to get a lot done, enough to make money at it, whether nonfiction or fiction, you're going to have to put in a lot of time.

2. Only a small percentage of your time will be spend actually writing. If it weren't for the novels, I would have days I didn't write because I would be sending out queries, setting up interviews, conducting interviews, doing miscellaneous paperwork, etc. In terms of the novels, you spend a lot of time on marketing issues and promotional issues--way too much time, but hey, that's the business.

3. Income goes up and down. If you're not comfortable with NOT knowing how much you're going to make in any given period, this is not the business for you.

4. The government is not your friend. You pay taxes quarterly. They double your social security bills, which we all call the self-employment tax, or SE Tax.

5. If you have chronic health problems or children, I hope your spouse has health insurance or you're making boodles of bucks, because health insurance can break you if you have to pay for it yourself. Thank God for my wife's health insurance.

6. Set up your own retirement fund. Pay yourself first, put a little bit away in mutual funds. Go to someplace like TIAA-CREF or whatever and make a point of this. You never know if health issues might force a retirement on you you're not prepared for.

7. You can do everything right and shit will still happen. Editors change jobs. Publications fold. Publications change their focus. Publications run into budget problems and cut back on freelancers. Roll with the punches and have faith something will turn up.

8. There are wonderful moments of serendipity, too. When somebody reads something you wrote and contacts you to do some work. When the longshot query you send out turns into your best, highest-paying client.

9. You may love what you're doing, but it's human nature to get bored and complacent. It's something you have to fight. You can't take the work for granted. You don't get paid just for showing up.

10. This can be the best damned job in the world if you're in the right frame of mind. No boss. Constantly changing jobs. You're in control of your destiny, the pay can be pretty good, and if it's a beautiful day, you can go for a two-hour walk and make up the time later.

Best,
Mark Terry