November is traditionally another quieter month, but actually I stayed pretty busy through the month and brought in more income than I did in October. I had quite a varied month workwise, ending up doing the following …
Proofread some chapters of various PhDs and full Master’s dissertations, as well as a couple of articles which needed their bibliographies put into the format the journals required (which took longer than proofreading the text)
Copyedited a large number of documents for a client’s important project – sometimes working at very short notice and getting up very early in the morning (and getting lots of thanks and a lovely quotation for my references page, I’m happy to report!)
Did a substantive copyedit on a non-fiction/humour book – I really tore it apart, re-ordering sections and deleting chunks. There’s always the temptation to include everything you’ve researched when it’s your own book; I have no such compulsions and will rip it out if it doesn’t fit perfectly! Anyway, the author’s now going through the new version and adding references where needed, before I convert it into Kindle format and we put it up on Amazon.
Re-wrote some web text and letters for a client I “met” on Twitter.
Polished some articles for a client whose first language is French – she writes up articles about HR issues in English and I go over them for her and smooth them out into more natural English – as I do speak French, it’s useful sometimes to know what word she would have used in that language in order to express it correctly in English, so it’s a bit like translating in some respects.
Edited a Terms and Conditions document and wrote an article on overseas procurement for my retail display client.
Edited and proofread the usual Yacht Club and Moseley magazines – very different publications but with surprisingly similar issues in their layout and text!
Coached a postgraduate student who needs to get his PhD written up – we have a weekly arrangement to make sure he keeps going with it and sends me something to look at every week.
Transcribed two journalist interviews, three webinars and a corporate panel discussion – a lot of transcription this month, and a lot of keeping the heater on in my study so my fingers were warm enough to type fast!
Launched the first edition of my new Libro Newsletter; recipients told me they enjoyed it!
Attended a Social Media Cafe, where I chatted to friends old and new …
And last but not least, resigned from my part-time Library job – so I’ll be taking Libro full-time from December 13. I have started a new blog in which I’ll record what it feels like to do this – do pop along and have a read if you haven’t seen it already!
Coming up …
December is usually quiet, but I’ve got some transcribing and editing booked in already, plus I’ll be doing some work on my Iris Murdoch project. Oh, and having a rest. January sees me officially full-time with no other means of support, but I have Jury Service in the first two weeks! I’m adjusting my pricing too, and will be blogging about that in another post.
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Krys
December 8, 2011 at 8:45 pm
Well done on making the leap to full time freelance! I’ve never regretted it. It’s coming up to 8 years now, as my official resignation from employment took effect on December 31st 2003.
Does your field of work experience the Christmas rush? Things go mad for me then, with loads of clients desperate to get translations by Christmas or New Year. One year, I even had a telephone call on Christmas Day offering me a rush job! 🙂
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Liz at Libro
December 9, 2011 at 2:53 pm
Thank you, Krys – this is really encouraging! I’m having a bit of an emotional time of it at the moment (see my other blog) but I’m sure things will settle down once I’m in the thick of things.
I haven’t tended to have a Christmas rush – this is my 3rd Libro Christmas – as people seem to think I want to be left alone over the festive period! But this year I have a novel and a PhD booked in for the end of the month, so will get a mixture of relaxation and work which should work out OK …
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Madelyn Griffith-Haynie, MCC, SCAC
June 1, 2013 at 5:15 pm
Congrats on your leap into full-time self-employment. Make SURE you make friends with a tax pro, btw – I did not, and made a couple of mistakes that cost me BIG-time the first few years I had only self-employment income to report.
Nice blog – tho’ I must admit that I was shaking my head in amazement as I read about your activities in your usually “slow” month ::huge grin::
I’d like to investigate your services further – ADD Poster Girl here, so similar in needs to your Ph.D. candidate, most likely.
I’m in the process of talking to “book coaches” and like what I read here. It sounds like you offer a full-service set of skills, and I am particularly pleased to read that you handle formatting! (I need a lot of help with the “administrivia” of it all!). I also like your willingness to put your own vulnerability right out there for all to see.
The remainder of my needs are a bit different than most, however, since I am writing for the neuro-diverse as well as their “neuro-typical” loved ones (and am, myself, a member of the EFD club). An effective book-coach for me would need an understanding of what might look “odd” in another writer’s book – so neither of us waste time with “edit-out/edit-IN” back and forth.
If you are interested in speaking, shoot me an email with BOOK COACH in the subject line (so I see the darned thing!), and I will return my contacts so we can “meet.” My goal is to find someone with whom I can have a long-standing relationship — I have a great many books on my computer that are long overdue for polishing and publication, and ongoing BOGGLE seems to be keeping it that way!
~~~~~
Madelyn Griffith-Haynie, CMC, SCAC, MCC
– ADD Coach Training Field founder; ADD Coaching co-founder –
(blogs: ADDandSoMuchMore, ADDerWorld & ethosconsultancynz – dot com)
“It takes a village to transform a world!”
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Liz at Libro
June 1, 2013 at 5:36 pm
Hello Madelyn and thank you for your long comment. I’m going to drop you an email!
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