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Today I’m “Writing”
Over at About.com, I blogged about the massive difference in my monthly income. About three months of the year I had spikes of about $7,000, but the rest of the months evened that out–sometimes quite a bit. I try to be somewhat transparent, as one of my responsibilities at About.com is to educate new freelance writers as best I can.
In that same vein, I want to tell you about my week as a “writer.” Yes, those quote marks are on purpose. Honestly, this week I felt more like a “researcher” or maybe a “call center employee”!
I am working on the January cover piece for Latino Leaders magazine, which is a gallery-style feature with over 20 subjects in it! I’m sorry I can’t provide more details than that, but suffice it to say that getting in touch with 20 subjects seems to involve about an hour of research (each) and about 3-4 phone calls (each). I’ve been on the phone with more PR departments, secretaries and assistants than I’d like to talk about. I probably put about 7 hours into the cover story before I even put pen to paper, so to speak.
So, that’s a snippet into the career. I hope some of you new writers out there find it useful. Again, we like to think that we can hole up in our cozy offices and ignore the world in favor of our craft. There are some days like that, sure. Today will be like that for me, which is good, because it 12 degrees outside. But there are also some days when I’m trudging through parking lots in my snow boots for interviews, and burning up the phone lines.
