Half a Step Over

Freelance Life

I am a freelance editor by trade. I’ve had staff positions, which definitely had some benefits I don’t have now, but I choose to freelance because it suits what is currently happening in my life. Having said that, I do mostly medical editing, which can be depressing because of the therapeutic areas I’ve worked in (reading material on trials of cancer drugs is particularly upsetting). Any work related to pediatric issues really bothers me, but I keep telling myself that at least cures are being worked on, and the best way to move them forward is to help them get things right when drugs are submitted.

The Pluses

Then again, there are some benefits to the freelance life. I recently read a posting on why people should have four-day workweeks. A lot of it made a great deal of sense but I have a few other ideas. First, my view of freelancing as a “have laptop, can work anywhere” idea. And I have. I once found work waiting for me when I got off a plane to visit my children and e-mailed back that I could get it to them by first thing in the morning since there was a time difference and I was going to work on it after I started the visit. I had dinner with the kids, hung out, and then did the work in my hotel room. Last October I spent time with my daughter and her husband after my granddaughter was born. My clients knew I was out of town but I never missed a deadline. I just got up early, got dressed, and worked until I got to take care of the baby, at which time almost all of the technology was put away. In the evening, when they had friends over to see the baby, I’d disappear and finish up anything that hadn’t been done earlier. Clients found the work waiting in their Inboxes when they came in since everyone was on a later time zone east of where I was.

Plus, with freelance I can pick and choose what I work on. If I don’t like a client, and have other work to fill in (always a big “if”), I can say no. As a staff editor, I had to deal with the accounts I was assigned to, and sometimes the teams weren’t all that nice.

And if I know I’ll need to take a couple of days—or even just hours--off, I just build them into my calendar. That means I have the flexibility to set my own schedule. I can now make a lunch date, and keep it.

The Minuses

But what’s the problem with freelance? It’s freelance. I spend a lot of time hoping work will come in. Clients call and ask me to hold time and then the work doesn’t appear—lately, I tell them I’ll put them on the calendar but if it’s not there when they say it will be, someone else immediately gets the slot. The fact that their client is three days—and sometimes three weeks--late getting back to them cannot be my problem. Like everyone else, I still have to pay my bills and put food on my table. And speaking of food, according to that posting, freelancers eat better. I’m not so sure of that. Sure, I’m not wandering past free food in a company kitchen, but my own kitchen is just downstairs and not everything in my house represents a perfect diet. I’m just as drawn by a piece of chocolate as anyone else I know, but I frequently do make an effort not to have it in the house.

Collections

Then there’s the issue of being paid. I do the job, I send the bill—or in a couple of cases I can submit the time digitally and their system has me on file so I can be paid on a regular schedule, which is not the norm—and then I wait. All of my bills very clearly give the client 30 days. It seems math, and how many days are in a month, is not that strong an area for a lot of people. Thirty days turn into 45 days—at which point I rebill—or into 60 days. I know one firm that has a policy of not paying people for 10 weeks, at a minimum. They won’t say that up front, but that’s what they do. Or, I’ve had the answer “We’ll pay you when the client pays us.” My answer, “When did you bill the client?” It turns out they haven’t done that yet. If you can meet payroll you can meet my bills. Don’t complain then when you can’t get freelancers to work for your firm. There is a network and word gets out on who the worst payers are. I really hate the nagging.

And then there’s the issue of finding work to begin with. I have a writer friend who will mention me to everyone who hires her—she’s also a freelancer. The thing is, most people don’t believe they need editors. Aside from the style issues, which in medical editing really do count, spell-check on your computer isn’t that reliable. Sentence structure does count though. And even if the job you have is only going to be seen by the sales reps, the material should make sense, and be spelled correctly. If there is no sense, the reps will get it wrong—and the FDA really doesn’t like that—and sound like they don’t know what they’re talking about.

Think about it. Your high school English teacher actually was right when he or she insisted that you make complete paragraphs. Writing well-formed sentences makes you sound like you know something even if you don’t.

Call me; I know where the commas go.