The first month of 2023 has come to a close. How are we all feeling?
Somehow I already feel burnt out. But I’m also invigorated and excited about the year ahead.
I spent most of this month setting goals and targets, formulating a five year plan and creating spreadsheets. As a result I’ve updated the format of the stats I’m sharing this month too. I also hit both my monthly pitching and submission targets. Woohoo!
It was a lot and I took a bit of a scattergun approach. Next month I want to dial it back and take a look at how I can be more streamlined in my workflow each day and week.
But for now, lets look at January in review.
Freelance
Pitches and follow-ups sent: 3
Letters of Introduction sent: 3
Rejections: 0
Commissions: 0
Projects completed: 0
Money made: $0
My target for 2023 is to send 30 pitches or non-fiction submissions. This works out to 2-3 pitches/submissions a month. I hit that goal with 2 new pitches and 1 follow-up sent.
I also sent three LOIs to education publishers after connecting with them on LinkedIn. I used to cold email publishers to be added to their database. Now I use a LinkedIn strategy for connecting with clients which has been far more effective so far.
Fiction
Stories written: 0
Stories edited: 0
Stories submitted: 5
Stories published: 0
Money made: $0
I spent a bit of time setting a short story submission target for 2023. At first I picked the rather grand goal of 100 submissions. Then I reassessed.
I took into consideration how many fished stories and rough drafts I already had, the average response time for most markets (made a guesstimate of 3 months) and the fact that many markets do not allow simultaneous submissions.
I then reduced my goal by half. This works out to 4-5 submissions a month and I’m thrilled to have made that this month.
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