With a new academic year starting and summer holidays being over for most, many of us become aware of the need to really focus on work again.
It’s a good time to take stock of the year and how things are going. There are three good months of solid work ahead before things start to quieten down again for a few weeks in mid-December so you really need to make the most of them.
So what should you do? Our top suggestions are
- Pitch! As commissioning editors come back from their holidays, they need to make up for lost time and could welcome your pitches. Get in touch with editors you’ve written for before, and also try to pitch to some new ones.
- Market yourself. Is your LinkedIn profile up to date? Have you been active on social media like Twitter? If an editor hasn’t worked with you before, they may well do a bit of research on you if they are interested in one of your ideas. If you have had any work published, make sure there are links to it on your social media pages.
- Get organised! Is your desk a mess? Have you resorted to writing on scraps of paper because you’ve run out of notebooks? Spend an hour or so sorting everything out and buy or order anything else you need.
- Review your finances. Are you earning enough? If not, think about pitching more or using your skills for copywriting, social media management etc.
The last few months of the year are really the time to make hay while the sun shines.
