Spacebar Press Blog

Good day everyone. I see I haven’t been keeping up my end of the bargain and been blogging regularly. Life has been keeping me pretty busy these days, as I try to get my freelance biz off the ground, plus the weather’s been trying to be summer-like here, so I’ve been out and about. One thing that has kept me busy the last few days is the fact that the perfect full-time job actually fell into my lap last week! That was just crazy. From the time I got the first email about the job, to the time I got the offer in my hot little hands, 7 whole days have passed. Incredible. What has gotten me so excited about this position? Let me count the ways:

• There is a team of technical writers there, sharing the workload.
• They have a technical writing M-A-N-A-G-E-R that’s there to have our backs.
• They have T-O-N-S of work to keep us busy for a good long time.
• They are doing all sorts of fun tech writing-y things like converting to single sourcing, DITA, and other things.
• They are paying me a boat-load more money than I am making now.

You might think that last point was the deciding factor, but honestly, the first four points were also very good.

So I decided to take the plunge and take the new job. I need to grow as a writer, and stretch my TW-muscles. I’ll still be trying to get the freelance writing thing going as well, but at least I’ll be happier during the day.

Freelancing rates have been a hot topic over hte last week or so in the blogosphere. One post that got my attention was from Steven over at Vandelay Design. He brings up some very good points, one of which is “Some potential clients will think your prices are high no matter what you charge.”

This is so true. Just like the people who are never happy with anything in their lives, certain future clients are always going to be upset with whatever their freelancer is charging. Granted, a freelancer shouldn’t be asking for an astronomical rate, especially as a newbie, but if you’ve already got an established name/brand, then it’s entirely justified. And there are those clients that will balk at that rate. I think even calling these people “clients” is a bit too nice, because quite frankly, if they’re going to complain about what I’m charging, then do I really want to be working with them?

One of my tasks this weekend was to determine some rates for the technical writing services I want to offer. I’ve decided to go with a hybrid model, having an hourly rate for some tasks and then a per-project rate for others. I know some freelancers use one or the other method almost exclusively, but I think this hybrid model will be the best for me at the beginning. As I start churning out the projects and work, I’ll definitely revise my rates, that’s for sure, but at the start, I don’t want to charge too little. I know this is a part-time/side-line business for me right now, but as I’d eventually like to transition to freelancing full-time, I don’t want to short-change myself right from the get-go. Considering many freelancers have long-term relationships with their clients, I don’t want to start off on the wrong foot. Am I wrong in this everyone? What do you think?

This week was Freelance Week chez moi, and I took some great strides at actually getting down to this whole freelancing business. I’ve been talking about it for about two years now, but just never got off my ass to do anything about it. Until now.

I’ve realized that I’m not as enamoured of the full time tech writing job as I used to be. When I was job hunting last year I was weighing contract jobs higher than full time ones, however that nagging voice at the back of my head told me to take the full time job when it was offered, instead of waiting out on a couple of contract ones. And I’m finding that I’m not as fulfilled as I could be. One of the main reasons I was and am leaning to contracting/freelancing is the fact that as a contractor I would be able to start AND finish a whole project. Isn’t that such a strange thing to see in print? Let me say it again:

Start and finish a whole project.

In the 8 years I’ve been working as a technical writer, I keep finding that I end up starting like 10-15 projects and only ever finish off 5 of them in any given year. That’s roughly one quarter of the projects I start. At my current employer I’m finding that the ratio is even lower! It’s leading to a lot of discontent, and just a general sense of malaise. That, and the fact that I’m getting sick of having all my personal debt hanging over my head for so many years, are the main reasons that I’m making a bigger effort to make the switch to freelance technical writing. A friend of a friend is a freelance journalist, and I am envious of her every time she disappears for two months or so to do some serious heads-down writing before taking 6 weeks off to traipse around the world travelling. “I want to do that!” I say to myself and anyone else that will listen.

Thus was born Freelance Week.

This week I have, in no particular order:

• Updated my freelance technical writing site, SpacebarPress.com.
• Researched how to put together a good query letter/email.
• Figured out what my rates are going to be.
• Created a To Do list that I am going to complete over the next month.

It is time for me to “put up or shut up” as the cliche goes (or for something a little more in tune with my sensibilities “time to shit or get off the pot.” )

So the list looks like this right now:

1. Write up the query e-mail.
2. Query 3 companies every 2 days.
3. Write 1 blog post every day that’s technology-based. — This is to practice writing this type of thing, as it’ll be part of my initial service offering.
4. Practice documentation plans. — These are another one of the three or four services I’m going to start with, even though I can do much more than that. Baby steps, remember…
5. Create a list of companies that I’d like to work for. — This doesn’t have to be a realistic list, just a list that could possibly help me with Task #1.

There you have it folks, Julia’s Plan for Taking the Plunge. How does it sound to you?

Yes, today is Canada Day, and I’m relaxing at home enjoying the day off. I’ve had a productive morning so far, and next I’ll be off to a BBQ at a friend’s house. Perhaps will enjoy some fireworks tonight as well.

Cheers!

For someone who “claims” to be a writer, I sure am being remiss in my postings here, aren’t I? Sadly I just haven’t felt that inspired to write anything for y’all, so I do apologize for that. Work hasn’t been that inspiring for me lately so that just hasn’t helped with the blog posting.

How do you all deal with finding the inspiration to write? Whether that be in your technical writing work, or on your blogs.

I’m sure you’ve been there before: you need a particular piece of software in order to complete your project/make your life easier/<insert another very good technical writing reason here>. But you’ve got to convince your boss that it’s worth his/her while to spend the money for it. So how do you do it?

Research the software in question

This is a step that a lot of people, believe it or not, skip entirely. They just know they need the software and try to persuade their boss of this fact without doing any research. This might have worked in the dotCom heights of insanity, however in the present real world, this usually fails miserably. So do your research. Go to the software’s website and see exactly what benefits it offers, how much it costs, and so on. Take notes, you’ll need them later.

Research any freeware options

This is a step I am not used to doing, however it’s an excellent one to look into. If you can find freeware that does the same thing as the Name Brand software, why not get that one? Your boss and the company will thank you, since you’re getting the software you need to do your job, and it doesn’t cost the company any money.

Research competing products

This step was suggested to me last week by my boss as we were trying to build a good business case for our VP about some new wiki software we wanted to buy. He knew that this would be the first or second question the VP would ask, so having the answers ready would help.

Put together some notes to bring with you when you make your case

For as well as you think you know the product, there’s always going to be that one question that’s asked of you that is brand new to you. So you might as well take your notes with you, so that if you don’t know the answer right away, you’ve at least got the notes to look through quickly.

Try to make a “Top 10 Reasons Why We Need this Software” kind of list

Management types often don’t have a lot of time to listed to a 15 minute presentation on the software in question, so why not structure your request as a Top 10 list? Gives managers something quick and easy to grasp on to when they’re listening to the presentation, and is an easy thing for them to yea or nay.

Follow up with your boss afterwards

This is a crucial step, especially at my workplace. We work so quickly that ideas often fall through the cracks. I have been trying to get my boss to buy this new wiki software since mid-December 2007, and we’re only just now getting back to the discussions. I had to pull out my old white paper on the subject, do some more research, and then make my presentation. So you must persist and keep at it if it’s a piece of software that will make your life easier.

Phew, that was a lot of work. I was upgrading my three blogs to WP 2.5.1, and then playing around with the theme for this one. Took me a few hours, but I think I’m all finished. Please let me know if  you experience any issues.

I had originally upgraded to 2.5 when it first came out, however I was so upset and dismayed by the interface that I downgraded again. Since they’ve now released 2.5.1, I figured it was okay to come out and play with it again. And so far so good. I typically wait before upgrading any of my software to the “latest” version, however I’ve never had any problems with WP till then. But I’m enjoying the way 2.5.1 is working for me, and besides, I’m a sucker for a redesigned interface (except Office 2007. haha.)