You’ve made it, but it’s hard to know when you can congratulate yourself—was the sentiment me and another self-employed friend recently expressed. We are both in that slow-moving stage where we’ve made the leap, put our all into our current businesses, started with a bang, and are waiting for the next breakthrough.
I think I’m experiencing the dry time in freelancing, and it’s easy to feel discouraged. I got off to such a great start, carved out a solid foundation, and I’m aching to really take off. These dry times are facts, like cycling, there are uphills and downhills and they’ll just keep coming.
I’m eager to cut to the next chapter.
The only solution is to keep pedaling, of course. I’m here for the long game.
My partner, herself a business owner and entrepreneur, is an invaluable source of support and inspiration to me. It feels so good to be with someone who intimately knows the emotional ups and downs of self-employment.
Recently I dusted off my Spookytooth query and started pitching again. I’m proud of that book, and am in the process of carving out a smaller version of it, while building out the rest for a trilogy. Following other writers and agents on Twitter inspired me to participate in #pitchwars. And a publisher liked my pitch! For those unfamiliar with #pitchwars, it’s a Twitter thing where you tweet a condensed version of your book pitch. If an agent or publisher likes your pitch, that’s an invitation to send them your query or synopsis. I’m so grateful for the like on my tweet, even though I don’t think I’m a good fit with the publisher, it inspired me to dig into Spookytooth again, and get those pitches out!