Use an expected income schedule to fill the year with money.

Use an Expected Income Schedule to Fill the Year with Money By David Geer You know how you can work like the dickens and still have months where you don't make enough to buy groceries? I've developed a form to help get enough work at the right times and to make sure each month will begin and end with do-re-me-dough! I now have a chart for the whole year with empty fields under each month (about 20 fields). A sample form has been provided for you to use with my blessing - feel free to adapt and alter it at will. As I earn new assignments, I mark the name of the publication and the amount I am to be paid, not under the month I got the assignment, but under the month during which I can expect to be paid according to their writer's guidelines, and confirmation from the editor (in case the payment policy has changed). I keep notes on the same sheet as to how many dollars worth of work I need to drum up, by when, in order to fill the rest of the year with paychecks. For example, if it is January and I have now been using this form consistently for several months, I may have plenty of money scheduled to come in the next few months and this month. However, if I look down the road, I may see that I don't have enough checks coming in June. I will make a notation under January to the effect that I need to assemble gigs that will pay a certain amount by June. I have five months starting now to dig up enough work so that by June I will be flush with cash. Though you should be querying constantly whenever you're not completing assignments, this form can help you find work that will pay the right amounts at the right times to keep your head above water and a tide of unpaid bills. Assignments I can look for that will help pay in June include all the following. Assignments I can get in a week or two, complete in a few weeks, and which pay by two or three months from deadline will work. These may be some of your pay on publication assignments. You want to approach editors who will get back to you sooner but where you can live with them not paying you until June once you have the assignment. You can also pitch editors who may not get back to you right away, but who pay on acceptance or within a month or so when the job is completed. Of course it is always OK to take jobs that pay well ahead of schedule, so long as you can save. As you can see there is a pattern here. For each publication you are considering querying, you will need to add up the time it takes to query, the editor's usual response time, time to negotiate, time to deadline and time to payment. If all that leaves you time to pitch and still get paid in June, then you have an example of a publication you should pitch to now. I have 20 fields under each month so that I have room to mark down the high number of assignments I feel I'll need to get paid for each month to thrive. Some of the fields will be used to note how many dollars worth of assignments I need to be digging up now for the coming months. Goals for a certain month's income begin to be set and worked toward five months out. Believe me, I have worked for editors who assign work a lot further out than five months. How is my Expected Income Schedule working for me? I turn in nine assignments this month (it actually happens to be January as I write this) and expect payment from seven. I'm expecting payment from at least five in February, three in March (I still have a little more work to line up for that month) and one, two or three each month the rest of the year. This organizational tool can effectively help you to target your efforts in gaining new assignments in such a way that you can build and manage a fairly steady stream of writing income.