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.