Seasonal Freelance Perk: Snow Days

Parkbench does it in the snow.

No big deal right? Well, it depends. I have a couple of jobs on the go at the moment, and so I'm juggling deadlines. A snow day for my clients is a work day for me; I just put on a wooly jumper and walk down the hall. They're behind, or working away from their servers on laptops or Crackberries, or they managed to get into the office, but the boss didn't, or the production manager didn't, so they're stuck waiting for a signature or a file. They can't get to the post office; the courier's not working.

'Sure', says you, 'but they get a day off, you don't.' Nyeh. I get something better – I get ahead, with no interruptions.

I'll take my snow day when the sun shines some quiet afternoon.

Beirut, we have a problem.

So, two months in to Parkbench life and work is building up and being sent out. We have three jobs out on the hop; Parkbench freelancers have taken on a proofing job, a Hiberno-English / Dublinese edit and a German reader's report.

In between juggling my own editorial jobs, I had the pleasure of catching up with one of Parkbench's most established and successful translators last week here in Dublin, and we got chatting about plans for approaching publishers and making new contacts in the translation world.

As part of my efforts to mount a post-ferragosto  attack on publishers abroad, I have been building up some contacts outside of Europe. For obvious reasons, the Arab world is looking like a good place to start, and so, in addition to more serious research, I joined up to a few interesting groups on Facebook.

And herein lies the rub: a little help, perhaps, with this message from the Arab Publishers' Association?

فقدت حركة النشر في لبنان والوطن والعربي

الزميل الاستاذ عبود خير الله عبود

الامين العام السابق لاتحاد الناشرين العرب

نائب رئيس نفابة اتحاد الناشرين في لبنان

صاحب ومدير دار الجيل والمختار في لبنان ومصر وتونس

It's that time again.

Time for a small rant about job applications. Most people in publishing, not to mention most freelancers, have spent an enormous amount of time completing and sending job applications – it's a high-turnover industry – so you'd think we'd all have it down to a science ...

Starting from the premise 'looking for a job is stressful and everyone makes mistakes', I'd like to highlight some very common mistakes in applying for a job:

1. Typos.

If you are applying for an editorial job and your application contains a typo, grammatical screw-up, spelling mistake or error of fact, your application goes in the bin.

It is of course unfortunate that this may be the only job in the world for which this is the case, but if you can't be bothered to proof-read your application to be a proof-reader, woe betide the novelist who gets you tinkering with her masterpiece.

2. Misspelling or omitting the addressee's name. This is insulting, and falls in with the above. If a name is listed with an advertisement, use it – to do otherwise infers that you have not read the ad properly, or that you assume that I am not the person making the decisions.

3. Apologising. A simple 'Apologies for the delay in getting back to you ... ' will do it. I don't need to know that you spilled a latte on your laptop, that your dog was hit by a car, or that you've been praying to the porcelain god since gastroenteritis hit. I need to know that you know that you've taken a while to respond to my email, that's all. Ideally, we'd all respond to emails the nanosecond that they arrive, but ideally, I'd be swanning around the south of France with nice glass of wine right now. You get the idea.

4. Ask questions. This doesn't make you look unsure of yourself, or of your prospects of getting hired. It's just professional, and it speaks to your ability to see the bigger picture. I've asked for your CV; you can ask for more information about the job.

And with that, over and out, my friends. Enjoy the Irish Bank Holiday weekend!

Competition for freelancers!

Happy days, folks – have a peek at this. 

It's a great competition from Freelance Folder, to whom we link on the right, there. 

Join up and enter, I say!

Live and Learn, no. 2

'Learning curve' is an overused phrase, so I'll put it in a box down the garden. Meanwhile, I've learned a great truth of freelancing.

Freelancers don't get paid on time.

Many clients are like clockwork, no problems, but even the best slip once in a while. I've coded invoices, and yes, I've put them off. I tell you what I've never done: handed in work late.

Thing is, if clients pay late, Parkbench freelancers get paid late, and that is not where we want to be, you'll doubtless agree. I'd be more straightforward than most when it comes to issues of money (though I know that we in the arts are supposed to be beyond such concerns!) but it's a good issue to highlight for all of us, I think.

Any tips?

Some people swear by terms of service agreements. Beyond the most basic good faith agreements regarding hiring and farming out work, I've found resistance to freelance contracts in the publishing world. Late fees for non-payment? If you've failed to get the fee you earned in on time, how do you intend to get in your interest?

Along similar lines, I've had some emails in from freelancers offering to do work for free by way of a test for me. Work for free? No, no, no. Let your experience and your references speak for themselves, hey? Have a little faith.

The same is true for students. As someone about to embark on an MPhil, are students of publishing and translation openly looking to build their portfolios for nothing? Sure, there's a baseline of experience you have to build, but beyond that, you have to wonder...

Sheesh. More positive post to follow. I'm thinking of a post on freelancers and food...

Ah, so this is how it works

So far, things have been a little bit like this: make lists, lots of lists, of all the things you have to do.

Start with the boring stuff: bank, tax, accountant, insurance, professional associations, university admin.

Then try to knock off a few big-picture items each day.

Make lists of people to email about work, and get through as many as you can each day.

Network actively through acquaintances, friends and the Internet.

Drop everything and rearrange your plans because work has come in!

Make plans around the work, because, you know, you have a life, too.

Oh, wait, the work gets rearranged. Re-rearrange everything accordingly.

Return to original boring stuff, big-picture, emails and networking.

Is this frustrating? Initially, yes. But really, this is the test of How Things Work. I have learned, even on job number one, that being a freelancer requires a bit more adaptability than your average 9-5. This may seem startlingly obvious, but in practice, it has a lot more impact than you might expect.

Consider this: your friend's in town for the weekend, you had a night out planned on Friday and guests all of Saturday, followed by a nice literary event on Sunday afternoon. Well, think again. Now, rather than having a solid two days' work under my belt before the weekend ensues, I will have none. So where to get the extra 16 hours' work? Out of the time that I might have been relaxing next week. Besides, I'd rather relax with my friend from out of town, right? Right. So really, nothing lost.

Remember: you signed up to this lark so that you could organise your own time -- so organise it.