Writing Goals for 2015

I’m excited to put together another post on how my writing has done this year. Highlights of my freelancing career for 2014 include continued work for Her Packing List, including our well received e-book Eliminating Packing Nightmares, work for Skyword’s Mastercard Caribbean and Love This City programs, a large assignment for the Trivago blog, three issues with US Airways Magazine and a few posts per month for Shermans Travel.

I also published a few pieces for Help Go Abroad, Matador Network and, the one I’m most proud of, my feature for National Geographic Traveler’s Intelligent Travel blog. I’ve become recognized as an expert on Atlanta and the South, which is how I get approached with most writing jobs. I pitched a few stories to big publications, but most of which I never got a reply from. But at least I tried!

This year was entirely about branding myself as an expert in a specific area, in my case travel in Atlanta and the South. My goal for last year was to create a career that allows me to work anywhere and to increase my total writing income from 25% to at least 40%.

I topped that and made half of my income from freelance writing alone. I’d like to phase out my additional jobs over the next year or two and allow writing to be my full income. I’ve made enough money to support myself in terms of insurance and bills. I’ve also got a few other goals for the 2015.

Pitch Big

I’ve been intimidated by the idea of pitching big publications, but they need specialized content too. Since working with AFAR and National Geographic Traveler, I feel prepared to pitch stories to big names like BBC Travel, Conde Nast Traveler and Southern Living.

Most of my work is from references, so I rarely actively pitch ideas to publications. I’d like this to change by pitching at least three times per month. I’d also like to pitch more longer form, higher paying stories to supplement the smaller blog posts I usually do.

Regular Work

Most of my work is irregular, with a few big projects every year making up the majority of my writing income. December and January are always slow months, which is why I have second (and third and fourth) jobs. I’d like to make more of my work regular, every or every other month, so that I’m not constantly stressing about paying my bills.

Say No to Nonsense

I said this last year too, but I fell for the same stuff this time around. I accepted work for people who screwed me over before because I thought some work was better than none. This isn’t the case. Some work just isn’t worth the trouble. I will no longer be working for companies that don’t reimburse the PayPal fees.

Getting $20 of my $500 payment (that was 2 weeks late) taken away just isn’t right. I also won’t be doing work that asks me to promote my writing on my travel blog in addition to the writing for a client.

What other goals should I focus on for 2015?