Article
June 25, 2018
1 comment
by Stephen

Standing Up to Imposter Syndrome

Photo by James Pond on Unsplash

It occurred to me, after I published the post a couple of weeks ago on how to define and self-assess experience, that imposter syndrome is closely related. How many freelancers experience that? I do. 

Imposter syndrome is that nagging feeling that my accomplishments are all a fraud. I don’t actually know what I am doing. Sooner or later a client or a colleague will call me out on the terrible quality of my work. 

This can often flare up with a more difficult project. Perhaps the index is for a subject I am less familiar with. Or maybe I am in a dry spell for work, and I am wondering, will anyone ever send me work again? Or maybe I am just tired, which causes the project I am working on to seem more daunting than it actually is. Whatever the case, I start to doubt myself. I second guess decisions. I get anxious when faced with a difficult section in the index and I have to step away for a moment to refocus. 

Do you ever feel this way? I suspect it is fairly common. The Writing Excuses podcast has an excellent episode on imposter syndrome from a couple of years ago. 

I do not know if imposter syndrome will ever fully go away. I seem to be in its grips less often now, though I can see a couple of upcoming projects that are a little outside my comfort zone. I wonder if it is most common in that career stage shortly after being a rookie, in that time when you are coming to grips with newfound success, and are trying to turn that newfound success and experience into confidence. 

Occasionally clients will send me a handwritten note of appreciation. I have three of them pinned to my bulletin board, to remind me that at least three people like my work. I also have a handful of testimonials that I can refer to, sent via email. These are all confidence boosters, and very much appreciated. If you are someone who hires indexers, and you genuinely like the work, take a moment to say so. Your comment will make a difference. 

If you are someone who experiences imposter syndrome, know that you are not alone. It can happen to all of us. At best, use it as a tool to deepen your craft and improve. Otherwise, know that what it is telling you is false. Try to find ways to remind yourself of that fact. You are a professional, and you do have what it takes to do your job. 

My apologies for not blogging last week. I was sick two weeks ago, which made last week extremely busy, catching up on work. I did draft this post, but did not get as far as revising and posting it. I hope to get back on track going forward.

Article
June 11, 2018
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by Stephen

Defining Experience, One Index (and One Tree) at a Time

Photo by Jesse Orrico on Unsplash

Experience can be tricky to define and gauge. As a freelancer, what standard do you compare yourself to? When are you no longer a “newbie”? Some professional societies, such as the UK’s Society of Indexers or Editors Canada, offer certification, which can be helpful. Many others do not offer these external standards by which we can gauge ourselves. Is it a matter of, “I know it when I see it”?

I returned home a couple of days ago from the Indexing Society of Canada’s annual conference, held this year in Winnipeg. It was the fifth indexing conference I have attended. Unexpectedly, I came away feeling like I was truly an experienced indexer. I do not say this to brag or to say that I have finally arrived, whatever that means. There has been a shift, though—a subtle, unlooked for, shift, perhaps—in how I view myself, and perhaps in how I perceive how my colleagues view me. 

I have been trying to think about what happened at the conference that might have contributed to this shift. I did announce our new mentorship program, which I helped to write the proposal for and for which I am now one of the two coordinators tasked with turning the proposal into a functioning program. I know that indexing experience is not strictly necessary to put together a mentorship program, but I am still feeling the weight of this responsibility. I did feel like I recognized more colleagues than I have in the past, and in turn was recognized by them. I have been around long enough that colleagues are starting to turn into friends. I did talk to a number of newer indexers, compared to whom I am, I realize, more experienced, while there are others who have been indexing far longer. I suppose you could say that in my sixth year as a freelancer I am somewhere in the middle of my career. The beginning is now past.

I often think about the two seasons I planted trees in northern British Columbia, when I think about the acquisition and progression of experience. I turned nineteen and twenty those two summers. Tree planting is seasonal work in Canada, to replace the trees cut down by logging. First year planters are called rookies, and you remain a rookie until the last day of the season. If you come back for a second year, you are a vet. The demarcation is clear.

Experience is what differentiates rookies from vets. The first season is dedicated to learning proper technique, how to read the ground, and how to add speed, once technique is ingrained. I only hit the two thousand tree mark three, maybe four days that first summer. For me, much of that first season was also the mental struggle to stay engaged in a repetitious, physically demanding task and environment. Especially in the third month, I am pretty sure I was burning out. One afternoon I literally threw my shovel away and cried, alone in the middle of the clearcut. I felt numb and exhausted. All I wanted to do was to sit and be somewhere else. But, I was in the middle of the wilderness with a bag of seedlings strapped to my waist. At the very least I needed to walk back to the truck, which I think was at least a ten minute walk. So after sitting for a bit I found my shovel and dragged myself back to work.

In contrast, my second season got off to a flying start. I hit two thousand trees within the first few days and maintained that pace for the rest of the summer. I would often plant upwards to 2,200 trees a day, occasionally more, with my personal best being about 2,650, on trenched ground, with a sore knee. I was refreshed from nine months away, and all of that experience from my first year—all that I was trying to achieve my first year—suddenly became possible. I was clearly no longer a rookie. That said, there were a few vets on our crew who had been planting for five or more years. They would routinely plant three thousand trees a day, sometimes going up to four or five thousand if the ground was creamy. Experience exists on a continuum. 

Bringing this back to indexing, I think there are a few markers for experience. One is simply putting in the work, measured both in time and in indexes completed. Indexing, like tree planting, is inherently hands-on. While knowledge about technique can inform practice, that knowledge will never replace practice. The best way to gain experience is to just do the work. 

A second aspect is self-reflection. I think it is possible for someone to index poorly for a long time, because they have never thought about how they index or how they can improve. I think when someone is described as an experienced indexer, quality is often implied, which requires attention to craft. The other side of this is that even experienced indexers can get better. There is always room to learn. 

I think that mindset is a third aspect. I see this in myself, in that somewhere along the way I have come to recognize that I have completed a significant body of work, that my work processes and skills have changed over time (hopefully for the better), and that I am better able to deal with challenges as they arise. I also have a changing sense of myself in relation to my colleagues, whether those are colleagues ahead of me, with me, or behind me on this continuum of experience. I am coming to see that I am experienced, while also seeing that there is still more that I can learn. 

Maybe I am premature to consider myself experienced. Maybe I will look back on this post ten years from now and think, “What is that idiot talking about?” And maybe I will think the same again twenty years from now. I don’t know. Either way, the work continues. I trust that you and I, if we keep chipping away at our craft, will find experience, one way or another. And there is always another indexing conference next year to look forward to.

I wasn’t able to find a stock photo of tree planting, but check this article out on Vice for some stunning photos. There is nothing quite like pounding trees. It is as much a lifestyle as it is a job.

Article
May 21, 2018
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by Stephen

Code-Switching, in Language and in Freelance Life

My childhood was conducted in three languages. 

At home, my family spoke English. School, from grade one to halfway through grade three, was conducted in Mandarin Chinese (half way through grade three I transferred to the English-speaking international school, where we still had daily Mandarin classes). The language spoken at the church my family attended was primarily Taiwanese, which is the language my parents first learned when we moved to Taiwan. Everyday life outside of church, school, and home was conducted in a mixture of Taiwanese and Mandarin, except for the rare occasions when we got together with other foreigners. 

The technical term for this fluent switching back and forth is code-switching. Most Taiwanese are experts at this. If you only know one of the two main languages in Taiwan, there is much that you will not understand.

As a kid, I took code-switching for granted. Even today, though my ability to speak in Mandarin and Taiwanese is rusty, and my vocabulary is not as broad as I would like, my comprehension remains stable. I can still follow a conversation in which Taiwanese, Mandarin, and English are all being used in some combination. I often think in Mandarin and Taiwanese. This is not something that I consciously try to do; it just is, in the same way that I can understand Taiwanese, but am unable to explain its seven tones.

I have been thinking about code-switching recently in relation to my work. I have been juggling multiple projects over the last few weeks. Too many projects, it seems. There is the indexing, of course, often two books at a time, with more waiting my attention. I am also consulting on a long-term project rewriting a policy document, which is a new type of work for me. I am also nearly finished proofreading a book, for which I also wrote the index. Add in an hour of writing for myself every morning, and it feels like each day I am working on four distinct projects, at least, trying to keep each moving forward towards their respective deadlines.

Am I too busy? I admit I have taken on too many projects. Learning to say no to clients continues to be a challenge, while also accurately judging how long projects will take to complete, my own energy, and being protective of my own time and priorities. I am still learning how quickly or slowly I can turn around a project, which seems to vary anyway as I become more proficient at indexing, or if a project is easier or harder than expected. It is the usual fluid and chaotic schedule of a freelancer, or at least how I imagine most freelancers work. 

Specifically, I have been thinking about my need to quickly switch between projects throughout the day.  I need to put down my consulting for the day and pick up the indexing or proofreading from where I left off the day before. I need to be able to finish indexing a chapter in one book and then start indexing the next chapter of another book. I do not have much time to catch up on what I previously completed; I need to have that knowledge ready to go.

This is tough work, I am realizing. It takes a mental toll to be on like this throughout the day, to be able to jump from task to task, and topic to topic, while maintaining the same pace throughout. I try to make it easier by working on these projects in the same order each day, so that I can have a routine and rhythm that I can take for granted. 

I have also been wondering if code-switching might be a metaphor for this switching back and forth. A bad metaphor, perhaps. Code-switching in speech often occurs within the same sentence, at least in Taiwan. The switching I am doing in my work is sequential and not nearly so rapid. But I still have to maintain fluency, so to speak, in all projects. The pivot from one to the next has to feel effortless.

Easier said than done, I know. This post is not meant to brag about how much I can accomplish. It is, instead, admitting that I’ve been in over my head again these last few weeks, trying to do too much. I look forward to saying goodbye to projects and finding some margin again for rest and other activities. I find three projects per day to be my sweet maximum. That is the number I need to keep in mind as I book projects and plan my schedule.

If you are a freelancer, how do you tame your schedule? Do you try to work on more than one project at a time?

Article
May 14, 2018
2 comments
by Stephen

Strategic and Persistent Marketing

Marketing is probably the one area that most stumps freelancers. Unless the skill you are offering is that of marketing consultant, this is not what you trained for. The thought of cold-calling reduces your voice to a stuttering whisper. If you are new to freelancing, you might also be wracked with insecurity about your qualifications. Are you good enough for someone to hire?

Let’s say that yes, you are good enough to hire. If you have undergone training, have made opportunities to practice your craft, and gotten feedback from others, then you are already a big step ahead of the amateurs. You will continue to learn as you work, but for now, yes, you are good enough to open for business.

So, back to the question: how do we market ourselves?

The actual how is difficult to answer. So much depends on what you are comfortable doing, and what will most effectively reach your target clients. I once read an article in an indexing resource titled something like “A Hundred Ways to Market Yourself.” (I wish I could find that article again.) Some of the ways given were very practical and others were a bit goofy, but the point was, marketing is basically getting your name and services in front of the right people, however that happens. 

I like to think about marketing as forming relationships and connections with the right people. In a niche industry like indexing, it is only a small subset of people who actually need to hire an indexer. Trying to sell my services to the marketing team may lead to a referral to the managing editor, who is the person I actually need to be talking to, but it won’t be the most effective use of my effort. So one of the first considerations is, who do I actually need to talk to? 

To help narrow down the possibilities, answer these questions:

  • What is your market? There are hundreds of publishers out there, and who knows how many thousands of authors, not to mention journals and possibly corporations and government entities who could use an indexer. Unless you plan on starting a large indexing company, working across the whole field, you can’t possibly serve them all. So what kind of clients do you want to work with? Do you want to work with authors or publishers? Do you have a preference between trade, scholarly, or a speciality subject? Do you want to work with clients within a certain geographical area? Your market can overlap any or all of these areas. You can also choose to target different markets as your business grows. But to provide focus, pick a market and focus on that for now. 
  • Who, within your chosen market, are the gatekeepers to paid work? As I mentioned above, marketing is about connecting with the right people. Everyone else you can fairly safely ignore. I say fairly safely because even someone not directly connected to indexing might be able to refer you to work, so by all means make it widely known that you are open for business. That knowledge might just percolate and eventually turn into a job. But for more immediate results, find the gatekeepers. In a publishing house, this will probably be the managing or production editor. If you are not sure who is responsible for hiring indexers, ask. Finding the people who need indexers will take some time and research, and it is well worth the effort. When you do make your pitch, you do not want to waste your time or theirs talking to the wrong person. 

Once you have identified who to contact, these are a few points to consider as you plan your marketing strategy.

  • Choose a marketing method. There are many ways to approach a potential client. I think if done rightly, there are no wrong ways. As mentioned, the main factors are, is it a way that you are comfortable with, and will it effectively reach the client. Personally, I prefer to make contact by email or to network at conferences and other events. I have also tried cold-calling, and once I arranged to meet a managing editor for coffee and tour their office, which I would definitely do again if I moved to a new city and wanted to meet the local publishers. I once heard a presentation from an indexer who conducted an extensive and successful snail mail campaign, and I’ve talked to an indexer who found work on business books through Google ads. Pick two or three ways that you are comfortable with and given them a try. If the first try does not succeed, try again. People will not always reply, so try several times to see if a method is effective or not. If a method is not effective, try something else. The point of choosing a method is to provide focus. It is not to lock you into a method forever. 
  • Show that you understand your potential client’s needs. I think it can be easy to assume that a publisher and an indexer are an obvious match. It can be tiresome to personalize forty emails. But while parts of that email can be the same across all forty, it is still important to show that you know something about the books or the needs of that particular client. Show that this is not just another email that you are dashing off, but that you have put thought into this effort to connect.
  • Talk about yourself with specific details. The flip side about being knowledgable about the client is being specific about your own abilities and accomplishments. If you haven’t yet landed your first project, then mention your training and any academic or employment experience which would be relevant to the books at hand. You can also mention indexes that you have written for practice or as a volunteer. If you have been hired for a few projects, then mention those, including the publishers. If you have a testimonial, put that in. You do not want to send a bland, generic message. Let the client know that you are a real person with experience and knowledge of the industry and the task. 
  • Pay attention to local and new publishers. I wonder if this is an area that some indexers overlook, because it seems like local or new publishers can’t possibly provide enough work. That is most likely true, but local publishers can still be a great starting point. You can use projects from smaller clients to show larger clients what you are capable of. And, I think it can sometimes be easier to get work from local clients. One managing editor told me that she prefers to hire local, even though she knows that with the internet, there is no rational basis for that preference. With someone local, you can also meet them in person, which, if you make a good impression, could be much more effective than an email or phone call. As for a new publisher, becoming their first freelance indexer could help ensure a steady stream of work into the future. So keep your eyes and ears open for changes in the publishing scene so you can respond quickly to new opportunities. 
  • Don’t despise the small clients. This relates to what I wrote last week about having a diverse client base. A small or medium sized publisher will not be able to provide full-time work, but a handful of small publishers might. So don’t be afraid to market to smaller potential clients. It is not a waste of time. 

By this point, I don’t blame you if you are wondering if we are done yet. There is a lot to consider. But take a deep breathe—I am almost done.  Just a few more big-picture points to consider.

  • Think long term. You may meet the perfect managing editor who can send you work, but they don’t need you yet. Indexing is just one part of the book production process, and maybe when you make contact, they don’t have any books at that stage. Or perhaps they already work with other indexers, and the editor is willing to give you a try but you have to wait until the other indexers are not available. It can sometimes take months or even years for a contact to actually send you work. To give an extreme example, I was recently hired, for the first time, by someone I first met at a networking event four or five years ago. She still remembered me, and when someone else recently recommended me to her, she decided that it was finally time to get in contact with a job. Thankfully the next longest span for me between first contact and a project was about a year, and with most other clients it was a matter of within a few months. But still, marketing may not yield immediate results. So do not be discouraged if work is slow to come. Keep trying, follow-up, and the work will eventually come. 
  • Remember that marketing is a numbers game. The more people you contact, the better the odds that at least some of them will reply with work. If you contact ten publishers, expect that maybe one or two will get back to you. If you factor in time, maybe a couple more will eventually respond as well. It can be discouraging to put in all that work to only receive silence. This is fairly common, unfortunately. So within your chosen market, and having done your research to identify the gatekeepers and how you can meet their needs, reach out to as many potential clients as you can.
  • Network. Like marketing, this is another of those dreaded words for freelancers, especially if you are an introvert and part of your motivation for freelancing is because you want to work at home by yourself. What does it mean to network? Like marketing, it is about making connections with the people who need you or who can refer you onwards. I don’t enjoy getting together with strangers either, but a lot of it is, honestly, just showing up and saying hello. Surprisingly, this is now one of my preferred methods. Networking does get easier with practice, especially if you can return to the same event two or three times. The first time may be awkward, but by the second or third visit, people will start to recognize you, and you them. 

Okay, you can breathe again. Thank you for staying with me to the end. 

Marketing is intimidating, but with a focused plan it is possible. You can gain clients and launch your freelance career. Be persistent, be strategic, and the work will eventually come.

The Freelance Career Launch Series is a set of posts about how to start your freelance career. The focus will be on indexing, because that is what I do, but the principles are universal. 

Article
May 7, 2018
0 comment
by Stephen

The Value of a Diverse Client Base

One of the most daunting questions to face a new indexer is, where does the work come from? How do I land my first client? That experienced indexer over there has lots of work and it looks like they don’t even market. How does that happen?

I will write about marketing next week (I promise). Suffice to say for now that it is possible to get to a point where marketing can take a back seat, though I think one should always keep an eye out for new opportunities. The publishing scene is too dynamic to become complacent. 

Instead, today I want to write about the value of building a diverse client base. Marketing will certainly help you gain clients, but I believe that long-term sustainability as a freelancer comes from gaining and retaining at least a handful of regular clients. You don’t want to have only one or two clients, no matter how much work they provide, nor do you want to have a revolving door of clients who never contact you again. 

Why is this so? I have observed three reasons, from my own experience and from talking to other freelancers.

  1. Your mix of clients will change over time. Even if you are the world’s best indexer, your clients will change over time. Having one or two clients that provide all the work you need may be awesome in the short term, and it will also be disastrous should that client suddenly disappear. Changes in your client base is not a reflection of you. Instead, it is the reality of a changing publishing scene. In the last few years, I’ve had my very first client shut down and absorbed by a larger press. Another university press, which for a while was providing me with a fair chunk of my work, was downsized by its university as a cost-saving measure. An editor at a third press, who also provided me with a lot of work over a couple of years, decided to herself freelance. I still get the occasional project from the new editor, but nowhere near the volume of work I used to get. If any one of these had been my only or primary client, my schedule and income would have taken a major hit. As it was, though I was sad to lose those books and contacts, work from other clients filled in the gaps. I currently have about a dozen clients who regularly or occasionally send me work, and somehow it all balances out. 
  2. Because many potential clients are small. I live and work in Canada, and as author Eve Silver once told me, in a workshop, there are no big publishers in Canada. Not like there are big publishers in New York or London. I used to worry about this, thinking that I needed to find an in with the big name publishers so that I would have a guaranteed stream of work, or so that I could index New York Times bestsellers. I don’t worry about that anymore. Someone has to index those books, and if that person is you, congratulations! But still, as mentioned above, I would caution about relying too much on a single big publisher for work. I also want to suggest that if you are in a market full of small to mid-sized publishers, it is still possible to build a business. Most of my clients only send me a handful of books per year, because that is all they produce, but several handfuls add up quickly. If this is the kind of market you find yourself in, work with it. 
  3. So you don’t have to work on the same thing all the time. I don’t know about you, but I enjoy variety in my work. If my brain is getting tired wrestling with a scholarly text, a light trade book can be refreshing. If I am getting tired of economics, indexing a book about nature is a nice change of pace. This reason is more about personal enjoyment than the realities of publishing, but still, you will probably be more successful if you are enjoying your work. You may not always get work from the clients you want, but you should certainly pursue work that you will enjoy.

What I have written here assumes that your clients will mostly be publishers, book packagers, or other organizations. These are clients who can send you regular, repeat work. An alternative approach is to work primarily with individual authors, who can recommend you to their friends and colleagues, which is another way to build your client base and get additional work. A downside with authors is that they often have long gaps between projects, so you will probably have to wait at least a year before an author hires you again. This is why I have chosen to focus on developing relationships with publishers, who can either hire me directly or recommend me to their authors. But both approaches are possible and can lead to full-time work.

You may be wondering at this point, how am I going to get five or ten clients if I don’t even have one? Having to market is daunting enough. Now I have to up my goal for the number of clients I need? Well, yes and no. Keep working on finding that first client. Don’t worry about finding others for now. And when you get hired for that first job, celebrate and then get to work. Just keep it in the back of your mind that long-term one client will not be enough. You will want to find more. In my first few years as a freelancer, it was my goal to add each year at least one new regular client. Often I would end up with two or three new clients, and some years, as I mentioned, I would also lose a client or two. Building a diverse client base takes time. It is also well worth the investment.

The Freelance Career Launch Series is a set of posts about how to start your freelance career. The focus will be on indexing, because that is what I do, but the principles are universal. 

Article
April 30, 2018
0 comment
by Stephen

The Benefits and Practice of Practice

So you have decided to be an indexer. Maybe you have taken a course to learn how to index, and perhaps you have started to build your bridge so that you can transition to full-time freelance indexing. But still, a question remains (well, probably several questions, but we’ll get to the others later). How do you become good at indexing?

I have heard some new indexers talk about the course which they have taken as being a good starting point, but they are still not confident in their indexing abilities. They still have questions about how to construct a index, or about what terms to include, or about when subheadings are necessary and how to phrase the subheadings. This is an astute observation on the part of the new indexer, and I think it reveal the importance of practice.

About ten years ago, Malcolm Gladwell popularized the idea of needing to put in 10,000 hours of practice in order to achieve excellence. That claim is much disputed (more about that, and practice, here), and I do not think that you need to put in 10,000 hours to become an excellent indexer. Practice, though, is still important, especially deliberate, focused practice, in which you are able to be aware of what you are creating, and to find ways to improve. This ties nicely into the idea of life-long learning and professional development. I still try to improve my craft, even though I have been indexing for about seven years now, and have written around 200 indexes. I believe that I can get better.

The good news from this is that you do not need to be an expert to start freelancing. You need to be good enough so that you can do a decent job. You do, after all, want the client to hire you again or to recommend you to others. But practice is, essentially, deliberate doing, and once you have achieved a certain level of competency, you can practice as you work. 

But still, how to practice? Especially if you are at the start of your freelance career and no one has hired you yet. Perhaps you are like the new indexers I have talked to who have completed training, but are not yet confident in their abilities. There still are ways that you can practice. Practicing now, before your first paid job, will solidify your skills, give you confidence for when you do land that first job, and might also give you a portfolio which you can use to market yourself.

Here are a few suggestions for how to practice.

  • Critique published indexes. Examine the indexes that are already on your bookshelf, visit the library, or browse indexes on Amazon using the Look Inside function. What does the index do well? What is done poorly? Is there anything unique about the index? Any rules broken? Why does it work or not work? Try to critique both poorly written indexes and excellent indexes. What differentiates the two? Look at several indexes from within the same subject or genre. What makes the good ones good? This is actually how I learned how to index. I had a short-term work placement with a university press, and one day I was handed an index, the press’ indexing guidelines, and the Chicago Manual of Style chapter on indexing. My job was to figure out if the index was ready for publication, and, if it was not, to fix it. After doing this several times, I was ready to try writing my first index.
  • Find a book or report and index it. This can be a book off of your shelf or a PDF pulled from the internet. It can already have an index or you could be writing its first index ever. The point is that you are writing an index. No one is paying you for it, but you can use the resulting index in your portfolio.
  • Volunteer your indexing services for a friend or local society. I know that as professionals, paid work is what we strive for, and I do not want to advocate doing too much for free. However, if you are trying to build confidence, your skills, and/or a portfolio, and you know of a person or group that could use an indexer, volunteering to write an index might be a win-win situation for one or two projects. Be clear on your reasons for taking on the project, and be clear with the client on the parameters of the project, and this could be a good stepping stone towards your freelance career.
  • Ask for feedback from other indexers. And, see if you can critique other indexers’ works-in-progress. This can be a great way to both gain feedback and see what others do. If you are interested in this, there is an email group, Index Peer Reviewers, for this very purpose.

Practicing can feel like a chore, and it can feel disconnected from what you really want to do, which is to be a professional freelance indexer. But if you keep that goal in mind, and take the time now to practice, either while waiting for that first paid job to arrive or in anticipation of launching your freelance career, I think you will find that you will have greater confidence in your abilities, and be working at a higher level, which will help you find success sooner as a freelancer. So pick an approach and start practicing today.

The Freelance Career Launch Series is a set of posts about how to start your freelance career. The focus will be on indexing, because that is what I do, but the principles are universal. 

Article
April 23, 2018
0 comment
by Stephen

Freelance Career Launch Series: Building a Bridge

So you want to be an freelance indexer. The idea of being paid to read is alluring, or you need a more flexible job that will fit around the rest of your life, or you just want to work from home. Whatever your reasons, welcome!

But how, you ask, do I become a freelance indexer? Or a freelance anything? Where does the work actually come from? Is there enough work out there for me, and for everyone else who is also freelancing?

The answer is yes, I do believe that there is enough work out there for all who want to freelance. And yes, initially finding that work will probably be difficult. It will take effort to connect with the people who need your services, and it may take time before those people are ready to hire you. I have heard it said, and found this true for myself, that it takes about three years to build up a business to the point where you are consistently working full-time. Freelancing is not a quick fix for a sudden financial crunch. Successful freelancing is a long-term endeavour.

But still, how do you start? Because we all have to start from somewhere.

In his book The Art of Work, Jeff Goins discusses the concept of building a bridge to achieve your goals. In this way of thinking, you work systematically towards your goal instead of taking a drastic leap. You do not need to do everything at once to achieve your dream. Instead, you are always asking yourself, what can I do next? In freelance terms, this likely means preparing to freelance prior to quitting your previous job. It means that you have certain conditions in place that give you the confidence to freelance, because you have already done some of the work, and what you have done leads naturally to the next phase.

For me, I was confident about quitting my in-house publishing job and starting to freelance because I had learned how to index while working in-house, I already had some guaranteed work from previous employers, and I had some money saved which I could live off of for the first few months. This was my bridge that allowed me to build a freelance business. Was it enough to provide me with full-time work when I first started to freelance? No, I was only working part-time, at best, in my first year as a freelancer. But I had enough to pay the bills, and I had enough to build upon, which was what I needed.

So what can you do to build your bridge? We all start from different places, so your bridge may look different from mine. Here are a few suggestions, though, for where to start. How many of these you need is up to you.

  • Learn how to index. You can take a course, you can teach yourself, or you can learn while working in-house for someone else. But your first freelance job, working under a deadline, is not the best time to learn. 
  • Moonlight. If you have a full-time job, start freelancing part-time on the side. This will give you experience and you can start to build your client base. When you do decide to freelance full-time, you will probably have to expand your client base, but that should be easy compared to starting from scratch.
  • Secure promises for work. Do you have an employer or previous employers who can send you work when you switch to freelancing? Do you know of other potential sources of work? Talk to them now. The best piece of advice I received when I started is to have some work already lined up. This alleviates the financial stress of not knowing how you are going to pay your bills in those first months. It also gives you a portfolio right from the start that you can show to other potential clients.
  • Build a financial cushion. As mentioned in the previous point, stressing out about how to pay your bills is not fun, and is not conducive to the mental and emotional space needed to build your business. Also keep in mind that clients usually pay after the job is completed, so even if you do have work lined up for when you start freelancing, it will probably still be a couple of months before you see that money. If you can, save some money to live on for those first few lean months. 
  • Network. Even if your previous employer can send you work, you will likely need a larger client base than that. Are there local publishers that you can contact and ask to visit their offices or meet for coffee? Are there local editor and author groups that you can join or visit? Are there relevant conferences that you can attend? Can you get to know other indexers? Finding work is about connecting with the right people. Start building those relationships now, so that you are not completely isolated when you start to freelance. 
  • Create a plan. What kind of indexing do you want to do? How much money do you need to make? How do you define full-time? How are you doing to market yourself? Where are you physically going to do the work? You do not have to implement this plan before you start to freelance, and the plan will probably change over time as you gain experience and as circumstances change, but having some amount of plan will help tell you what the next steps are, and will help to give you a sense of momentum.

Starting your own business is never going to be easy. It will always carry some risk. I do believe, however, that it is possible to manage the level of difficulty. If you can think of launching a business as a series of smaller steps, some of which can be done prior to launch, you will be setting yourself up for a greater chance at success, and an easier, less stressful beginning. That is what building your bridge is about.

If you have already launched your freelancing business, what steps did you take to ensure success?

The Freelance Career Launch Series is a set of posts about how to start your freelance career. The focus will be on indexing, because that is what I do, but the principles are universal. 

Article
April 2, 2018
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by Stephen

Readable Invoice Templates

Who wants a snazzy invoice?

I do. I like the idea of reflecting a small part of myself in a document that is otherwise so impersonal. I also like the idea of making business, including invoices, fun. There is a part of me that has always chafed at formality.   

I was therefore pleased to learn, when I first got the invoicing program that I use, Billings, that it came with pre-designed templates. I chose one with a clean design that matched my minimalist tastes. I thought it was both professional and had a certain light quality, with blue and grayscale lettering.

All seemed (mostly) wonderful until a few month ago, when I received an email from a long-time client. Their finance person was having trouble reading my invoices. The font was too small. A PDF of my invoice—as they saw it—was helpfully attached.

I was shocked at what I saw. It looked like my invoice had been printed out, written on, and then either photocopied and/or scanned back into a digital format. The greyscale and blue lettering had not transitioned well, and what remained was fuzzy. Even I could not read portions of the invoice.

No kidding, the font was too small.

To make this worse, I heard something similar from another client a few months earlier. Again, their finance department was having trouble reading my invoice, specifically my address. Though the editor I work with at that publisher is fantastic, I had had payment issues with them for a few years, so I have to admit that I was not the most sympathetic for their finance department. Yes, I want them to get my address correct, but to redesign my whole invoice? Really? I found a workaround by re-writing my address in the comments section, in a large, black font, and that seemed to work for them. When I received this second complaint, it finally hit me–maybe the reason for the payment issues was because they could not read my invoices either.

I felt guilty and embarrassed. How many other clients had been struggling to read my invoices? I assumed that my invoices stayed in their digital format, as a PDF, but clearly that is not always the case. I also should have taken the first complaint much more seriously, and tried to understand why their finance department was having trouble. 

I also needed to redesign my invoice.

Looking through the templates in Billings showed that they all incorporate colour or greyscale, and they all use a small font size. I tried to modify the template I was using, but increasing the font size caused the text to bunch together, which still made for difficult reading. In the end, I modified a different template. This is now strictly black and white, has large font, and has a spread-out design, so the text does not bunch. I also avoided any sort of background design behind the text, so that the text and the background do not blend.

The template is not as snazzy, but so far there have been no complaints, and payment problems with that one client seem to have stopped. Lesson learned that while fun and personalization have their place—I still think—functionality is also important. It is a problem if my clients cannot access the information that I am trying to send them.

What business practices have you had to change based on feedback from clients? How did you deal with them?