© Ruth E. Thaler-Carter, Owner
An American Editor
Hard to believe — but a relief for many of us — that 2022 is over! I have a few random thoughts for a strong start to 2023, some of which are updates of similar past posts.
The new year means an opportunity to revise or improve some of our work habits to make our lives easier and more efficient. Here are some things to do in the first few days of 2023 that should make your work and personal life better.
• Update or change passwords for all accounts — banking, blogs, social media, associations, subscriptions; anything and everything, but especially anything related to finances and personal security.
• Remind clients to update the year in their document templates, website copyright statements and any other elements that might now be out of date — and do that for your own materials, website, etc.
• Review the style guide(s) that you use and check for any updates, revisions, additions and other changes that might affect this year’s work for current and new clients. If you don’t already subscribe to the online versions of the ones you use, do it now.
• Establish or refresh a connection with a family member, friend or colleague to back up passwords and access to phone, e-mail, social media, banking and other important accounts — your own and theirs — just in case. Think of it like giving a key to a neighbor or building super so you can be found/reached in an emergency.
Business resolutions
The new year offers the opportunity to learn new things and do things in new ways. Here are a few suggestions.
• Instead of relying on the luck of clients finding you, make an effort to seek new clients on a regular basis, through cold queries, responding to membership association opportunities, social media resources, updating (or creating) your website, etc. This is especially important for colleagues with only one major “anchor” client.
• Find a way to be visible in at least one professional membership organization or social media group to enhance your credibility and expand your networking activity. Even I do that, and I’ve been crowned the Queen of Networking! If you already belong to an association, look for a new one to join as well.
• Learn a new skill, something new about the topic area of a client or an entirely new topic to write about, edit, proofread, index, photograph, illustrate or otherwise work on to expand your career or business.
• Draft a few potential posts to use for your own blog, if you have one, or as a guest on colleagues’ blogs. Having drafts in hand makes it easier to get ahead of deadlines and actually publish new articles.
• Look for new projects or services to offer to existing clients.
• If you have regular editing or proofreading clients who haven’t gotten the memo yet about only needing one space between sentences, or have other writing habits that appear in every document and are easy for them to change, consider doing a “Welcome to the new year” note suggesting that they incorporate such things in their drafts before sending anything to you. Emphasize that doing so will cut down at least a bit on the time you need to handle their requests, as well as free you up to concentrate on more substantive aspects of their projects. Whether this will work depends, of course, on the nature of your relationship with those clients and won’t work for all of them, but could be a relief as you work with those who would be amenable to such suggestions.
• Save toward retirement!
• U.S. colleagues might not have to file taxes until April 15, but getting going early on this nerve-racking task is always a good idea. Among the many resources for end-of-year tax planning are the Freelancers Union blog and ones from experts such as my own invaluable tax person, Janice Roberg (https://robergtaxsolutions.com/st-louis-tax-expert-jan-roberg/). Two useful tips: There’s a relatively new simplified process for deducting a home office, and if you delay invoicing from December until January, it’s easier to manage those late-year payments that reach you in January with a December date and/or for December work.
• Start or return to non-editorial creative projects to give yourself the occasional “brain break” and a way to refuel — write poetry or short fiction, make something crafty or artistic, even just spend time at a museum or art gallery (or library/bookstore).
Perks of the new year
• I’m clearing out some of my bookshelves again. I’m donating half of every January 2023 sale of my short story, “Sometimes You Save the Cat …,” to the Humane Society of Missouri. Contact me at Ruth@writerruth.com for information about getting your copy (the print version is $10, including postage/shipping, and the PDF is $5).
I’m also offering my “Get Paid to Write! Getting Started as a Freelance Writer” booklet at $5 off the usual $20 price through January. Again, contact me by e-mail for details.
What are your new year’s plans and aspirations?
An American Editor 
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