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Departments
- Welcome!
- [Not] Just for Newbies
- On the Radar
- Dollars & Sense
- TAMW Calendar
- The Savvy Marketer
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Are You Willing To Risk It?
Okay, freelances live life a little closer to the edge than most people. We're comfortable taking certain kinds of risks, ie, the kinds of risks that aren't really as risky as they seem because we know what we're doing and we control many of the variables. But there are some risks even we don't like to take.
In this month's issue of Pencil Points, we give you tips on how to minimize your business risk when the weather gets bad (as it's been lately for many of our friends, colleagues, and followers in the northeastern United States) in Dollars and Sense. In The Savvy Marketer we provide insight into how you can lower the risk of marketing yourself, and then selling your soul, to bad clients. Although Health Literacy Month has just passed (hats off to our good friend, Helen Osborne), in [Not] Just For Newbies, we tell you what you can do to minimize the human and financial risks associated with poor health outcomes by making health literacy a part of everything you do every day. And we put a great way to reduce the risk of getting lost in all the details when creating big, complex documents On The Radar so you can check it out for yourself.
Taking, and overcoming, risks is a part of the daily life of a freelance. Having the knowledge and experience to control as many of the variables as possible makes taking those daily risks not only tolerable, but rewarding--emotionally, psychologically, and financially. We love to hear from our readers about what you've been doing, confronting, and overcoming in your personal freelance world. If you have a story to tell, we'd love to hear it. Feel free to drop us a line anytime.
Wishing you writing success,
Cyndy and Brian
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 [NOT] JUST FOR NEWBIES
Information and Inspiration for New and Experienced Writers | | |
Celebrate Health Literacy Every Month
For those of us who specialize in medical communications, last month was a big deal, thanks to Helen Osborne who established October as Health Literacy Month. But we don't want to relegate the importance of creating health information that patients can understand to only 1 month. We want medical communicators to focus on writing clearly and succinctly no matter what the date on the calendar.
If you're considering writing materials directed toward patients, then you need to familiarize yourself with the concept of health literacy. Health literacy is simply the ability to interpret and understand basic health information and to use it in ways that will improve one's health. From a practical standpoint, a 1999 report from the Council of Scientific Affairs of the American Medical Association identified health literacy as the ability to read and comprehend appointment slips, directions for taking prescription medication, and other essential health-related materials required to successfully function as a patient.
Before you write anything that will be disseminated to patients, we recommend you get a snapshot of health literacy in the United States by looking at the results of the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL), a nationally representative assessment of English literacy among American adults age 16 and older. Sponsored by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), NAAL is the nation's most comprehensive measure of adult literacy since the 1992 National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS).
Yes, we recognize that this survey is almost 10 years old, but it was the first time NAAL introduced a health literacy component to assess adults' comprehension of health-related material. Tasks used to measure health literacy were organized around 3 domains of health and healthcare information and services: clinical, prevention, and navigation of the healthcare system. The stimulus materials and the 28 health literacy tasks were designed to elicit respondents' skills for locating and understanding health-related information and services and to represent the 3 general literacy scales: prose, document, and quantitative. Respondents skills were then graded on a 4-level scale: Below Basic, Basic, Intermediate, and Proficient. The skill level we are most concerned with is the percentage of Americans who have Below Basic skills.
NAAL health literacy results showed some interesting findings:
- 53% of adults had Intermediate health literacy. An additional 12% of adults had Proficient health literacy. Among the remaining adults, 22% had Basic health literacy, and 14% had Below Basic health literacy.
- Health literacy of women was higher than that of men; 16% of men had Below Basic health literacy compared with 12% of women.
- White and Asian/Pacific Islander adults had higher average health literacy than Black, Hispanic, American Indian/Alaska Native, and Multiracial adults. Hispanic adults had lower average health literacy than adults in any other racial/ethnic group.
- Adults who spoke only English before starting school had higher average health literacy than adults who spoke other languages alone or other languages and English.
- Adults who were ages 65 and older had lower average health literacy than adults in younger age groups. The percentage of adults in the 65 and older age group who had Intermediate and Proficient health literacy was lower than the comparable percentage of adults in other age groups.
Rather enlightening, isn't it? As medical communicators, we play a role in ensuring that patients receive health-related materials they can understand and use. Incorporating a patient-centered, unified health communication approach is one way to ensure that patient-education materials are as readable as they should be.
As we move toward patient-centered healthcare, health literacy has never been more important. Communicating effectively with patients is vital, if we want patients to take a larger role in their healthcare. Research links low health literacy to poorer health outcomes such as higher rates of hospitalization and lower use of preventive services. One study that examined health literacy found that patients with low health literacy were more likely to self-administer prescription medications more times daily than necessary, resulting in missed or incorrectly administered dosing. All of these outcomes contribute to higher healthcare costs. |
ON THE RADAR
Resources for Medical Writers | | |
Long, long ago, a scrivener was a scribe--someone who could both read and write. Today, Scrivener is here to help writers do their job. Scrivener is a content-generation tool developed to help writers compose long and complex documents. It's basically a word processer and a project manager in one, helping you structure your ideas, take notes, and collect and manage your research while simultaneously writing the draft. In essence, it keeps everything open and in one place like an electronic notebook.
We first learned about Scrivener  at the AMWA-DVC freelance workshop this past April. (The 2013 AMWA-DVC Freelance Workshop will be held on Saturday, March 16, so put the date on your calendar and plan to join us! Bookmark the AMWA-DVC website, where information about the program and registration will be posted as soon as it becomes available.) Since then we've learned that Scrivener is available for PC and Mac. You can download a free 30-day trial through the Scrivener website and take it for a test drive. If you like it, you can buy it through Amazon. The download ranges from $35 to $45 US. |
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DOLLARS & SENSE
Advice on the Business of Freelancing | | |
When Wild Weather Strikes
Our thoughts and support are with our friends and colleagues along the east coast of the United States who were affected by 2 nasty storms over the past 2 weeks. The wild weather coupled with prolonged and widespread power outages left many of us in the dark and shivering. Given the advanced notification about the impending storm we received, most of us were able to batten down the hatches; load up on milk, eggs, and bottled water; and dust off the flashlights and battery-operated lanterns. Still, being powerless and unable to meet deadlines is frustrating for freelances. Every deliverable that's delayed means a delayed invoice, which, in turn, leads to delayed payment. It's a vicious cycle.
So, what's your plan when wild weather strikes? It's not enough to be prepared personally. You need to take some extra measures to make sure you're prepared from a business standpoint, as well. Here are some tips we'd like to share.
- If you believe it's possible you might lose power and you have a desktop computer as well as a laptop, then print out or copy any files for your current projects to a flash drive. If you do lose power, at least you can work on your laptop as long as you have the files you need. Even if you don't focus on deliverables, this is an opportune time to create invoices for delivered projects or update your income and expenses in QuickBooks
 . As long as your laptop is charged, you can still attend to some aspect of your business, even if you don't have an Internet connection.
- Finish projects BEFORE the storm arrives! Take a careful look at those impending deadlines. If you have a project due around the time a potentially disabling storm is scheduled to hit, then do all you can to complete it ahead of time and in advance of the bad weather. While we awaited the arrival of Hurricane Sandy on October 30, we worked feverishly to finish projects due on October 31 and November 1, and delivered them late in the afternoon on October 29, before we sustained power outages.
- Keep your clients informed. We advise taking a proactive stance with this. If you can't finish a project before the storm, then notify clients that you are likely to be affected by impending bad weather and that the project timeline may be adversely affected. If you do lose power and can't work, then head to a Wi-Fi hot spot and send your clients an email to update them about your situation. Consider also setting an automatic email reply, such as, "I am currently without power because of Hurricane Sandy and have only spotty cell phone service. I do not know when power will be restored, but I will do my best to keep you informed of this situation."
- Move business equipment out of harm's way. If you have a basement office and flooding is a possibility, then move your office equipment to higher ground. Replacing water-logged devices is the last thing you want to deal with.
- Back up essential computer files to an external hard drive
 if you have one. We hope this is a no-brainer, and something you do on a regular basis anyway, that is, at least weekly.
- Breathe deeply; this too shall pass. As long as you've established good relationships with your clients and you've kept them informed of your current situation, you shouldn't encounter any bad feelings when a natural disaster strikes. In our experience, most clients understand your predicament and are willing to work with you to revise timelines accordingly.
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| WHERE IN THE WORLD ARE BRIAN AND CYNDY?
The Accidental Medical Writer Calendar
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Planning is fast and furious for the 2013 AMWA Annual Conference in Columbus, OH.
The AMWA Annual Conference is the ultimate resource for medical communicators around the world, offering educational and networking opportunities beyond compare in the field. Now you can become a greater part of the AMWA conference experience
by submitting a proposal to share your expertise with your colleagues in Columbus!
Submitting a proposal for an AMWA conference presentation is easy with the new Call for Session Proposals, available soon on the AMWA website. We're pulling together our proposals now. And we hope you'll consider doing so, too.
If you'd like us to come and speak at an event you're organizing, don't wait too long to contact us. Our schedule is filling fast!
Be sure to check out Brian's interview in Breaking Into Medical Writing and Editing by Kristen Fischer that was published online on January 6 by mediabistro.com, a top site for communication professionals who create or work with content. If you're a member of AvantGuild you can access the article for free. If not, there's a $55 annual subscription fee, which gives you access to all the exclusive content the site offers. If you recall, Kristen interviewed Cyndy last year for the Freelance Switch blog, which you can read here. Thanks, Kristen.
For all our upcoming activities and appearances, keep an eye on The Accidental Medical Writer In Person.
We frequently speak and teach at medical writing conferences and seminars; we've also been interviewed online. Check out our Webcasts. Brian's interview with Danielle Hampson of The Business Authors Show is also available right on our website!
We would love to present at your next upcoming meeting or event, so invite us! |
| THE SAVVY MARKETER
Marketing Tips to Build Your Business | | |
Vet, Don't Bet
The whole idea behind marketing your freelance business is to get more clients. But just any clients? Heck no! We want clients who are easy to work with--that is, they understand what we do and what we need from them in the way of input and clear direction so we can do the best possible job for them. We want clients who are fun to work with, because when a project gets tough (and they all do in one way or another), a fun client gets our full attention and our full commitment to going above and beyond the call of duty. Finally, we want clients who are profitable to work with. We love what we do for a living, and it's wonderful that clients pay us to do what we love to do. But when clients don't pay what we're worth, love soon flies out the window.
Getting the right clients starts with marketing yourself in the right venues. Our recommendation is to stay away from the "chop shops." Those are the companies that advertise for writers on the Internet and on the list serves for writers who will produce "top notch text" for pennies a word, dollars a page, tens of dollars an hour, or what works out to be just a few hundred dollars a day. When you're new to freelancing or new to writing or editing, that's when these companies are most eager to get their claws on you. Trust us, in no time they'll saddle you with so much work that you'll be in heaven...until the end of the month when you realize you're working your fingers to the bone, barely sleeping, and still don't have enough money to pay your bills.
Of course, when you have your head out the window, loving the wind in your face, and watching the scenery zip by, it can be difficult to realize you're being taken for a ride. That's why we say it's important to vet those clients--don't just bet that they have your well-being in mind. No matter how much you feel you need experience, you don't need the experience of being abused. These chop shops eat up naïve freelances and spit them out just as fast because there's always another one coming along. No matter how much you need the work or the experience, we believe you're better off avoiding these places and keeping yourself focused on finding good clients who will pay you a living wage and treat you respectfully. In the long run, it's worth the extra time to find them.
How do you vet these companies before you get mixed up with them? Our favorite way is to call a few colleagues, or post a query on the AMWA freelance list serve, to find out who knows about them and what they know. If you go the list serve route, include in your post that people should respond to you offline. This way you can have a frank discussion without risking a public flogging of a less-than-perfect potential client. No matter how tempting it is to talk smack about bad clients, you should always resist doing it in public. It's not professional, and it could come back to bite you in the end. |
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