|
Join our list
|
 |
|
Departments
- Welcome!
- [Not] Just for Newbies
- On the Radar
- Dollars & Sense
- TAMW Calendar
- The Savvy Marketer
|
|
|
|
Which Opposite Are You?
Freelances work in a world of opposites. We have good clients and bad clients. Profitable projects and unprofitable projects. Awesome days and terrible days. If this sounds like the rest of the working world, that's because it is. But some opposites are unique to freelancing, and we live or die by the opposites we choose. Remember--there are no victims, only volunteers! Our work is either on target or off. We make the deadline or we don't. We invoice promptly or we have no money.
In this issue of Pencil Points, we talk about some of the choices we freelances have to make and challenge you to decide which opposite you are. When marketing yourself, do you opt for the comfortable opportunities or push yourself to be uncomfortable? Read what we have to say about it in The Savvy Marketer. Sure you work hard, but is your freelance business moving backward or forward? You might be surprised, so we recommend you read what we have to say in Dollars and Sense.
Is procrastination a friend or foe? It all depends on what type of procrastinator you are. The question is, for how long will you put off reading [Not] Just for Newbies, and why? This month we're also excited to put an excellent resource On the Radar to help you get a leg up on understanding a disease state or condition with which you are unfamiliar.
Last but not least--and certainly not one of the opposites in this issue of Pencil Points--Brian will be presenting an AMWA webinar on The Secret Marketing Tactics of Top Freelances on Thursday, May 7. We talk about it in Where in the World are Brian and Cyndy, and we hope you'll register for this exciting educational event!
Opposites may attract in certain circumstances. But when it comes to your freelance business, opposites mean you have to make a choice. The choice you make can make all the difference in your success.
Until next month,
Cyndy and Brian
The Accidental Medical WriterPS. We're excited to be Amazon Associates. Every time you visit Amazon through our website or click on a product link we provide and make a purchase, we earn a few pennies that allow us to continue to give you free content through this newsletter. We would really appreciate it if you did so. |
|
|
 [NOT] JUST FOR NEWBIES
Information and Inspiration for New and Experienced Writers
| | |
Need inspiration? Try Procrastinating!
Were you one of those kids who waited until the night before it was due to start a project or make a decision? You're probably not alone. For some people--medical writers included--procrastination is a way of life. And while it may drive the Type A's among us crazy, procrastination may actually have an upside.
Don't get us wrong. Procrastination that prevents you from meeting deadlines is NEVER a good thing. We're not advocating you delay so long that you leave clients hanging. That's no way to run your business. You always need to deliver on what you promised. Similarly, we're not supporting the finished is better than perfect approach. Procrastination should NEVER prevent you from creating a spot-on deliverable.
Procrastination, however, can be beneficial. According to Frank Partnoy, author of Wait: The Art and Science of Delay , there is scientific evidence to suggest that our lives can benefit from delay. Thinking and acting too quickly may be detrimental. (As an aside, we highly recommend this book. It's a great read.)
Experts have identified 2 kinds of procrastination, and this is a framework we embrace. Active procrastination is intentional delay. You are avoiding doing one thing but are doing something more important instead. Passive procrastination is pure slouching; you're sitting around not doing anything. Well, maybe you're watching cute cat videos on YouTube.
We often engage in active procrastination for complex projects. When we get stuck and can't quite figure out where to go with a deliverable, we walk away from it and do something else. We might stare at the pool, pull weeds in the garden, run to the grocery store, or email a friend. You get the idea. And you know what happens? After we put some distance between ourselves and the problem project, we find that we are struck with a burst of inspiration that allows us to move forward with the deliverable. We just needed to actively procrastinate to become more productive. In essence, we made procrastination work for us! Try it and see if it works for you.
It seems we're not alone in embracing procrastination. Other authors have written about its benefits: |
ON THE RADAR
Resources for Medical Writers | | |
Family Practice Notebook
Where do you go when you want to start researching a disease state or condition with which you are unfamiliar? The Merck Manual is a one source we use, but we recently found another: The Family Practice Notebook. Family Practice Notebook has been around since 1995, when Dr. Scott Moses started sharing on his website the notes he'd collected from conferences, journal articles, and colleagues. The site has grown and evolved since then into a collection of content that, as of January 2015, comprises 6306 interlinked topic pages divided into a tree of 31 specialty books and 718 chapters. Each month, content gets updated. It's loaded with information, so give yourself some time to explore the site. You'll have to check with your clients to see whether this site would be a citable source for medical-legal review, but even if it's not, it still is a good place to begin to learn about a topic you're not familiar with. We like several elements of the site, including the hyperlinked references that point to peer-reviewed articles and other publications we can go to for more information, as well as the images and sounds that are included in the content. Dr. Moses even allows you to print the images he has personally created and include them in PowerPoint presentations, as long as you give proper credit and you don't resell or modify the images. If we're asked to identify potential still images or videos for projects, we share the images we find in Family Practice Notebook so that the graphic designers understand what we are aiming for.
|
|
DOLLARS & SENSE
Advice on the Business of Freelancing
| | |
Are You Going Forward or Backward?
There's no place for complacency when you have your own business. Clients, competitors, and the entire medical communications field are continuously moving forward. If you stop to catch your breath, you better plan on running to catch up. Because every minute you spend not going forward is a minute spent going backward. Imagine the impact on your bottom line! That's why keeping up with professional development is so important and such a wise investment.
Take a moment to think about the things you know today that you didn't know a year ago. Where would you be now if you hadn't learned them? We dare say, you'd probably be at a disadvantage. Now take a moment to ponder what you don't know today. Of course you don't know what you don't know, but that's just the point. Sure, you'll learn new things eventually...somehow...somewhere along the line. But how much more successful might you be by then if you learned them now?
Regardless of how much, or how little, experience you have, you should always make an investment in your professional development. A relatively small commitment of time and money can yield valuable results in terms of learning new skills and acquiring new knowledge and experience you can put to immediate use improving and building your business. Just as a company's investment in its employees' professional development has been shown to reduce employee turnover, which increases customer satisfaction and improves profitability, the same can work for freelances. Sure, you're not as likely as other employees to bail on your employer. But a 4-year study conducted by the American Society of Training and Development found companies that invest $1500 per employee annually in training versus $125 experienced on average a 24% higher gross profit and 218% higher income per employee.
So how much do you invest annually in your professional development? We're constantly buying and reading books. We both get a tremendous amount of valuable professional development through AMWA including attending chapter dinner meetings where we get to listen to great speakers and network with our friends and colleagues, chapter and regional educational events, the annual conferences, plus webinars. We've also attended conferences and educational events hosted by other organizations that are germane to our work, such as the DIA (formerly the Drug Information Association) and the International Society for Medical Publication Professionals (ISMPP). Annually, we probably spend a few thousand dollars apiece on our professional development.
Here's another question for you: when was the last time you invested in your professional development? If it's been longer than a month, you're going backward! In just the last month, here's what you've missed:
Fortunately, there's still time for you to register for these upcoming professional development events:
- Webinar: Writing Web Content that Works: Letting Go of the Words--April 14, 2015
- 2015 AMWA Southwest Chapter Conference--April 18, 2015
- DIA/FDA Statistics 2015 Forum--April 20-22, 2015
- AMWA-DVC 19th Annual Princeton Conference--April 25, 2015
- The ISMPP Annual Conference--April 27-29, 2015
- AMWA Pacific Southwest Chapter Conference--May 1-2, 2015
- 2015 AMWA Carolinas Chapter Conference--May 1, 2015
- 40th EMWA Conference--May 5-9, 2015
- 2015 AMWA Rocky Mountain Chapter Conference--June 6, 2015
- DIA 2015 51st Annual Meeting--June 14-18, 2015
- DIA Meeting, Drug and Device Combination Products--September 28-29, 2015
- AMWA 75th Annual Conference--September 30-October 3, 2015
Think this list is exhaustive? Think again. There are so many more organizations, and so many conferences and educational and networking opportunities happening all the time. This list of upcoming events doesn't even include AMWA Chapter dinner meetings, and all the great books you could and should be reading.
So there you have it. There's no excuse for not investing in your freelance business by investing in your professional development. Click a link and sign up for something now. You'll be glad you did.
One last thought-you are reading this newsletter-so that counts!
|
| WHERE IN THE WORLD ARE BRIAN AND CYNDY?
The Accidental Medical Writer Calendar
| | |
Brian and Cyndy started off the year with presentations at the AMWA Mid-Atlantic Chapter Conference and the AMWA Delaware Valley Chapter Freelance Conference. if you didn't attend, you should definitely put these conferences on your schedule for next year!
We're very excited to announce that on Thursday, May 7, Brian will be presenting an AMWA webinar on The Secret Marketing Tactics of Top Freelances. In this webinar, Brian will reveal some of the secret marketing tactics successful freelances use every day to make their clients love them, hire them, recommend them, and pay them more than anyone else. Registration just opened today, so we hope you'll sign up now.
Brian and Cyndy are awaiting word on proposals they submitted for open sessions at the AMWA 75th Annual Conference in San Antonio, TX, September 30 to October 3, 2015, and Brian will be presenting his workshop on The Fundamentals of Freelance Business Marketing. It will be a huge event and also a very important 75th Anniversary celebration for AMWA you won't want to miss!
More webinars are also in the works, and you'll hear more about these soon.
We would love to present at your next upcoming meeting or event, so invite us!
|
| THE SAVVY MARKETER
Marketing Tips to Build Your Business
| | |
Make Yourself UNcomfortable
Sounds like weird advice, doesn't it? Why would we want you to be uncomfortable? For one simple reason: We find that we grow and learn best when we push ourselves out of our comfort zones and into unfamiliar territory. We think you will, too.
We recognize that the actual process of launching a freelance medical writing business can make you uncomfortable. And a certain level of discomfort often continues until you get that first client and those first few deliverables under your belt. But once business is humming along and there's a steady flow of work, it's easy to become too comfortable--and complacent. You become an expert at a particular type of deliverable or in a particular content area. And what happens when a new client calls with an unfamiliar deliverable in a totally unknown topic? You panic and turn down the work because it's outside your comfort zone.
We advocate a different mindset. Instead of saying no, embrace the discomfort and say yes. This is a perfect opportunity for you to get paid to learn something new. Still, it's easy to screw up if you're working on something you've never done before. When we're faced with an entirely new type of project, we employ these tried-and-true tactics to ensure we give clients what they want:
- Ask your client for examples. Clients often have a certain style or format in mind they want you to duplicate. Then all you have to do is mimic it.
- Contact a colleague. Reach into your professional network to find colleagues who do the same type of work and ask them to share samples.
- Start a discussion in the AMWA Forums or LinkedIn groups, if you don't know anyone personally who can give you pointers.
- Look online. Let's say you're asked to write a Medication Guide as part of a REMS (Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy) program. Search online for drugs that have a REMS program and chances are you'll be able to download an example.
Strive to make yourself uncomfortable. That's how you know you are learning something new. Never let comfort turn into complacency.
|
|
YOU ARE RECEIVING this F-R-E-E newsletter on the business of freelance medical writing because you are on The Accidental Medical Writer's opt-in mailing list.
TO CHANGE YOUR SUBSCRIPTION ADDRESS to this ezine, unsubscribe your old address and subscribe your new one.
PLEASE RECOMMEND THIS NEWSLETTER to anyone you know who is interested in breaking into freelance medical writing or who wants to learn more about the medical writing industry. Just click on the "Forward email" button below.
PRIVACY STATEMENT: We will not distribute your email address to anyone. PERIOD.
Copyright © The Accidental Medical Writer. You may not copy or reuse the content of this newsletter without written permission of The Accidental Medical Writer. |
|
|
|
|
|
by John Perry. Isn't this a great title?
by Piers Steel. Don't let the title of the book throw you; the author does discuss good kinds of procrastination.