I have an exercise I do at the end of each year, where I track the number of hours of paid work I completed across the year (329.5), the total amount I earned for those hours (£20,275), and therefore my average hourly rate (£62).

This year, I worked 62 hours fewer than in 2023, but only earned £3,000 less, which means my average hourly rate went up by £3 from £59.

Considering that, when I originally went freelance in May 2021, I was only aiming to match the hourly rate from my office job at the time (£15), I have to say I’m very happy with how things are with my business now.

I feel extremely lucky that I have the opportunity to get paid for something I love, which I’m also really good at, in a way that gives me massive amounts of flexibility and means I only work an overall average of 6.5 hours per week!

But I’ve worked very hard to get here, and I’m also very proud of myself for building this business and making it sustainable.

What’s more important to me than the numbers, though, is that I’ve reached a point now where I’m booking work in more consistently, I have great repeat clients, and a wonderful source of new projects from referrals. This means that, unlike in previous years, I’ve had to do a lot less pitching over the last few months of 2024, and I’ve already got worked booked in to cover the whole of January 2025.

This has made me a lot less stressed about my business overall – and long may it continue!

I’ve also curated my client list to restrict my work to long-form manuscripts only, which is another great improvement over the work I’ve done in previous years.

Plus, I may be diversifying in a couple of new directions in 2025, with opportunities opening up for me to help run retreats and writing workshops, which would be very exciting.

On the personal creative projects front, Dave and I hit the five-year anniversary of our monthly podcast, which I feel is a massive achievement – and we have no plans to stop! I never imagined, back in August 2019, that we’d still be making episodes of Will You Still Love It Tomorrow by the end of 2024 – and I also resurrected my solo episodes this year, which I’m really enjoying.

I outlined a new novel over the summer and I’m over two thirds of the way through the first draft right now, with a proposed deadline for finishing that by 22 February. And, while it would be lovely to take a break from big writing projects after that, I have a long list of things to work on. I’ve got two short story anthology calls I’d like to submit to by the end of March, another short story to revise based on feedback from a publisher, plus two novels to revise – and a collection of ideas for new ones brewing.

So, regardless of how I approach my own writing next year, I’m never going to be short of things to work on.

I’m starting 2025 very much as I mean to go on – with a six-night writing retreat down in Devon with Charlie from Urban Writers Retreats. What a way to ring in the new year!

Here’s to a productive, creative 2025!

 

Sign up to my newsletter or learn about my editing services!