TLDR: I made about $9,000 this first half of the year and I did my very first guest podcast. Oy. 

This income report isn’t as impressive as it was toward the end of 2018. Things were so up in the air at the end of 2018. I had a failed embryo transfer and we had two frozen embryos left that we were transferring in February. If it worked, I knew I’d be scaling back on work. Which is exactly what did happen and it’s amazing. Because of course, I’m pregnant, even if I have a somewhat sad income report from the last six months. I’m definitely not going to be hitting my goal I made for myself last year, but that’s OK. Here’s how I did on my Q1 and Q2 freelancing income.

I lost a big client, but I’m forging ahead

I lost my big client at the end of January. It was disappointing because they were a huge chunk of my income, but unfortunately, we had a lot of back and forth and they wanted me to drop my rates. In fact, with two contract renewals, they wanted to me drop my rates both months. It was a hard decision, but at the end of the day, it was highly specialized genetics writing and I knew I would kick myself if I lowered how much I was charging. I held firm and we parted ways. I really did enjoy the work and it made me realize I love writing about genetics (which is so weird, I know). So I’ve been back to pitching publications. Which is strange because the hustle is exhausting, but pitching health and parenting publications is a familiar sort of comfort. And March was a bad month because of my intense nausea and exhaustion. It’s OK. I knew I was going to have a possible pregnancy this year and if a lower income report is what it takes, I’m good with that.

I did a podcast!

I did have some really cool wins. I did a podcast in February for Common Sense Pregnancy, Parenting, and Politics, which was definitely a different experience from writing articles. I had a massive head cold and also didn’t get much time to prepare (due to said sickness) but hey, it was my first one. Don’t judge too harshly. I’m a much better writer than I am a speaker. Jeanne Falkner is an amazing podcaster and I highly recommend her podcast. I also got articles commissioned for What To Expect as well as a big parenting publication that I’ll be turning in a draft for in July, which of course I’m feeling a lot of impostor syndrome for. So think, all in all, it’s been a good half to 2019.

The income reports

Here’s what each quarter has brought in for this income report:

Quarter 1:

Pitches sent: 29

Articles written: 22

Income total: $6,435

Quarter 2:

Pitches sent: 44

Articles written: 21

Income total: $2,650

What’s in store for the next 6 months

Clearly, I’m pregnant. With a total of $9,085, my lofty goal of bringing in $48,000 in 2019 is NOT going to happen with me needing to make another 39K and being pregnant with a baby due towards the end of the year. But the theme of this blog post is, “It’s OK.” Being a freelancer isn’t easy. It seems like there’s either not enough work where you’re freaking out over making anything that month and being swamped with work and feeling overwhelmed. The year started out feeling overwhelming, but I think I’ve been at a pretty good balance, all things considered. If I want to shoot for $20,000 for the year, I need to make about $1,800 a month for the next six months. We’ll see how that goes.