It’s been 5 years since my last post. Many reasons why, but I’m going with the story that my website and blog just fell to the bottom of the to-do list. Then got covered with a pile of papers. Then gathered dust. Lots of dust. I have been a freelance biomedical writer and editor since …
Am I crazy? Don’t I have enough on my plate already? Thanks to my AMWA colleagues, I was introduced to the world of free online courses at Coursera. Since graduating, I’ve often mentioned that it would be nice to go back to school – and now I can for free. I’m a little more than halfway through …
I’m one year into my freelance career in biomedical writing and editing, and I just passed my two-year blogiversary. So, I suppose it’s time for me to take a look back and evaluate my progress. In general, freelancing boils down to balancing the need for financial security with the freedom to plan my own day. Freelancing is …
Balancing freedom and security in a freelance career Read More »
Earlier this month I attended an excellent workshop on SBIR/STTR grants that was hosted by the Illinois Biotechnology Industry Association (iBio) PROPEL program, and was led by Lisa Kurek from Biotechnology Business Consultants. I decided to attend because I’ve touched just about every research and training grant mechanism from the NIH, but haven’t done much in the …
I just finished working on an NIH training grant (T32) for the very first time, and I have to say, I had no idea. First off, a definition: the NIH T32 grant mechanism is “the primary means of supporting predoctoral and postdoctoral research training to help ensure that a diverse and highly trained workforce is available to …
2012 will be my first year as a completely independent freelance biomedical writer and editor. My freelance business has been through the various stages of hobby to side work to part time job to full time job, and this will be the first year that it represents all of my income. No pressure, right? When …
I wished I could have made it to 50 posts before the end of the year, but alas. In any case, I thought I’d do one more, before I plunge back into grant editing for the February NIH cycle. I was thinking about growth today – my professional growth as an individual writer and the …
Wow. Be careful what you wish for, I guess. The last three months have been absolutely crazy-busy. Which isn’t necessarily bad for a freelance. Looking back, it took me years to decide to finally take the plunge and become a full-time freelance, but only a few months to reach full capacity. As much as I …
I attended a session at the AMWA annual meeting today on marketing for independent healthcare communicators (a fancy way of saying freelance medical writers). Deborah Gordon (GordonSquared) and Brian Bass (The Accidental Medical Writer) gave two fantastic talks about the importance of branding your freelance medical writing/editing business and the power of passive marketing. Deborah …
Branding and Passive Marketing for Freelance Medical Writers Read More »
I had lunch last week with a former fellow graduate student who wanted to pick my brain about freelance medical writing. It just so happened that she caught me at the point in my career path when I had finally decided it was time to go completely freelance, after years of doing both freelance and …
