Snow day!

We've had a nice reminder lately that nothing about Colorado weather is normal, not even April showers.

It rained all day Thursday, and snowed and threw ice pellets at us all day Friday. This morning Michael and I woke up at 6:30 to our power being out. It came on about two hours later, around when the snow turned back into rain. It didn't stop until mid-afternoon.

Michael had already asked for Friday off for other reasons, which turned out to be lucky because he wouldn't have wanted to drive home in the crazy snow we got around rush hour Friday evening. Which brings me to what I see as a really big achievement: getting work done with Michael home. It doesn't usually happen, but I managed to withstand temptation, ignore distractions, and accomplish several very productive hours of work with him present.

By the way, join me in wishing a very happy birthday to Kathy Kehrli, whose birthday was yesterday!

Not such a good deal, after all?

The other day I blogged about AT&T's $50 netbooks. I was considering going this route when they came to my town... Until I saw the data plans.

A $60 monthly plan buys you 5 GB of data transfer a month. If that sounds okay to you, consider that until fairly recently you could get unlimited data transfer for the same price through AT&T's (then Cingular's) EDGE service, which you accessed with your regular laptop via a PCMCIA card.

If you don't want to pay so much a month, your only other option is a $40 monthly plan that gives you 200 MB of data transfer per month — hardly enough to check email, yet it's two-thirds the price! Bet you can guess which plan they want you to pick...

It's times like this when my sense of fairness steps in and says Uh-uh, no way. If I decide to get a netbook, it will be at the regular price — and with no chains attached!

Three articles on writing and publishing

Today there are three articles on NPR that I want to share with you. All three have to do with writing or publishing.

First of all, Strunk and White's Elements of Style turns 50 today. This little book is a well respected guide to grammar and writing. As I told Kathy Kerhli, I can't say I've ever read it, but it's sitting on my shelf. Maybe someday I will see what all the fuss is about.

Second is a review of three books on writing and publishing a novel. I've read Stephen King's On Writing, which I loved even though I don't really like his novels. The other two books are Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass, and Plot and Structure by James Scott Bell.

Third is an interesting story about the current trend in the publishing industry of paying bigger bucks for fewer books. Publishing houses are apparently paying 7-figure advances to a few lucky authors — but it seems like you have to be famous in order to get it. (Even the supposedly "unheard-of" authors discussed in the article are paid the big advances after their first novels make a splash, so yeah, the famous thing still applies.) At the same time, they are publishing fewer books — not good odds for those of us who aspire to novelist status.

I also wanted to share with you a "bonus article" on a book that doesn't focus on writing, but is definitely related: No Right to Remain Silent, by Lucinda Roy. You may remember that Roy was the professor that tried to get help for Seung-Hui Cho, the troubled shooter at Virginia Tech that killed 32 people two years ago today. Roy's book talks about potential motives, but also about the writing connection. I think Roy's voice bodes well for the quality of her book: calm, soft-spoken, but self-assured. Clearly she wrote this book because she felt certain things needed to be said. Be sure to listen to both the radio spot and the excerpt.

The day after Tax Day

Yeah, I've been busy this week — so busy that I didn't do my usual "taxes for freelancers" posts as Tax Day approached. See, this year I didn't get my taxes done several months early, like I have the past three years. Michael and I worked on our taxes (since we're filing jointly) Sunday night, and I mailed our Federal return (Colorado offers free online filing for state) on Tax Day.

Once again, we estimated our tax liability pretty closely. We got a little bit of a return from the Federal government, which we put towards our estimated payments. We owed the state a whopping $5, which I found immensely amusing.

I also mailed my first quarterly estimated tax payment for 2009. Ouch! January and February may have been slow, but since March was (and April is looking) more or less back to normal, I didn't reduce my estimated income. So a larger percentage of my income than usual (since I make four equal payments) went to paying estimated taxes for those months , and that hurt a bit.

It's a huge relief to have all of that behind me. There's no way I'll do them so late again — having at the back of my mind for three months weighed on me more than I realized. What about you? How did taxes go for you this year, and are you relieved that it's over?

Netbooks for writers: Upcoming attractions

A friend and fellow freelancer, Kathy Kehrli, recently sent me an article on the value of netbooks for businesses. It was an interesting article with a lot of good points. I agree with it that netbooks are more powerful than most people assume, although I personally wouldn't want one as my only computer — and since my laptop is the size of many netbooks anyway, why bother?

(One thing I do disagree with in this article: that netbooks are too small for practical typing. I don't think that is true if you get a "large" netbook — i.e., one with a 10 or 11 inch screen, of which there are a couple. I've also typed on the ultra-tiny Sony Vaio, and I found the size of the keyboard to be comfortable.)

Here's something that is more likely to change my mind about netbooks, though: AT&T is going to start selling $50 netbooks with a data plan contract. As long as the data plan is reasonable and I can install Word, I will probably buy one, as it would be nice to be able to check email or research articles online when I don't have access to a free WiFi connection.

A change of scenery

Lori Widmer's blog post on coffee shop dwellers has made me crave a change of scenery. It's a beautiful sunny day, a nice change after an often windy and sometimes snowy weekend, making it the perfect weather for a short walk over to our local Starbucks. I think I'll head over there as soon as I finish my apple and feed the dogs.

I find that periodically I need to get out and work someplace else in order to get anything done — staying home day after day increases the likelihood that I'll get burned out. It's been a while since I've worked at a bookstore or a coffee shop, so I think I'm overdue.

I also sometimes like to work outside. In the summer, I enjoy sitting on our porch and working, at least until it gets too hot in the afternoon. Last year I also occasionally took my laptop to the barn and worked after mucking stalls, which my horse grazed on the grass within my sight. I don't think I'll be able to manage anything like that at the new barn, unfortunately — unless I want to try working in the hay loft, which has windows that overlook the pasture.

Of course, I typically don't get as much work done in other places, particularly not with my horse as a distraction. However, I feel so refreshed and happy afterwards that I really don't care that it causes my hourly wage to be cut in half. I figure it keeps me going so that I can maintain my desired income the rest of the time, so it's well worth it.

Where do you like to go to work when you need a change of scenery?

But the big companies are doing it...

I was somewhat horrified to read an article in the Wall Street Journal on Thursday about how firms are rethinking their rate structures in order to retain clients.

Unfortunately, the article is for subscribers only, but here is the link in case you are one:

Firms Try Alternative to Hourly Fees

In short, the article talks about how some companies are switching to performance-based fees to keep business flowing in the current economy. They offered two companies as examples: an advertising agency, and an online marketing firm. The reductions in rates were pretty steep, too: The advertising agency reported switching from a $15,000 monthly retainer, to a $10,000 fee for obtaining a specific booking, and the marketing firm reported dropping rates from around $135 per hour to $80 per hour with additional fees charged only if the client's goals were met.*

Lori Widmer has been blogging a lot lately about why we shouldn't lower our rates during tough times, one of the reasons being that it makes it more difficult to go back to our original rates as the economy improves. And sure enough, this article didn't address the future of these companies at all. I can't help but wonder whether they are planning on adopting the performance-based pay permanently, and if not, how they will convince clients down the road to pay a higher price whether they see results or not.

While most of us aren't charging $135 an hour or a $15,000 monthly retainer (or at least if you are, you probably aren't reading my blog), whether to lower prices is still an issue that's on our radar, whether or not we agree with it. I personally am not lowering my rates, but I'm not raising them either, which I usually do in the spring or summer.

I am curious to hear from my fellow freelancers. Are you lowering your rates, keeping them the same, or raising them despite the current economy? And does hearing that the big firms are lowering their rates change anything for you?

* Note: All of these numbers are drawn from memory, since I no longer have the print version, and don't have access to the online article. If you have either and find that I've reported the numbers wrong, please let me know.