Bearing fruit…
So, in my vigour for marketing myself, I sent out a host of speculative emails to ELT publishers in the Far East in the hope that my experience in Japan as a teacher would lead to some interest.
Since I sent the emails, I’ve had two emails in response, and one was very positive. An ELT publishing company in Japan is interested in me. This is pretty amazing, and fills me with confidence that I’m going in the right direction. We’ve talked rates and have come to an agreement, and the first project I’ll be involved in is writing, not editing. Not something that I thought I could do, or would want to do, but it’s still rather exciting and something to add to the client list once the project is complete. Finer details still need to be decided, but it looks like it’s going to happen.
This good news is still not going to stop me from continually marketing myself in the hope of finding further work, but considering this could well be the first of many freelancing jobs, I’m very excited.
Update on freelancing websites
I keep proposing jobs on Upwork, and there have been a couple of bites. One that sounded really interesting inferred they would hire me as an editor, but since then I haven’t heard back. However, maybe there has been some delay in getting the manuscript ready, so seeing as I am new, I won’t refuse the project if they come back to me at a later date. Besides, it sounded a really interesting project, so I would be a fool not to take it, if the opportunity arose.
Freelancer continues to be annoying. I’ve received a couple of messages, but mainly these are from companies that want to promote me (but where’s the catch?) and one, that I’m sure was sent to multiple users, talking about promoting a country. Not interested.
As well as that, my continuing training is going very well with the College of Media and Publishing, and I’m really enjoying trying to perfect my skills that I learned with the other training providers. I realise that this training won’t be enough for me. If I’m going to do a job, I want to do it right, and training is the way forward. With this in mind, once I have a little more money, I’ll be looking to do some SfEP training courses.
Onwards and upwards!