Book reviews: Pawleys Island, The Serpentine Cave, Gardens of Delight

Dorothea Benton Frank – Pawleys Island

(16 Aug 2011)

Sprung upon in a charity shop because I have read another of her South Carolina novels, but a “meh” read. Two old friends on an island have their quiet lives interrupted by the new girl in town, fleeing from an unpleasant husband and her uncaring children. Will Abigail dust off her law qualifications and come to the rescue? We are meant to identify with the characters early on and root for them, but I couldn’t really involve myself with them. Frank seems to love her characters a  bit too much and the divorce story just wasn’t that hugely interesting to me. Good atmospheric scenery though.

Jill Paton Walsh – The Serpentine Cave

(16 Aug 2011)

Having met the author at the Iris Murdoch conference in 2010, I have been vaguely looking out for her books since, and added two of them to the August charity shop haul I seem to be working my way through at the moment. I felt really upset for her when I found some glaring editorial errors in this book (published by Black Swan): an artist’s “pallett” (and art is a big theme: it is spelled correctly the other times it’s used), and the central character wakes up in one bedroom and goes to bed that evening in a different one, which was odd indeed. A well-done story but maybe  a bit slight – I was expecting more bulk, somehow. But I liked the locals in the book, the Cornwall setting, and I will read more of hers.

Erica James – Gardens of Delight

(BookCrossing, 27 Aug 2011)

I wouldn’t normally read this genre (womanlit?) but couldn’t resist the setting on Lake Como. That part is done well, but the book OPENED with an editing error (someone being subordinate rather than INsubordinate!) and it didn’t really hold my attention, though it was competently enough done and passed the time. I never really engaged with or cared about the characters, and it seemed over-planned and under-executed in parts, not properly thought through in others.

Book reviews: Reading Groups, A Walk Around the Lakes, Palladian

Jenny Hartley – Reading Groups

(23 May 2004)

A re-read for my Iris Murdoch research of a very useful book about UK reading groups, with lots of demographic information that I can compare with my results, and even mention of Iris, too!

Hunter Davies – A Walk Around the Lakes

(16 August 2011)

Hunter Davies belongs to the group of writers whose books I will always pick up, regardless of the subject matter. But the appeal of this one was obviously also in the subject, as we had our first visit to the Lakes last year and loved it. Mixing the history of tourism and the Wordsworth set with his 1970s trip walking in the Lakes, this is affectionate, funny, intelligent and informative. I even enjoyed reading about Wordsworth (I liked the admission that yes, some of his poetry is BAD), although I enjoyed reading about the parts of the area we know ourselves, fell runners and Chris Bonington more. This could have done with a map of the whole area as well as the individual lake maps.

Elizabeth Taylor – Palladian

(03 Feb 2012)

Purchased and read for the LibraryThing Virago Group’s Taylor read – I think the only one of her books I didn’t already own. Taylor’s second novel, and her take on Janes Austen and Eyre. Orphaned Cassandra leaves what passes for the real world (school, then a quiet life with her father) for seclusion as a governess, all too ready to fall in love with the master of the house.

Spare, exacting writing mercilessly dissects the characters just as failed medical student Tom draws images of his dissected household, and Taylor does not even flinch from a somewhat shocking death part way through (which is foreshadowed by a sad pet bit that I was glad to be warned about in advance but that I managed OK).

Unsparing and uncompromising as it is, it is a good read, which must have influenced Barbara Comyns in her writing (do we know about this?). Not enjoyable, exactly, but intriguing and beautifully done.

How to be an overnight business success

Someone posted on Twitter the other day that people should follow me because I’ve built up my business so quickly.  And yes, through the first 50 days of my full time business adventure, I have been running at full capacity. But I don’t feel like it’s been an overnight success, and here’s why (and why I think that’s a good thing).

You’ll have read all about the way I started Libro by now, so I won’t bore you by going on about that. But how have I brought that up to full capacity since I went full time? It’s been a combination of things:

- having a good set of regular customers I can rely on to keep sending me work

- having a marketing strategy which keeps people aware of what I do

- carefully using a few sources to help me gain more work

- keeping careful track of what I can and can’t do, and being selective about what work I take on

These all mean that I could grow the business slowly while I was part time, and then ramp things up to fill in the full time hours.

Keeping regular

I’ve built up a roster of regular customers over the last couple of years – some who send me lots of work, some who send me something every now and again. I’ve made sure to keep them happy, keeping them informed of when I was available when I worked part time, setting sensible expectations and being reliable. I’ve also kept these diversified, from editing, to writing, to transcription. I let them know first when I went full time, I have kept them as my priority customers, with others fitting around them – and they have rewarded me by sending me more projects to work on.

Read all about it!

My Libro blog is primarily written to be useful and helpful, of course. But my aim is also to drive business to my website. Do a quick Google search for “troublesome pairs”, “spelled or spelt” and “what is a transcriber?” and you should find me on the first page of results. This time last year, I instigated a policy of making sure I got hits on the website every day, and often had to go and publicise myself on different fora to do so on a particular day. Now I have lots of hits every day, I never have to do that, and most of my hits come from search engines.

I have also kept on networking and using social media. All of this ensures that I have a steady stream of new customers finding me and heading my way.

Paid help

I looked at a lot of freelancer websites when I started out – where you register and then bid for jobs. But I was never successful and I found that I was constantly underbid by companies offering the work for peanuts. Thanks to my friend, Sian, I found www.proz.com which is a site for translators. I took out a paid membership last year, which means that people who want editing, proof-reading, transcribing and localisation services are given my details and can come through to me for a price and service estimate. Some really good, regular, clients have found me this way, with minimal effort from me (setting up my profile and then of course responding to questions and requests for quotations) and it was well worth choosing this one site to use. Getting a recommendation to use the site from someone else who had success with it was key here.

Being choosy

I gained great experience in being choosy and setting expectations when I was juggling the business and my part time job. Now it’s a case of juggling projects large and small – my Gantt chart is my friend here, but so is being honest about myself and my abilities. I’ve been working a lot on a big transcription project and other ongoing work recently, and I know that around 40 billable hours is the maximum I can really do in a week – it’s hard work that involves a lot of concentration, and that’s not counting admin time.  I am lucky enough to have a few people I can recommend a prospect to if I can’t take on their work, and I am getting better at doing that rather than taking too much on. That way, I can make sure I do a good job for my customers, and keep reliable for my regulars.

The next step …

I’ll write another post about where I go from here, as I’ve had a few questions and suggestions recently. I’m really happy that I have avoided the quiet couple of months I was fearing when I went full time, and I did take the day off today …

If anyone else has recently gone full time self-employed, I’d love to hear about your experiences and how you’ve grown to fill those new available hours!

Tea Hee

My name is Liz and I’m a tea-aholic. There: I’ve said it. And I don’t mean to mock AA meetings, just to echo. I probably, in reality, do have a slight problem. I get tetchy if I don’t have regular cuppas, and I have been known to develop a headache if I haven’t had my first cup of the day early enough. In fact, when I was sorting out a logo for Libro, I nearly went for a tea-related image … Anyway, although I’m not at the high level of tea expertise and variety achieved by my colleague Katharine O’Moore Klopf, I do have a large selection of teas in the kitchen cabinet, and I’ve realised that I use different teas for different times, different moods, different kinds of work …

Earl Grey

The LyzzyBee standard. This is my red label or builder’s tea. I start the day with a cup of Earl Grey, it’s my tea of choice when out and about, and when I was working in an office and it seemed a bit silly to stock the whole range, this is what I stuck with. A cup with breakfast and yes, teabags do travel with me to foreign climes, just in case.  I go for the Sainsburys Taste The Difference teabag in general, although I am given other brands and like them too. The Twinings one has apparently recently changed recipe, and there are some interesting variants, for example the lavender and jasmine ones. Stop press: I tried these and didn’t take to them, and had to pass them on to another tea-drinking household!

Lady Grey

A Twinings tea and my favourite for during the day, standard variety. It’s like the Earl, but with more citrus – refreshing on a warm day, cheery on a cold one.

Darjeeling

I bought this when I was looking for an alternative to the Lady Grey – it’s another supermarket one, bought when I felt a bit guilty about spending out on tea (I don’t any more). Although it is sold as being light and delicate, I find it more oomphy than Earl Grey, and so it’s useful when I need more of a pick-me-up, or to be dragged through a difficult project.

Chai

For some unknown reason, I like to sip a Chai when I’m transcribing. Really, only then in a work context. Why? No idea! I drink it outside work, and tend to manage to avoid the compulsion to type out everything I hear, which is useful.

Spicy Tea

Beloved of Paul Magrs’ Brenda and Effie, my friend Ali got me some Taylors of Harrogate Spicy Christmas Tea leaves the other year and I love it and will be sourcing more. Sometimes it’s nice to go for the tea leaves – and I have a nifty in-cup strainer bought at Whittards so I don’t need to crack out the teapot every time.

Lapsang Souchong

I really, really have to be in the mood for this smoky tea – but when I am I have to have gallons of the stuff. I don’t think I’ve ever combined it with Libro work, though …

Peppermint, spearmint and green tea with jasmine

I have the odd flare-up of IBS and peppermint/ spearmint tea really soothe that. I had the green tea with jasmine in my library office drawer and had forgotten about it. It is, like all jasmine tea, oddly redolent of Savlon, but it is nice and calming. I might look at that for a mid-afternoon cuppa in future.

So there we go. Tea keeps me focused, it gives me exercise going down and up two flights of stairs every time I want a cuppa, and it keeps me hydrated and Libro running. What’s your favourite work tea?

Book reviews – The 4-Hour Work Week and Ghosting

Timothy Ferriss – The 4-Hour Work Week

(BookCrossing, 24 July 2011)

Helping people to leave the rat race, express themselves, etc. is a noble aim – helping them to bum around the workd while on their employer’s time quite another. I had picked up this book from Mozfest and then read about it in A.J. Jacobs’ “My Experimental Life”, where Ferriss asks to – and ineed does – lift an entire chapter on outsourcing straight into his book, and this is seemingly typical behaviour. Ferriss boasts of using loopholes to “achieve”, but is pushing people off a platform really achieving in Chinese wrestling? – I found this generally a bit unsavoury, to be honest. He does admit that one of his case studies was not keen on some of his methods, which is honest and fair enough. And I have taken an interest in some of the milder versions of his efficiency measures, such as checking email less often (but telling people you are going to do this: used today when I have a big work project in). I’m glad I didn’t buy this book – but then the author would probably approve of that!

Jennie Erdal – Ghosting: A Memoir

(BookCrossing, 30 July 2011)

As someone whose job it is to write for other people, on their terms and in their voices, a lot of the time, I was very interested to read this account of a ghost writer’s very heavy engagement with her craft. She ends up writing everything for her single client – letters, reviews, columns, non-fiction books … and then two novels! I now know where I, personally, would draw the line; I have been asked about writing fiction with people before, and I have turned them down – now I am committed to doing that! But as someone with more inside knowledge than presumably many of her readers, I did find her accounts of the process authentic and fascinating, and it would certainly prove interesting to anyone less aware of the processes and emotions. I would like to state here that I have never lounged by a pool with any of my clients, nor have I written the kind of material that will mean I have to release this book in the pub, and, sorry clients, but I’m not installing a fixed telephone line for any of you!

What I did in January

Just to alert my readers that I’ve posted my What I Did In January update on my Libroediting blog, for a more work-orientated view of things …

Another good week

I’ve had another good week this week – good in terms of Libro work and also in terms of work-life balance.  I did miss the Entrepreneurs meetup because I had some work coming in at the same time, and also meeting a friend for a birthday coffee … but I also had AN AFTERNOON OFF on Thursday! I went away from my desk, away from my office, away from my house, away from my city … and had lunch and a book shopping expedition with a friend from America who was staying in Stratford. Yes, I did have to tell my regulars who send me urgent fast-turnaround work, and yes, I did have to work right up to the moment when I left the house, and check my BlackBerry on the way round, but I did have an afternoon off.

I also went to Social Media Cafe on Friday morning and had a lovely time catching up with business chums and meeting new people. I did do some work and there is a photo of me doing so, but it was fine to whip out the laptop, polish off a quick check of someone’s English translation (I was charging by the word, not the hour: I wouldn’t work in a public place if I was doing the latter), then close it and carry on networking. It was quite funny to think I was caught out working when I should be chatting, though! And I went to the BookCrossing meetup on Saturday, too.

Apart from those social/networking occasions, I had a guest blog post published and was quoted in an article about the rise in numbers of self-employed people, spent a few hours delivering business directories for the local Business Association (I’m in the directory: v. exciting!) and even found time for a bit of work: mainly proof-reading and editing but a bit of writing for my retail shelving client and another business listings client, a little bit of transcription, and a localisation using some software with which I was previously unfamiliar.

I’ve hit all my targets for income for January and my billable hours targets for each week (how much I earn, rather than how much comes in), which is handy, as I wrote a post about Goals over on the Libroediting blog. Oh, and a quick plug for my friend Ali’s new book blog, which I helped her set up today, including a rather hefty import from her LiveJournal!

Looking forward, I have booked in to do some more transcription for a client I worked with just before Christmas, and I’ve got 2 new coaching clients, both doing Master’s degrees, who I will be working with through to their dissertation submissions. So it’s looking positive on the work front, and I’ve got some coffees and lunches with friends planned too.

Oh – if you’re an entrepreneur or self-employed person with a long-suffering (or not suffering) partner, friend, husband or wife, do ask them to contribute to my article about what it’s like living with one of us lot: here’s a place to respond.

My first proper full-time week

My first full-time week

So, this has been my first proper full-time week with Libro. In December, although I worked just on Libro for the second part of the month, I was still employed by the University and being paid by them. The first two weeks of January were supposed to be my Jury Service weeks: in the end, I wasn’t called for a case and only did four half days there, but I’d put off work (or done it in advance) so, certainly in the first week, I didn’t have the usual amount to do. I had the rest that I should have had over Christmas, in fact. But this week, it’s just me and Libro.

Work

I’m going to record a “typical week” later on in the year, just like I did when I was doing two jobs. I don’t feel things have settled down enough yet to know what a typical week is, so I’ll just summarise what I’ve got up to this week. I’ve edited articles for two regular clients and documents for one of those. I’ve proof-read a PhD and some smaller academic pieces; the PhD was for a new direct client and the other pieces were for a student proofreading company who contract out work to me. I also edited a local history book and converted it into e-book format for the author, edited a downloadable document for another regular, and typed up a transcription of an interview for my journalist client. I have done 33 1/2 billable hours, plus more hours doing admin and marketing, including responding to requests for price and service quotations.

Non-work activities

Or maybe I should call some of this non-billable-work activities! On Thursday, I went to my first Jelly co-working event. This is a monthly get-together organised by a local writer and event organiser, and I’ve been keen to attend for a while, but it falls on a day when I would normally have been working at the Library, and it never felt right to take too many days off for networking. This event takes place in the Jewellery Quarter, which is a bit of a walk across town, but in a cafe I know well, and we all sat around a big table, laptops out, working and chatting. The other attendees were a mixture of people I’d met before and new people, and it was a very nice, sociable occasion. I have to do most of my work in my quiet office, and I did plan to write up some blog posts, but ended up working on a client’s thesis, which was perhaps the wrong project to choose. But I’d definitely go again. I’m going to write up a review of all the networking and other events I attend in another post: I had planned to go to something called Likemind on Friday morning, but having had lunch at Jelly, I had taken a bit too much out of my working days, so left that for another month.

Other activities included writing up some blog posts: I’m doing a series on how to use Word effectively, complete with screen prints, and I went through and created draft blog posts for all the Troublesome Pairs people had suggested (see the Libro blog for all these). I like to get ahead with blog posts so I can just publish them quickly when I’m busy with other work.

I also had Friday evening and most of Saturday off for my birthday. Had a lovely time and it was good to relax and see friends.

Is this different from having two jobs?

One difference I noticed quite markedly this month was the effect a long day of Libro work had on my life and energy levels. On Wednesday, I had to get through proof-reading most of a PhD thesis, plus some other bits and pieces. I ended up working an 11 1/2 hour day (I did get out, to the gym, for half an hour of rowing!). I worked late, and I was tired by the end of the day. But it was great to know that if I needed to, I could rest on Thursday. Actually I ended up getting up early to complete a job I’d had to put off from the Wednesday, but just knowing I wasn’t going to HAVE to get up at a particular time and get myself across to the office was great.

And … this is going to sound a bit smug. But you know that Sunday Afternoon Blahs feeling, when you know you have to go back to the office on Monday? Well, not only have I not had that for a couple of weeks; today I had the Sunday Morning Whoos, when I realised I wasn’t going to have the blahs this afternoon!

One disadvantage of leaving the day job

Some of my ex-colleagues came to my birthday dinner on Friday night. I hadn’t seen them since my last day, and two of them live a little way away, which makes it hard to just meet up. I realised that I really miss them all – more than I maybe thought I would. Does that sound horrible? We all have colleagues we get on with, but we also all have people from old jobs where we’ve said, “Ooh, keep in touch, we must go out some time” … and then don’t. Well, I want to see these people more, and I’ve already emailed them to say so!

In conclusion …

It’s been a good week. I’ve read more and seen my friends more. I’ve continued networking and marketing myself, and I’ve worked hard for my customers. Life is easier and more flexible – I’m certainly enjoying being able to go to the gym in the day time, when it’s so much quieter. I have also hit the middle of my three monthly earning (that’s money physically coming in to my account) targets already, and on aggregate, have hit my billable hours (money going onto invoices, but not always yet in) target per week. I hope this stays the same next week …

Exactly how I did it

I’ve been asked by quite a number of people exactly how I have made the transition from part-time “pin money” business to full-time business that is able to support me. Here’s the thing: I haven’t done it yet! I’ve just gone full time, and I’m pretty sure it will work … but the fact that I am pretty sure that it will work, and that I have back-up information and statistics that make this clear to me, is enough for me to think it might be useful to set it out. So, a mixture of practical and exact things I did to make it happen:

I’ve kept records – right from the start (and thanks in large part to the HMRC course I attended just after I set myself up) I’ve kept records of my invoices and outgoings on a spreadsheet. I have always grouped my income information monthly and my full incomings and outgoings yearly (based on the UK April-March financial year, which is Libro’s financial year too). This means that at any one point in time I can see:

• Which invoices are still outstanding
• My income for this month (and previous months)
• My income, outgoings and profit for the current financial year, as of today

It was quite easy to do this, using fairly simple Excel skills, with the main invoices sheet feeding information into the other sheets as I go along (no retyping: no room for error)

I’ve had goals – I’ll admit: when I started Libro I had no idea that I was ever going to take it full-time. I thought I might end up working at the day job part-time, but not that I might give it up altogether. But as I realised I was working more hours on the two jobs than I really wanted to, I set goals for myself, so I could see when I would be able to drop a day at the day job in favour of Libro. This is how I did it:

• I worked out how much money I would lose per month if I dropped a day at the library. To do this, I divided my monthly gross salary by 5. So to move to 4 days a week and replace the lost income, Libro would have to earn 1/5 of my monthly library salary per month.
• I added a column to my monthly income spreadsheet called “Against 1/5 target”. The amount in that cell for each month was my 1/5 salary minus my Libro earnings for that month. So if the amount needed to replace my salary was £400 and I earned £350, then I had brought in -£50 against target. Or was £50 under target.
• I made this into a graph – a great way to see immediately where I was against target
• I added a cumulative target too – this meant that if I made £350 one month and £450 the next, my records would iron out the ups and downs to show if I was covering targets on average.
• Once the 1/5 target was being achieved every month for 6 months, I knew it was time to negotiate dropping a day at the library and did so, starting the new regime in January 2011.
• Then I repeated, using a 2/5 target. In fact, I started these columns off at the same time, and used them to show me that I could drop a second day in May 2011. Which I did.
• 5/5 i.e. total salary replacement was my next target. But targets should be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-based) and that was a bit scary at that point, and seemed too far away. So I sorted out some interstitial targets of 3/5 and 4/5 salary replacement. In fact, I cheated slightly – because I was managing to live on 3/5 of my salary at that point, I adjusted these last 3 to be a bit lower, giving me a lower target to replace, knowing I could live on that lower amount.

I saved up – Once I realised that I was likely to want to move to a more part-time basis with my job, I saved and saved and saved. It helps that interest rates are so low, oddly enough: I am happier to sacrifice my savings to living expenses, knowing that they wouldn’t do much in a savings account. But I made sure that I had a whole year of living expenses saved up before I left my job, so 2012 is covered.

I cut costs – By hoarding Amazon vouchers for when I had to have new books, using BookCrossing and charity shops as other sources of books, not buying new clothes, etc., etc. – all very boring stuff – I managed to live off my reduced wages from the Library through my part-time year. This meant that all my earnings from 2011 and 2012 can go to paying my way in 2013.

I worked hard Because I always needed to be working enough to replace my salary for a good few months before I dropped the day in question, there have been three periods in my Libro life (Oct-Nov 2010, Mar-Apr 2011 and Sep-Nov 2011) when I’ve been working rather too many hours in the 2 combined jobs to be entirely comfortable. But I’d rather have it this way than leave myself vulnerable. But it has been hard to do 7.5 hours at the library, come home and do 3-4 more some evenings, and maybe 5 each day at the weekend.  And no one got anywhere without working hard, really.

I made sacrifices (and so did other people – sorry!) – I had to prioritise Libro. So I have had to postpone or cancel meeting up with friends; accept that I can’t keep up with my Twitter and Facebook timelines; not spent as much time with my Other Half as I would have wished and certainly not gone on trips out with him; practically given up reading for pleasure; not spent out on anything unneccessary … but you don’t get anywhere without some sacrifies, and I knew by a certain point that this would be temporary.

I was pretty darned blatant - I told everyone what I was doing. I cajoled and begged people into giving out my business cards, into retweeting my Tweets and sharing my Facebook posts. I started going to networking events – everything I could to do raise awareness of the business. I asked for references and testimonials, I asked for recommendations; I carried on marketing myself even when I was busy with work already.

I did all the other stuff I have blogged about on the Libro blog regarding how to run your small business. I won’t repeat that here. Pop over there if you want to see.

I said it out loud – at one point this year I started announcing to all and sundry that I was aiming to leave the day job. I took advice, I asked for support, but I claimed it for myself. Powerful stuff, if a bit scary.

So there  you go: that’s how I did it. It’s one way, it might not be the best way, but it’s (hopefully) worked for me.

I hope this has been helpful – do tell me (and share it) if it has!

Book review: Alastair Campbell – “The Happy Depressive”

(Bought 13 January 2012 – Kindle)

“I hope that by the time I die I will have played a part in ending the stigma and taboo surrounding mental illness”.  Alastair Campbell, I think you’ve played that part already, and this book will help you do more to achieve this goal.

I bought this book on a whim, because  a friend Tweeted that she’d bought it (internet marketers, take note: it wasn’t even a review. It was a note that she’d bought it). And I’m glad I did. Loosely based on Campbell’s Happiness Lecture at Birmingham University (my alma mater and ex-employer, but no, I didn’t manage to get to the lecture), this extended essay is a very honest and personal discussion of what it’s like to be depressed: what it’s actually like, in detail. It’s also a musing on what “happiness” is and whether a depressed person is every truly happy, and a discussion of the things that help Campbell, and might help other people. He’s careful to avoid preaching and telling people what to do, but the concrete examples about how altruism, exercise and the application of his mind to new things help him will surely bring comfort to people who aren’t so used to managing their depression. I’d forgotten he’s a runner, but that made sense – running certainly keeps me sane, and not just because I’ve got a busy lifestyle. And there’s much more to identify with, personally – I’m glad I’m not the only person to sob my way through Olympic or other major sporting events, for a start!

But it’s not all personal stuff: the political features heavily, too – but that shouldn’t put people off, as it’s the author’s main arena, or was for many years, and he has much to say that’s of real and practical interest. I was pleased to find an actual explanation of the Bhutan Gross National Happiness idea rather than the usual glib reference to it – spelled out and explained, it makes a lot of sense with its discussions around sustainability and support. There’s a fair treatment of Cameron’s aim to improve happiness in the UK population, and a notable discussion of the way newspapers have become more and more negative, feeding, to some extent, a culture of miserable envy.

Brave, intelligent, moving – often funny – well-written … the only fault of this book is that it’s not long enough! I’ve already recommended it to someone looking for resources on how to explain their depression.

This should be required reading for anyone who deals with the political, medical and social implications of depression and other mental health issues. Anyone who is or has been depressed (I’ll count myself in that band: this is about honesty, after all). Anyone who has a friend or family member going through depression. Oh: that would be everybody, then.

You can buy this book from Amazon here.