Jennifer Brozek | Ten Years as a Fulltime Freelancer

Ten Years as a Fulltime Freelancer

As of this week, I have survived ten years as a fulltime freelance author/editor and created a career I am proud of. The past decade has been nothing like I expected it to be. When I began, I wanted to “just write” and to see if I could make it as an author. Within the first year, I started editing. Time has flown by as well as taken forever. I had a plan and a series of professional goals to meet. I have met every single one of these. Though… the last one, “get an agent,” happened in the last couple of months.

  • Sell short stories to pro markets
  • Get into SFWA with novels or short stories
  • Sell a novel
  • Sell a trilogy
  • Get an agent
  • Be invited to conventions as a panelist

Ten years later, I have discovered there were a whole lot more professional goals I wanted to achieve that I didn’t know I wanted to achieve when I started out. Some of them shocked me when they happened. (Honestly, some of them still surprise me when they occur.)

  • Sell a short story collection
  • Have a story listed in a “Best of” collection
  • Have my books become audiobooks
  • Have a stranger squee over my forthcoming presence at a convention
  • Have a stranger come to a multi-author event to see me specifically
  • Learn how to say “no” to a gig
  • Be nominated for an award – any award
  • Be nominated for a Hugo award and a Bram Stoker award
  • Be mentioned in Locus Magazine and Kirkus Reviews
  • Win an ENnie award, a Scribe award, and/or a Cleo (Origins Game Fair) award
  • Be a Guest of Honor of a convention in America
  • Be a Guest of Honor of a convention abroad (Sweden, Finland)
  • Become a Director-at-Large in SFWA
  • Become an adjective (a “Brozek” book or a “Brozek” anthology)

It’s been ten years. I’ve achieved so much and I’m so grateful to the people who have helped me along the way—editors, publishers, other authors, fans, cheerleaders, shoulders-to-cry-on, friends, family, and my husband. I’m not going to stop now. I just have to set goals for the future. Here are the ones I know I want to achieve:

  • Sell stories to Analog, Asimov, Psuedopod, and EscapePod
  • Sell stories to Ellen Datlow and to John Joseph Adams
  • Create a long-running Teen/YA series (6+ books)
  • Create a successful fiction podcast
  • Have someone option my work
  • Have my work become a TV pilot, TV series, and/or movie

The more I know about the publishing business, the more I can narrow down what I really want out of my career. Now that I have a wonderful agent, I can’t wait to see what the future holds for me.

In celebration, and out of duty, I have filed ten years worth of editing and writing contracts… much to the enjoyment and annoyance of my cats. (The red folder is filled with 10 years worth of editing contracts and the black one has 10 years of writing contracts.)

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