Re: Contract writing (was Job Futures for Tech Writing)

["Bonni J. Graham" <bgraham -at- ELECTRICITI -dot- COM>]

I'm in the middle category on this.  I have one, job-shopped, long-term
contract that currently provides most of my bread-and-butter, as it were.
No bennies, it's true, but I have health insurance thorugh my husband's
job, and a SEP of my own (tax-wise, fully the equal of a 401K in that
contributions to it are pre-tax).  I work this cotnract from home, with
occasional forays on-site.  I juggle this with several smaller clients who
provide periodic work.

Ultimately, I'd like to have just my smaller clients (admittedly, a whole
host of them...), but for now, this arrangement gives me everything I was
looking for in contracting:  working at home at my own pace and optimum
hours (I get a nap almost every day, for example, now that I'm done with my
conference), removal from office politics, and what Doug calls "spreading
the job risk" by not putting all my eggs in one basket.  Since I've been
laid off twice this year from allegedly full-time, permanent jobs with
bebefits, this last has a certain appeal.

I rely mostly on word-of-mouth, although every now and then I get a "happy
accident" job (from out of the blue).  You do have to know a certain amount
of marketing, and it helps to be familiar with accounting, although I own a
nifty little software package that handles most of that for me and a friend
who helps with my taxes.

That's my situation anyway -- I don't know how common it is, but I hope
it's illustrative.
Bonni Graham
Manual Labour
Director, Region 8 Conference
bgraham -at- electriciti -dot- com