December 2018 was down slightly in the number of jobs I had to complete. There were a total of 22 booked and out of those were 68 articles to be written – also down from November. However, I expected that going into Christmas as I was going to take a short break over the holiday season. Well, that was provided that I was able to complete an extra project I wanted to write and publish before Christmas, if possible.
 
Drawing From My Experience
 
There was a project that was gnawing away at me as the end of 2018 approached. I wanted to complete a new eBook title and had a couple of ideas in mind. But they never really got further than that. Then one day in the beginning of December it hit me. I could write an eBook related to podcasting. I just needed some sort of hook to make it interesting.
 
I did some light research online to see what kind of articles and manuals already existed. I found a few that were clearly content written with affiliate marketing in mind. Essentially, that’s an article that discusses a topic and contains links to products related to the topic. What makes this an affiliate article is that the only products being promoted in the article are those that are providing the author with a commission based on sales from leads generated from the links in the article.
 
There’s nothing underhanded about this marketing tool. I’ve even written these types of articles for a number of my freelance clients. The downside is that some other great products may not get the exposure they deserve as a result of not being part of a particular affiliate network. Besides, I wanted my eBook to be about a different approach to podcasting and one that did not rely on affiliate links to generate revenue.
 
So I thought about how I got into podcasting and what was different about my entry into the industry compared to what I was finding online.
 
I got into podcasting with an expense of under $100. That became the hook I was going to create my eBook around. Once I searched titles and attempted to fit some keywords into it, I had some options. I quickly settled on “How To Start Podcasting – The Beginner’s Guide” and quickly mapped out an outline for the volume.
 
It Didn’t Take Long To Write
 
I decided that I wanted this eBook to be close to the length of the last two I had published. They were in the 15,000 word range and I set that as my target. Then I started writing, trying to fit writing sessions around my other commitments. In actual fact, I wrote the entire eBook in just over three sittings and ended up with 12,000+ words.
 
Then I walked away from it. I had to give my head a break before I went back and proofread the pages and made any corrections. Two days after completing the writing part, I tackled the proofreading part. There were a few things I changed or clarified but for the most part about 95% of the original draft was left as it was. I also only added links to my own projects.
 
Number 7 And 16
 
“How To Start Podcasting – The Beginner’s Guide” is my 7th eBook. It also happens to be the 16th manuscript I have self-published since 1987. I have plans for at least two more in 2019 as I really like the direction I have gone with my eBooks. I refer to them as basically being ‘how-to’ volumes and I like writing about different topics in a teaching manner.
 
That was the biggest job for me during the month and all I need to do now is put some effort into promoting it. I uploaded the finished manuscript to Amazon on December 24 and it went live late that evening. That meant I had met my deadline and was able to just kick back and relax for a couple of days with Brenda doing not much more than snacking and watching DVDs.
 
The Coming New Year
 
I expect to be writing a lot for a lot of new and existing clients in 2019. I already have a couple of large jobs coming together just for January. Next month also marks my 5th anniversary as a ghostwriter and I see no end in sight to the amount of work that will be coming my way. I may have thought at first this was going to be a ‘temporary’ job but I was obviously wrong.

​November was another month that didn’t feel as busy at times and was intensely busy at other times for me. As for my ghostwriting work I had a total of 31 jobs which was slightly higher than last month. Out of those jobs I had to write a total of 95 different articles, again a slight increase from October. The main difference this month was that the work contained four big jobs of ten or more articles in a set and several slightly smaller sets. I had very few single article jobs.
 
The Vending Piece
 
I look at my life these days as being a product of various pieces of a puzzle. My ghostwriting is a large piece of that puzzle. Vending JamBusters! with Brenda is another large piece. The past month has been a tremendous one in that department. I watched her work long hours in the kitchen to prepare for one major event in late November as well as keeping the inventory up for our regular vending dates. I even pitched in a few times to lighten the load.
 
Don’t tell her, but I rather enjoyed breaking apart a few pounds of garlic cloves and I really didn’t mind cutting disks for her labels. In a way, I found these ‘new’ tasks a welcome change from some of the hectic activity I experienced at times during the month. Regardless, vending JamBusters! appears to be an ongoing thing for us as I also designed an ad for JamBusters! and Watkins that will appear in the upcoming 2019 Oliver Tourist Information Guide.
 
The Town Council Piece
 
Probably the biggest piece is my extra duties as an elected member of our local Town Council. I was sworn in on November 5 and started attending committee meetings following our first official Town Council meeting on November 19. There have been several additional tasks related to the job and fortunately my home-based ghostwriting business gives me the flexibility to be able to participate in as many Town Council functions as possible.
 
One fun event for me happened to combine two of my puzzle pieces together. The annual Chamber of Commerce Christmas Craft Fair was November 24. JamBusters! has been attending this the past couple of years. It was also the same day as the Town of Princeton annual Christmas Light-Up and Santa Visit. Both events happened next to each other. I was asked to MC the Light-Up which was a fun experience for me and Brenda had a great day of sales.
 
The Gears Are Shifting Slightly
 
So as my ghostwriting volume is shifting into a reasonable place where I can stay caught up and not feel rushed, it has opened room for me to handle duties related to Town Council. I would have juggled them otherwise but I prefer to be able to take care of them this way as it really is much easier. The JamBusters! weekend vending is always fun but like Brenda, I kind of view it as a day off where we can spend it together doing something we enjoy.

​Although it hasn’t felt as busy as far as ghostwriting is concerned this month, I did receive a total of 29 different orders for over 94 different articles. In many ways, the content I wrote for some of my clients kept me as busy as I wanted to be. Work came to me from several sources and was from clients in Canada, the United States, China, Israel, the United Kingdom and Australia to name a few. Most of it was from regular clients with some new ones filling in some spaces.
 
The majority of the writing jobs focused on sets of articles as opposed to single pieces here and there. Of the sets of articles I wrote during the month, most of them were complete pages of content for new websites. The balance of the projects was blog posts. I actually found it interesting that so much of the work in October was for website projects as I normally find myself writing blog posts most of the time. This different work was a nice change.
 
The Other Things Going On
 
The weekly vending activities I participate in with my wife, Brenda, continued this past month. We actually missed the final weekend of September as we were still away on holiday. The both of us were anxious to get back to the weekly routine and sales were slightly better than I had expected. We had far better sales throughout October than we had recorded for most of the previous month and our Watkins Products sold better than we’ve ever had to date.
 
Plus there was a local election that took some of our focus. I participated in an all-candidates forum days after we returned from holidays. It was quite interesting for me as I am used to being the MC asking the questions of candidates. This time around I was one of the 15 candidates answering questions. I felt my performance was lackluster but from the feedback I received that evening and for the following couple of weeks I must have misheard myself.
 
Election night was a completely different affair. Again, I have attended these things in the past in my former Media life. Being one of the election hopefuls was giving me a perspective on the ballot results I had not had for some time (I ran in the local municipal election in 1999). Winning a seat on the local Town Council was the goal and I achieved that by the end of the night – or more accurately, well into the next morning. So I am now a Councillor-elect.
 
In The Next Month Or Two
 
Well, I expect things to be a little bumpy at times as I attempt to adjust my scheduling around tasks associated with my new role in our community. I fully intend to keep vending with Brenda as well as continue to write. I have already changed my writing rates to reflect the reduction in time I may have to do that these days. I was due for a price increase for my freelance work, anyway. I look forward to doing some great things with my time in the coming months.