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One of the challenges I face as an editor is that of managing my work schedule. I have more than 200 regular or semi-regular clients, and it sometimes seems that they all want a piece of my time simultaneously. As you can imagine, that makes the scheduling difficult. Certain times of year are particularly bad. For example, most of my authors are ecological researchers, and do most of their research during the summer -- both because it's a more pleasant time of year to be out in the field, and because that's when the plants they study are actually growing. As soon as they return from the field, they set about busily analyzing their data and writing up their research. So there's always a flood of manuscripts late in the year and into the spring, when most of them head back to the field to start the process all over again.
The solution I've come up with, which is imperfect, is to work through a system of reservations. I have notified all of my clients (and periodically re-notify them, because they forget) that between the time they contact me and the first day I'll be available to do new work, there is a minimum delay of about 3 weeks. Earlier in the year, when I had unwisely given in to the pleas of my oldest client, I had two books on the go in addition to the usual journal manuscripts. The delay slipped to 4 weeks.
I've finally trained most of my authors to write to me and ask me to reserve some of my time for their paper, but their estimates are more often based on subjective and often optimistic (not to say unrealistic) estimates of how long it will take to write a manuscript. Senior researchers are much better at estimating, but many of my authors are just getting started in their career and don't have a good sense of just how difficult it is to write a journal manuscript. Moreover, you never really know how long a manuscript will take to write until you roll up your sleeves and start mucking about in the data. Often, messy surprises lurk in wait. This inevitably leads to juggling of my schedule to accommodate delays, and that's when the neatly arranged dominoes start falling: each change risks delaying subsequent manuscripts, which risks delaying other manuscripts later in the schedule, and so on down the line of dominoes.
For instance, in the next 4 weeks (about 18 working days after subtracting a long weekend when I'll be away visiting family) I have 4 manuscripts waiting their turn in the queue, 6 firm reservations, and 8 semi-firm reservations. That's a total of 18 jobs in 18 days, which doesn't leave any room for flexibility. Last week, an author missed a reserved date, causing the first of the dominoes to fall, since every reservation depends on the previous reservations being completed on time. When I have a manuscript in hand, waiting to be edited, it's not a problem: I work on it earlier than planned, and use its original date for the missed reservation. If all I have is several weeks of reservations, and I don't have any other manuscripts in hand, I can't do this kind of simple swap of dates. Sometimes two reservations are missed, and I have to reposition both of those dominoes without knocking over any of the others. That's trickier, because the odds are good that this would disrupt another author's schedule, which isn't fair to them. So I need to push the missed edit to the next empty time slot, which can be 2 or 3 weeks into the future. Of course, authors with reservations 1 or 2 weeks in the future may also miss their deadlines, increasing the risk that other dominoes will fall. To add to the complexity, there are long-term clients I love to work with, and who have occasional emergencies that must be slotted into my schedule.
There's not a lot I can do about this, but I do have some coping strategies. First, I build some flexibility into the system. For example, I try to leave Fridays open for my own writing so that I have 1 day open per week. If an emergency comes up, I use those open days to accommodate the author. (And if everyone keeps to the schedule, then I have a rare day to myself so I can work on my own projects.) Second, I write to authors the week before their reservation to confirm whether it's still realistic; if not, I'll have to shuffle the schedule, but at least I have a week's notice to do so. For example, I can contact authors with reservations in subsequent weeks to learn whether their schedule is sufficiently flexible to permit a change in their reservation. Third, there are weeks when I have no choice other than to put in a few hours or even a day of work on a weekend. Sometimes there's precious little "free" in freelancing.
The last thing I can do is refer the author to someone in my network. I have a list of about 20 experienced people who specialize in different types of editing, many of whom have not yet reached their saturation point for work. This is a pretty good solution for everyone, so I end up referring a couple people every month. I'm not worried about losing clients; the good ones come back to me again next time, but plan a little better. I've probably lost a few clients over the years too, but given that I'm in the fortunate situation of having too much work, I can live with that. There's far too much work for me to do it all, and I'm happy to share my wealth with other editors.
Managing my chaotic schedule can be stressful at times, but the system I've evolved basically works and keeps everyone happy.
The solution I've come up with, which is imperfect, is to work through a system of reservations. I have notified all of my clients (and periodically re-notify them, because they forget) that between the time they contact me and the first day I'll be available to do new work, there is a minimum delay of about 3 weeks. Earlier in the year, when I had unwisely given in to the pleas of my oldest client, I had two books on the go in addition to the usual journal manuscripts. The delay slipped to 4 weeks.
I've finally trained most of my authors to write to me and ask me to reserve some of my time for their paper, but their estimates are more often based on subjective and often optimistic (not to say unrealistic) estimates of how long it will take to write a manuscript. Senior researchers are much better at estimating, but many of my authors are just getting started in their career and don't have a good sense of just how difficult it is to write a journal manuscript. Moreover, you never really know how long a manuscript will take to write until you roll up your sleeves and start mucking about in the data. Often, messy surprises lurk in wait. This inevitably leads to juggling of my schedule to accommodate delays, and that's when the neatly arranged dominoes start falling: each change risks delaying subsequent manuscripts, which risks delaying other manuscripts later in the schedule, and so on down the line of dominoes.
For instance, in the next 4 weeks (about 18 working days after subtracting a long weekend when I'll be away visiting family) I have 4 manuscripts waiting their turn in the queue, 6 firm reservations, and 8 semi-firm reservations. That's a total of 18 jobs in 18 days, which doesn't leave any room for flexibility. Last week, an author missed a reserved date, causing the first of the dominoes to fall, since every reservation depends on the previous reservations being completed on time. When I have a manuscript in hand, waiting to be edited, it's not a problem: I work on it earlier than planned, and use its original date for the missed reservation. If all I have is several weeks of reservations, and I don't have any other manuscripts in hand, I can't do this kind of simple swap of dates. Sometimes two reservations are missed, and I have to reposition both of those dominoes without knocking over any of the others. That's trickier, because the odds are good that this would disrupt another author's schedule, which isn't fair to them. So I need to push the missed edit to the next empty time slot, which can be 2 or 3 weeks into the future. Of course, authors with reservations 1 or 2 weeks in the future may also miss their deadlines, increasing the risk that other dominoes will fall. To add to the complexity, there are long-term clients I love to work with, and who have occasional emergencies that must be slotted into my schedule.
There's not a lot I can do about this, but I do have some coping strategies. First, I build some flexibility into the system. For example, I try to leave Fridays open for my own writing so that I have 1 day open per week. If an emergency comes up, I use those open days to accommodate the author. (And if everyone keeps to the schedule, then I have a rare day to myself so I can work on my own projects.) Second, I write to authors the week before their reservation to confirm whether it's still realistic; if not, I'll have to shuffle the schedule, but at least I have a week's notice to do so. For example, I can contact authors with reservations in subsequent weeks to learn whether their schedule is sufficiently flexible to permit a change in their reservation. Third, there are weeks when I have no choice other than to put in a few hours or even a day of work on a weekend. Sometimes there's precious little "free" in freelancing.
The last thing I can do is refer the author to someone in my network. I have a list of about 20 experienced people who specialize in different types of editing, many of whom have not yet reached their saturation point for work. This is a pretty good solution for everyone, so I end up referring a couple people every month. I'm not worried about losing clients; the good ones come back to me again next time, but plan a little better. I've probably lost a few clients over the years too, but given that I'm in the fortunate situation of having too much work, I can live with that. There's far too much work for me to do it all, and I'm happy to share my wealth with other editors.
Managing my chaotic schedule can be stressful at times, but the system I've evolved basically works and keeps everyone happy.