Just A Week Away

November is Coming...

NaNoWriMo is almost here! I can't wait to try and finish my project. It's not going to be easy, but I think I will be able to carve enough time out of each day to get things rolling. That, and I'm excited that the title and the cover will finally be revealed to everyone. Watch my NaNo novel page to see when it happens.

I also want to keep everyone updated on how I'm doing, so this year I'm going to try and keep a daily log. I've tried updates in the past like this, so I don't know how it will go, but I'm going to make the daily logs exclusive to Patreon, so there's another awesome thing you have to look forward to if you sign up now.

A Note on Fiverr Freelancing

Even though there is so much to do for November, I still have to also split my time with the day job, though that load has lightened a bit. As of midday yesterday, I'm no longer taking new work on Fiverr. All of my gigs have been paused. It's unfortunate that I have to do this, but I got scammed twice within the span of a couple of hours. By scammed I don't mean anything as serious as stolen personal information, but I was scammed in that I did the work, then the customer turns around and says it wasn't what I portrayed in my gig description (it was VERY clear, by the way, and to the dozens of others who have successfully ordered it). They got out of paying me while probably running around using what I wrote for them. This does nothing to the customer on the Fiverr platform. To me, it dropped some of my stats below the level I need to maintain for Level 1 status, which means on November 14th, I will lose that status. Again. And for the second time, this demotion wasn't something I did--except, you know, trust that a customer was serious about the job. I get it. Fiverr protects buyers over sellers because without any buyers, they make $0. It still sucks.

I know that pushing through it would be the best choice because I've developed quite a few repeat customers who love the work I provide. I am sorry for them, but I know they'll go off and find someone else to fill my place if it's that urgently needed. For my sanity, I have to take a step back. I was already so frustrated with many of the one-time customers I had because they were asking for things I just didn't provide, and it was always a long back and forth that was not worth a whopping three bucks and change. And sometimes if it was small, I gave in, which made me feel worse because I knew that had this been a gig extra, I could have charged $5 extra for every one of those jobs (assuming, of course, that they would have agreed to pay for the extra). I know I shouldn't admit this, but I'm terrible at upselling.

If only Fiverr had a platform where I as the expert in the situation would be able to pick and choose who I work with instead of any old yahoo who pressed the order button, it would be a lot different. I like working for myself, but right now Fiverr is like working for a terrible employer who doesn't even have to bother to pay benefits, yet takes from all its employees. The 20% cut per gig is one thing, but plenty of my customers have given me generous tips, and guess what? Fiverr took 20% of those, too.

There's no set return date for me on that platform. If I truly want to have a good holiday season (minus the income I was bringing in), I don't see myself coming back before January. I probably should rewrite my gig descriptions and be that jerk that I hate to be, but as I've noticed with most of these orders, people read just about as well as they listen, which is not much at all. My gigs weren't saving the world, so I'm sure the world will keep turning without them.

The plus side? I get to work that much more on my poetry project and my NaNo project. That's a big plus for me, so I'm still smiling. See you in November!