Balancing marketing time with writing time is one the biggest challenges we face as freelance writers. When I began my full time freelancing career, I sometimes spent just as much time drumming up work as actually doing the work. Now that I have several ongoing projects that take up a big chunk of time, I devote less time to marketing, though I do try to spend at least a half hour each morning sending letters of introduction, following up on queries, or applying to gigs posted online. I'd love to spend more time reaching out to new clients, but I'm already very busy as is it, so I'm not sure I could handle much more.
Erik Sherman recently posted about the difference between a freelance writing business and freelance writing. He asserts that writers who either don't know or don't want to spend time on the business side of freelancing (especially marketing) are willing to work for writer mills, because then they don't have to market themselves. I'm hoping that most of you don't fall into this category of writers, so I'm interested in how much time you spend marketing vs. writing.
Do you set aside a designated time each day or each week for marketing? What percentage of time do you spend on marketing each month? And do you think you need to spend more or less time on it?