When I first read Mr. Bob Bly’s comments re: how a freelancer’s time is divided, I thought that can’t be right. Now I know better.

Mr. Bly, you may recall, is the freelance guy who makes mega-bucks in the industry. I’m reading his book, Getting Started as a Freelance Writer, trying to play a little catch-up in the freelance business. Anyway, according to Bly, a freelancer can expect to spend 25% of her time on business stuff (invoices, research, filing, mailing, and all those other jobs that eat up your hours). That seemed reasonable.

But 25% on marketing? Leaving only 50% for actual writing? Nahhhh, I said. I write more than that. And I do. But I write an awful lot of query letters, and cover letters, too, trying to get my articles and stories into new markets. Which is um, marketing.

Shazam! So Mr. Bly had a point. Since he also mentioned setting a financial goal of say $200, 000 (That’s exactly what he nonchalantly threw out there), I thought why not set $200,000 as my financial goal? That’s quite a Fortune, I know.

But hey, he was right about the time percentages.