Just out of curiosity, would anyone care to share the percentage of their worktime that they spend marketing their service as a freelance writer? As I’ve only recently become a full-time freelancer, I still spend about 75% of my time marketing myself, from writing queries to responding to posts on Craigslist and other sites from employers/individuals looking for writers/bloggers. That’s more than I would like to spend on it, but unfortunately it’s still necessary until I build up enough of a network and a reputation to be able to just pick up the phone and pitch a quick story to an editor already familiar with my work. (At the moment there’s really only one editor with whom I have this relationship, but I value it tremendously.)

How many hours a week do you spend marketing, and how many do you spend actually writing/researching?