Freelancers' business wish list for 2009

If you’re going to spend money on your writing business in 2009, what’s at the top of your wish list?

That’s the question I posed to writers on LinkedIn a couple weeks ago. The answers I got were as varied as the writing businesses of the people who replied.

Many freelance writers are upgrading faster computers or smarter phones next year, while others say they’ll spend whatever money they can set aside to take classes or attend conferences to brush up on skills or explore new markets. For still others, No. 1 on their list is getting more help around the office.

Ghostwriter, podcast producer/trainer and blogger Sallie Goetsch says her current “obscure object of desire” is an Eee PC S101, an ultra lightweight notebook computer she says she’d use in all of her businesses.

Editor and communications consultant Anthony Armstrong has a new laptop at the top of his wish list too, one with “a 17″ screen, 4GB RAM, 512 MB cache and Adobe’s CS4 Suite.” He’s also like an official Red Ryder carbine action 200 shot range model air rifle with a compass in the stock. Hmmm, where have we heard that before?

Karen Opas-Lanouette, a Canadian SEO content writer and ghostwriter, didn’t wait for Christmas. When the CardScan business card reader she’d been coveting went on sale recently, she got one. “Love the access from anywhere feature and no more typing in contact data from business cards,” she says.

Tucson, Arizona, freelancer Vera Marie Badertscher says she won’t start thinking about spending money on her business until she lands a few assignments. If and when that happens, she’ll sign up for a blogging class and “hire a typist, a map maker and an indexer for the book I’m working on.”

Texan Kendra Crispin, currently working on a first novel, also expects to spend money on continuing education in 2009. She’s signed up for a blogging class this month and will attend the Writer’s League of Texas Agents and Editors Conference in June.

No. 1 on the wish list of Canadian writer-photographer Ceci-Flanagan-Snow is developing a business plan. “For years I have had too many eggs in one proverbial basket and it’s time for a change,” she says. Nice, and it doesn’t cost much either. Flanagan-Snow does plan to spend on networking – in person and online. But she draws the line unnecessary tech toys. “It’s too easy to be a gadget freak,” she says.

Some independent writers and editors desire more intangible things for 2009 – like LA’s Sarah Daniels, whose only wish is “fewer 16 hour days and more vacations. Seriously.”