How To Make a Living as a Writer

Yes, I know that you’re going to be the next Stephen King/Dean Koontz/Anne Rice just as soon as some publisher discovers your immense talent – but in the meantime, you have the reality of life staring you in the face in the form of an overdue electric bill.

What do you do if you want to make a living as a writer?  Not necessarily have the glamor or riches, but some cash?

Just as actors work as waiters until they are discovered, writers have their bread-and-butter jobs that can pay the bills while still working towards their dream.

First, I want to be clear that I’m assuming two things:

1. I’m assuming you can write. You have good grammar, good spelling, and the ability to string together more than six words in a coherent sentence.   If you don’t know the difference between “two,” “too,” and “to”; or if you can’t figure out when to use “your” and when to use “you’re” – choose another profession.  Seriously.  A misplaced comma here and there most clients can live with (not liking it, but can live with it).   Not knowing basic grammar?  Forget it.
2. I’m assuming you’ll actually have the courage to take action. Clients won’t just come to you.  Your job is to seek them out and make yourself available to them.

Okay.  Now on to business.

Who Are Your Potential Clients?

There are – literally – millions of people who need writers.

• Website owners
• Bricks-and-mortar business owners
• Non profits

To name just a few.

And you can work for any client – anywhere in the world – as long as they can pay you.

What kind of services can you offer?

Honestly?  The sky is the limit.  Use your imagination.  But for starters:

• Website content
• Email campaign material
• Press Releases
• Brochure materials
• Sales Letters
• Newsletters
• Blog Posts
• Forum Posting

And so on.  Seriously – there is a TON of stuff you can do.  If it involves writing, you can offer the service if you have the skill.

Is it glamorous to write 10 articles/500 words each about potty training for a website owner who sells baby supplies?  Hell, no.  But somehow depositing a check for a few hundred bucks for a few hours’ worth of work makes it more palatable.  I’m kind of funny that way.

Promoting Yourself

Okay.  You have no clients – so no references.  How do you start?

You need a way to showcase who you are and what you do.  You need a website or a blog.

I got my first freelance job by pointing a potential client to a hobby blog I had.  It had nothing to do with the subject matter he wanted to hire me for, but it showed I could write reasonably well.  Long story short:  I got the job.  I made $300 bucks for 2 days’ work.  I was hooked.

Which is better – website or blog?  To be honest, I’ve found that both have their advantages.  If you’re just starting out, a blog will do.  (I’ll discuss the pros and cons of both in a later post.)

Basic info to put on your website or blog:

• Name
• Contact info
• Samples of your writing
• Pricing

(You can use all kinds of SEO tactics to get your blog or website noticed.  I’ll talk more about this in a later post.)

Finding Clients

There are numerous places where you can find clients.  Here are two to start with:

• www.elance.com
• www.guru.com

You can also search Twitter for phrases like:

• “I need a writer”
• “Articles needed”
• “Ghostwriter needed”

and so on.

Since this post is a novel already – and I’m not nearly done – I’ll post Part 2 next time.

Questions?  Leave a comment.  I’ll either answer as a comment or in another post.