Secrets on
How To Make Money Writing

Sadly, despite popular belief, it takes more than writing a book to make money writing, unless of course you’re in the minority of writers who are recognised for creating a series of bestsellers.

The majority of writers, based at home, earn money from freelance writing which takes as much knowledge about the business of writing as it does the actual craft. A successful freelance writer can make money writing on average writing skills and excellent business sense while it is harder to succeed with the reverse. The ideal, of course, is being excellent at both.

Today there are a variety of outlets and genres writers can freelance in, either to earn occasional money, a part-time income or a substantial wage. Which one will work for you depends on your area of interest and style or styles or writing.

Article writing is a good way to make money writing, especially if you become a regular for a well-paying publication but especially so if you’re good at photography. Magazines often pay as much for the pictures as they do for the words, but you have to be professional at both. In most cases happy snaps, no matter the quality of the camera, won’t be accepted.

But what if you prefer creative writing to factual? In my opinion the market for short story writing is still smaller (especially in well-paying markets) than that for feature articles. Not that this should make a difference if you’re merely looking to make a small amount of money writing.

Many people who enjoying creating stories, or poetry for that matter, enjoy submitting their work in competitions. The prize money in some of these can be excellent but sourcing the information on new contests can be hard unless you find a good resource or two.

A way to combine both factual and creative flare to make money writing is learning the art of personal essay writing These are the kinds of true life stories that are published in themed collections. They usually focus on a particular event within your life and are written from an emotive, reflective slant. Since most publishers of anthologies only want to publish your story just the once this style of writing can often see the same story published, and more importantly paid for, more than once.

Having said that, if writing and publishing a book is still your preferred path to work from home and make money writing a good guide to writing a book is to remember that more ‘how to’ non-fiction books are published each year than fiction books. Once again, sadly, stories are the smaller market.

This also holds true to writing and publishing a book yourself. At one time the mere mention of a home produced book brought a look of disdain but that, like many things, is changing.

There are definite pros and cons to self publishing as a way to make money writing, the biggest two of which are that you do actually see your work in print but the amount of money you make depends entirely on your own business skills.

Writing greeting cards has for many years conjured up thoughts of a romantic life-style. Through out my many years within the writing world I don’t think I have ever come across somebody who is living that life. I do, however, know of people who use card writing to supplement what they earn from freelance magazine writing. I also know those who have received a diverse selection of clothes and trinkets as payment.

An ever growing market where writers can make money is writing for the web. This advance in technology has almost doubled the areas where writers can be published, although it has also left many writers with concerns about plagiarism, privacy, copyrighting and payment.

As in any other business there are people eager to take advantage of the naïve but I believe that if we, as writers, share information and tips, and do our research it is a valid market that can work for all of us.

Certainly writing ezine articles (articles for online or emailed magazines) is a wide market if not as yet highpaying.

Writing ebooks would seem to bring in a similar return for effort unless the work is being heavily promoted, written for a large and already existing marked, or has been contracted out to the writer by the promoter.

Being contracted to be part of larger site by writing a blog can be a great regular income if you are lucky enough to get a topic that you love and have an ongoing interest in.

Having given you all this information please don’t think that I am saying, ‘Don’t write your best-seller and expect to receive a contract for five more’. Never let it be said that I squashed anybody’s dream. My intention is purely to cover a variety of areas so that you can work from home writing and earning money until your first book contract arrives - if that is your choice.

As in any other business there are people eager to take advantage of the naïve but I believe that if we, as writers, share information and tips, and do our research it is a valid market that can work for all of us.

Certainly writing ezine articles (articles for online or emailed magazines) is a wide market if not as yet highpaying.

Writing ebooks would seem to bring in a similar return for effort unless the work is being heavily promoted, written for a large and already existing marked, or has been contracted out to the writer by the promoter.

Being contracted to be part of larger site by writing a blog can be a great regular income if you are lucky enough to get a topic that you love and have an ongoing interest in.

Having given you all this information please don’t think that I am saying, ‘Don’t write your best-seller and expect to receive a contract for five more’. Never let it be said that I squashed anybody’s dream. My intention is purely to cover a variety of areas so that you can work from home writing and earning money until your first book contract arrives - if that is your choice.


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