There are so many decisions to make when it comes to launching your career in professional writing. One of the first decisions you’ll have to make is what, exactly, you want to write. There are many choices that can lead to a valid career, so when deciding which path to follow, consider your own desires and talents.
Fiction or Non-Fiction?
This is really the first big decision to make after you’ve committed yourself to professional writing. Some people find this decision comes to them easily. If you love to write fiction, as I do, then you write fiction. If non-fiction is more your style, then you write non-fiction.
But what if you don’t know which one you’re drawn to? Then try both. There is certainly no rule against writing both fiction and non-fiction. I do it (obviously, as I wrote this article, and it’s non-fiction). I would say that most successful writers tackle both fiction and non-fiction. There’s nothing wrong with writing novels or poetry while you also write articles or non-fiction books. If you can do both, and you want to do both, then you should.
Once you’ve made this decision, you’ll have to go on to decide what, specifically, you’re going to write in each category. There are so many options that it can boggle the mind. You would be best served by limiting your own options so that you spend less time thinking about writing and more time writing.
The Many Types of Fiction
Novels, novellas, and short stories are all popular forms of fiction that are fun and exciting to write. Poetry, which is considered fiction for lack of a better option, can be as great an experience as any other form of writing. Which of these you choose is up to you.
Novels are incredibly popular and many writers have dreams of seeing their novel on the bookshelf of their local store. Novels are an experience like none other. Crafting a story, mastering the essentials of novel writing, and discovering a genre (which range from fantasy to woman’s fiction) are all important parts of the process. However, novels aren’t for everyone. Novels tend to run around 100,000 words, and not everyone has the patience for writing and revising such a substantial work.
Novellas are another option for those who want to write a comprehensive story without writing 100,000 words. Novellas typically run from 15,000 to 40,000 words. These are harder to get published on their own, but work well in anthologies.
The market for short stories doesn’t always seem very large. Short stories, typically under 10,000 words, can be excellent for practicing the art of writing longer works of fiction. In addition, some authors are seeing success when publishing books full of up to ten short stories. If you find yourself more inclined to write short stories, give it a try.
Poetry is the final category of fiction. It is satisfying and can help you stretch yourself as a writer, but most poetry books don’t sell more than 500 copies. It might not be the most lucrative venue, but poetry can be used to practice selecting just the right word. If you like to write other fiction, you might be able to find a place to insert a poem or two. This can enhance your writing.
The Never-Ending Field of Non-Fiction
Non-fiction is a different monster all together. Anything that isn’t fiction is, by definition, non-fiction. Your options can include: informative or entertaining articles, travel guide books, manuals or guides, web content, advertising, how-to books, or full-length manuscripts. The topics you might choose to write on are endless.
When deciding on a topic and medium, think about your interests and passions. You’ll always get better results if you follow your passions. Non-fiction tends to be easier to sell than fiction, so it’s very likely you’ll be able to find a market for your work at some point.
Writing for Money
Many writers would argue that in order to call yourself a professional writer, you have to get paid. There might be some validity in this, and honestly, if you want to make a living by writing, you do have to find a way to get paid.
If you’re writing fiction for money, consider that sort stories are easier to write and sell in short periods of time, especially as e-books. However, there is money to be made in all forms of fiction writing. You just have to find what you’re good at and write it. In my case, I’m best at fantasy novels, so that’s what I write. I’d be abysmal at writing a mystery, as an example, so no one would want to read it.
Non-fiction tends to pay better than fiction, at least on average. Let me amend that. Well-written non-fiction pays better than well-written fiction. In general, non-fiction markets are wider and less saturated. You can select a niche and write several books relating to the same topic and sell them all (or self-publish them, if that’s what you choose to do).
There are dozens of places to get started as a professional writer. You can publish books, look for content sites on the internet, or write articles for local papers and magazines. If you’re a decent writer, someone will buy your work at some point. The real key to becoming a professional writer is perseverance. You’ll probably be rejected more than once. I myself have a stack of rejection letters. It comes with the territory.
It might sound odd to talk about hiring a ghostwriter and being a professional writer in the same sentence. Yet, many professional writers do indeed hire other writers to complete some of their work. It might be that you, as a writer, don’t have time to complete all the projects on your plate. Maybe you want to tackle a project that you don’t feel entirely comfortable with and would rather outsource the work. For whatever reason, many professional writers do consider hiring a ghostwriter at some point in their career.
Selecting a Ghostwriter
If you have too many ideas to write yourself (or if you’ve come across so many projects that pay that you just don’t have the time), you might consider hiring someone to help with the work. Someone like a ghostwriter. If you do decide to hire someone, be picky. Find someone you can work with and who can produce the final product that you desire. If you and your ghostwriter are a distinct personality clash, the match probably isn’t a good one and you should look elsewhere for the help.
Your criteria will vary depending upon what exactly the product is. You may find that the right person to write the information on your own website is not the right person to ghostwrite a novel. The types of services ghostwriters offer varies from advertising copy to articles and even to non-fiction books and novels. Not all ghostwriters are capable of writing all these things. Make sure you fully understand the talents and skills of potential ghostwriters before committing to a contract.
Finding a ghostwriter isn’t as hard as you might think. A quick Internet search will turn up many people and even companies offering ghostwriting services. Finding a good ghostwriter, however, might take some searching. Ask for a full body of work relating to the field your book or article falls into. You probably don’t want to hire someone who specializes in sword and sorcery fantasy to write your contemporary women’s fiction novel. Take your time and you’ll surely find someone you can work with.
Ghostwriting Contracts and Their Details
Most ghostwriting contracts are for an upfront free. The ghostwriter gets paid to create the work and you take the credit and get to keep all proceeds that they work may generate. Because you are investing money and time, don’t take anything for granted. Before hiring a potential ghostwriter, check out their body of work and get references if possible. Because many ghostwriting contracts demand confidentiality, references may be a problem, but ask anyway. At the very least, make sure you see a body of work that relates to final product you desire. I know I’ve already mentioned this, but it bears repeating.
The ghostwriter you choose should offer portions of the work for you to read through as they are completed. This is a necessity when committing to a contract. Otherwise you might end up with a product that isn’t at all what you wanted or expected. Negotiate with your ghostwriter, making it clear that you want to see some portion of the work as soon as possible so you can be sure it sounds the way you want it to.
You will, of course, have to pay for ghostwriting services. Make sure the contract you and your ghostwriter sign specifies the payment plan. In general, a portion of the total cost, often ¼, will be paid immediately. Until the first quarter of the work is completed to your satisfaction, there is no further payment. The final payment is not made until the completed article or book is delivered to you.
A good ghostwriter will be able to make the book or article sound like you wrote it. He or she will be able to assume your voice. So read over the first portion of the work to make sure it sounds like you. The contract you sign should give you the option to cancel with notice without penalty, provided you do it in writing. If some of the work has been completed, the ghostwriter probably can and should keep that portion of the money. However, make sure you never offer the full fee up front and examine the contract carefully before signing.
Whether you are interested in being a ghostwriter or hiring one, most of the same rules still apply. Know what you’re getting into, read a contract before you sign it, and above all, make sure that the final product is well written and comprehensive.
Ghostwriting is probably best described as someone being hired to produce books, articles, or other written work under the name of another. This is quite common in many circles, especially among professionals. Regardless of its popularity, ghostwriting is something you might find yourself considering as your career as a professional writer flourishes.
How Much Money Can a Ghostwriter Make?
If you’re an exceptional writer and want to make decent money, you might want to try your hand at ghostwriting. Money is often a key factor in the decision to become a ghostwriter, but the specific amount you might make will vary depending on your skill, your clients, and the types of projects you take on. As a ghostwriter myself, I can tell you that the pay is immediate and usually quite good. I’ve charged anywhere from $2000 for smaller academic projects to $50,000 for larger projects that might take months to complete. Ghostwriting, if you do it right, can easily be one of your projects that pay.
A Ghostwriter’s Voice
The money might be a good reason for you to try ghostwriting, but it’s not a reason for anyone to hire you. In order to market yourself as a ghostwriter, you’ll have to master the art of sounding like someone else when you’re writing. Each person has a unique voice, and you’ve likely developed your own. But typically, when someone hires a ghostwriter, they want their own voice to come through, not yours. Adapting the tone of another isn’t the easiest thing to do. You might want to practice “sounding” like other writers before you put yourself out there as a ghostwriter. As a ghostwriter, your job is to adopt the voice of your clients.
It’s usually easier to mimic another person’s voice if you already have a passion for what you write. When making the decision to offer ghostwriting services, it is important to consider the topics and mediums you are willing to take on as a ghostwriter. Deciding what to write as a ghostwriter should be based upon your own interests and goals as well as the needs of your clients.
Where Can a Ghostwriter Find Clients?
One of the most common questions I get regarding ghostwriting is where to find clients. The easy answer is simple “everywhere.” There are many people who want to write but lack either the talent or the time to do so. Many professionals want to write papers, books, manuals, or even articles but would rather pay someone to do it for them. Some people have marvelous stories that make excellent novels running through their heads but simply can’t get them out on paper (or on the computer screen). Potential clients are everywhere. All you have to do is find them.
One of the few ways to do this is to market yourself. You can’t exactly wander around asking people if they need a ghostwriter. Well, you can, but expect more than a few funny looks for the effort. Instead, create an online presence for yourself. Start a website that showcases you as a ghostwriter, and a writer in general. Create sample works that are specific to your target clients. If you hope to ghostwrite academic works, make sure you have adequate high quality samples to show potential clients that meet their needs. The same rule goes for writing fiction. This body of work acts as part of a résumé.
Signing a Contract
When you decide to become a ghostwriter, you’ll have to eventually think about contracts. To protect both you and your clients, you’ll want to sign contracts for each project you undertake. These contracts should be fair to both you and your clients.
Ghostwriting contracts should specifically state when your work is due and how much money you’ll be paid at each stage. Generally, the work and money will be divided into quarters. You are paid ¼ of the total amount due and produce ¼ of the work for review by your client. If your contract ensures that you get paid in stages for completing a set amount of work, your client will get what they pay for and you’ll get paid.
Remember that finding clients takes time, marketing, and hard work. You won’t become a high priced ghostwriter overnight, but with a little patience, attention to detail, and a good contract, you could easily find yourself making money by letting someone else take the credit. This is a viable way to get started as a professional writer.
Most writers have dreams of writing a bestselling novel. This is a great dream, but dreams don’t put money in the bank. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t pursue the idea of writing novels. But it does mean that you might be wise to seek out other projects that can pay the bills while you’re writing your masterpiece. In this way you can get started as a professional writer.
Seeking Work in the Field of Writing
If you’re hoping to get paid to write, you’re going to have to seek out opportunities yourself. Until you’ve established yourself as a writer, you probably won’t have people coming to you and offering projects that actually pay. Remember to consider both online and offline opportunities.
Start locally, if you can. Approach newspapers and magazines in your area about writing pieces for a reasonable fee. If you’re interested in advertising, search for a copywriting position. These tend to pay fairly well, if you have the experience or education to take such a job. You might even want to offer your services to those who routinely give speeches, if you think you might enjoy speechwriting.
Opportunities to write online are available for anyone who chooses to look. Keep in mind that online pay rates haven’t quite caught up to print pay rates in most situations. Also, many sites that offer to pay you for writing are revenue share, such as Suite101 and Helium. Revenue share means that you write the articles, they’re posted to the website with ads placed alongside, and you get a percentage of the revenue. The upside to this model is that you continue to earn revenue for a long period of time, sometimes make a great deal of money on a single article. The downside is that it can take many months or even years to earn what you might get from an upfront pay site.
Upfront sites such as Demand Studios usually offer a set fee for each article and sometimes even revenue share opportunities. Other sides will offer to sell your articles, keeping a percentage of the sale price. One of these sites is Constant Content, though there are many others. Regardless of which site you choose, you can usually choose your own topic.
Ghostwriting and Its Benefits
Ghostwriting, or writing something for another person without getting the credit, is popular but not spoken of very often, probably because no writer wants to admit to hiring someone else to do the writing. There are many professionals out there who want to write and publish, but either don’t have the time or lack the necessary skills. Many laypeople also have great ideas for books or manuals but don’t have the ability to actually write it themselves.
One of the benefits of ghostwriting is the pay rate. Ghostwriting usually pays as well or better than other similar opportunities because you are being paid for more than just writing. You are being compensated for allowing someone else to put their name on your work and agreeing to keep silent about it. Most ghostwriting contracts include a privacy clause, so you can never actually take the credit. This is the downside. As a ghostwriter myself, it can sometimes be a little irritating to see someone else get the credit for my work. However, I am comforted by the fact that I made decent money writing it in the first place. Ghostwriting isn’t for everyone. If you really don’t like the idea of having someone else’s name on your work, don’t venture into the realm of ghostwriting.
When considering your options and decide what you should write, think about the knowledge you already have. If you’re passionate about a certain subject, write about that subject. But don’t give your writing away for free. It’s true that you can and might accept work that pays less if it offers you some exposure, but don’t write for nothing. Professionals get paid for their skills, and you should as well.
It seems everyone wants to be a writer these days. From children to teenagers to adults, many people have this dream of someday writing and publishing a great work. Being a professional writer is not an easy path, and getting started can be more difficult still. Every writer, including myself, started with a dream of becoming a professional, but not all achieve this dream.
Why Do You Want to be a Writer?
This is by far the most important question when it comes to deciding to pursue a career in professional writing. If the answer is money, glory, or fame, then you’re better off finding another vocation. The money for the majority of writers isn’t stellar, at least from my point of view. Certainly, unless you’re a bestselling author, the money isn’t any more than what most careers would pay.
As for glory … the majority of writers will never achieve any kind of fame or glory. Becoming a household name is a dream that all writers and authors have, but few will ever actually attain. For many, writing is a thankless job. Accolades are few and far between.
Why would anyone want to be a writer? For the joy, of course. For the pure love of writing. To really do well when it comes to professional writing, you have to have a passion for it. I do. I love to write, I feel compelled to write. This compulsion drives me to write every day, whether it’s a chapter in a novel, an article that I’m paid for, or simple an entry in my journal. I have to write even if I’m encountering writer’s block.
If you love to write, if you need to write as much as you need to breathe fresh air, then perhaps writing is the career for you.
What Do You Want to Write?
Many aspiring writers would like to publish a novel. This is a wonderful goal, especially if you have a passion for fiction writing. However, for those who wish to write as a full-time job, focusing exclusively on fiction writing may not be the best way to make a living.
If you really want to make money, and use your writing skills at the same time, then consider freelance writing. You can get started on the Internet. There are many sites out there that will pay you to write, either through upfront payments for your articles, or residual earnings. Here are my two favourites:
- HubPages (pays through revenue sharing)
- Constant Content (paid per purchased article)
There are others, such as Demand Studios, Associated Content, and WiseGeek. For most of them, you write short articles, and get paid through whatever method that site offers. There is a considerable amount of money to be made, assuming you write well, and you diversify when it comes to subject matter. Don’t limit yourself to only one site, but give them all a try and see which ones you like.
There is also money to be made in ghostwriting, short stories, editorials, e-books, and non-fiction books. Explore all these possibilities. This is not to say that you shouldn’t also write a novel. It simply means that if you want to eventually have a full-time income from your writing, you may have to get a little more creative.
To have a career as a professional writer, you have to write. This may sound like I’m telling you that you have to breathe to live, but it’s a point that bears mentioning. There are many people who would love to make money from writing, but they simply do not ever get started. Find ways to motivate yourself, have faith that you are a writer in your heart, and never give up.
If you truly want to be a professional writer, then you will find a way. I did. You can too.
