Recently in The Professional Writer Category

To be a professional writer, money needs to be part of the relationship; hopefully, enough money to form part or all of your income. But if you are lucky enough to be able to regularly receive money in return for your writing skill, then you’ve made it.

But keeping an eye on the bottom line is an important part of harnessing your professional career. There are a few things to consider that can make the difference between financial success or ruin, whether you are freelance or whether you are working for someone else. Even when you are an employee, an understanding of the bottom line is crucial to maintaining your role. More than a few writers have lost jobs over the years by not being mindful of how their work affects the company bank account.

If you think it crude of me to mention money in relation to the creative arts, then enjoy your hobby. If you are serious about turning your writing talent into a full time career, then it is all about the money, sad though it may seem.

Working as a copywriter may not be as glamorous as some other writing jobs, but to anyone serious about working with words, the difference is irrelevant. If I enjoyed tinkering with engines on the weekend, landing a job as a bus mechanic would be just as exciting as working on Ferraris.

The professional writer should not be precious about the medium he chooses. Instead, he should be ready to seize almost any opportunity to advance the twin goals of income and exposure.

I have met many people in my time who expressed a wish to write. Often this wish is restricted – ‘I want to write comics’ - ‘I want to write for Doctor Who’ - ‘One day I will write a novel’. And so on.

The professional writer is less likely to care for such specific goals and will have a broader motivation – ‘I want to write!’

There are limitations, of course. There are certain jobs I wouldn’t take out of principle. But I would never restrict myself to a particular writing goal and ignore anything else.

Think your writing speaks for itself?

Think what you wear, the layout of your portfolio and how you speak doesn’t affect the decisions made by people with cheque books?

Think formatting and layout are minor details that cramp creativity?

If you answered yes to the above three questions, you’re not alone, but you’ll also never achieve your goal of being a professional writer.

Let’s get rid of one myth straight away.

Never Judge a Book By Its Cover? Balderdash!

It may be a lovely sentiment, but it is completely false. Human psychology is built on our perceptions of the world around us. We make assumptions and judgments based on the slightest impressions we receive, and are quite comfortable making important decisions based on this little information.

To be a professional writer, there has to be a customer – someone willing to pay for your carefully crafted words. If you have a boss, a magazine editor or an advertising client, they are all customers paying you for a service. In all situations, writing for a customer is a completely different scenario to writing for yourself.

I currently work as a copywriter, producing wonderful words, premium prose and titanic text for webpages and online marketing campaigns. Every day sees me writing for a different client. Yesterday I wrote about crane certification. Today I was immersed in medical skin treatments. Tomorrow I could be constructing paragraphs on incense, or pool fencing, or website design, or limo hire, or… you get the idea. I am a professional writer, and as such, the customer is my lord and master.

If the idea of someone else directing your creative endeavours scares the pants off you, then I’m sorry but maybe professional writing isn’t for you. Whether you write movies, comics, novels, magazine articles or the witty text on the back of beer mats, someone else is in control, someone else has the power to exert influence over your talent.

Introduction

I love writing for a living. From 9 to 5 every day, I get to tap keys and receive money in the bank for my trouble. It is a concept I thought would never happen. And it never would have happened if I didn’t work hard at things other than my writing.

Many amateur writers fail in their bid for a paycheck by not considering what factors separate the professional from the dreamer. There is a great deal more to professional writing than harnessing creative inspiration and spending hours crafting a work of beauty.

This series on ‘The Professional Writer’ aims to discuss some of the aspects often overlooked by amateurs. Rather than covering grammar and stylistic issues, the series assumes you already have these skills and the appropriate talent and creativity. These five articles aim to fill in the gaps between writing skill and professional success.

How do you present yourself? What is your time worth? How do people become exposed to your talent? There are many issues a professional writer has to consider and address every day.