What advice would you give a new writer?

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Post by Guest »

Hi everyone! I'm new to writing and would really love to make it a career! does anyone have any advice ?
being a writer

Post by being a writer »

— First I'd consider what "being a writer" means to you. For some people, that means Traditional Publishing, full stop. Others prefer self-publishing, while others don't care either way. There's a great group called 20booksto50k which focuses on self-pub as a career while Subit Club can help once you are ready to start looking for an agent if you prefer to go the Traditional route.

While I think it's important to decide what sort of publishing goal you have first, you will need to focus on getting better at writing before you make steps toward either route. Once you get some writing done, I'd highly recommend finding a critique group. Getting feedback and even giving feedback is one of the best ways to grow as a writer.


— Read great literature. That’s your classroom.


— Yes, find a job or profession you like and write on the side. Get into something like web designing (that's writing), computer programming (that's writing), or editing people's writing.

The average "full time" writer makes under 10K a year. The only way you make money is if a major studio buys the rights to one of your stories. Then you're on easy street. Minimum of $500,000 less agent fees.

Very few writers reach the status of Stephen King, James Patterson, J.K. Rowling. And when you do, you're in a 7 year contract and owe 5 to 7 books.


— Feature writing for magazines is the quickest and most reliable way to make a living from words (I went from a day job to full time writer in about six months). You can pretty much make a living writing features on whatever subjects most interest you. It's also good background for fiction because you get to interview a lot of people and learn a lot of stuff you can use to make your stories authentic. Also, when you pitch a novel as a journalist, you're front of the queue with agents and publishers because they know you can write and work with editors and deadlines, and also have a platform to publicise your books.


— Write a blog about a topic you are very good at writing about. Then add affiliate links as ads inside the blog. Research more about affiliate and referral links that relate to your topic in the blog so as to chose high-quality ones. Create a YouTube channel that is only about that topic and that blog with links to your blog in the description, About, and header. Create a social media name that is close to the topic of the blog without doing any copyright or trademarks. Create a design to upload onto Print-on-demand products that relate to your blog topic. Create Medium.com articles of that topic that also references your blog. Make sure to keep the affiliate links only on your blog. The blog is the foundation for everything else to link to.


— YouTube is your friend! Research topics to write about, methods of plotting and writing craft, writing processes, and all kinds of publishing. I keep a research list while I write and listen to tutorials, podcasts and documentaries while I work or run errands.

— For you to be a good writer, you must consume what you are about to produce. You must be a voracious reader.

— What kind of writing do you want to make your career? Fiction? Almost impossible. You'd need long hours and probably a few years to create a livable full-time income. Freelance content or copy? More possible, although it's a tough time to start due to oversaturation and the rise of AI writing bots. Investigative journalism? Technical manuals?


— How much time do you have? It takes the average aspiring writer 5 to 10 years to really learn the craft of storytelling (if ever) and not one in 100,000 of us will make enough money to live on in any given year. We write because we can’t not write – but there are thousands of easier ways to make a living :-)


— There are 20 million books on Amazon at any one time that never sell a single copy. As others have said, have a career and write on the side. If you do get good enough to sell, you may ultimately be able to reduce your work hours. With 20 books that people are actually buying, you may be able to quit work and write full time.


— I wrote for funsies for a year or so before my startup let me write professionally. Now I am in content marketing, writing full time, and I am writing a book on the side. If you want to go into writing full time, marketing is a better option than trying to make it by writing books.


— Yes! Read. Write. Read. Write. Disregard “write what you know” because you can learn anything you want to. Rather, write what you enjoy reading. Don’t stop. Never stop. Write on!

— Write and enjoy yourself first, then see how it goes


Last bumped by Anonymous on Thu Aug 25, 2022 8:57 am.
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