The best writing usually comes from personal experience. Doesn’t it? So then, how do you live an AWESOME life worth writing about?
As a travel blogger, I constantly ask myself this question. And no matter what type of writing you do, I bet you’ve asked yourself the same thing.
Here are five ways to live a life worth writing about.
Read the rest of this post over at Positive Writer.
We’ve all felt it. The tightness in the chest. The feeling otherwise known as panic that sets in upon a book’s release. Will anyone buy it? Will people enjoy the stories we’ve poured our hearts into?
We want to shout from the rooftops to celebrate releasing our work into the world, and we’ve heard that Twitter is a crucial part of a marketing strategy, and so we tweet, @mention and retweet. Yet how much should we say before all of our promotional efforts start to fall on deaf ears?
Is there such a thing as too much Twitter promotion?
Before you try to convince readers to buy your book, your goal as the author should be to build trust and a relationship with them. You can build trust with readers much like you build trust with anyone else. Start by finding a common bond, sharing information about yourself and letting others know what you like.
Find topics to talk about apart from yourself and your books. Current events, fashion and food are often good choices. Talk about your favorite television shows, books or musicians.
Show your personality. If you’re funny, don’t be afraid to show that side of yourself online. People respond to people they relate to, and being relatable is how you will attract your audience.
Pay attention to your tweets, the @replies, the number of favorites or retweets. Note the ones that attracted a good response from your audience, and write more of that type of post.
The truth is, if you know the difference between these two types of promotion, you can share information about your book daily without making your audience and readership feel “sold to.”
A hard sell is a direct, “buy my book” type of message. It can be an aggressive strategy and is usually reserved for products that are hard to sell.
Instead, you’ll want to master the art of the soft sell, a technique that relies on “suggestion or gentle persuasion rather than aggressive pressure.”
Soft-sell marketing is subtle, persuasive and low pressure. The goal of soft-sell marketing is to build a relationship without aggressively pitching your book to readers.
Once you’ve created a relationship with your audience, selling will feel less forced, more natural and conversational. Soft-sell marketing is effective because the author creates a lasting bond with her readership.
If your audience connects with you, and they like you, they will buy from you. It’s that simple.
Some writers are always on the hunt for a magic formula. How many tweets should I post each day? What time of day should I focus on social media?
Yes, there are ways to help grow your social media following, and there’s a lot of great advice for what to do (and not to do) on social media. However, if you build a rapport with your audience, you can tweet as much or as little as you like, and still be effective.
[bctt tweet=”If you build a rapport with your audience, you can tweet as much as you like,” says @jenniferafusco”]
Take a look at Laurell K. Hamilton (@LKHamilton), an author who tweets frequently. She’s both conversational and engaging with her audience. By looking at her posts, you can tell she’s having fun on Twitter.
Romance author Molly Harper (@mollyharperauth) is also very effective on Twitter. She doesn’t tweet often, maybe once or twice a day, but her humorous personality shines through in her tweets, delighting her audience.
To illustrate the difference between hard selling and soft selling in tweets, let’s compare two sets of tweets from New York Times bestselling romance author Tawny Weber.
The first three use a hard-sell approach:
Here are the same tweets, rewritten to incorporate a soft-sell message:
See the differences? The second set of messages use a friendly tone. The tweets are conversational in nature and the purchase of the book is implied without the use of hard selling.
To write great soft-sell messages, read the tweet aloud. If you feel the message says, “buy my book”, rewrite it.
Create soft-selling tweets with the goal of starting a dialog. Use hashtags to invite others to join the conversation. Your soft-sell messages don’t always have to include buy links or book related tags.
Prefer pinning to tweeting? That’s OK.
While I’ve focused on Twitter, you can easily apply the idea of building a rapport with your readership and using a soft-selling on Facebook, Pinterest, Google+ or wherever you prefer to promote your work.
If you’re vigilant about keeping your social media conversations light, entertaining and engaging, and you in the effort in to build a bond with your readership, you won’t have to worry about how much promo is too much. Instead of being a burden or nerve-wracking endeavor, promotion will seem natural and effortless.
How do you share your work on Twitter without being overly promotional?
Have you ever reached the end of your workday, only to feel you didn’t have much to show for it?
Or do you sometimes find you have a hard time staying focused on your work? Does it seem like you work a lot, but you’re often spinning your wheels, instead of completing your most important tasks?
I’ve felt the same way. Since I recently took my freelance writing business full-time, I’ve had to figure out a better way to manage my work hours.
One strategy that’s made a huge difference in my workflow is the Pomodoro Technique. Breaking my work into manageable chunks using this method helps me accomplish more in a day than I thought possible, while keeping me focused and preventing burnout.
Here’s how I use the Pomodoro Technique to improve my writing productivity — and how you can, too.
This time-management method was developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s.
The idea behind the technique is people can only stay hyper-focused on a task or subject for a finite period of time — generally about 90 minutes. Instead of trying to sit at your desk from 9 to 5 (or whatever hours you currently keep), it makes more sense to break up your day into sections. The technique calls these chunks of time “pomodori,” and each one is known as a “pomodoro.”
Each pomodoro includes 25 minutes of focused time, followed by a five-minute break. Most sources suggest linking three or four pomodori together (with those five-minute breaks in between sessions), and then taking a longer break of 20 to 30 minutes. Lather, rinse and repeat.
Set your timer using your phone, a stopwatch or a regular clock, or download one of several dedicated Pomodoro Technique apps and timers. I’ve used and like this free timer, though I’ve had to mute its annoying ticking sound.
Before launching into your first pomodoro, list your tasks for the day, with the most important ones at the top. Select your two or three most important tasks (MITs): the ones whose completion would make your day a success, regardless of what else you accomplished.
I always make sure I spend my morning hours (or pomodori) writing, whether I’m working on client work or my own blog posts. I try to leave email and social media work until later in the day, as challenging as that can sometimes be.
Here’s a sample schedule for an eight-hour workday, with 12 defined tasks (or pomodori) and a lunch break. Remember, each pomodoro includes 25 minutes of work time and a five-minute break.
9:00-9:30 Write article
9:30-10:00 Write article
10:00-10:30 Write article
10:30-11:00 Long break
11:00-11:30 Check email
11:30-12:00 Blog outreach
12:00-12:30 Search job boards and pitch new clients
12:30-1:30 Long break for lunch
1:30-2:00 Social media promotion
2:00-2:30 Write article or brainstorm new post ideas
2:30-3:00 Write article or brainstorm new post ideas
3:00-3:30 Long break
3:30-4:00 Check email
4:00-4:30 Coursework or nonfiction reading
4:30-5:00 Social media promotion
This isn’t an essential part of using this method, but it’s a great way to see how your efficiency and hard work are paying off.
If you’re using an app or web-based timer, you may be able to track your tasks within its interface. For example, freelancer and entrepreneur Brennan Dunn loves that his app of choice encourages him to write down what he did during each pomodoro.
Tracking could also be as simple as making a check mark next to each pomodoro on your schedule, or writing a few quick notes in a Word or Google Doc. Either way, looking back on your day and seeing what you achieved can help keep you motivated and productive.
Since many of us spend too much time in front of our computers and not enough time being active, use these five minute breaks to get up, move around and stretch your body. They’re a great time to take a bathroom break, get a cup of water, coffee or tea, or make a quick snack.
Since I have two toddlers and find it hard to fit exercise into my day, I use many of my five-minute breaks to do this no-equipment-necessary workout. I’ve found exercise helps me recharge before starting my next pomodoro, but you might also want to try meditating, journaling or having a quick conversation with a friend.
Avoid checking email or social media during your five-minute breaks. Both tasks can become black holes, and it’s easy to slip into a “just five more minutes” mentality when you’re facing an overflowing inbox.
However, checking your email or Twitter feed means you’re not necessarily taking a break from work (or your computer screen). Instead, use the five minutes to walk away from your work and do something that helps you recharge.
Using the Pomodoro Technique to manage the structure of your day can help you cross more tasks off your list.
Aim be more productive overall, rather than trying to be perfect. Ending a pomodoro a few minutes early or working a couple of minutes past your timer isn’t the end of the world. Neither is finding that you can only complete one or two pomodoros in a day before having to switch to another strategy to complete your tasks.
If you’ve found yourself at the end of your day with little to show for it, why not give this method a try?
Have you tried the Pomodoro Technique? How did it work for you?
When you entertain the idea of being a writer, it’s sometimes difficult to know where to begin.
If you’ve done something else with your career up to this point, how can you use that experience and expertise to find writing jobs? How can you become a writer?
I spoke with two professionals, accomplished in their own careers, who’ve turned their interest in writing into more than a hobby.
Angela Weiler, the public services librarian at Onondaga Community College in Syracuse, New York, has been a librarian for almost 20 years, but didn’t begin writing novels until her early 40s. Her first, a novel in stories called Going Up the Country, was published in 2005 by Log Cabin Books. She self-published Flashpoint in 2014.
Kristen Lutz, a massage therapist in Boston, Massachusetts, also loved writing from an early age but only started writing professionally a few years ago. She’s now the director of communications for the Massachusetts Chapter of the American Massage Therapy Foundation (Mass AMTA), a part-time position where she’s responsible for writing, editing and publishing its newsletter and blog.
From their experiences, and my own, here are six tips for using your career expertise to land writing jobs.
Like many of us, Angela enjoyed writing from a young age, but until her 40s, she considered it to be a hobby. “It was a mid-life realization. I’d always had a folder in my file cabinet labeled ‘ideas’ but I didn’t start actually writing until I was in my early 40s.”
For both Angela and Kristen, turning writing into more than a hobby took time. Once they both decided to make time to write, they knew they were on the right track.
“I started setting aside weekend mornings to write for two to four hours at a time. I didn’t work at it a lot, but I worked at it very steadily,” said Angela. Kristen made the time to write when she realized starting a blog would help her health coaching clients.
So, what’s your motivation to write? Have you already started devoting time regularly to writing? And how far are you willing or interested in taking it? If you’re ready to write professionally, either part-time or full-time, it’s time for the next step.
Fiction or nonfiction? Long or short form? Books, blogs, articles, newsletters or social media? Thanks to the proliferation of written media on the Internet, a huge variety of writing opportunities exist. Which ones are right for you?
One of the best ways to learn about different types of writing opportunities is to read. “Read everything! Read within your genre, outside of your genre, find voices that you like, and learn from reading others’ work,” said Angela.
Kristen agreed, and also recommended practicing editing other people’s content. “Editing other content is super helpful for two reasons. One, it’s an ego-booster for my own writing when someone else’s writing style is horrible. Two, I pick up on new ways to write.”
One of the biggest obstacles for people interested in writing is finding those first writing gigs. Kristen’s first writing job came when she was a health coach.
“My interest in writing while I was a health coach came from a need to better serve my clients. We needed a way to increase accountability for their goals, so I created a blog,” she said. “With access to the blog, my clients could virtually touch base with me and have key health coaching components repeated to them by way of my posts, sharing of news articles, exercises or healthy recipes. It became a way to continue our conversation past our session time.”
If you can find an excuse to write in your current job, ask for it! The best part about this approach is you don’t have to hunt for a writing job — if you can work it into your current role, you’ll get paid for it and gain writing experience.
If you’re trying to use your career experience to land writing jobs, become an expert and brand yourself as such.
I was hired as a writer because of my work in career development and job search advice. Kristen was hired as a writer because of her knowledge of health coaching and massage therapy. And, in addition to creative writing, Angela reviews books and peer-reviews articles for journals because of her experience as a librarian.
“These opportunities came through my work as a librarian. I do peer review for research projects, and book reviews as well, mainly for nonfiction. Once you get a few of these experiences on your resume, more opportunities tend to pop up,” said Angela.
Having solid writing skills is only one part of becoming a writer. Kristen found her current role as director of communication for Mass AMTA because she’d already started sharing her expertise by writing blog posts with massage-related organizations.
“The former director commented that I was a natural writer and wanted me to get more involved in the chapter’s communications department. I was offered the newsletter editor position and later transitioned to take over the director position. All of that happened within a year,” she explained. Without offering ourselves up as experts in a certain field, how will others find out about us?
When I was a college career advisor, I created and wrote my own blog about career advice just for fun. It was a nice outlet, giving me a chance to practice writing in a risk-free environment.
However, a friend’s girlfriend had just been hired at a lifestyle website for college students and young professionals, and the company was in the market for a career advice blogger. Even though my blog was really only a hobby, it was enough to get me hired. She read my articles, thought I’d be a great fit, and voila, I’d found my first paid writing job.
Building your network is one thing, but you also need to let that network know you’re available as a writer. All of your social media profiles should mention something about you as a writer. Use LinkedIn, About.me, Content.ly or an online portfolio to showcase your previous and current work, whether paid or unpaid.
Also, figure out rates for your work. If you’re asked up front how much you charge for writing services, know how to answer!
This is probably the most obvious tip in the bunch, but if you want to be hired as a writer, look for writing jobs.
“Reach out to your industry’s professional organizations and see if they need guest bloggers, or become involved in some of their local activities,” recommended Kristen. If you’re positioning yourself as a writer within a certain field, look for writing jobs within that profession.
Many great niche sites can help you find freelance or part-time writing jobs, so if you want to keep your current profession and write on the side (as many, if not most, writers do), the opportunities are out there.
When searching job boards, expand your search keywords to include job titles like copywriter, research writer, community manager, reporter, editor, content writer, freelance contributor, blogger, journalist and guide.
If you’ve decided you want to be a writer, you don’t need to chuck your career out the window. Instead, use your expertise and knowledge to help you find writing jobs.
Start writing to hone your voice, grow your network and brand yourself as a writer, and put yourself out there by applying to writing jobs. But first and foremost, realize that your career up to this point isn’t a waste — it’s an asset.
Have you successfully used your career experience to find writing work?
Perhaps this quiz can help you decide.
Anyone who maintains an engaging blog knows it’s no easy feat to gain exposure with the right people. But you may be overlooking one powerful tactic to reach the audience you’re looking for.
Collaborating with your favorite brands can inspire fresh ideas and introduce your blog to new groups of potential readers. These collaborations offer advantages for both bloggers and companies, and you can use these selling points to land your dream partnerships.
By working together, bloggers and brands can tap into each other’s networks. You can reach not only fans of the brand, but also other bloggers who have partnered with the brand — expanding your audience and enhancing your network. By targeting brand loyalists who overlap with your audience, you’ll build your following and connect with more readers in your niche.
At 9th & Elm, we recently collaborated with Kate Heimann from Wear In LA, a popular fashion blog. While we benefited from featuring our products on her blog by scooping up a new, engaged audience, Kate gained new readers and followers when we shared her posts and photos through our social media channels.
Working with great companies will also help you establish credibility. When you have a positive track record of working with brands, other companies will be more inclined to partner with you in the future, boosting your ability to gain exposure with the audience you crave.
You might see your favorite brands as out of reach, but there are plenty of ways to begin building relationships with them.
Displaying your genuine interest on social media shows you’re in it for the right reason: to promote something you actually love. Liking their Facebook pages, leaving complimentary comments on their Instagram photos, or following them on Pinterest are great starting points.
After you’ve connected through social media, send a note telling your favorite brands who you are and why you want to work with them. This process is similar to pitching guest posts to editors: You must make sure to grab their attention so your email doesn’t get lost in the sea of other inquiries.
Most companies have a designated social media manager who handles posts and interactions within the community; this is the person to contact with collaboration ideas. If you can’t find the manager’s email address via a brand’s website, reach out to customer support to be directed to the proper channel or leave a message on the brand’s Facebook page asking for information about brand collaboration.
When bloggers or social media professionals express interest in working with 9th & Elm, we encourage them to write us an email. Although we reached out to Kate after coming across her on Instagram and identifying with her style, this type of situation is rare.
In fact, Kate reached out to us later with another collaboration idea, following the traditional model I’ll outline below. What made it easy for us to agree was that we had information about her social reach — I can’t encourage bloggers enough to prepare their numbers and expectations ahead of time to make that “yes” a no-brainer.
To help differentiate your proposal, here are a few important elements you should include:
Bringing up your own expectations is tricky, but it’s information that can make or break your proposal. Blogging is still a new platform for brands to wrap their heads around as a form of marketing that requires compensation. The key in bringing up “the money conversation” is to lay out exactly what kind of work the collaboration will entail (e.g., how many posts, how often, etc.), then set your price.
Bloggers should approach this conversation with confidence and a strong sense of professionalism that shows they’re in it for a business relationship, not to gain free merchandise.
Generally, it’s expected that a blogger will request compensation in one of two ways: product or a monetary compensation. While it’s common for well-known bloggers to receive both, it’s best for smaller bloggers to start with one. Once you’ve shown your value, you may propose a change in compensation.
You have a lot to offer brands, and this proposal is your chance to explain exactly how you can help them.
Like any type of relationship, you need to stay in touch. You could send regular emails notifying them of upcoming projects or new collaboration ideas, or engage with them on social media to stay top of mind.
Taking an interest in the brand’s other projects, even if you’re not directly related or involved, also shows you value the relationship as more than a one-time business transaction.
There’s something special about the collaboration between bloggers and the brands they love. Bloggers perceive and speak about a brand in creative ways the brand’s marketing team might not consider, and that can serve as a powerful way to reach new audiences.
In the case of 9th & Elm, seeing our products through the scope of Kate’s personal style was a joy. We eagerly shared her photos on our social media platforms, and Kate did the same.
Thanks to those posts, Kate earned 100 new followers. In addition, showcasing our brand as a sponsor helped boost her credibility with others and snagged her collaboration opportunities with several Etsy shop owners.
On our side, we connected with a valuable media source who provided positive press, showcased new photos of our products, and offered a new avenue for marketing them.
Partnering with a brand could give your blog the edge and exposure it needs to truly take off. Don’t let the size of brands intimidate you. If the opportunity makes sense, they’ll see the value in working with you.
Bloggers, have you partnered with a brand? If not, is this something you’d like to try?
(This column is excerpted from Chuck’s latest book, Get a Literary Agent.)
GIVEAWAY: Chuck is giving away a copy of his book, Get a Literary Agent, to a random commenter. Comment within two weeks to enter! (Must live in the United States or Canada to win.) (Update: Lila won!)
If you’re planning on attending a writers’ conference to learn more about writing as well as pitch your book to agents and editors, make sure you brush up on some etiquette and strategy basics before you go.
Being prepared and knowing what agents and editors expect could make the difference between a great pitch and a mediocre one.
I’ve put together this list of do’s and don’ts based on my own experience, but you don’t have to just take my word for it. Keep reading for advice from literary agents themselves on how to make sure you have the best and most productive event experience possible.
Are you ready for your next writers’ conference?
[twl_reusable_block post_id=41455]
“Relax. We are people, too, and we are there because we want to meet you and find someone to represent. Some conferences do a better job than others in preparing writers for these things, but just remember to be yourself. Act professionally and remember the more relaxed you can be about things, the better for both parties.”
— Elisabeth Weed (Weed Literary)
“Make sure I represent your genre to make the best use of your money and time. If you encounter an agent [including me] that dismisses you because they don’t handle your genre, ask if you can practice your pitch or ask their general advice.
“I suggest every writer take advantage of agents at conferences, even if your work isn’t ready; this is good practice, and an agent may ask to see your work when it’s ready. Many of the writers I have signed I have met at pitch sessions.
“My best advice is to practice and hone your pitch well before you attend the conference. Practice out loud, in front of people, and practice a shortened version in case we meet in the elevator. A composed, professional-appearing author will live on in my mind. Focusing your pitch on plot, themes and premise will help you communicate it effectively.
“Lastly, never pitch an agent in the bathroom.”
— Elizabeth Kracht (Kimberley Cameron & Associates)
“Don’t read from a page in your notebook! If I ask you what your book is about and you can’t tell me the plot in a concise, compelling way without reading word for word from your notebook, then don’t bother.”
— Jennifer De Chiara (Jennifer De Chiara Literary)
“I love when someone meets me with a big smile. Always take a deep breath before you approach an agent — and smile. This makes me feel relaxed and in turn will make the author feel relaxed — and that is the only way you are able to really connect and share your story.
“I’ve had authors sit down with something to prove or even with a bit of anger or defensiveness. This does not work. I spend most of my time trying to deflect this energy and it takes away from the purpose of the meeting. Keep in mind that we are here to meet you and we are hoping to find a match.”
— J.L. Stermer (N.S. Bienstock)
“Relax, make it conversational and not too plot-heavy. Try to condense your pitch into the equivalent of a pitch letter or jacket flap copy. Anything longer is unnecessary for the limited time. Leave time to discuss.”
— Stacey Glick (Dystel & Goderich)
By the way, if you’re looking for a conference, perhaps one of these below is in your neck of the woods. I’ll be presenting at the following events in 2019:
What’s your best tip for a writer about to attend his or her first writers’ conference?
We don’t talk about money. For all the social advancements I’ve experienced in my brief lifetime, we still don’t talk about money. It’s our everlasting taboo.
For the independently employed, that taboo is almost more severe. We juggle clients and assignments and projects, but we only speak in ranges.
There is something to be said for being polite, yes. But in this new normal of freelance-as-full-time (which often exhibits as piecing-together-enough-part-time-gigs-to-make-it-work), we need to talk about money.
Ann Bauer’s recent essay on Salon, “Sponsored by My Husband,” finally started the conversation, but the truth was harsh. Some writers, she illustrates through a series of examples, have connections or family ties that allow them to work as a writer even when they don’t earn much money.
She explains her own path: that she published her first novel at the age of 39. She was a single mother who spent three months under her parents’ roof while she finished her first draft. She fought tooth and nail, and her gratefulness for the marriage she’s in now — a partnership, to be sure — is clear. “I do have a huge advantage over the writer who is living paycheck to paycheck, or lonely and isolated, or dealing with a medical condition, or working a full-time job,” she admits.
The responses to Bauer’s piece have been varied and at times even heated. Brevity’s social media editor, Allison K. Williams, shared that she tailored her online dating preferences hoping to find a mate who could take care of her financially… and it worked.
“Not paying my own rent is weird,” she writes. “Letting him hand me money for groceries and taxis is weird. But it’s better than not writing.”
Bay-Area freelancer Stephanie Lucianovic explores the idea that it takes more than a breadwinning partner to be a successful writer. She shared a string of tweets that she later expanded in a post on Medium, and which I have compiled here:
My last book was sponsored by my husband. My advance was eaten by the daycare needed to write it in the first place. My next book will be sponsored by my husband, the editing jobs I cram into every nook and cranny, the tears of my children, and my ego.
My writing has been sponsored by: no vacations in almost six years, on a single family car, and library books only. No glamor. Reality. My last book was also sponsored by my MIL who came out to help during the writing and again when I toured. Tour 100 percent sponsored by my husband.
All of these conversations bring up something many of us already knew: we’re grasping at straws. In the dark. While wearing mittens.
Some of us get help, by chance or by choice. Some find other ways to endure the battle to practice our craft. Laura Bogart, who writes for sites like Dame and The Rumpus, offered powerful declaration of independence.
“I will never be beholden to any man, however loving and supportive he may be,” she writes. “Having a husband as a patron is just as intangible as lighting out for the coast with only moxie and a moleskin. I don’t have a way out; I only have a way though.”
Her call to action is one that we share here at The Write Life: “We need more stories of women artists finding their way through… Marrying well, or leaving life behind altogether, cannot be the only answer.”
We need stories from men, too. Because surely some men face the same challenges, making choices around independence and how we cobble together our writing careers. This is more than a conversation about gender. It’s a conversation about craft.
The stories are starting to appear. But for the most part, they are disheartening at best.
In these essays by women with two, three or four books under their belts, we find having your name on the shelf doesn’t necessarily make life as a writer easier or even sustainable. In Facebook groups and discussion boards, we hesitate to share what we made for a piece that (after much hand-wringing, usually) landed at a major publication.
But we are talking about the publications that pay very little. Directories by Scratch magazine and The Freelancer have sprung up to help writers estimate what they might be paid by a variety of publications.
We have to remember that people pitch and publish their writing for various reasons; some are dead-set on the career track, while others like to dabble, with the occasional financial reward. If we’ve learned anything recently, it’s that it takes a lot of writing for $25 or $50 per piece to build a career and/or nest egg.
Our own Nicole Dieker is a great example of kicking up the conversation about money. She just brought her freelance income column to The Write Life, where she’s publicly tracking her to-the-penny income each and every month. She also shares how many pieces she writes each month. And that’s where it gets scary.
Dieker wrote 65 pieces in December (a slow month, she notes). She wrote 102 pieces in November. Sure, some of those pieces were likely short — she’s not writing long-form magazine-style — but that’s more than three pieces every day of the week. All seven days.
I am convinced that Dieker doesn’t sleep. I don’t know her personally, but I know she’s working hard. So are the rest of the women who have responded to Bauer’s initial piece. It’s time we all follow their lead and admit that the market for freelance writers is terrifying.
Kelly Sundberg’s response to Bauer’s post on Brevity struck me most. “I don’t have sponsorships,” she writes from her perspective as Brevity’s managing editor, “I have jobs. The only person sponsoring me is me, and for now, I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
This is our fight as writers, and for most of us, it’s not going to be pretty. With that in mind, I invite you to start your own conversation about money. Do it with your writer friends, or do it in a trusted online circle. Maybe even start with your family. Start talking about why you write, and what sacrifices you’ve had to make to lead this life and this career.
I, for one, am ready to take off these mittens and turn on the light.
What do you think about the sponsorship debate?
Hi! If you’re new to this column: I’m tracking my freelance income every month and sharing it with all of you.
This is my third year of public income tracking, and my first year sharing my income with The Write Life.
Let’s start with the numbers for January…
Completed Pieces: 87
Work Billed: $6,000.80
Earnings Received: $2,522.40
When I track my freelance earnings, I look at two key metrics:
As I wrote for Make a Living Writing last year, tracking these two numbers, week by week and month by month, was one of the key ways I built my freelance career. My goal each month is to increase the amount of money I earn while simultaneously decreasing the number of pieces I write.
Tracking these numbers publicly has also helped me find ways to earn more. There’s nothing like knowing people are looking at your earnings to inspire you to hustle for more work — you don’t want that number to look small, after all! I can’t tell you how many weeks I’ve written “just one more piece” because I wanted to have a nice big number to report online.
When I break down my earnings, any completed item counts as a “piece.” A 200-word copywriting job is a “piece,” as is a 3,000-word researched article. When you do your own tracking, you may want to subdivide your work into additional categories to reflect these differences, but I am less interested in tracking word count than I am in tracking what I call “piece value.”
The value of a completed piece is the dollar figure I write on the invoice. So for January 2015, I will invoice for $6,000.80 worth of work. Some of these invoices are already written, and some will be written soon — it all depends on each client’s individual invoicing schedule.
It’s interesting to look at additional metrics like average earnings per piece. This month, I earned $68.97 per piece on average, with my per-piece earnings ranging from $300 on the high end to $15.84 on the low end. The majority of my clients pay me $50 or more per piece.
This is the first year I am also tracking actual monthly earnings received. I always tick off a box when a client pays an invoice, and follow up with clients whose invoices go unpaid, but I hadn’t been tracking how much money actually came into my bank account every month. Instead, I’d just check my bank account every week or so, think “yup, there’s money in it,” and get back to writing.
When you take a look at these numbers, for example, you can see that although I completed more than $6,000 worth of work this month, only $2,522 hit my bank account. Why? Two reasons:
As you may remember from my first Tracking Freelance Earnings column, I set myself the goal of increasing my monthly income to an average of $5,000 every month:
I’m earning around $4,500 a month now, and I’d like to push it to at least $5,000 a month by summer 2015. If I average $5,000 per month over 2015, I’ll earn $60,000 for the year, which would be incredible.
This month, I was able to complete $6,000 worth of work. Why is this number so high? Because I went on vacation for the first week of February, and I spent the last half of January “working ahead” to cover the week I’d be gone.
I’m expecting February earnings to be a little lower because I completed some of February’s scheduled work during the last two weeks of January. I’m not too worried, though: if I invoice $6,000 in January and $4,000 in February, it will still average out to $5,000 a month.
Why am I not going to start trying to earn $6,000 every month, since I proved I could do it? Because I am exhausted. Completing three weeks’ worth of work in two weeks has left me baggy-eyed, sleep-deprived and ready for that vacation.
I’d like to boost my earnings to $6,000 a month eventually, but I’d rather do it by getting higher-paying clients than by working until midnight every day.
And about those higher-paying clients: In my last column, I wrote that I wanted to get “at least one more really solid client” to bring my monthly income to that desired $5,000 a month goal. I landed this client on January 22, just a couple of weeks after that public declaration.
Like many of my best clients, I got this client through a referral: a current client publication recommended me to another publication, and an editor there contacted me about a regular blogging gig.
This month, all of my income came from blogging and writing articles. Right now, I write about three major topics:
More than half of my 87 pieces were written for The Billfold, and one of the pieces that got the most traction this month was an Are You Gifted And/Or Talented? quiz at SparkLife. I loved taking Teen Magazine quizzes when I was younger, and I’m delighted that now I get to be the person writing them.
I didn’t do any copywriting work this month, and although I could have sought some out, I feel like I completed enough work as it is! I’m ending January satisfied with my income, happy with my new client, and very, very ready to take a nap.
How do you handle “working ahead” before a vacation? Do you try to squeeze three weeks of work into two, or do you have another way of handling your workload?
Over the past few years, some people have said the ebook market is taking a turn for the worse. A few major industry reports — like this one from BookStats — have even suggested ebook sales are flattening out or even declining.
It’s not great news for aspiring ebook authors.
But the January 2015 Author Earnings Report paints a different picture, suggesting self-published books are not only alive and well, but a smart choice for many writers. Some authors prefer the term “indie” to distinguish their professionally edited work from the stigma of low-quality self-published books, but the report uses the terms interchangeably.
The team behind Author Earnings, writer Hugh Howey and his anonymous partner Data Guy, have collected a lot of raw information — and we sorted through it so you don’t have to. These two findings struck us as particularly relevant for today’s writers:
Sounds like an innocuous statistic, right? In reality, this matters for ebook authors, and here’s why.
When it comes to traditional industry information about books, International Standard Book Numbers (ISBNs for short) are key.
That’s because large industry surveys — like those done by BookStats, StatShot and PubTrack — rely on ISBN numbers to track books. If a book doesn’t have an ISBN number, it’s not included.
BookStats, StatShot and PubTrack all publically acknowledge that they don’t track books without ISBNs, which means independently published books may be underrepresented in their data. However, all three companies also seem pretty confident they aren’t missing substantial numbers of books by not including those without ISBNs.
But the Author Earnings data challenges this assumption: if almost one-third of ebooks don’t have an ISBN, that’s a lot of books flying under the radar.
So what does this all mean for authors?
If you include the 30 percent of ebooks without ISBNs, ebook sales may very well be growing, rather than plateauing or plummeting.
Author Earnings suggests “what [we] are actually observing is a progressive shift of ebook market share away from the traditionally-published ‘visible’ portion of the industry that uses ISBNs… and toward the invisible ‘shadow industry’ of ISBN-less self-published ebooks.”
“A lot of indie authors thought there was some vast official conspiracy of silence in publishing to ignore the vast indie market share,” Data Guy writes in the report. “Turns out the answer was much simpler — and far more believable: bad data industry-wide, because of one bad assumption about ISBN usage.”
Under conventional wisdom, authors with the Big Five traditional publishing houses — that’s Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Hachette, Macmillan, and Simon & Schuster — are bringing home the most earnings from their ebooks.
But according to the AuthorEarnings report, sometime between May and July of last year:
“Indie-published authors as a cohort began taking home the lion’s share of all ebook author earnings generated on Amazon.com, while authors published by all of the Big Five publishers combined slipped into second place.”
… Making 2014 a landmark year for indie ebook authors.
Based on this data, it looks like self-published ebook earnings are growing — a good sign for indie authors everywhere.
Here’s the crucial distinction: We’re not talking about gross sales revenue from ebooks, but about the amount of money authors are earning. That’s why indie authors are coming out ahead: They earn a larger royalty from each self-published ebook they sell on Amazon (70%) than traditionally published authors earn from their Big Five-published books (25%, according to the report).
It’s also important to note that while indie authors may be taking home a larger percentage of dollars earned than traditionally published ebook authors, that doesn’t mean indie ebook writers are individually making more money than traditionally published authors. There likely are a lot more indie authors sharing their pie.
In fact, indie authors earn a median annual writing income of between $500 and $999, well below the $3,000 to $4,999 reported for traditionally published authors, according to a recent Digital Book World survey. (In an interesting twist, the survey also discovered that independent authors were most satisfied with their publishing experience, even when they earned less.)
Regardless, the fact that 40 percent of author earnings from ebooks on Amazon.com come from indie ebooks does suggest that self-publishing is as viable or more so than it was a year ago.
Author Earning’s January 2015 report is just one of several studies released over the past year by Hugh Howey and Data Guy. The reports, which all share the same methodology, have garnered both praise and blowback in the publishing community.
Many indie writers have welcomed the report — expressing that it lines up with their personal experiences and provides a sense of validation.
“The data … gives me a sense of empowerment,” writer John Brown told Econtent magazine in response to a previous report. “It’s not the only source for this feeling, but the data helps me feel like I’m part of a group. I’m on the map. Indie isn’t just some back alley choice.
“Seeing the numbers also gives me hope because it isn’t just a handful of indie authors doing well. I know the odds are still exceedingly long, but they’re not as long as I thought.”
At the other end of the spectrum, some criticisms have been extreme — publishing veteran Mike Shatzkin wrote the first Author Earnings report was “toxic to consume.” However, most critiques are less harsh.
For example, one issue with the Author Earnings data is it’s all from Amazon.com. Amazon was chosen because it’s the largest book retailer in the world, but it’s still only a piece of the ebook pie. AuthorEarnings recognizes that drawback, stating that their report is “limited in that it’s looking only at Amazon…but we acknowledge and state this limitation, and we plan on releasing broader reports in the future.”
The potential biases of the reports’ authors have also been questioned.
Hugh Howey is an independent publishing advocate and best-selling author behind the stratospherically successful sci-fi series Wool. Independent publishing has worked exceedingly well for him and it’s a central part of his brand.
Data Guy is also a writer who does data analysis in the video game industry. Why remain anonymous? He says it’s because when he first began working on these reports, “one of the top mystery/thriller imprints was making unsolicited offers to re-publish my debut novel, so it made sense to be anonymous then.”
Some critics have expressed concern that his anonymity makes him a less reliable source. Data Guy has a different take: “It keeps the discussion focused on the data itself, and encourages authors to think for themselves and fact check, instead of believing me because I’m a proven ‘expert,’” he explains. “Blindly believing what ‘publishing experts’ say is a big part of the reason authors have traditionally ended up with so little recompense for the fruit of their labors.”
True to Data Guy’s word, Author Earnings has been 100 percent transparent around their information: all their raw data is available for free download, so you can crunch the numbers for yourself.
What do you think? In light of this new data, would you consider self-publishing?
“What do you mean, you wrote this in 15 minutes?”
The woman seated across from me at a writer’s group was waving my novel around like a flag. I’d just been discussing the 15-Minute Writing Method to the group who’d invited me to speak about my second novel, Dark Circle, and what my writing process was like.
“Just that. I write in 15-minute chunks, most days of the week. And then,” I waved my own hand toward the book she was holding, “voila!”
Of course, as I explained, it’s not quite that simple.
The 15-Minute Writing Method is something I came up with while working on my first novel. I’d tried (and failed) quite a few times to complete a manuscript for a full-length work.
I would start out all shimmery and starburst, trying to replicate the writing process of famous, bestselling authors who write thousands of words or many hours a day. Hugh Howey, for instance, writes for four to five hours every day. Charles Hamilton, an English author, was said to have written 20 full-length pages each day.
However, an hour or two into my writing time, the glitter would fade. I’d get bored and set the novel aside. I always intended to pull it back out at some point, but I never did. Instead, weeks or months later, I’d dream up a new idea for a new novel. And then I’d start the process all over again.
Frustrated with myself after yet another failed attempt, I decided to try something new.
Writers with short attention spans — or those struggling to fit writing around a full-time job, a family or other commitments — this is for you.
Here’s the plan: Write for 15 minutes, most days of the week.
While there is obviously a bit more involved, the basic premise is this: break down what can look like a huge, overwhelming task into tiny, bite-sized pieces.
Look at marathon runners: they don’t begin their training by trying to run 26.2 miles. Instead, they run many shorter distances to build stamina, and slowly increase the mileage as they get stronger. Why would you start writing a book by trying to write the entire book?
Here are five tips that will help you make the most of the 15-Minute Rule:
This perspective makes the task so much less intimidating! Have you ever trained yourself to floss your teeth? Eat healthier foods? Stop swearing? These are all habits, just like writing.
I highly recommend reading The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy, which describes how small, seemingly inconsequential changes add up over time. It’s up to us to decide if these little tweaks are positive or negative in nature.
Try to work with your natural tendencies, not against them. If you are most creative in the morning, squeeze in your 15 minutes of writing as soon as you wake up or before you leave for your day job. More of a night owl? Make your daily writing a before-bed habit, right after you brush your teeth.
When I first started exercising as a teenager, I never dreamed I’d be able to run three miles (or even one). I was an overweight kid and adolescent, and the thought of doing really big things athletically was outside of my thought process.
But I could walk for five minutes, so that’s where I started.
You can do just about anything for just 15 minutes (or 10, or five), so start there. Think you don’t have even a few minutes to focus on your writing? Try giving up something that you don’t need, like watching TV (even the news), or setting strict limits on social media time.
Set a date to complete your first draft and mark it on your calendar. Make sure it’s reasonable, given that you’ll be writing in shorter chunks rather than marathon sessions. While writing my first novel, Epidemic, I was working full time. I wrote in 15-minute chunks before leaving in the morning, and completed a first draft (ugly, yes, but complete) in approximately five months.
Next, look at your calendar and work backwards, setting up mini-goals like “get to 15,000 words” or “complete chapter nine.” Add in some fun rewards for these smaller goals. Nothing says “yay” to me like a bouquet of fresh flowers or some pretty new office supplies.
While of course you want to produce a polished, well-edited final draft, there is a time and place for editing — and it’s not while you’re in the process of getting that icky first draft out.
Minimize the urge to edit by not re-reading what you’ve written. If you need to reorient yourself in the story at the start of a writing session, go back and read the last paragraph or two of yesterday’s work, but don’t allow yourself to look at any more than that.
If you miss a day, or several, it’s ok — just jump right back into your process. Allowing that critical inner voice free rein here does no good and a lot of harm. Start fresh the next day, and keep going. Over time, it will feel strange not to have your 15-minute writing session!
Let the process of writing your novel be as messy and ugly as it needs to be. But don’t make it harder than it is by setting huge and overwhelming goals for your writing time or word count. Ease yourself into your new habit by working on your manuscript for just 15 minutes a day. You’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish.
Have you tried breaking your writing sessions into short, daily chunks? How did it work for you?