
 |
|
Nov. 20, 2009
Nov. 19, 2009
Jonathan Tobin: ADL Crosses the Line with Report Bashing Obama Critics
Nov. 18, 2009
JWisdom.com: The (Jewish) Dating Game
with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (8 minutes)
Nov. 17, 2009
Steven Emerson: How Does the 4th Amendment Impact Terror Finance Investigations?
JWisdom.com: If Frank Sinatra married Edith Piaf
with Rabbi Y.Y. Rubinstein (2 minutes) Life lessons from what would be regarded as the most inappropriate lyrics ever sung
Nov. 16, 2009
JWisdom.com: Deconstructing faith
with Rabbi Warren Goldstein (9 minutes)
Nov. 13, 2009
JWisdom.com Sarah's subjective reality
with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 6 minutes)
Nov. 12, 2009
JWisdom.com Does God get tired?
with Rabbi Harvey Belovski ( 5 minutes)
Nov. 11, 2009
JWisdom.com Marriages are not made in Heaven
with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (VERY fast 15 minutes)
Nov. 10, 2009
Michael Doyle: Author of book exposing CAIR ordered to remove supporting documents from Web
JWisdom.com If the creation so loudly shouts the existence of the Creator, why aren't more people believers? with Rabbi Naftali Brawer (9 minutes)
Nov. 9, 2009
Mark Steyn: Shooter exposes hole
in U.S. terror strategy
JWisdom.com It's never too late to
have a happy childhood with Sarah Chana Radcliffe (5 minutes)
Nov. 6, 2009
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How
to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Nov. 5, 2009
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking
Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker
With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater?
With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change
With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
|
| |
Jewish World Review
March 7, 2006
/ 7 Adar, 5766
Making a living as a writer
By
Marty Nemko
|
|
|
|
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
The James Frey fiasco is just the latest tarnish on writers' credibility. Recall, for example, Doris Kearns Goodwin's plagiarism, New York Times reporter Jayson Blair's faked interviews, and 60 Minutes' Mary Mapes' false attacks on George Bush.
Yet the call to make a living as a writer remains loud for many of us. But should you try to make a go of it?
This self-assessment may help. The more yeses, the more optimistic you are justified in being:
Should you be a professional writer?
1. Are you likely to be willing and able to create at least 200 words of professional-quality prose per hour, at least 15 hours a week, year in and year out?
2. Are you an endless source of story ideas?
3. The most valid evidence of your professional potential is not praise from friends or even teachers, but to ask yourself "How easy has it been, so far, to get people to pay you for your writing?"
4. Will you be willing to spend at least ten hours a week marketing your work, during which time, you'll probably, usually get ignored, rejected, or receive offers to write for near minimum wage, if not for free?
5. Are you willing to do business writing: newsletters, business reports, press releases, brochures, catalogs, annual reports, copy for e-commerce sites, and so on? Business writing is the most likely to be remunerative.
Top Ten Ways to Get Paid to Write
Still want to take a shot at being a professional writer? Here are ways to maximize your chances of success: Most are derived from The Freelance Writer's Bible by David Trottier:
| BUY THE BOOK |
| Click HERE to purchase it at a discount. (Sales help fund JWR.).
|
|
-
Build a collection of work samples that would impress your target customer. Even if you have to do some writing for free to get published, do it. Employers are more impressed by published work than by Microsoft Word documents.
-
Pitch your work to art directors. They have connections with ad agencies and other employers of writers.
-
Use Writers Market and/or your public library to find the best print prospects for your writing. Before writing an article, send a punchy query letter to a high-level editor in which you explain why the topic is right for that publication, how you'd approach it, and why you're qualified to write it. If possible, sell only the first right to publish it. That way, you can later resell it and thus get paid twice for one article.
-
As in all job searches, pitch everyone you know: "Do you know anyone who could use a good writer?"
-
Cold call small businesses in a niche you'd like to write for. Ask if they need a brochure, a copywriter for their Web site, etc.
-
Try nonprofits. They endlessly need marketing collateral, fundraising letters, and telemarketing scripts.
-
Pitch online training developers. They are writer-dependent because, except for the graphics, all lessons must be conveyed entirely in writing.
-
More money is spent producing business and education videos that on the entire U.S. film industry. Check out your Yellow Pages and Business-to-Business Yellow Pages. Look under "audio-visual," "video producers," "video production", and "film producers."
-
Technical writing. For your first jobs, try fledging firms in manufacturing or software. They often need employee manuals and owners' manuals.
-
Ghostwriting. Know a celebrity, politician, or famous expert? Propose ghostwriting a book. Make an agreement and then approach publishers to assess the concept's viability. Also, professors, scientists, and technical people need help getting into professional journals and magazines. To find them, advertise in publications read by the types of people for whom you'd like to ghostwrite. Similarly, many professional and business executives would like someone to write their one-page autobiography or 300-page version. Some people want their life stories or family histories written with no intent to make money. They just want to give books to friends, families and business associates.
A word about book writing. The odds are at least 1,000:1 against a first-time, non-celebrity novelist earning as much per hour from their novels as they could from flipping burgers at McDonald's. The odds are even worse for children's book authors and, of course, for poets. The Poet Laureate of the United States, Ted Kooser, in an NPR interview, asserted that it is impossible to make a living from poetry. I've even soured on how-to books, which is the most likely route to making money in book writing. Although I have had five how-to books published, which have sold over 200,000 copies, I don't plan to write any more books nor do I recommend you do unless you're a celebrity and/or have a major national platform: for example, you're a columnist in the U.S. News and World Report magazine. Today, ever more people get their information free, just-in-time, in bite-sized pieces on the Internet. And if they want a book and are willing to forego the public library, Amazon.com sells used copies at a deep discount. The author doesn't make a dime on any used book sales.
Writers, of course, know that their income potential is minimal, but many of them, perhaps wisely, prefer the writer's life poor than the straight life rich.
For more on how to make a living as a writer, see www.writersdigest.com and www.mediabistro.com.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
400+ of Dr. Nemko's published writings are on www.martynemko.com. Comment by clicking here.
Archives
© 2006, Dr. Marty Nemko
|
|

Arnold Ahlert
Mitch Albom
Michael Barone
Dave Barry
Tony Blankley
Andy Borowitz
David Broder
Stratfor Briefing
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Suzanne Fields
John Fund
Frank J. Gaffney
Lloyd Garver
Jonah Goldberg
Julia Gorin
Jonathan Gurwitz
Paul Greenberg
Lewis Grossberger
Victor Davis Hanson
Betsy Hart
Nat Hentoff
David Horowitz
Laura Ingraham
Cheri Jacobus Jeff Jacoby
Paul Johnson
Jack Kelly
Ed Koch
Ch. Krauthammer
Michael Ledeen
John Leo
David Limbaugh
Kathryn Lopez
Rich Lowry
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Dick Morris
Bill O'Reilly
Jim Mullen
Clarence Page
Kathleen Parker
Dennis Prager
Wesley Pruden
Tom Purcell
Jonathan Rauch
Celia Rivenbark
Robert Robb
Cokie & Steve Roberts
Pat Sajak
Debra J. Saunders
Culture Shlock
Roger Simon
Michael Smerconish
Thomas Sowell
Mark Steyn
John Stossel
Cal Thomas
Bob Tyrrell
Diana West
Dave Weinbaum
George Will
Walter Williams
Byron York
Mort Zuckerman

Robert Arial
Chuck Asay
Baloo
Chip Bok
Dry Bones
Lisa Benson
John Branch
Gary Brookins
John Cole
J. D. Crowe
John Deering
Brian Duffy
Everything's Relative
Mallard Fillmore
Jake Fuller
Bob Gorrel
Joe Heller
David Hitch
Jerry Holber
Steve Kelley
Jeff Koterba
Dick Locher
Chan Lowe
Ranan R. Lurie
Jimmy Margulies
Rick McKee
Michael Ramirez
Kevin Siers
Jeff Stahler
Ed Stein
Danna Summers
John Trever
Gary Varvel
Kirk Walters

How 2
Lori Borgman
The Savvy Consumer
Elder matters
Fixit
Dr. Peter Gott
GET A JOB! by Marty Nemko
Richard Lederer
Tech Maven
Every Monday Matters
Nutrition Myths
Bookmark These
Bruce Williams
How Stuff Works
|