Making money as a writer

How can you make a living as a writer?

This is what is on the mind of many people who'd like to quit their day job and write full-time. Most people when they say that they envision themselves sitting down to write a novel and then replacing their income with that book.

However, for most people it will take from two to four books in a year to make full-time income. How long will it take you to write four books that go to publication?

And then what about all the marketing you'll need to do? Will you have time to write four more books the next year in addition to marketing those first four?

It can seem a little overwhelming, but book writing is not the only way to earn money writing. I recently looked over my own writing plans and realized that I was missing a wonderful opportunity by not investing the time to write one article a week. For some articles I earn as little as a few dollars, others I've written have earned me $300 or more. So for the sake of simplicity I assumed an article paid $100 for my example.

How much do you have to work at your 9-5 job? How much time does it take you to write a 500 word article?

Is you day job helping you increase your skills as a writer? Will writing an article? [yes]

Can you resell the work you do at your job? You can with an article [reprint rights are usually 1/2 first rights but if you resell an article for $50 you're being paid a second time for the same work.]

Will showing your 1 year of work at your day job help a publisher buy your book? Do you think showing 52+ articles will? Would an extra $5,200 help you?

I think so often we miss the simplicity of simple, consistent effort. Really look at those numbers again and think about how that would help you in your ultimate writing goals.

Now, go on over to Writer's Rest where I'll continue this story.