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The “No-Kidding” $80,000+ Writing Career
(Part 2 of 2)
Earn $60-125+ an hour writing for business and make time for your creative
writing
By Peter Bowerman
NOTE FROM HOPE:
In our last post, veteran freelancer and “Well-Fed Writer”
author Peter Bowerman gave us an insider’s look at the
lucrative field of “commercial” freelancing, painting an
attractive picture of a surprisingly accessible writing field
that both pays handsomely and offers some enviable lifestyle
benefits. Read on for more nuts-‘n-bolts of getting started.
Plenty of Work
The sheer volume of potential commercial writing
work is mind-
blowing. What we see as consumers (e.g., ads, direct mail,
consumer newsletters, brochures) is just the beginning. That’s
called B2C: business-to-consumer. What we don’t see – except
as employees of a company – are two additional gargantuan
arenas of work. First is B2B (business-to-business), all the
materials created by businesses to market their products and
services to other businesses.
The second is “internal communications,” another
huge arena of
work: all the projects that exist solely within a corporation
to communicate with employees: newsletters, sales sheets, web
sites, presentations, videos, CD-based training programs,
procedure manuals, and the list goes on and on. Much of it is
outsourced.
While we can just picture the huge volume of
this kind of work
within large corporations, imagine the vast number of small-to-
medium-sized companies (25-200+ employees) with so many of the
same needs. Yet, firms of that size are even less likely to have
the in-house staff to execute them, but usually DO have the
money to pay for it. They may need more educating – not only as
to the very existence of outside writing resources like us, but
how to craft these projects as well. But, rest assured, the work
is there.
Landing the Work
Given the importance of writing to their
business process, these
companies expect to hear from writers, yet, according to what
many of my clients tell me, few actually do. Reach them by cold
calling, direct mail postcard mailings, joining business
networking groups, social media sites like LinkedIn and others,
by tapping your contact base, or ideally, some combination of all
the above. Leverage your past industry experience and contacts
and get started by pursuing work in that arena.
First Steps
While you’re still working at another job, focus
on building a
portfolio of samples by gathering projects you’ve done in current
and former jobs; doing pro bono work for not-for-profits and start-
ups; or just “creating” a portfolio from scratch, concentrating
on crafting more corporate-type samples (i.e., the project types
described earlier). In the pro bono or “creation” scenarios noted
above, perhaps you team with a graphic designer starting out as
well, so you both end up with samples for your “book.” Then load
them all up to a web site. Visit
www.writeinc.biz, then Portfolio
to get an idea of project types.
The Adult Conversation
Starting a commercial writing business is no
“get-rich-quick”
deal. Your mother was right: If it sounds too good to be true,
it probably is. This is no cakewalk. Building a writing business
takes a lot of hard work, but know that, 1) there IS a need for
good writing in the business world; 2) hiring freelancers over
full-time staff makes sound economic sense for companies, and for
many reasons, and finally; 3) if you’re a good writer (not even
brilliant, just good), you can find your place in this field.
Many writers dream of making their writing mark
in a more
literary way. Until then, why not get paid well to write and
carve out more time to pursue your writing passions? The
commercial writing market is big, growing and pays handsomely.
As you read this, thousands of writers are landing countless,
high-paying writing jobs. Why not you?
**************
Peter Bowerman, a veteran commercial freelancer
and business
coach in Atlanta, Georgia, is the author of 2010 title, The
Well-Fed Writer: Financial Self-Sufficiency as a Commercial
Freelancer in Six Months or Less, an updated edition of his
original 2000 award-winning Book-of-the-Month Club selection.
For more details, and to subscribe to his popular monthly ezine
and blog, visit www.wellfedwriter.com.
He chronicled his self-
publishing success (60,000 copies of his books in print and a
full-time living for eight-plus years) in his award-winning 2007
release, The Well-Fed Self-Publisher: How to Turn One Book into
a Full-Time Living. www.wellfedsp.com.
NOTE:
Read the previous Part I of Peter Bowerman's lesson at:
Peter Bowerman is the
guru. I've read the books.
If you're a talented writer in a niche
market who wants to
write and sell his own book, "The
Well-Fed Self-Publisher"
should be your bible.
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A Carolina Slade Mystery
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