How to make a living writing

My book isn’t finished, but I can’t stand my job.

Dose anyone know of a way of making a living writing? Something I have some chance of getting.

Write a lot?

Keep writing?

Have a job on the side until published?

Find a REALLY good niche?

Find published writers who write for a living and ask them.

Become a journalist, but that's going the way of the dinosaur too. So basically don't.

Always have a side-job, even a minimum wage one, while you're waiting for your big break.

And accept that you will probably never get said big break either.

First of all, if you start your literary career, expect to be unable to make the ends meet. After all, authors, with not many exceptions, aren't the most profittable jobs around.

Be sure to see your other talents, so you can balance work hours, wage, and writing hours. For example, if you're good on the piano, become a pianist for a country club and keep your laptop/writing pad around for break time. Also, if you went to college, don't afraid to use your degree.

One more thing: all of The Big Three of Young Adult Literature didn't have their big break until their forties (JK was sort of a Starving Artist during her first book).

This is all from other people accounts and guesswork...

^ In Rowling's case, she didn't really even try until her forties.

Neither did Meyer.

Short stories.

Articles.

Contests.

And the ever important Day Job!

That. Embark in some smaller projects while writing your novel to make ends meet. Oh, and the day job. Even if you have a full-time one, you'll always have a handful of hours to write.

Suzanne Collins is the exception, having at least one series before her most famous work, but it wasn't as famous, but it gave her a living.

You don't make a living writing. If you're lucky, you get RICH writing, but it's not something sustainable.

From my notes from a workshop on just this subject:

• Write for advertising.
• Write for contests.
• Get a savvy agent to negotiate your contracts.
  • Contracts for series pay longer than one-offs.
• Find grants. You'll have to convince the grant jury why you deserve the money.
• Speaking (get a minimum of $250/hr)
  • You can charge less for Skype visits than in-person.
• School visits and book readings are great places to hock your work.
• Look into the Public Lending Right; you get some money when your books are in libraries.
• Access Copyright gives published authors $500/year when their works are photocopied.

So...I should take that Speech class?

Wait, who are you talking to?

edited 16th May '11 5:08:49 PM by chihuahua0

Okay, now I feel bad because that was a complete dogpile, so I'll just mention that your entry to the last writing contest was good and I very much believe that you can get published.

I've always got my eye open for writing jobs - technical writing, mainly - to replace my current job.

I'm now at part-time working hours but I'm also a solo dad so I didn't gain a lot of spare time for writing when I stopped working full time. I still have time to write in the evenings, however (and I'm a night-owl so that suits me fine).

I've had a couple of non-fiction articles published in a small local newsletter and I've done a fair bit of documentation etc but none of it paying work (except inasmuch as the documentation was done as part of my paid employment as a computer technician).

I would enjoy a regular writing job, and I've never given up the hope that I'll find one.

In the meantime, I work on my stories when I can.

@jewelleddragon Thank you that means a lot.

@Wolf Good luck I hope we both find somthing.

edited 16th May '11 8:47:43 PM by HistoryMaker

Cheers, History Maker.

Plenty of jobs going but mostly full-time and/or in another city with no option to telecommute.

Frankly, I'd happily work for any company in the world if I can a) choose the hours I work and b) do so from the comfort of my own home.

To my mind, neither of those things is unreasonable - so long as the deadline is met, what does it matter if the work was done between 10pm and 2am NZ time and/or half way across the world. It's the Century of the Fruitbat, and certain jobs have no real requirement to actually turn up at an office.

If it's going to be on site at an office, it'd have to be local and between 10am and 2pm to fit in with my kids' school day. To my mind, finding a job to those specifications would be a lot harder.

Still, they're both options.

Only read first couple of posts, too tired to go through everything and do not want to get stuck in a wiki walk.

I don't think there are a lot of full time authors, and those that are do not make a buttload of money unless you become a Juggernaut. I think most writers have a job, and writing isn't their actual income, but I could be wrong and there could be a lot of people who churn out lots of stuff could sell away most of the rights to produce their stuff for cash.

They say it takes 10,000 hours of work or roughly 10 years (like writing while having a job, a social life, and sleeping.) to become really good at something good enough to be noticed.

edited 17th May '11 3:07:40 AM by Vyctorian

You could write copy. It's not exactly lucrative but provided you know where to look, it can be reasonably steady if you don't mind not earning too much.

Actual creative writing, though, it's not so easy.

edited 17th May '11 2:02:39 PM by elemcee

No, that's a general estimation of the time it takes to master something. At 10,000 hours you've probably entered Unconscious Competence territory.

Exactly most people aren't noticed when they have sub-par mastery of a craft and when they are it's usually out of ridicule like My Immortal .

@Vyctorian: There's also the "first million words you write are crap" rule, if you want to be specific to writing. Not that I fully believe that one ether, but at least it's a goal.

edited 17th May '11 5:56:57 PM by Dec