When you break it down, there are basically two ways you can build a writing career:
Knock on doors, hoping for some to open to you.
Create your own doors.
A lot of writers spend all of their time and energy on the first one. They’re happy to let the gatekeepers decide their fates—or if not happy, exactly, they seem to have this idea that bypassing the gatekeepers is somehow cheating, or that their writing doesn’t really count if it doesn’t have that stamp of approval. They’ll spend years—sometimes decades—trying to satisfy the gatekeepers so they can finally be allowed in to what they perceive as a secret club.
Meanwhile, the door-makers are over here enjoying actual writing careers and getting paid.
Most successful writing careers are built on a combination of the two methods. This newsletter will be covering both, but it will focus a lot on ways to create your own doors. That’s why it will cover self-publishing as well as freelance writing, and why it will place a big emphasis on entrepreneurship. I don’t want you to be dependent on the gatekeepers. I want you to be able to take control of your career and your income.
And sometimes, making your own doors is the best way to prove yourself to the gatekeepers and build up the momentum you need to crash through those gates.
Yeah, I know, I’m getting a little mixy with my metaphors. But you get the idea.
Now that we’ve been introduced and you know what I and this newsletter are all about, next week we’ll fall back to a weekly schedule, and we’ll start digging into the hows and wherefores, starting with how to build your portfolio from scratch.
But for now, I want to share a few things you can start implementing right away to carve out your own doors and start monetizing your writing while building both a platform and a portfolio that can help convince gatekeepers to consider your work.
Blogging - I’m starting with the most obvious, but if you have a good niche, blogging can still be a way to make money with your writing, mostly through affiliate links and advertising. And if you bring your best writing, your blog can help grow you a loyal reader base and provide articles for your freelance portfolio, as well as drive subscribers to your newsletter (see below).
Medium.com - Basically a blogging platform, Medium is a place where you can post articles and, if you prefer, monetize them by opting for them to be available to paying readers only. How much an article earns depends on page views and reader interactions. Medium also gives you the option to produce your own publication, and hosts dozens, if not hundreds, of publications where you can submit your work—a great way to build your portfolio and grow your base while converting your writing into passive income.
A Newsletter - If you think you might ever want to sell books, or courses, or public speaking gigs, or writing-for-hire services, etc., you need to build a loyal mailing list. That doesn’t necessarily mean you need to send out a regular newsletter, but newsletters help keep your subscribers engaged and make them more willing to pay attention when you’ve got something to launch.
More importantly for our current purposes, newsletters can themselves provide a source of income—whether you keep it free and incorporate affiliate links and use it as a means to sell your own products and services, or whether you charge your readers a subscription fee (note: if you’re going to charge to access your newsletter, keep the sales pitches and affiliate links to a bare minimum).
Substack—this newsletter’s host—makes it easy to charge a subscription fee for your newsletter, but you could also use another mailing list provider and ask readers to support you via Patreon. Which brings me to…Patreon - Patreon is a platform that lets fans support creators via monthly pledges, usually for as little as a dollar a month. Patrons usually get additional perks in addition to full access to content. It can be difficult for writers to gain traction on Patreon, which tends to work better for artists, YouTubers and podcasters, but it can definitely be done with enough persistence and creativity.
Ebooks - If you know anything about anything, you can write an e-book about it. Even if you primarily write fiction, chances are you’ve got at least one how-to or self-help style book in you. The great thing about non-fiction e-books is that they don’t even need to be that long. You can likely write a 20,000 word how-to book in 2 to 4 weeks, and readers will happily pay $4.99 or more as long as it packs great value by helping them solve a problem.
Produce it and upload it to Amazon via KDP and it becomes a great source of passive income, letting you keep 70% of every sale. Non-fiction e-books have the added benefits of setting you up as an expert on that topic and looking great in your portfolio, where you can parlay them into ghostwriting or corporate writing opportunities. My own non-fiction how-to e-book, Self-Publishing for the Broke Author, walks you through all the steps involved in producing and publishing an e-book.
So there you are—five things you can start doing right now to create your own doors and start earning revenue from your writing.
And speaking of number three, if you’re learning from this newsletter and want to help support its mission, please consider a paid subscription. While I intend to keep the meat and potatoes—that is, the weekly newsletter—free for everyone, paid subscribers will get access to these delicious sides and desserts:
A complimentary copy of Self-Publishing for the Broke Author in your choice of Kindle or Epub
Access to community features and subscriber-only discussion threads
Exclusive monthly Q&As
A bonus monthly motivational letter
The satisfaction of supporting an effort to help writers achieve their dreams
As the subscriber community grows, my hope is that this newsletter will grow with it. Eventually, I hope to be able to increase the posting schedule to at least twice weekly, and also possibly add a subscriber-only podcast.
If you sign up during the month of February, you’ll receive 15% off of the regular price of $7/month or $70/year FOR LIFE. That’s only $5.95 a month or $59.50 a year—basically the price of one fancy coffee drink a month. Don’t delay—this offer expires at the end of the month!
Whether you opt to become a paying supporter or not, you’ll continue to get these e-mails delivered to your inbox every Tuesday, providing you with the knowledge and encouragement you need to forge your own path to a satisfying career as a working writer.
I’ll be back next Tuesday with a look at writing business models and a career road map. Any questions? Just reply to this e-mail to let me know.
Until next time,
Jean