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    The Working Writer’s Guide
    The Working Writer’s Guide
    The Working Writer’s Guide
    Ebook95 pages58 minutes

    The Working Writer’s Guide

    By Simon Rose

    ()

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    About this ebook

    The Working Writer’s Guide examines the professional life of those who have chosen to pursue writing as a career. People often believe that either that all published authors earn millions or that it’s impossible to make a living as a writer. It’s certainly possible to make a living based on your writing, but a number of different revenue streams are required.

    In reality, most full-time writers have multiple sources of income. These include book sales, royalties, teaching, workshops, coaching, editing, public speaking, events, websites, social media, and business and technical writing.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon Rose
    Release dateJan 7, 2016
    ISBN9781310947087
    The Working Writer’s Guide
    Author

    Simon Rose

    Simon Rose is the author of The Alchemist's Portrait, The Sorcerer's Letterbox, The Clone Conspiracy, The Emerald Curse, The Heretic's Tomb, The Doomsday Mask, The Time Camera, The Sphere of Septimus, Flashback, Future Imperfect, Twisted Fate, Parallel Destiny, the Shadowzone series, and the Stone of the Seer series. He is also the author of The Children's Writer's Guide, The Time Traveler's Guide, The Working Writer's Guide, The Social Media Writer's Guide, a contributor to The Complete Guide to Writing Science Fiction and has written many non-fiction books with Crabtree Publishing, Beech Street Books, Weigl Publishers, and Capstone.Simon offers a number of services for writers, including editing, coaching, mentoring, consulting, manuscript evaluation, and writing workshops. He has provided substantive and copy editing services for many other writers over the years. This has been for novels, short stories, fiction, nonfiction, biographies, inspirational books, and many other genres. He also offers copywriting services for business, including website and social media content. Full details can be found on his website at simon-rose.com. He is the founder of Children’s Authors and Illustrators on Facebook, served as the Writer-in Residence with the Canadian Authors Association, is a member of the Calgary Association of Freelance Editors, and served as the Assistant Regional Advisor for SCBWI Western Canada.Simon offers a wide variety of presentations, workshops, and author in residence programs for schools, along with virtual author visits. He is an instructor for adults with the University of Calgary and offers a variety of workshops and writing courses for both children and adults.You may also follow him on Twitter or Instagram, connect on Facebook, or visit his channel on YouTube.

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      Book preview

      The Working Writer’s Guide - Simon Rose

      The Working Writer’s Guide

      Making a Living as a Published Author and Professional Writer

      By

      Simon Rose

      The Working Writer’s Guide

      Copyright © 2015 by Simon Rose

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher, except for the use of brief quotations for the purpose of a book review. For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, please contact Simon Rose at sorcerersletterbox@gmail.com 

      Published by Sorcerer's Letterbox Publishing

      Calgary, Alberta

      www.simon-rose.com

      ISBN 10: 1511647019

      ISBN 13: 978-1511647014

      Editing by Ricki Ewings,

      Trail, British Columbia

      Table of Contents

      Title Page

      Introduction

      Chapter One School visits

      Chapter Two Writing workshops

      Children’s writing workshops

      Online workshops

      Tutoring

      Home-school students

      Chapter Three Summer camps

      Chapter Four Working with adults

      Teaching at universities and colleges

      Coaching

      Online workshops

      Chapter Five Events

      Public speaking

      Literary festivals and conferences

      Chapter Six Editing and critiques

      Substantive editing and manuscript reviews

      Judging awards

      Chapter Seven Outside the box

      Non-fiction

      Articles

      Ghostwriting

      Self-published self-help

      Chapter Eight Copywriting for business

      Websites

      Social Media

      Brochures, newsletters, and press releases

      Company handbooks

      Company histories

      Educational materials

      Chapter Nine Marketing and promotion

      Websites

      YouTube

      Social media

      Events

      Schools and camps

      Teaching and workshops

      Festivals

      Writing projects

      Self-publishing

      The corporate market

      Business cards and brochures

      Chapter Ten Working for free

      Hidden costs

      Anyone can write

      Free school visits

      Great exposure

      No budget

      Fair trades

      Everyone’s doing it

      Friends, family, and other worthy causes

      Conclusion

      About the Author

      Books by Simon Rose

      Fiction

      Non-fiction

      Anthologies

      Introduction

      Misconceptions are common regarding published authors. People think either that all authors earn millions or that it’s impossible to make a living as a writer. While some writers are financially successful with their e-books, success stories are rare, at least for now, and only a handful of authors make serious money from e-books.

      Misconceptions also abound regarding authors who write for children. Books for younger readers are often mistakenly considered to be simple to write and easy to make money from. Some people look at the phenomenal success of the Harry Potter series and wonder how hard it can really be. After all, anyone can write a book, can’t they?

      This book examines the working life of those who have chosen to pursue writing as a career and have no other source of income. In reality, most full-time children’s writers have multiple sources of income. Authors do earn money from royalties from their book sales, but in most cases this isn’t enough to live on. It’s certainly possible to make a living based on your writing, but a number of different revenue streams are required. Some of these may be more important than others at one time or another, depending on a variety of factors.

      Working as an instructor at universities and colleges may only be possible for those writers living in large cities and towns. Working for magazines or nonfiction publishers may also be easier if you’re in an urban area, although with the right connections this may not be an obstacle. If you write for websites or social media outlets, or create brochures and similar material for local companies, opportunities will be more plentiful in a larger market. School visits too are obviously easier to secure for writers located in parts of the country with large populations and more schools. However, more competition will also exist with other authors that are contacting those schools trying to book visits, readings, and workshops. Some children’s authors and illustrators will get the majority of their income from school visits, others from advances and royalties from book sales, but everyone’s situation is different. The pattern of a writer’s earnings will also vary from year to year, with one or another source of income being larger or smaller each time.

      I was aware at the outset that it might be difficult to make a living from royalties alone. I therefore knew I’d need to explore other ways to earn an income. I need to be engaged in a variety of different projects in order to make a living, but fortunately, most of these are related to writing for children. In addition to my novels for middle-grade readers, I’ve written many non-fiction books and magazine articles, and I also create content for the corporate market and for social media. I conduct workshops and residencies at schools, visit summer camps, teach classes for adults at local colleges and universities, and offer coaching, tutoring, and editing services. None of these projects would be possible if I hadn’t written and published books in the first place. Admittedly, this may appear to be a diverse portfolio and one that doesn’t allow me to focus exclusively on creating works of fiction.

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