Can You Make a Living as a Full-Time Writer? by Robert Medak

Regular followers will remember writer, Robert Medak, from an earlier post on Writers in Business. Robert is a freelance writer, editor, book reviewer and aspiring author. He has written or ghost written over 350 articles and 80 book reviews. Today he is joining us to answer one of the biggest questions facing writers.

Can You Make a Living as a Full-Time Writer?
This is a simple yet complex question, with an answer to match.

Unless your name is Bob Bly or someone as well known, please don’t quit your day job.

It takes time, effort, marketing, quality work, and referrals to become a go to person for writing. It isn’t going to happen overnight no matter how often some people tell you. They will probably try to sell you some course, program, or get you involved with PLR articles or books that you can rebrand to call your own. Others will try to get you involved with affiliates.

I don’t do any of that since I offer 100 percent original work and test it with Copyscape for and possible plagiarism questions. I have also signed an ethics pledge.

I have gone so far as to turn down work due to ethical concerns. I realize individuals will make their own decision, but you still have to face yourself in the mirror each morning and have to live with your modus operandi of business; for writing is a business, have no fear about that.

If you choose to enter the realm of freelance writing, you will need to price your services and believe that you are an entrepreneur, because you are.

When the economy slows down so do writing jobs. With the diminishing number of magazines and newspapers, the number of places that would normally take a chance of new writers also diminishes. Along with this, many companies are looking to outsource to other countries where labor is cheaper than the United States.

It is still possible to make a living as a writer depending on how hard you are willing to work at finding jobs.

The best way to find jobs is to start out locally. Check in with your local Chamber of Commerce, Church, and Civic Groups.

Build a website, blog, guest blog, use social media (Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter) to let potential clients know you exist. If potential clients don’t know about you, they will not come to you. Build a portfolio of work that you can show to potential clients. Keep a CV/ Résumé up to date; some clients make ask for one.

Watch out for any signs of frustration that things are not happening according to the way you think they should when jobs do not come easy, you are not the only one trying for them.

Excellent ideas! Thank you Robert. You can find Robert online at the following sites.

Website, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Book Reviewer & Editor, Robert Medak

Robert Medak began writing book reviews for Allbooks Review in February of 2006. He has been expanding his services ever since and now offers editing for manuscripts as well as a variety of writing applications including freelance articles and Internet content. Robert is the co-founder of a creative writing workshop and he has facilitated courses for writers at Writers' Village University (WVU).

Through his writing & editing business, Robert’s mission is to offer businesses, individuals, and writers help with their writing needs. He is joining us today at Writers in Business.

In doing research for this interview, I went to visit your web site and blogs. You have a lot of information to offer. Can you tell us a bit about each blog?

I have numerous blogs, some are about freelance writing, about writing in general, book reviews, and about animals and items for children. I also maintain two blogs for AllBook Reviews. I have also started some at other sites but there is not much on them yet.

With your writing & editing business, do you find one of your services is in more demand than another?

Writing is the most in demand at this time, mostly writing articles and book reviews.

Does writing or editing work keep you the busiest?

Writing keeps me the busiest, but I also enjoy editing. Doing editing and writing helps me improve in both areas. I feel that one should always strive to improve in whatever they do.

Do you have a preference for working with fiction or non-fiction? As an avid reader, I enjoy both fiction and non-fiction and all genres.

I’m also interested in your courses for writers. What topics are you teaching? What aspects are covered? Are your courses available online?

I created a course about how to overcome procrastination, the creative writing workshop is a series of writing prompts to help new writers get started, I have facilitated courses on different aspects of writing at the Writers’ Village University. I do not do much there, as my time is spent writing articles online. They are online at WVU. I have also approached my local library to have an ongoing writing workshop for people thinking about writing. I would cover all aspects of writing, publishing, marketing, and promotion.

I understand you have a new book in the works. Please tell us about it.

I have been asked many times about how to break into freelance writing. I decided to write a book about the subject. I also presented a course at the October 2009 Muse Online Writers Conference “So You Want to be a Freelance Writer.”

You can visit Robert at Stormy Writer and at RJM Book Reviews. He is also an expert at Ezine Articles.