What is Your Profit Motive?

As a freelance writer, you’re in business to make money. How much is up to you. You can write a lot and get paid little or write a little and get paid a lot. Chances are you’ll fall somewhere in between. But one thing is for sure, there are only so many hours in a day, so the amount you make may be limited, especially if you’re writing books or articles for magazines.

If you’re writing books, you can only work on one at a time. The amount of time it takes to research and write a book is staggering while the advance you may receive pays for only a fraction of that time. If you’re a good multi-tasker, you may be able to pound out an article or short story or two while working on your book, but most writers put all their energies into such a massive project.

Writing articles actually pays better in the long run. If you have acquired some steady markets, you’ll be writing constantly and the money will pour in regularly.  If you’re just starting out, you may find yourself strapped for cash between assignments.

So what is your profit motivation? Are you content to make a little while pursuing other creative projects—for this you’ll need a working spouse or a rich benefactor? Or do you need to earn a living to help support a family or yourself if you live alone? Many married women writers claim they’re making a living just like any male writer, but what if they weren’t married and couldn’t depend on their husbands’ paycheck to take care of most or all of the bills? While it may be okay to do this in the beginning, after a while your spouse will grow tired of paying the bills by himself.  The opposite it also true for husbands taking up freelance writing while their wives work at a steady job to pay the bills.

Even if you’ve been publishing and making a modest living at writing, you may he guilty of practices that hinder you from making more money. Maximizing your profit requires you to budget time and money carefully. Will you be able to live on say $12,000 a year or less? Perhaps you had better decide if you love your daily Starbucks latte more than writing!

You need to budget everything. Leave nothing to chance. Periodically review your bills to see if you can lower any of them. This will mean not having the latest smart phone or that big-screen Plasma T.V. that your neighbors have. And while you’re at it, better decide to move from the McMansion you live in now to a more modest house.

But budgeting isn’t all about sacrificing the things you love for your writing. It just means that you need to prioritize. List the things that are most important to you. If that cup of Starbucks coffee or that giant SUV that you drive is important to you, then perhaps you better give up on your dreams of becoming a writer, unless you want to write press releases or advertising copy.

As much as you need to learn about writing to improve your skills, so you should learn about the business of business if you expect to keep your profits growing. You’ll be running a small business. Don’t kid yourself into thinking it’s anything else. Talk to other small business owners. What do they do to make sure they stay in business? While your business may be slightly different than theirs, the procedures are the same, even down to what to deduct on your tax return.

Set up daily and monthly schedules and stick to them. Self discipline is very important in freelance writing. It’s not all about spending leisure time at the café reading Twitter messages from your peeps on your smart phone. It’s about working hard and enjoying your time off, knowing that you’ve done the best job you could getting pieces finished and sent in on time.
   
Review your methods periodically. Weed out the bad habits. Are you allowing too many interruptions to devastate your schedule? Are you letting too much time slip by before you get an idea and propose it to editors or your agent? Are you learning from your competition?

To be a successful freelancer, you have to periodically review your assets and liabilities. You  can’t afford to imagine there isn't room for improvement. Above all, freelancer writers don't believe in giving things away for free. If a publisher isn’t willing to pay for your work, pass them by. You can’t pay for groceries with a freebie.

A Writer’s Library

As a non-fiction writer, I work with facts every day. Today, I have at my disposal a wide range of sources for those facts–library books, e-books, newspaper and magazine clippings, and the Internet to name a few. But nothing is more important than my own personal library, today numbering some 500 books.

During the past week, I was busy directing a group of energetic people at my church who were working to prepare for an annual fall festival that we held this past weekend. A book sale is a small part of that festival. Someone had donated what seemed like a complete collection of books on writing. The person who was organizing the books for sale said these probably wouldn’t sell, and being a writer, would I like to have them. Without hesitation, I said yes. And while I was elated to be receiving such a collection, I was saddened by the thought that a writer had perhaps retired or, even worse, had tried to become one and had given up.

So now these very useful books will be added to my own personal collection of books on writing. And while I may already know a lot of what’s in them, I’ll still use them for reference from time to time.

As a writer in several varied and some related subject areas, I’ve amassed a varied collection of books. For my travel writing, I have a library of guidebooks on all the countries I’ve written about, plus others I’d like to write about. Complementing these are books ones about countries I’ve traveled to or would like to. Add to this books I’ve purchased to help me research travel books I’ve written. Each of my books has a small library all its own.

Then there are my specialties—writing about Mexico and antiques, now expanded to history in general. I’ve gathered a collection of reference books for each of these specialties. For Mexico, my collection features not only guidebooks on various parts of the country but books on its history and culture. My antiques specialty has required me to gather pricing guides, as well as books on individual types of pieces, including those on different kinds and styles of furniture. Added to that are those on ceramics and porcelain, silver, marks, rugs, glassware, etc.

Besides the books for my specialties, I have a rather large collection of books on writing. These include those on how to write various types of proposals, as well as published pieces—articles, short stories, plays, novels, and non-fiction books. The more useful ones sit on shelves by my computer while others occupy another “branch” of my library in my bedroom.

And then there are the books I’ve reviewed and those I read or haven’t gotten to yet. While I prefer to read non-fiction, I have a number of novels and books on short stories from which to choose when the spirit strikes me.

I’m a multifaceted person and as such have other interests. I love to cook, so the “cooking” branch of my library sits on shelves across from my kitchen.  I also love to grow houseplants and gardening in general. This requires me to have a modest collection of books on gardening and growing plants indoors. It takes a bit of specialized knowledge to grow a mini rain forest.

Lastly, the most important books in my library are those I’ve written and those written by writer friends of mine. Nothing boosts my confidence more in slow times than looking at them on the shelf.

Promote Thyself

“Promote thyself” should be every writer’s motto. But getting out there and telling other people about your work is directly opposite to the writing lifestyle. Writing is a solitary profession, and except for interaction with your editors and perhaps people you interview, you write in more or less total isolation.

However, in today’s world of networking, it’s important to make you and your work known.

Sure, book writers—you’ll notice I didn’t use the term “author”—can present book signings here and there. While this may sell a few more books regionally, it doesn’t do much to get a book known for the average writer. Perhaps your book becomes a bestseller and Oprah invites you on her show. It becomes an instant success. But what about all the rest of us who don’t get that golden opportunity.

Whether you write books, articles, or short stories, you need to create a plan for promoting them. You’ll discover that it’s inherently easier to promote non-fiction than fiction. First, you can easily produce articles on the same topics as your books or articles in which you can promote yourself as a writer in other topic areas. Publishing these in print or online will definitely help get you noticed.

And what about creating your own Web site? People in businesses of all kinds have Web sites today. It shouldn’t be any different for a writer. You have two ways to go there—developing a professional Web site through which you can engage editors or a more personal site to engage readers.(I’ll discuss creating your own site more in a future blog.)

Even if you don’t have a Web site, you can offer your work to Webmasters of other sites—either ones that deal with your chosen topic or ones that focus on writing, itself. Don’t do this haphazardly, however. Instead, target good sites with higher visitor counts or rankings in search engines like Google.

And finally don’t discount social networking sites like Facebook. While all the”friends” you emass on Facebook may visit your fan page regularly, are they doing much else to further your career, like buying your books or reading the magazines in which your articles and short stories appear. Only you can decide if the time and energy you’ll need to put into a social networking page will be worth it in the long run.