This is a very important topic – how to make money as a writer. During my sessions with writers on our coaching program, it is one of the most frequently asked questions. They always want me to show them how to make money as a writer. And I know for you reading this post, this is something you must have thought about. So today, I am going to tell you what you need to do to make money as a writer.
Before I go on, there is one important thing I need you to do. You need to remove that mindset that writing is just a hobby. It’s more than that. It’s a business that can feed you and your family if you take the right steps. It is something you can do successfully and it can open great doors for you.
Now that the above is out of the way, let’s talk about how you can make money from writing!
I know by now, you must have heard that you can make money from blogging, from writing articles for various publications, for ghostwriting and so on.
I’m not about to list the kind of things you can write to make money. A simple Google search will give you that. I’m going to share what I have learnt in my personal journey.
What I have discovered is that to make money as a writer, you need to have a plan. That’s something that people don’t talk about. It’s not enough to say you want to make money as a writer, how do you want to go about it? What skills do you have now? What are you capable of doing? What areas do you need to improve?
When I decided to become a freelance writer, what I knew how to do best was to write, edit and create magazines. I could do that from my sleep. So in the first few months of making that move, as I shared in a previous post, I made some thousands of Naira from being commissioned to write several articles for different magazines, and then the money stopped coming.
No one commissioned me to write any article or edit any magazine. The magazines I worked on at the time were free jobs. So I got stuck.
One day, the head of the Publications Team in my church asked me if I could work on a book for the team. She had been thinking of publishing a book but she did not know who could work on it.
I had never worked on a book before then. The closest thing which I had done in the past was to collate articles in a series to form an eBook. Even though I wasn’t 100% confident in my ability to bring this book to life, I took the opportunity.
Well, it wasn’t difficult to create the book. I learnt a lot from that process and even though the book could not be published eventually for reasons beyond the Publications Team’s control, I had gained a new skill.
A few months later, I was paid N5,000 to edit a book. Peanuts I know but I needed to build my portfolio. I have worked on several books since then and not only do I edit books, I can also create a book from scratch. Of course, my fee for this service has increased significantly.
From creating books, I also discovered that I could make money from writing social media copy which was something I had never done before. I also discovered making money opportunities that could become open to me once I increased my capacity and I began to develop myself.
Today, I write and edit books, write social media copy, manage social media accounts, create content strategy and I also train people to do all of this.
So have a plan. What can you do? What skills do you want to learn? Find ways to develop yourself. In my private coaching sessions, I share online resources that are great for writers who want to increase their capacity to earn. I can share these resources and much more with you when you book a coaching session
Another thing that isn’t emphasized when the topic of making money as a writer comes up is research. You need to have great research skills. It will drastically increase your capacity to earn as a writer.
I may have to do a separate post on how research skills are very important for any writer who wants to be successful but know that it is something you should take seriously. Not only does research expand your mind and gets your creative juices flowing, you can get hired by companies to carry out research.
I never thought much of my research skills until I was commissioned last year to conduct a research and write reports for a project that an international organization was about to launch in Nigeria. When I heard the amount that was to be paid, I was shocked. Today, the organization still calls me to work on their other projects.
Develop your research skills. It’s very important.
Next week, I will share some more tips with you and show you other ways I have been able to make money as a writer.
If you would like to book a coaching session with me for more in-depth information or get yourself positioned to earn a lot of money from writing, please send an email to [email protected]. We have a package for every budget. See you next week!