Reading time: About 3 minutes
Ask me if you can make money as a writer and I’ll tell you yes. But it won’t be in the way you expect…
I grew up poor. My parents scrambled to put enough food on the table to feed their kids, five of us. We lived in a good part of town, but my parents had bought our house when prices were very low. And they struggled with a mortgage all their lives.
Financial fear permeated my young life like a line of mold snaking its way through a block of cheese. As a result, I never wanted my own kids to face the scary thoughts I did as a child. I’ve always had a healthy respect for earning a living.
So that leads me to the inevitable question: can you make money as a writer?
Writers used to get good, well-paying jobs at newspapers. Back in the day, a metropolitan daily might hire somewhere between 100 and 200 reporters and editors, maybe more if the paper was really large. They paid union-scale wages and offered generous benefits plans. (I know. I got braces on my teeth when I was 30 years old, and my plan covered 80% of the cost — to the incredulity of my non-newspaper friends.)
And in those days, freelancers also had plenty of opportunity to earn a living. A bevy of magazines commissioned as many as a dozen articles a month, and they paid handsomely for them.
Those who didn’t have the stomach or aptitude for journalism could land corporate work in PR or communications departments. It wasn’t as exciting as journalism, but it paid better and — usually — had fewer drunken bosses.
Writing books was another option. It’s always been a tough gig, although smart people like June Callwood and Andrew Neiderman could get well-paying work doing ghostwriting. That said, not many people have ever made a lot of money with books, excluding the lucky famous few — people like Stephen King, Stephanie Meyer, James Patterson and Colleen Hoover. (Book writing is often called a “non-profit” industry.)
But the internet changed everything. Not that I’m complaining. Email is a godsend. I love researching with Google and AI. Life is easier. But making money as a writer? Not so much.
The biggest difference is that so many people in internet-land expect writing to be free. We read many useful, interesting stories, and we never have to pay for them. We can even read 10 articles a month from great newspapers, like the New York Times, without putting up a cent. (I enjoy it so much, however, that I pay for a digital subscription.)
So how do you make money as a writer? It’s hard. My friends who still work in newsrooms have seen staffing levels put on starvation diets, with numbers so skeletal they make me recall images from the bone church in Kutna Hora. Worse, the surviving reporters have to spend many hours on work for which they never signed up — blogging, shooting video, tweeting (or is that X-ing?).
Recent moves by U.S. president Donald Trump may also lead us to a worldwide recession, if not depression. Life will only get harder for writers if that’s what happens.
If you want to make it as a writer these days, you have to be as flexible as a circus acrobat. I’ve survived by doing a super wide range of work. First, I have my book, Your Happy First Draft, and my accountability group, Get It Done, for people who want to finish writing projects or learn how to write faster. I also coach and offer courses.
Research shows that people are happiest and most fulfilled when they find work that’s engaging to them. Here are five factors that William MacAskill, author of Doing Good Better and cofounder of the company 80,000 Hours suggests you consider:
- Independence: How much control do you have over how you go about your work?
- Sense of completion: How much does the job involve completing entire pieces of work so that your contribution to the end product is easily visible?
- Variety: Does the job require you to perform a range of different activities, using different skills and talents?
- Feedback from the job: How easy is it to know whether you’re performing well or badly?
- Contribution: How does your work “make a difference,” improving the well-being of other people?
Having independence is the most important factor for me, which is why I love being self-employed. But that doesn’t suit everyone. So, what do you do if you have a passion for writing and want to make a career of it?
Here’s what I suggest: Don’t quit your current job to become a writer.
Instead, continue working and make writing a kind of hobby for yourself. Building up enough of a network to become successfully self-employed can take several years. Do that work while you have the security of another job. See how many contacts and contracts you can build up. See how much you like it.
Or, here’s another approach you can take: Be really good at writing even if your employer doesn’t call you a writer. Writing is one of those basic life skills that will always pay off in both concrete and unexpected ways. You’ll spend less time on the job. You’ll communicate better with your boss and subordinates. You’ll be dramatically more effective in whatever you choose to do.
And if that doesn’t seem like enough, then write for yourself, without having to answer to anyone else. The internet and new technology have made blogging and self-publishing both workable and affordable. The good news? You no longer need permission to write. You just need determination.
If you liked this post, you’ll also like, Do you earn enough money as a writer?
This is a substantially updated version of a post that first appeared on my blog on Sept. 29/15.
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Need some help developing a better, more sustainable writing or editing routine? Learn about my three-month accountability program called Get It Done. There is turn-over each month, and priority will go to those who have applied first. You can go directly to the application form and you’ll hear back from me within 24 hours.
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My video podcast last week addressed how to know when you’re finished editing. You can watch the video or read the transcript, and you can also subscribe to my YouTube channel.
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Have you been able to make money as a writer? We can all learn from each other, so please, share your thoughts with my readers and me in the comments section, below. If you comment on today’s post (or any others) by May 31/25 , I’ll put you in a draw for a digital copy of my first book, 8 1/2 Steps to Writing Faster, Better. To enter, please scroll down to the comments, directly underneath the related posts links, below. You don’t have to join Disqus to post! Read my tutorial to learn how to post as a guest. (It’s easy!)
