What I’m reading: Night Crawler by Diane Parkin
What’s on the iPod: Valley of Tomorrow by Needtobreathe
Yesterday was a busy day. I had three interviews for an article plus a small project to finish up in between all the calls. I managed to get some research cobbled together for the calls, so I’m happy where the focus of the upcoming article is going. Also, I ruminated and planned with a fellow writer on a new project. Things are gelling nicely.
I read my way around the blogs and saw tons of advice and tips for getting more work. Peter Bowerman practically laid a gold mine in our laps with his post about a lucrative, untapped market. Jenn Mattern talked about choosing blogs to follow based on your own goals. One of Jenn’s regulars – Chris Bibey – gave a short-and-sweet primer on networking in person. Anne Wayman went into how to write a query letter. She goes so far as to post – regularly – some vetted job listings. And my own blog post on Anne’s site gives you an easy alternative to content farm work. Add to all this a huge number of courses, coaches, how-to books, and paid mentors just waiting to help you find your way.
So now the big question, writer – are you going to do the work?
It’s not for lack of information – free information – and step-by-step guidance or mentoring. It’s for lack of action, commitment, or interest that writing careers founder. The tools are there. You can hire all the coaches you want, take all the courses you desire, but if you’re not willing to put fingers to keyboard, none of it will matter.
Some facts about your writing career:
1. It’s not up to us to make it work for you. I love helping you. So does every writer who answers your questions, lends you a hand, or offers you a referral. However, none of us are in charge of your career. You are. None of us have any investment in your success beyond wanting it for you. That’s all on you.
2. Inertia nets inertia. If you sit idle waiting for clients to find you, you’ll be in that same holding pattern for eons. If you think you’ll mark time in a content farm until you’re “discovered”, you’ll be in that same content farm for eternity. No one “discovers” you unless you give them a map and a trail of bread crumbs.
3. Your marketing and work processes are up to you. We can tell you all day what we’re doing to gain business and increase earnings. But what works for me isn’t always going to fit your style. I can tell you all day how great it is for me to work for trade publications. If you’re not interested, it won’t work for you. Find your own niche and your own way of doing things.
4. There is no cookie-cutter template for success. See my last point. There is no guarantee that what I do to gain clients will net you the same result. You may not have the same personality I do, or you may be better at cold calling than I am. Use your own strengths to define your own path to success.
Writers, what advice has always worked for you? What advice never did?
13 responses to “Writer, Help Thyself”
Excellent points, especially number 1.
The generosity of writerly advisors online never fails to impress me, but some newer writers (in fairness, only a few) come into the business with a sense of entitlement, almost – they feel that those who are successful should spread their success around, hand some stuff to them on a plate, and that they have just as much 'right' to be paid for their writing as others.
One of the best pieces of advice I have heard is that journalism does not owe you a living, and I think that goes for publishing in a wider sense too.
Alex.
Wonderful advice, Alex! And I've observed similar behavior, though thankfully never directly. No one is entitled to free help – or free anything. I've heard tales of new writers expecting (and in a few cases, demanding) veterans hand over their time, their advice, and in a few odd cases, their clients.
We can both guess how the last one worked out. LOL
Lori, I have to say that you have given me tons of advice and I've used some of that advice (And from other writers too). I thank you so much for that, by the way. But, I've done my own leg-work, I busted my own butt in my own career. That's the way it should be.
Advice that has never worked for me: cold calling. I don't have the temperament for it and never will. So any marketing program that depends on cold calling for success is doomed to fail with me from the start.
Advice that works for me again and again: targeted direct mail campaigns with a soft offer of an informational bait piece. There are books, ebooks, coaches, and bloggers who dispense this particular piece of advice, and tailored to a writer's goals and skills, it can be a powerful way to build a business.
Wendy, you're welcome. I hope you didn't think I meant you. It's the folks who say "You never tell us how to get better jobs! Where are they?" We tell them – repeatedly. It's time they realize it's up to them to take the advice and run with it (or amend it as needed).
Eileen, same. I loathe cold calling. LOATHE it. I will say getting a person on the phone does work, but I'd rather walk through boiling water.
"Find a niche and stay in it" — I think it's bullshit. I am the anti-niche. I follow whatever interests me and get paid for it. In fact, during the financial meltdown, it was a lot of the niche writers who found themselves out on the street with no work, and the Renaissance writers (not those who write about the time period, but those who write in various arenas) who kept working.
Cold-calling also doesn't work for me. Direct mail does, especially with follow-up postcards. The post-cards usually get more response than the DM.
It is, isn't it? I have several niches. Each time I get bored, I find a new one. I guess I'm multi-niched. 🙂
Interesting about the follow-up postcards. I'm going to give that a go myself.
Lori, I knew exactly what you were talking about. Sometimes, it's as if you're hoarding some kind of Top-secret website, that no one else is privy to.
Yet all they need to do is open their eyes and search a little….
Devon's comment reminded me of a writer friend who told me I was stupid for focusing so much on one field. I still did business writing and general feature writing and other things, but the bulk of my work was (and still is) in one certain area. She actually said, "Don't put all of your eggs in one basket."
Fast-forward a few years, and she was writing almost exclusively for one very specialized sector. Due to the economy (this was late 2001 early 2002 when most companies slashed ad budgets) several of my regular markets folded (only one was in my main area of interest). The same person – raking in the cash from one or two huge clients in her field – said, "You spread yourself too thin. You should have specialized on one area, like me."
She denied ever having given me the opposite advice.
In the end I think the only advice that might work is to be true to yourself. Seek out work that interests you. Not only will your enthusiasm for the subject shine through, but you'll enjoy your job.
The best foundational advice for me came from Peter Bowerman's philosophy on pricing in the original Well-Fed Writer. He made me feel justified to set my rates quite a bit higher than instinct would have led me early on. I also loved and benefited massively from his cold-calling technique, but CC'ing clearly polarizes people, and it's by no means a guarantor or requirement for success. (Same thing with niche vs. nicheless. I count myself among the latter, but hey, whatever works!)
It's always worth experimenting with something new, but if you hate it or don't find results from it, for heaven's sake there's no shame in abandoning it. Like Tom Robbins wrote in Still Life with Woodpecker, "There are two mantras, Yum and Yuck. Mine is Yum."
Well done, Lori.
Paula, I remember your mentioning her before. It cracked me up that she's got all the answers and each time, the answer changes. 🙂 Maybe for her that's true, but maybe she needs to stop giving advice. LOL
Peter does a great job at laying that out, Jake, I agree. I'm just a chicken. When I sold real estate, it was the part of the job I hated most. I would have bought and sold homes myself to avoid that damned phone.
I think I should give it another try, though.
Good seeing you, Joseph! How are you?