What I’m reading: Spartina by John Casey (it’s getting good now)
What’s on the iPod: Take it to the Limit by The Eagles
Talking with a writer chum yesterday was great. In a short conversation, we were both able to brainstorm some new ideas to recoup what we’d considered losses. In his case, there was a huge project that went south right before any payment was due. And he’s now intent on making hay from the experience.
That’s the beauty of what we do. There’s a story even in the failure of a project to give us the results we’d hoped for. If you have a lousy experience with a client, that’s a how-to article for a writer’s magazine (lessons learned the hard way are often great stories that other writers can learn from). If your book doesn’t sell because of bad publisher behavior, there’s another story. If your career hits a snag, there’s a book in how you survived in a tough economy as an unemployed writer. If you can conceive it, there’s probably a market for it.
Careers have been made around lessons learned. If you’ve worked your way from writer to writing coach to instructor, you’ve created your own market based on the trip you’ve taken from freelancer to teacher. Every time you screwed up, got screwed over, or managed despite it all to reach your goal, you gained experience that’s now marketable. For example, I once wrote an article on Getting Publications to Pay for Writer’s Digest. That came from finding a way to get my invoices noticed.
What lessons have you or can you turn into saleable commodities?
8 responses to “Creating Your Market”
I'm not a full-time freelancer, but I get many article ideas from problems that come up. My favorite example is an article I published titled "How to Deal with a Heinous Co-Worker." Actually, that one came from listening to my sister's hellish experience at her last job.
Well, funny you should ask. My ISP was down from 2 PM yesterday until 7 AM this morning & went down again about an hour ago for another 30 minutes.
I am smack dab in the middle of research for a white paper, had 2 blog posts due today.
I figured I could go crazy starting and stopping or I could write the blog posts offline and work on other offline projects to clear up time to crank out the research when I have access.
And, yes, I just got another post idea for my blog! Make lemonade, baby! 🙂
I recently gave some very honest advice to newcomers publishing in a field that used to be mine. I was hesitant to come off as failed or bitter but in the end I shared my mistakes and regrets as well as my victories. To my relief, the writers were very appreciative and said it was helpful. Now I'm thinking about writing an article on the subject.
Of course, I always want to blog about current client stuff – but in the interest of discretion, I usually don't. Not that I'm grandiose enough to think my clients faithfully read my blog, but on the off chance they do, I bite my tongue. 🙂
My biggest project coming up this summer is one that came about from my idea pitched to the company. They stated that they never even thought about doing something like that. They probably wouldn't have done a project like that if I hadn't given them the idea. Well, maybe they would have thought it, but it probably wouldn't be until years down the line.
I should say I can write about what's the next thing to do when a great idea just came into your head before anybody thinks and writes about it.
LOL Trading Plan Template, that's a terrific idea. 🙂
Wendy, that's great! It's nice when you come up with something new like that, isn't it?
Valerie, if it's advice that's well received or valuable, go for it!
Cathy, I love it! Lemonade indeed, baby! 🙂
Sarah, that's hysterical! It's sometimes in those little moments that the best ideas are formed.
Lori–dind't take me long to make lemondade-my post
http://ping.fm/3xitJ
🙂
I saw – LOVE it, Cathy!