Professional Development for the Professional Writer

I attended another workshop on marketing and promotion last Saturday run by Holly Roberts, USA Today Best Seller author. We can never get enough of this stuff, right?

In the fall, I attended one at our local Historical Novel Society meeting. I paid nothing for this one and gained a purse full of gold from Marylee McDonald’s stellar presentation.

I buy books on marketing and promotion. I read articles on marketing and promotion. I take classes when I can. Since this is not an area I feel confident in, I seek the information from knowledgeable others. As a professional writer, I have a responsibility to keep learning and growing. It’s my career, so I must assume the bulk of the responsibility for my success while being grateful for support from my publishers.

Every source says first write a good book. Well, I try. I do the best I can, but when I compare myself to Louise Penny, Jaqueline Winspear, Diane Mott Davidson, and others, I can see that my writing is not at that level. Yet. But I’m working on it. Honest.

However, the marketing thing can take over your life. At last Saturday’s Holly Roberts’ workshop, I learned so much about how to create a compelling ad, what I need to do on Facebook, and more. With four Facebook author pages, I need to up my game and post more content on each.

Okaaaay!

To figure out, maybe, how to be more efficient while being more effective with marketing and promotion, I am “attending” a Facebook group’s marketing strategies week-long focus beginning next week. For free! Maybe this one will be the magic bullet. Care to join me? Check out the 12-Minute Book Launch Challenge for yourself. 

I’ll be writing a limited series of what I’m learning/have learned about marketing and promotion. Come back next week for tips on building your mailing list and how to use it.

What are you doing that’s been effective for marketing your books without sucking up your whole life? Please share below.

Facebook: Are you struggling with the book marketing energy-time drain, too? Commiserate with Sharon Arthur Moore at http://bit.ly/2F6ntIO

Twitter: Are you struggling with the book marketing energy-time drain, too? Commiserate with @Good2Tweat at http://bit.ly/2F6ntIO

The Professional Writer Makes Money

Well, that’s the idea, isn’t it? We write these tomes, and we would like to be paid a working wage. In fact, many of us don’t consider ourselves “professional writers” until we’ve pulled down some royalties.

But the odds of making a living from writing are slim. And there is no one to petition to raise our minimum wage. Marketplace purchases decide your royalties.

Here are some facts I gathered from online research of surveys and polls about writers’ incomes.

One in ten authors can make a living from their writing without a supporting, secondary job.

The typical writer earns less than minimum wage.

17% of authors earn $0 a year despite 98% of them having something recently published.

5% of authors earn 42.3% of all writing income. That’s 95% of us sharing the remainder. Talk about the haves and the have nots.

Women writers earn 80% of what male writers earn.

77% of indie authors made $1000 a year.

1.3% of traditionally published authors earned $100,000 a year. But only 0.07% of indie published authors earned that amount.

Oh, there are more of these discouraging stats, but why go on. Your writing is almost certainly not going to support you. If it does, well, bully for you. For the rest of us, we’d better have a back-up plan.

These stats are the reason that fewer presses give advances to new authors. Most new authors don’t earn out the advance in future royalties. The publishers gave more generously in the past because the expectation of future books was that over time the money for the advance on the first book would be recovered by the publisher.

So what do writers turn to for earning a living wage while waiting to get into the 1.3% who do succeed financially?

The majority of writers I know have a job unrelated to writing. But the mortgage gets paid and the kids have milk to drink. In their “spare time” they crank out their books and indie or traditionally publish them. The dribbling royalties justify their identity as professional writer. I tell folks rude enough to ask what I earn that my royalties are in the hundreds not the tens of thousands.

A very large number of my professional writing friends supplement royalties by providing editing services for other writers. These are professionals who are using their talents with others’ words. That service is almost certainly going to return more than royalties. So some authors are able to quit their day jobs and focus on their own writing and ancillary writing, keeping, thus, to the same field.

A smaller number of professional writers I know of supplement royalties by offering other services and/or teaching on-line and in-person classes. I’m hoping to be in the latter category.

I was an educator for thirty-nine years. Even as an administrator, I taught whenever I had the opportunity. It’s in my blood. Therefore, teaching writing classes, for me, is not just about being a professional writer who is paid for her expertise (if not her writing), but it gives me pleasure to be part of another’s understanding of complex materials.

I have approached Writer University with a couple of ideas. Writer University is not just any on-line writing classes group. It began in 2005 when Mary Buckham and Laurie Schnebley Campbell connected over their desire to create quality, affordable on-line classes for writers. They have expanded course offerings and instructors over the years, but the quality remains at the same high level they always envisioned.

The classes are in the categories of business/craft classes, basics, master classes, super classes, and private classes. The topics range from plotting to writing synopses to working on the first draft to so much more. The classes are two- or four-week experiences. And the price is right! Most classes are as low as $35 for four weeks of instruction and targeted homework. These are some of the best classes I have ever taken for any price.

I would love to teach classes for this group. So, wish me luck as I plan and try out a course or two. I’ll be looking for a few hardy folks who want to take the class to help me refine it before making it a general offering. Are you one of them?

Please spread the word about this post. Thanks so much!

Facebook: Can you earn a living from royalties as an author? Well, maybe, but it’s not likely. So how do writers make money? http://bit.ly/2EKYWZI

Twitter: #Writers, tired of trying to live off paltry royalties? There are other ways to use your writing expertise and get paid for it. http://bit.ly/2EKYWZI

How to Become a Successful Writer

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Now, I suppose I need to define “successful”, right? Surprisingly, to many of you who clicked on this title, I am not talking about commercial success. Although, that may well follow once you are “successful” as delineated in this post.

To explain what successful writing means to me, let me refer you to a recent post I had on another of my blogs. In “Happiness is . . .”  I shared a Gandhi quote that is on a necklace I frequently wear. The quote is: “Happiness is when what you think and what you say and what you do are in harmony.” Alignment of these three elements means you are not conflicted. Conflict is the opposite of harmony.

That’s the point with writing success as well. Writing success is when what you think and what you say and what you do align.

I’ve been in many writing groups over the last few decades. The usual panoply typically presents itself. The groups are peopled by those who are hobby writers and those who are professional writers.

Hobby writers are more diverse than alike, whereas, professional writers tend to share more commonalities with one another than hobby writers share among themselves.

Just to be clear, hobby writers are fine. I am not dissing them or rejecting their right to be the kind of writers they are. Their goals differ from mine, but they are just as valid for them as mine are for me.

The difference isn’t publication. I know hobby writers who publish in small town papers, and I know professional writers who haven’t yet put out that first book. The difference runs deeper than publication.

The problem occurs when hobby writers fool themselves into thinking they are professional writers. They want to be professional writers, they say. They tell themselves and others they are professional writers. They even demonstrate some of the traits of professional writers. But they aren’t, and they are just fooling themselves, not the rest of us.

Does that sound harsh? I don’t mean it to be, but I value honesty in myself and in others. I am a professional writer, and I act like one.

A professional writer has S.M.A.R.T. writing goals. The goals are specific and measureable, attainable and realistic with a timeline for accomplishment and steps along the way. Hobby writers just want to write and appreciate positive feedback from writing group members that don’t require them to put out much effort beyond writing.

A professional writer knows about the business end of writing (record keeping, tax implications, and marketing/promotion) and puts pieces in place, like blogs or twitter accounts as part of their plan. They may not like the business end of it, but they inform themselves and gear up for when they need to enact elements. Hobby writers say they don’t want a “platform.”

A professional writer knows other writers beyond the writing group. Perhaps the person joins affinity groups on Facebook and/or follows particular blogs and interacts with other writers there. Likely they’ve joined local writing groups for professional development. Hobby writers stick to their crit group.

A professional writer views writing as shis job and acts accordingly. That means reading in the field and attending training sessions at a conference of from local writing groups. Perhaps they attend national writing conferences. The professional writer has collected a library of books about the craft of writing. Hobby writers don’t see a need to spend money on materials, registrations, or travel.

A professional writer claims the identity of writer and can explain to others what that means. A hobby writer simply claims the identity. As they say in the South, they are all hat and no cattle. They can’t talk about what it means to be a professional writer because they don’t know what that means and they can’t talk about the steps required to be a professional writer.

A professional writer, most importantly, writes. Must write. Finds time to write. Doesn’t let other things interfere with regular writing (mostly). Having a writing routine means producing more word count than hobby writers if only because professional writers treat writing as a job, not a hobby to be fit in when there’s time. Professional writers show up, consistently, ready to accomplish their work.

Again, hobby writing is fine. But don’t fool yourself. Be honest. And enjoy your hobby writing and sharing of it. Professional writing is no better (or worse) than hobby writing. But knowing for sure which you are, and thinking, acting, and doing the things that make you a hobby writer or professional writer, will ensure that alignment that leads to success. And success as a consistent professional writer will help you attain those S.M.A.R.T. goals.

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Agree? Disagree? Share in the comments below.

If you found this helpful, I’d appreciate a share or two. Thanks so much!

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Facebook: Are you a professional writer or a hobby writer? What’s the difference? Does it matter? Only if you want to be a professional writer. http://bit.ly/2yLUBFp

Twitter: #Writers are either hobby writers or professional writers. Which are you? @Good2Tweat offers some thoughts http://bit.ly/2yLUBFp