There are millions of people around the world that want nothing more than to give up on their day jobs and try and make it in the world of writing. It’s not hard to understand why – it allows creativity to flow, it can be be done easily at home, and it means having a passive source of income potentially for years if the writing does find an audience.
Having a dream and actually making a career out of writing are two completely different things, however, and it can take some serious dedication and commitment to make in the world of professional writing. Here we will look at what it takes to become take up writing as a career.
Brush Up On Writing
It may seem obvious, but there are many writers out there that fail because of bad grammar or punctuation, so it’s important to have a powerful grasp of the language being used for the writing. Autocorrect and other tools can only do so much, and it’s up to the writer to take the time to ensure that their writing is up to standard for all their accessible works.
Find a Niche
This is arguably the most important part of the process, and what sets amateur writers apart from the professionals. Like any career in the arts, it’s vital to discover a specific niche and write specifically for that niche.
Many wrongly believe that writing for the broadest audience possible is the best way to go about it, but the truth is that it’s far better to instead find a smaller niche that has passionate fans that will follow a writer’s work for years. Finding a niche means doing a lot of research and creating work that strikes a balance between the writer’s strengths and how well the writing may be received by the niche in question.
Self-Publishing
There was once a time when getting a book out into the general public meant having to find a decent publishing agency and hoping that they would be interested enough to have the book published. And while self-publishing has always been an option, it was traditionally quite difficult to pull off.
That has all changed in recent years thanks to the rise of the internet, where online store-fronts like Amazon now allow people to take their work and put it in front of an audience without needing to first go through a middleman. This is highly recommended for writers that aren’t interested in putting their work into physical media, and are more than happy to work with e-books wherever possible.
Build A Portfolio Online
One of the first things that people do when they discover something new is search for it online. For example, if a reader comes across a small novella or short story, they may want to search up the author that see if they might have any more work available while they’re not spending time playing the latest mobile casino in the Philippines.
This is why it can pay out in the long term to have a decent website up and running, combined with a professional portfolio complete with snippets of work. Thankfully, building a website has never been easier, and it’s now more than possible to create a great portfolio using free tools that can be found online.
