How to earn money as a writer
On our Make It Happen day this week, it’s not surprising that the current challenges came up in conversation.
Some attending are in demand because of the Coronavirus, as people need help in their area of specialism. And others are adapting to the change in working and looking at the opportunities that are presenting themselves right now.
I have one client who is using this unexpected situation to finally get his book done, as he has less demands on his time.
Although I get that not everyone is in this situation. Unless you can live off your savings, have other income streams, or money isn’t a worry for you, then squirrelling yourself away to write may not be the top of your agenda.
But I do believe that IT IS a good time to write a book. If nothing else, it will help you get your ducks in a row.
This is a perfect time to take your intellectual property out of your head and into a system or a process.
And if you get clear on what you do well, it will give you something you can confidently sell.
How to earn money as a writer
If you do decide to write your book right now, I suggest you consider doing it differently if you want to earn money as a writer and whilst you write it.
On the Make It Happen day, we discussed creating a course from a book, and this is one example.
If you’ve already written your book, you may choose to turn the content into a course (which I’m working on right now). And if you haven’t written your book yet, you could either create your course first, then write your book, or do both at the same time.
In 2014, when I wrote Your Book is the Hook, I did the latter. I created the outline for an online programme. I wrote a sales page, I ran a webinar, sold the programme, and then I created the content as I ran it.
When you have an imposed deadline for an upcoming webinar, this certainly spurs you to get the writing done. There’s no time for excuses!
Through using this process, I served dozens of people who wanted help to write their book, and sought their feedback and questions as I ran the programme. This helped to develop the book concepts further.
I didn’t want to shut myself away and write for months. I wanted a quick solution, feedback on my concepts, and to help other people at the same time as writing it. My aim was to build momentum and create the energy that was needed to complete it.
It gave me a push and I quickly wrote and published this book in six months. I worked out my process, and generated £16,743 in income as I wrote it. And I’ll be honest, I was using a quick and dirty technique, and am doing it very differently now! But I’d like to reiterate that, although this may sound complex, it can be relatively easy.
Here’s another example. When Sheryl Andrews wrote her book, Manage Your Critic a few years ago, I helped her to create a 21-day programme, which then funded the publishing. The webinar gave her the feedback and the confidence that she was writing in a way that worked for her audience. On the Make It Happen day, she created the outline for another new course and a task list to make it happen. She plans to launch it next week.
When Kate Barrett wrote her book, she used a sponsorship model to help fund her book.
Others have used crowdfunding, used the opportunity to reach new one-to-one clients with their ideas, run webinars, podcasts, a video blog – raising their profile and visibility…
… All BEFORE they’ve written their book and got it published.
How will you earn money as a writer?
There are many ways that you can use this time as the opportunity to refocus – what are you going to do to earn money as a writer?
How can you take your ideas and nuggets out of your head and help people who need it?
If you’re writing your book and you want to pick my brains on how to do it a different way and earn money as a writer, then let’s chat about how I can help.