To ask if anyone gets paid to write?

[RoseGoldEagle]

I’m not sure I want to go back to my regular job after I have DC2, and was thinking about trying to make some money from writing. I don’t need to make a fortune. Does anyone do this, and can I be cheeky enough to ask how you got into it, how easy it is to find someone to pay you for what you write, and how much you can earn? Sorry for posting in AIBU but thought I’d get more responses here.

I dont personally but I have a friend who does. Her genre is rather niche and its um.. 'literotica' but she basically charges £25 per 1k words and will write up to 10k.

I'm assuming you mean to write for newspapers, magazines and online as opposed to books? So I know people who do it and who make a living from it, the thing is to do your research, be versatile and constantly be submitting. It is an extremely hard existence and the ones that earn a wage every month do it with a mixture of articles, blogging and giving talks. The people I know making money from books are putting out three books a year and paying editors, cover designers and marketing people, they're all self published. It took a long time for any of them to make money tbh, and they work very very long days. Can you go PT instead? It's a huge risk but saying that people do it. Best of luck with whatever you decide

I do, I'm a copywriter and make a good living. Took me about 5 years to build the business up to where it is now and it very much helped that I had a niche to start off with.

I do scientific writing. You need a PhD typically :).
There's copy editing which a kind of marketing writing.
There's technical writing (need Geek credentials to do this).
I may move into a different type of report writing (next year maybe job change). Plain English & clear messages.

Dh does, for magazines mostly. Money is awful, a lot less than minimum wage. It's flexible and fits in with the dc though.

I write kids books to commission, ie, ‘can you write a Halloween activity book’ or ‘Can you write a rhyming book about unicorns by next Tuesday’ - for example. Some are fun and come easily. Others are long and harder (annuals!) I write non fiction too. Pen for hire basically. Freelance so either feast or famine and am not main breadwinner. Lot of competition. You’re only as good as your last project. Contacts built up over years in-house in publishing.

Unless you have a background in journalism or copywriting, with existing contacts, I think you might struggle. There's a lot of competition out there with excellent contacts. Unless you have skills in a niche area and can write in that field, it may take a long time and lots of effort to build up enough contacts to make a decent living.

Writing is not the easy job every thinks it is. You have to build contacts, preferably have a niche, and really be incredible at what you do. Do you have a degree in English / Languages / Creative Writing or any writing experience?

Source: Am a writer.

I've made a fair bit of money self publishing on Kindle. Top up income really but about £1500 per book on average.

I write m/m fiction.

Thanks for all the honest advice. A large part of my current job involves technical writing (I trained as a medic) so I could potentially continue with that, though I also love creative writing (no specific qualifications in this but I write a lot in my free time and think I’m good at it- though I guess I would say that!).

I’m not the main bread-winner and we could afford for me not to work, so we wouldn’t be relying on my income from this, though of course making some money from it would be good! I don’t think it would be easy fashiondevotee, I certainly wouldn’t expect to get anything close to my current salary, but thought it worth exploring more flexible options that I would enjoy and that would allow me to spend more time with my children. Very useful to know that I may struggle without contacts though.

I might see if I can get anything published while I’m still in my current job to test the waters! Thanks again for all the advice, fascinating to hear what you all do!

Creative writing: you need to have something to say, something to create.

I attended a talk by Kurt Vonnegut who said something that only seems obvious now, in recent years since I've tried to do creative things: he couldn't help but write. The writing came (comes) of itself.

If it's not bursting out of you, forcing itself out, then I don't know how creative writing happens or stays sustained. I know I don't have that ability.

I did. It’s tough and you need to be really good, prepared to write about boring things and be very resilient.

Editor forgot to commission copy? Don’t worry, you’ll write it over the weekend. Editor doesn’t know what they want? You’ll do rewrites for free.

What sort of writing do you want to do?

I would love to know where to start looking for a job that involves writing. I’d love to copy edit, copy write and write creatively but I’ve never known where to begin.

I commission writers for a national. That’s great that you already do some writing as part of your role, and having a specialism will really help. I would focus on medical/health writing, segue into lifestyle writing (so softer, wellbeing stuff for supps and magazines - this will allow you to be more creative) and do creative writing on the side. You can write short stories for some magazines eg women’s weeklies but they are very formulaic and not well paid. I would also think about starting a blog asbits an easy way for commissioning editors to get an idea of your tone/style. But journalism is very competitive, and I think with creative writing, it’s even harder from an actually making money perspective. I would do it on the side of your job and see how it goes.

*as it’s

lljkk I like that. Writing is definitely a compulsion for me, it’s harder to fit in now that family life is busier, but I’d feel lost if I couldn’t write. Have always just done it for pleasure, and I know I always will, as I’m sure many people do - I know it doesn’t necessarily mean I’m any good. I can see how writing on a topic you hadn’t chosen or to a tight deadline may not be as enjoyable though!

OhWhatIsItThisTime I do technical writing at the moment but would love to get paid to write fiction- I suppose that’s the ultimate dream!

CaptainBrickbeard yes that’s where I struggle too- it’s getting that ‘in’ in the first place, or knowing who to contact/where to send a piece, just where to start really. There seem to be websites that pay you to write on certain topics (of course they only pay you if they’re any good and they publish them!), so I might send a few things off, at least I’ll get a feel for how the process works (and it may be best to get the soul crushing rejections while I still have a job!!)

Thanks Bellendejour that’s really helpful

I find writing on an assigned topic much easier. I know what the destination is and how to structure it.
KV said the stories just poured out of him. He couldn't not write.

The thing about creative writing is it's long periods of sustained writing, without knowing if there will be any reward at the end. No first-time novelist gets an advance. Short stories or poetry are badly paid, if paid at all. Think Women's Weekly (one of the few magazines to publish short stories) is around £100 a story and I'm sure I read somewhere that they're now demanding the rights so you can't re-sell. For reference, I routinely get paid between 50 - 100 an hour for copywriting (and I'm not particularly expensive).

There are a couple of good magazines out there, Writing and Writers' Forum, worth getting a hold of a couple of issues as they talk about the different markets.

I've been writing articles for a very local magazine for the past three years - generally reviews of plays or interesting local articles - I get between £15 and £20 for each one but the perks are free theatre tickets and meals, as well as meeting some interesting people. Not a full time salary by any means but a bit extra on top of my other job

I write website content. Lots of different things from blogs on travel insurance to product descriptions for a bathroom retailer.

I haven't done a journalism degree or a specific copywriting course but I have a degree.

Getting started is the hard bit as there are Millions of people out there who think they can do it. And millions of clients who want 500 words for 99p. There are also lots of non-native English speaking "writers" who will happily work for pennies. (What they write is generally total crap, but clients get seduced by the cheap rates).

LonnyVonnyWilsonFrickett do you mind if I ask how you got into copywriting? Did you set up your own business?

I do- Education writing. I don't do this full time as it's not enough money but it earns me 3-500 pounds per month extra. This goes into a treat fund which makes a big difference to our lives but I don't rely on it for making ends meet.
I got into it when living overseas, and expanded it into my own business when we returned to the Uk. It is related to my initial career.

Tomhazard how much time do you have to spend on writing to earn that kind of money, and would there be the potential to do more if you wanted to, or is there a limit to how much of a demand there is? Thanks!

I used to write the odd Mills and Boon. They would pay about £800 to a grand about 10 years ago.
You have to really research your genre with them and stick to their formats.
You submit the first three chapters and email it to them alongside a synopsis. They won't necessarily give you constructive criticism, just a yay or nay.
I'm going down the self published route now, which is probably a lot less money unless I make it a goody and promote then tell out of it.