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Writing is your business

A writer running a writing business is paid for what she produces.

Some writers lose track of this basic tenet and wonder why they are broke most of the time even though they are so busy they have little time for sleep or food. They are writing machines and will not stop until someone pulls the plug and the screen goes blank.

You need to remember the biggest single asset your writing business has is you. Without you and your mind there will be no writing business. Your name will not appear anywhere and nobody will know who you were. This will happen if you do not carry yourself as a business person whose product is you.

I deal with this in my one-to-one writing training programmes.

So, writing is your business. Your lifeblood is that tiny difference between what something costs to make and what someone will pay you to receive and use. Your cost of production is basically the cost of keeping yourself alive with enough heat water food and comfort as you need or desire.

That, and the cost of materials like a computer and peripherals, a few notebooks and pens, a phone and a decent connection to the web make up the bulk of your costs.

Your revenue depends on what you can extract from someone with a pulse and a chequebook, credit card, or cash.

It doesn’t really matter if the person is a publisher, a TV producer or a Hollywood studio seeking to buy the rights of your book on the life of your neighbours. It’s all cash, if you can get it.

To get to the selling fair, ask yourself what is not being published. Could you write it? And if you could --- as you probably might as a professional writer --- would anyone buy it? Is that the real reason that nobody is writing it anyway? There is no market for it?

To find out, you should network at writers’ readings and literary events to see what other writers are doing. Not in a devious way, but as a business person intent on gathering current market information.

You might find that historical romances may be the hot item in two years time and you can begin preparing your modest bodice-ripper for readers to enjoy.

Most writers welcome intelligent questions on their work. Do ask when the opportunity arises. And make that opportunity arise by getting out of your cave when the moment arrives.

Say that you are a writer yourself and you will receive the respect of your peers. Give a little inside information away, any little bit you have gathered will do, and seek reciprocal comment from your new acquaintances.

You can create continuing relationships with your writing peers in this way that will connect you with friendly humans and end your isolation as a writer.

Writing is your business and the sooner you make friends with other business people who are writers the better for you and your business.

© Brendan Nolan 2009
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