Recently I had the opportunity to be at the Chandigarh Literary Fest. To my utter surprise, I discovered a lot of writers were writing only part-time. They were apprehensive about not getting enough money if they pursued writing as a full-time career. This forced them to take up jobs, leaving them with little or no time to write. It is a pity those writing full-time accepted being broke or finding it difficult to make both ends meet.
Nearly all of us dream to make a living out of doing what we love. Writing is one of the most flexible jobs and it is very convenient for all the stay at home moms. Since most of the moms have already carved a niche for themselves in the area, they just need to go get it. “To earn well by writing, you need to be focused, have authority and expertise in your area, one needs to be a word machine” says Khushwant Singh writer of Turbaned Tornado and a full-time author. “Writing happens to be a solitary job, one needs to treat every piece as a new challenge” he further adds.
Since you are getting back in the game after a break, you cannot expect to get writing assignments from top-notch newspapers and magazines, but that shouldn’t be a stopping agent, there are a lot of avenues, details on some:
Blogging:
Don’t be shy from putting up ads on your blog. Make sure you put them where they are visible to your readers and seem more effective. Google Adsense if used effectively, alone can get you around Rs 30,000 or more every month. Blogging is only a part-time job; apart from that you can take up various other writing assignments. You need to experiment and find out ways to earn from a blog successfully. It can be a little difficult in the beginning but patience always pays.
Content writing:
With the ever increasing number of businesses, the demand of content writers is at its peak. And it will keep increasing. Content writing is all about providing valid and necessary information. You need to know how to communicate with your readers in an interesting way and keep them engaged.
Courses:
Combine your writing skills with a set of other skills you already have, you can write courses on that and sell them. These courses can be sold digitally as well. For example if you are a physics graduate with a flair for writing start working on a course on how to make physics easy for dummies. Arun Soni, limca book record holder for writing maximum number of computer books for children says, “Computers interested me, I started a computer center and used to prepare notes for my students, these notes were eventually published as books.”
Self-publish
Don’t wait for people to find you, make your presence felt. You can self-publish your book online and sell the e-book on various sites. People get to know about you, your writing and recognize you. If you are really good at it, nothing can stop you from earning money out of it.
Look for an agent:
If you’re looking to sell your work to a publisher, an agent will help you market yourself. Agents also have industry connections, which mean they can jump through all the necessary hoops to get your manuscript to the right person.