How would you recommend a young writer to make a profit off of their work? I'm unemployed and want something to make an early living off of.
Okay, so, my answer may be quite disheartening, but instead of being discouraged by it I expect all yâall young writers looking to make some cash to decide this will only mean you will work harder and not ever give up. In this line of work, you have to hustle.
There are ways young writers can make money. But those ways are tough and discouraging and require a shit ton of work. If youâre smart, you will pursue just about every option there is.
1. Writing Competitions/Contests
There are approximately fifty zillion of these things, all with varying rewards (many of which actually arenât monetary). All of them have different restrictions (must be a certain genre, the author must be living in a certain place/be of a certain age, the topic must be on something specific, etc). And the only ones that are easy to find, open to most people, and have a good monetary reward are pretty much always the ones that have an entry fee. Usually entry fees are between $5-50, most often around $20. There are a good number of free writing competitions, but those are the ones with the most restrictions on them.
Writing competitions are (usually) different from writing contests. âContestsâ are usually the ones held by really selective literary magazines that p much no one reads, and theyâre looking for only the snootiest, driest literature there is. Often these mags will pay you in publication/a number of copies of the issue where your story will be. They also probably want rights to your story until after Jesus comes.
Writing competitions are usually for genre stories. Theyâll call for a specific genre, a specific word count, and those are pretty much the only restrictions. The rewards will vary from a few hundred dollars up to about $3,000 for popular publications like Writerâs Digest. (The ones that offer more than that are mostly grants, which are an entirely different beast I donât know nearly enough about to speak on.) Unfortunately, they also have a huge number of applicants, so thereâs a lot more competition.
Most of these contests/competitions are for short fiction, poetry, or short non-fiction (essays, basically), so if you only write novels or screenplays, youâre (mostly) out of luck.
BE CAREFUL. As many reputable contests are out there, there are twice as many scams. Be careful.
Resources on writing contests/competitions:
Writerâs Digest Competitions
Poetâs & Writerâs Grants and Awards list (a great resource for those super snooty litmags)
Poetâs & Writerâs Submission Calendar
20 Tips for Winning Writing Contests
(NO ENTRY FEE) List of 27 Reputable, Free Writing Contests
(NO ENTRY FEE) Freelancewriting.comâs Creative Writing Contest List
Iâm not even half way down the first google page there are so many just look
Freelance writing is multi-faceted. It can refer to blogging, writing articles, writing for social media, copywriting, etc. Journalism kind of stuff. I have limited experience with thisânot with doing those things, just with getting paid for itâbut there may be more input from people in the notes, so make sure you check that out.
In a similar vein, you can also try freelance transcription, where you basically listen to/watch a recording and transcribe whatâs said in the recording. This is more difficult than it sounds. But if you have a wpm of 80+ and great hearing (and a lot of patience), go for it.
Beware of scamsâanything that wants you to pay to get a job is not a real job.
Freelancewriting.com/freelancejobs
Freelance Transcription Jobs
This is one wild beast that should not be entered into lightly. If you publish something, it will always be in your publishing history. Even if you donât sell anything. And with even more self-pub/e-pub stories out there than there are competitions, you really, really have to work your ass off to make decent money self-pubbing.Â
Itâs recommended that you only self-publish if you: have worked for an extended period of time on this piece (years), have had professional eyes look over it (more than once), have done your homework on which self-publishing sites you want to use, are prepared to do all the work necessary to see to the success of the piece (editing, formatting, design, promotion, etc), have a good reason for choosing to self-publish (i.e. not because youâre impatient, bitter at being rejected, unwilling to put the work in, etc.)
If you are sure you want to self-publish, here are some resources:
25 Things You Should Know Before Self-Publishing
Writerâs Digest Best 101 on Self-Publishing + Resources
52 Great Blogs for Self-Publishers
Thereâs this book called The Self-Publisherâs Ultimate Resource Guide
Also check out YouTube because a lot of self-pubbed authors go there to promote, and they have videos talking about their self-publishing journey, so you can learn from their mistakes/emulate their successes
Iâm mostly going to be talking about Patreon here because thatâs really the only thing in this category I have experience with. As far as Iâve found, this is the most conducive site to crowdsourcing for writers who donât necessarily want to publish a book. I donât even think itâs technically crowdsourcing.
Patreon is a way for your supporters to support you. It can be for anything. You can write short stories, create art, make tutorials, etc etc. You actually donât even have to do anything if youâve got people willing to give you money for that. Set up rewards that your patrons will receive when they pledge a certain amount (exclusive content, physical rewards, etc).
There are two ways to find supporters: connecting with other creators on Patreon, and getting in touch with supporters youâve already established (friends, family, fans). I donât know much about connecting with people through Patreon because I just havenât put much effort into it so far.Â
As for reaching out to other supporters, a great way to do this is through social media. Network with fellow creators/consumers through sites like here on tumblr, fictionpress, wattpad/figment, fanfiction sites, Twitter, YouTube, etc. Also, if you can stand it, tell your family. No one wants to support you more than your sweet grandmother who is deep-pocketed, near-sighted, and technologically impaired.
Most importantly, establish yourself where your target audience gathers. Put out as much original content as possible. Make a name for yourselfâwhich brings me to my next point.
5. Social Media and Writing-Adjacent Work
A lot of the sites I listed that you should establish yourself on have ways to make some change if your site gets some traffic. You can put ads on your tumblr blog (or on your fictionpress, I think), you can monetize youtube videos, and the like. You have to get a lot of traffic to make some decent money off of ads, but itâs something. And itâs always good to promote yourself anyway.
As for writing-adjacent work: on the internet, where many people live nowadays and where indie creators have the best chance of making some money, there is a lot vying for your audienceâs attention. Itâs good to have a shorter, more attention-grabbing service to offer that is relevant to your writing that will draw your audience to you. Basically anything that gives you authority as a creator and interests people that might also be interested in what youâre creating.
For example: create a writing advice blog, build your writerly âbrandâ on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, tumblr, offer freelance editing, and more that I canât think of off the top of my head.
Each of these things requires a great deal of work for a lot of initial rejection and not a lot of initial reward. However, if you pursue many or all of these things and really dedicate yourself to them, you will eventually get a payoff.
