What kind of writing sells

Amateur theatre companies will accept the occasional manuscript, but there's very little income in that. Radio is a market, if you can get in.

There's also competitions. Poetry writers poets have the unenviable position of being the lowest paid writers in the entire writing business. Poetry simply doesn't sell, even if many read poetry. Many poetry writers find themselves paying to enter contests where the top prize is being published and get a complimentary copy of the magazine -- or in the worst cases, be asked to buy the resulting anthology afterwards that only the submitting authors will be interested in buying.

A number of poetry websites and e-zines purchase the occasional poem for small sums, but poetry writing cannot be called paid work for the vast majority of the writers who indulge in it. Resume writers are a small subgroup of business writers who specialise in helping other people present themselves; the customers are exclusively high-income business workers looking for a new job. These writers work as independent consultants or in resume-writing companies; there are a large number of those.

A resume writer's job is to take the information given by the customer, interview the customer to find further information, and then reshape the result to focus on the customer's best sides and most important accomplishments. These resumes are the customer's key to be considered for very well paid and prestigious jobs, and writing them is a job for writers well-versed in the relevant business language and career coaching. The work is, like most business writing, well paid. Reviewers are expected to have very good knowledge of their subject.

Be it books, movies, cars or computer models; the reviewer must be both informative and entertaining without -- visibly -- be repeating himself from review to review. Reviewing has nearly as many writers as the product genres have enthusiasts, so getting a regular--paying--gig can be difficult for freelancers. The pay for freelance reviewing is at best mediocre. Critics of events manage somewhat better; their work is more profiled and can make them celebrities on a certain level.

Many a website is based on free reviews provided by enthusiasts! In larger newspapers and magazines staff writers usually provide the reviews, but freelancers do get in the occasional job. Screenwriters are the most numerous group of scriptwriters.

They write scripts for movies and television, and when the movies or TV series make a hit the writers responsible can make tidy earnings as well.

Getting a script accepted is as hard as getting a book manuscript published; only one in a hundred submitted scripts are accepted for production.

Not to mention that many productions never make it to a screen. For getting movie scripts accepted, it is usually considered crucial to live in the vicinity of the studios in order to be able to do changes during the production; this explains why the majority of US screenwriters seem to be living in Los Angeles.

Networking is very important. Songwriters are seldom paid much for the texts they write; a successful writer with several decently selling musicians or studios as customers can make a living, but for most the song writing is just a side income. Many songwriters are musicians in other respects as well. Recording studios are the most frequent customers and pay at least moderately well, while a number of well-doing music artists buy material from writers with a reputation in the trade.

As with screenwriting, living close enough to the customers is important. Speechwriters are essential for covering up the fact that many leaders can't write speeches for larger audiences. Top-notch marketing bureaux and political parties keep a number of excellent speechwriters on their staff, while some freelancers work one-to-one with speakers who are known to the public for one reason or another.

Writing for CEOs and board leaders can be very financially rewarding, but requires expert knowledge of both topic and the speaker's style. People on this level often have writers on their staff just for this purpose. Staff writers are writers with full time engagements -- permanent or otherwise -- in the staff of larger newspapers, magazines, marketing bureaus, publishing houses and in some cases other types of companies with permanent needs for writing work.

A staff job means that you are a hired hand with the pleasant inherent job security, but it also means that you'll be told what to write, what not to write, and that deadlines become vital to keeping your job. Not to mention that all the work becomes the company's property. On the other hand you get to work with professional colleagues, which does wonders for daily motivation and long-time skill growth. In most cases a staff job has a better income potential than working as a freelance, too.

Storywriters are a large and very creative subgroup of freelance writers. They are specialists in writing short tales of one or more genres of fiction, and have a big market of magazines to sell to. It's normally not very financially rewarding, unless the writer makes it to a nationally recognised magazine or manage to win a high-profile story contests. There are many writing contests to participate in, but there is often a substantial reading fee and the pro will have to be very careful about where he'll join in.

Many well-known book authors have started out as story writers, and then moved on to book-length stories as that's where the money is. Technical writers don't win much fame for their user manuals and system documentation, but in these days of incredible technical development and product turnover it is a lucrative writing business.

Once a writer is engaged by a company to write documentation, he can reasonably expect further work updating old and writing new documentation for other products. This type of work requires professional level knowledge in the relevant technology and product, a methodical nature and some teaching skills.

Technical writers are often employed as staff writers in bigger companies, but can easily find work as freelancers for small companies. Translators are not the best paid workers among writers; the rates are usually per completed page and the translator is expected to deliver the same quality of language as the author of the original work she has been given to translate.

Neither is there much fame in translation; a translator is lucky to have her name on the cover of the work she has translated. On the other hand, publishers tend to come back to their translators with further jobs. Her opening for, To Kill a Mockingbird, is a brilliant example of mixing short sentences and long flowing ones. Look at how simply Harper Lee conveys the life of a sleepy old Southern town in very few words. As the best books in fiction or nonfiction always do, an author should create a dialogue with the reader that resembles a good friend telling a good story.

In terms of cutting down on wordage, I have had any number of successful nonfiction and fiction writers tell me that one of the most important disciplines any writer can master is to take a paragraph or sentence, or even a page, that you really are in love with, and cut it from your manuscript. I had a whole chapter left out of Moneylove when I got the final galleys prior to it going to the printing presses. After a while, I was forced to agree with him, but not until I had ranted and raved for a week or two.

Writing can be like music. There are high notes. There are low notes. And once in a while, there are no notes, as you pause to let the mind breathe between paragraphs. If most of the writing you have done has been of an academic sort while taking college courses, you will be at a disadvantage in writing for a larger mainstream audience. Most readers today are most comfortable with a 5th grade level of vocabulary, and anything more may go right over their heads.

One of the bestselling authors I had some impact on was Spencer Johnson. Spencer has been kind enough to tell me my two hour seminar on writing a bestseller at the National Speakers Association really made a difference in his approach to writing. What he was doing with corporate clients was teaching them the value of praising employees, in a very short amount of time. This one minute praise technique led to the huge bestseller he wrote with management expert Kenneth Blanchard, The One-Minute Manager, which has sold over thirteen million copies.

Spencer Johnson is obviously a very creative writer who has lots of ideas for books, but his first effort was so successful because rather than just come up with a book he thought would sell, he focused on what he was already doing.

And once he became a master of that one idea, he and his co-author, Ken Blanchard, came up with the add-ons of One Minute Goals and One Minute Reprimands. They thus became three-trick ponies and much more. Louise Hay is another multi-million copy bestselling author who started out with one trick, which led to You Can Heal Your Life — over 50 million sold and counting. I remember back in the early s, Louise, her assistant, Julie, and I sitting in a hot tub in the backyard of her rented house in Santa Monica.

A small booklet, it was beloved by the holistic health community. But Louise had delayed turning this material into a full-length book, even though she had a publishing contract to do so. A lot of our conversation focused on trying to motivate Louise to finish the book. I can assure you that, at that moment, Louise did not have a clue, or even a dream, about being a bestselling author.

And she certainly could not have foreseen that she would create a large publishing empire Hay House and influence and help millions of people around the world. And it all grew out of her original idea that certain emotions trigger certain illnesses and symptoms.

For a one trick pony, Louise Hay certainly picked the right trick. I earned a lot more money than any coaching fees would have produced, however, as she mentions Moneylove very favorably in You Can Heal Your Life. This led to thousands of sales for me. Often, when you want to be focusing on an upcoming book project, no matter how multi-dimensional you are—no matter how many tricks you have up your sleeve—it is best to focus on a single strong subject or theme.

For an aspiring bestselling author, multitasking can be a mental vampire, sucking the energy out of the big idea you have. While many writers talk and write about how difficult and lonely writing is, Ray thought writing was more fun than anything else.

While still in her twenties, she wrote Rubyfruit Jungle, a novel about growing up as a lesbian in the South. Rita Mae is also one of my all-time favorite authors, and listening to her erudite lectures at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference was a delight and powerful learning experience.

Bonus Recommendation: Discover and learn from some of the worlds best writers in this Writing MasterClass. You may choose your own favorite books about writing, there certainly are hundreds, perhaps thousands, to select from, and maybe a friend or teacher or writer you know has recommended one or more. For me, these seven books contain the essential information I want and need to practice my craft, though I have read and collected many others over the years.

If you are serious about writing a bestseller, it is a must-read. With hundreds of pages every week, actually reading the whole thing would be overwhelming.

Publishers Weekly will help you keep up with what books are coming out, which authors just got a big advance, how social media is promoting book sales, and whether an editor you were thinking of is available.

I have never had a dry spell in my life, mainly because I feed myself well, to the point of bursting. I wake early and hear my morning voices leaping around in my head like jumping beans. I get out of bed quickly, to trap them before they escape. I have long asserted that fiction is important to read, especially for those who have limited themselves to nonfiction.

Fiction is important because novelists are some of the great thinkers and philosophers about the human condition. I have learned more about life and people from novels than from any nonfiction books on the subject.

There are parts of the brain that are stimulated and enriched by reading fiction that no other method seems to duplicate. The Elements of Style…by Strunk and White. This is the classic on writing style that almost every writer of note has a copy of. It is an enduring masterpiece whether you are writing a nonfiction book, a novel, an article or blog post. A book not just about writing but an instruction manual on training your mind to be more creatively productive. On Writing Well—by William Zinsser —This addresses directly the problem most beginning writers have with too many words, sentences and paragraphs that are just too long.

And Zinsser demonstrates how it should be done by his own crisp,clear, simple writing style. This was the very first book I read on writing, as a high school student. It may just be the single book that most influenced my writing style. Bird by Bird—by Anne Lamott. She is one of my very favorite writers, and unusual in that she has had bestsellers both on the fiction and nonfiction lists.

Zen in the Art of Writing — by Ray Bradbury. The late genius created this collection of essays on writing and creativity.

A lot of the material was introduced during his annual opening night lecture at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference, where we were both on the faculty. I was proud to be his friend and for him to be my generous mentor. Those of you familiar with my Moneylove philosophy will understand why I love this sending your book proposal to has just left and gone to another publishing house.

For me, however, the best part of PW is the review section, with nonfiction as a separate category. It is more than worth your while to check out this little-known publication among the public, including writers. Your local library probably has a copy, and most bookstores do. You can therefore check it out at no cost. I cannot imagine any writer who follows all seven secrets will have any difficulty in creating at least one huge bestseller.

Go forth and prove me right! Jerry Gillies passed away late Many of his later writings can be found at MoneyLove Online. But before students are even allowed in a hospital room or an operating theater, they must sit in lecture halls, read and absorb countless textbooks, and study, study, study. Can you imagine a med student on his first day being shown an operating table with a tray of instruments next to it—and being told to begin a surgical procedure on his own?

But the point is that learning how to write is not something that happens in a day, or in a vacuum. Yes, being an avid reader is an important part of the process, but it is an ongoing process—and there are other elements to consider as well.

There are books on grammar, too. Of course, an agent or editor might overlook the glaring mistakes. Why lessen your chances? Step 5: Polish your product. Many new writers are so excited about the prospect of seeing their name in print that they rush too quickly to get their material out there.

Yes, it is cause for celebration. Many people will tell you they have a great book in them. But only a small percentage actually sit down and write that book. Or is it really finished? Your product might not be ready for the marketplace. In the rush to publication, many new writers inadvertently defeat their efforts for success.

They send out their first draft instead of their tenth. They send out sloppily prepared manuscripts. They send out novels with grammatical errors and typos. They send out novels with technical errors, point—of-view problems, plotting mistakes, characterization inconsistencies, and loose ends galore.

In the afternoon I put it back again. Self-editing is an important part of the polishing process. Writers learn a lot when they go over their material. I think you can get better if you keep working at it. Agent Elizabeth Wales agrees. These five steps to a salable product really do work—if you follow the steps. Look back on our earlier example of the doctor learning his profession. Considering the investment of both time and money a doctor has to make to pursue a medical career, writers have it easy.

A few how-to books, market guides, a well-chosen conference or two a year, and perhaps a manuscript critique, all add up to a small amount of money, comparatively speaking, and it is money well spent.

The Writer's Digest team has witnessed many writing mistakes over the years, so this series helps identify them for other writers along with correction strategies.

This week's mistake is to write all the time without taking a break for other activities. Author Beth Kirschner discusses how to create character conflict that can mirror a larger societal conflict. Award-winning author Joy Castro discusses how her free webinar series, Writing Brilliant Essays, is a marriage between pre-COVID classroom practices and the incorporation of what she learned when education went virtual.

For the November PAD Chapbook Challenge, poets are tasked with writing a poem a day in the month of November before assembling a chapbook manuscript in the month of December. Today's prompt is to write a raw poem. Every good story needs a nice or not so nice turn or two to keep it interesting. This week, let your character travel to another dimension. When writing about real people in historical fiction, what might the consequences be of taking certain artistic liberties?

Author Robert Lloyd discusses the ethics of literary revivification. Ambassador Philip Kaplan discusses how the characters came to him through the magic of the writing process in his debut novel, Night In Tehran. Today's prompt is to write a memory poem. Write Better Fiction. Short Story. Writing Techniques.

Write Better Nonfiction. Personal Writing. Historical Books. Travel Books. Business Books. Humor in Nonfiction. Creative Nonfiction. Write Better Poetry. Poetry Prompts. Poetic Forms. Interviews With Poets. Why I Write Poetry. Poetry FAQs. Get Published. Build My Platform. Find a Fiction Agent. Find a Nonfiction Agent. Write My Query. Sell My Work. Business of Writing.