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A Dose of Tough Love About the Business Side of Writing · The Daily Writer

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hey my friend, welcome to the Daily Writer, where we help writers become authors of their own lives.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Today I want to dive into a question from one of my readers about how to make it as a writer, and I've left off his name in this question that he sent in in order to maintain his privacy.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: This reader sent in the following.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I'm most of the way through a certification program in my career track, which is not related to writing, but I keep coming back to writing as something that I want to explore.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: Over the last year and a half, even as I've walked through some really dark times, it's the writing that has kept me going and been my genuine happy place.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: I really enjoy talking about my story and characters.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: I looked into ghostwriting at one point, but I struggle with the idea of charging people five or six figures to write a single book.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: For example, I think about a lady in my church who has wanted to write a book about losing one of her twin daughters, but she hasn't had the time.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I think of another lady who's been writing her book, but she feels it would upset people.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: I guess what I'm asking is this.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: How can I take this thing called writing and make something more out of it?
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: Well, man, these are this is a great set of questions.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: I was going to say this is a great question, but really this is a range of issues and questions tied together.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm going to approach this just as one single question for the sake of simplicity, because all of these issues that you've raised and these questions here ultimately relate to the business side of writing.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm just going to show up today and deliver a small dose of tough but honest truth.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: And here's the truth: if you want to have any measure of financial success as a writer, you have to embrace the reality that it is indeed a business.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I want to be clear here, I have no problem with people approaching writing as a hobby.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I encourage it.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: Because you can enjoy the heck out of writing if you approach it as a hobby without putting the pressure on it to make money.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, it's completely okay to have a hobby.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: I have hobbies myself that I don't intend to make any money with.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: They're just for fun.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I think if you want to approach writing that way, that is totally okay.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: But as soon as you want your writing to generate income, it really changes the dynamics completely.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's one thing to write or tell stories for fun and pleasure, but it's another thing to build up an audience, to write to deadlines, to have income goals, and do all the things that any regular business does.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: Because really, writing is no different than any other business.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: You have customers and clients, you have people who need things by a certain deadline, you're charging a certain amount for whatever product or services you're providing.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: And so writing really is just like any other business in that kind of basic sense.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: So my primary advice here would be to ask yourself how you want to make money as a writer.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: Do you want it to be through fiction?
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: If so, you can absolutely do that, but it's going to take years to get good at your craft and really build up an audience.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: But if you want to make money through a service like ghostwriting, for example, you can do it a lot faster, but you have to really focus on ghostwriting as your main thing.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: And yes, people absolutely pay five and six figures for ghostwriting services.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: I have had deals in both of those ranges, so it definitely can be done.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: Now that means, however, that you have to target the right type of client who can afford those rates and who has a book they either want to use as a family legacy piece or a book that can grow their platform or business.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: Or if you want to build a business, let's say, as a nonfiction author, who's mainly teaching and helping people around some sort of topic, you can absolutely do that as well.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: And then you can monetize your content not just through books, but also through courses, memberships, events, and lots of other means.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so, in light of all that, I would offer a single piece of critical advice if you really want to create a business out of writing.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: And it's this pick a lane and stick with it over the long term.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: The bottom line here is that people are giving you money because you entertain them as stories or you educate and inspire them with your teaching content or you give them some type of service, such as editing or ghostwriting, or book design or something else.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: The reality, though, is that you cannot do all of these things at once.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: My particular path has been ghostwriting, and that is how I make the bulk of my money.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: But on the side, I'm also growing my daily writer business through books, coaching, this daily podcast, and my daily emails and future events.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I wrote my brand new book called The Ghost Powered Author very directly as a sales tool for my ghostwriting business.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're listening to this podcast, which obviously you are, I would strongly recommend that you grab a copy to learn more about the business side of writing.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: And you can grab it for free by going to KentSanders.net slash free dashbook.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: That's KentSanders.net slash free dashbook.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: Now I realize that lots of writers want to keep writing as a hobby, and that is totally okay.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: There's nothing wrong with that.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I would recommend keeping writing as a hobby if you don't want to commit to the long haul of building a business around your writing.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: Now, that being said, if you're willing to stick it out, then I highly recommend growing your writing business.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: It has really transformed my life, and I honestly would not change it for the world.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, thanks so much for listening.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: Keep writing, keep showing up, and I'll see you tomorrow.