What's the Outlook for Writers

The United States Department of Labor has information on most industries and how the workers fare in their estimation. What they have to say about writers isn’t titled much one way or the other, but it is worth considering.

There are only 324,000 jobs in the United States for writers and editors right now although the articles does say that “thousands more” make a living freelancing. Those numbers are, I suppose, too difficult to track down. After all, wouldn’t one get into discussions about how one claims membership in the writing industry? Do forum posters count? What about bloggers? How about people who have other full-time means of earning an income?

The job growth expected in the next decade is average, but on the upside, the BLS thinks that writers may begin to earn more, especially if they work on the Internet. As more companies turn to the Internet for publishing annual reports, newsletters, and the like, writing will become a more competitive but more lucrative career.

What do I take from this information? These projections are from now until 2014. The biggest growth will be in technical and technological areas as well as medicine, law, economics, and science. That means that writers would do well to begin positioning themselves now as experts in these fields. Many web writers do have not specialization, and it gets harder to get jobs even in the higher tiers of content writing if you have little expertise in any one area.

Creating Goals For Your Writing Life

Do you have goals for your writing life? Often writers, especially ones who are trying to support their families, go along taking any job that comes their way without considering whether it furthers their writing goals (financial or otherwise). These writers frequently appease themselves by saying, "I'm making $300 a month. That's all we need." I'm not pointing fingers. I've been there, too. There have been times when my family has stayed afloat by me writing articles at crummy pay because we needed to be able to cover some bill that had come up.

The problem I found with this mentality, however, is that it's a tough habit to break. What happened in my case was that I worked myself to the point of exhaustion, and I still wasn't making that much money. In addition to the basic web writing, I was getting published in magazines and on some reputable websites. Still, I wasn't making the best use of my time so that I wasn't making as much money as I could.

Those of you who are familiar with the same group of web writers with which I'm familiar have no doubt heard of Carson's goal of making $125,000 in a year. Most writerrs, myself included, read Carson's posts and think, "wow!" It's inspiring, but it seems like something that's too far away to reach.

Without set goals and a plan, there is no way that you could even think of getting to the point of making $125,000 a year. So, if you, like me, have found yourself inspired by recent events in the web writing community, then let's get to work on getting goals.

Here's a way to set your own goals. I've synthesized the results from a number of goal-making articles, books, and websites to come up with something specific and doable for most web writers. Take the time to consider your goals.

Long-Term Goals (5-10 years)
What do I hope is the end result of my writing?
What do I want people to say about my writing?
Is my primary motive financial gain or industry respect?
If money were no object, what would I write?

Use your answers to these questions to come up with 3-5 long-term goals. What can you reach in 5 to 10 years that will reflect your answers? Perhaps you want that novel published. Perhaps you want to have your child's college fund complete. Whatever it is, set that goal now.

Mid-Range Goals (3-5 years)
How will my situation (children, other income, etc.) be different by this time?

Use the differences or similarities expected in your situation to set a major milestone for each of the long-term goals. If you plan to have your novel published, then maybe you want to have the draft completed as a mid-range goal. If you want to make $100,000 a year, you may be able to reach $75,000 by this time.

Short-Term Goals (1-2 years)
How many hours do I have to devote to my writing career each week?
Do I want to stay within the same kind of writing, expand my horizons, or do a little of both?
How happy am I with the current trajectory of my writing career?

Break down each long-term goal more. Think about what's feasible over a year, considering the time pressures working against you and your current situation. Remember that a year isn't long, so be sure to keep your short-term goals challenging, but possible. Your goals at this point should be getting pretty definite. You need quantitative measures of success for short-term goals.

Immediate Goals (1 week - 1 month)
What do I need to get done to meet obligations?
What is my top priority?
Are the tasks I'm working on furthering my goals?

The goals at this stage should be simple tasks you can complete in a few hours' time. Limit yourself to 2 immediate goals for each long-term goal, or you will get bogged down.

As soon as you reach one of your immediate goals, do the happy dance and set a new one.

Print your list of short-term and immediate goals and put them where you will see them often. Use these goals to guide your planning each week so that you can keep yourself on track.

Business Plan For Writers

I'm a frequent member at a popular message board for writers. The recent discussion there has centered on the ambitions of writers, particularly those writers who identify themselves as WAHMs, or work at home moms. A longtime member left the forums to search for places that will serve her career goals and support needs better. That's left the rest of us discussing business plans and writing goals.

After some searching (not exhaustive by any means), I didn't find a lot of really useful information on business plans for writers, though it appears that if you're interested in being a business plan writer, you're picking a lucrative field! Instead I decided to use the information I have read in the past about creating a business plan to come up with a list for writers who may be interested.

I love being able to be at home with my son, but one of the hurdles I've faced is the inability of others to view what I do as work. Though I thought I'd moved beyond that problem in my mind, the discussions of late have made me realize that I still don't take my writing as seriously as I should. The official reason for creating a business plan is to find funding for a new business concept. Most writers, however, will not be seeking out funding. The business plan, then, becomes a tool for a writer to keep herself on track. He can know that he's headed in the right direction if he has a direction to go. I challenge you to work on your own business plan in the next day or so.

If you've given your writing career much thought, chances are that you'll breeze right through these questions. I completed mine in about 45 minutes today. So, sit down (with no one asking when dinner's going to be ready or hanging on your leg) and work on your business plan. You owe it to yourself.

A Writer's Business Plan Questionnaire

DESCRIPTION
Name of Writing Business
Location or URL
Types of Work You Do
Areas Where You May Be Expanding
Examples of Work, Resume, or Listing of Best Clips
Credentials
History of Qualifications
Memberships
Mission Statement for Your Writing Career

FINANCIAL
What start-up materials did you/will you buy? What is the estimated cost?

What on-going costs do you have associated with your writing career? (Be sure to allot money for postage and office supplies.)

What is your anticipated income for this year? For next year? What is your goal income for those times?

How you do you record your income?

How do you invoice clients? How do you require clients to pay? What do you do about clients who don't pay? How will you charge for projects?

Will you have an hourly rate or set the price by order?

OPERATIONS
What hours (or how many) can you work every week?

Where you will find work? (List specific places.) Will you get books or newsletter subscriptions?

How will you track your projects, both current and upcoming? How will you keep up with queries?

MARKETING
Will you have a website? If so, what will it include? How often will you update it? Will it have a photo?

Will you have business cards? Who will design them? How will you get them to people?

Do you plan any mailings? What will be included? Where will you send them?

Will you join any local organizations? Will you do in-kind work for them? How will you network?

Will you have an ad campaign? Where will it run? What will be its focus?

GOALS
How much would you like to make this year?

What is one major step you can take toward a long-term goal?

What is your vision for your writing career?

Coming this weekend: Setting Goals for Writers

My Writing Life

So, why should you care what I have to say about writing?

If you're in your first few years of your writing career, then we're probably struggling through some of the same issues. My first paid writing job was in 2000, when I was in college. I'd written a few pieces for a local alternative paper and submitted some academic pieces for undergraduate journals. Of course, those jobs weren't paid, but at the time, I loved seeing my name in print. Eventually I got a job working for my university's newspaper - an amazing experience - and I was paid to write and edit other people's work.

After a year of graduate school, I left to pursue life after college. With a classical liberal arts education, I discovered that life after college was wide open. My view then was that I wasn't specifically qualified to do any specific job, but now I look at it more as having the option to explore any field I wanted. I landed a job as a reporter for a small outfit that covers the outlying areas of Cincinnati.

I worked as a general assignment reporter for a year, covering everything from school district levies to fundraisers for terminally ill folks in the area. During that year, I got to write perhaps four political stories, and I lived for them. Politics, after all, is my passion, though football runs a close second. I wanted to write about politics, but there was no room for trailblazing in community reporting.

In June 2004, my husband and I found out that our carefree lives as yuppies was over and that a little one would be joining us in January. I left my job as a reporter without a moment's hesitation. I had decided that I would stay home and write. The only problem was that I didn't know what I'd write. I admit that I wasn't that educated about the world of freelancing, and I didn't know where my writing life was headed. From June until October, I piddled around at home, working on designing a website, writing fiction, and reading about life writing. Then in October, I connected with someone who needed a writer and didn't know how to find one. I started working for Ian, writing keyword articles about car loans and other quick-money Internet topics.

The articles I wrote for Ian weren't exciting, at least after the first 50 or so, but the concept was? Why was he looking for hundreds of articles on only a handful of subjects. He'd used the term "SEO," and I pretended I knew what he was talking about, but I didn't have a clue. I set about researching the term and learned the basics. During that time, I also discovered Write for Cash, Rent a Coder, and a couple of other places where many web writers get started.

It's now been 27 months, and I've moved around a good bit in my writing. I've written sales copy for websites, magazine articles, and pamphlets, and I self-published two booklets earlier this year. Blogging is my newest form of writing income - or at least I hope it is.

I share my writing story with you because I'm sure that some of you reading are natural cynics, as I am and I believe many writers are. You're wondering what I know about writing and if I've ever written anything for pay. I know because I ask myself that same question about people online. I'm not an expert by any means, but yes, I do know how to make money writing. I know how to set goals and reach them. I know how to craft a resume to focus on quality writing skills. Like many of you, I know how to work out of my house while dealing with my son, partner, pets, and other demands on my time.