The Perspiring Writer Magazine

A couple of readers wrote to me asking how exactly I make my money as a freelance writer. Here's more or less what I told them ...

I have four main streams of income:

1. Work for my regular clients. I have three mail-order publishers in particular whom I work for every month. This is mainly article writing, but also includes proofreading, editing, and so on, as required. This is my 'bread-and-butter' income.

2. Royalties and commission income from my books and courses. I'd also include in this category PLR (public lending right payments, which all UK authors receive in respect of lending in UK public libraries) and ALCS (mainly photocopying fees).

3. One-off jobs. This includes work from semi-regular clients such as Lagoon, who contact me when they have a project requiring my skills. It also includes jobs from new clients, who might perhaps contact me having seen my website. And I would also include here conference speaking, speaking to writers groups, and so on.

4. Internet marketing. This includes income arising from AdWords advertising and affiliate sales. It also includes AdSense advertising on my websites. 

These four categories are roughly equal in importance, though (1) is probably declining relative to the others, and (4) is increasing.

As you'll have gathered from the above, I'm a firm believer in having what financial advisers would call a 'balanced portfilio' where writing is concerned.

Writing books and book-length courses is great for getting your name known, and of course the cash rewards can be considerable. On the other hand, books do take a while to write and sell, even using the methods set out in my '28 Days' course. And if you are paid on a royalties basis you will probably only get one or two payments a year, and have little idea how much to expect (royalties are, of course, entirely dependent on sales).

For that reason I like to have a range of shorter projects alongside my longer ones. In particular, it's great to have regular clients whom you work for month in, month out. This provides a regular baseline income to help pay the bills and even out the peaks and troughs of your book-writing income.

Diversifying in this way has other attractions as well. For one thing, you are no longer so dependent on one particular project or client. What if your book publisher goes into liquidation or decides at the last moment not to publish your book after all, for example? (These are both things that have happened to me, by the way.) At least if you have other, shorter projects on the go, you will have another source of income to pay the bills.

And finally, it can be quite therapeutic to have something else to work on from time to time. Big writing projects can be stressful, especially in the early stages when you can't see the end in sight. At these times, writing an article or short story can be fun and relaxing, and you can return to your book with a fresh sense of purpose (plus a few more pounds or dollars in the bank).

So if you're mainly writing books at the moment, I would strongly urge you to consider writing shorter items as well. (*Check out The 10-Day E-Book Review in this issue.)

And equally, if you currently make most of your writing income from shorter pieces such as articles, why not try your hand at a novel or non-fiction book as well? Even if you're making good money from article writing, having a book under your belt can raise your profile and get you access to more, better-paid work in the future.