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Entering the writing field, whether you aim to be a journalist, a copywriter, or a novelist, has never been easy, but coupled with a slumped economy, it almost seems impossible to secure a lucrative career as a wordsmith. If you have passion and talent, you’re already at an advantage, but none of that matters if you have nothing to show for it. It’s a vicious cycle: those without experience can’t find jobs and finding experience without a job can be incredibly difficult.
Academic Writers
Academic writers are generally article and book writers who contribute to publications such as scientific journals and university magazines for recognition within their chosen academic field, rather than for money. They are teachers, scientists, and professors, rather than writers, and their words are the product of years of research.
Business Writers
Business writers work for businesses wanting to connect with clients via the mediums of magazines, newspapers, and websites. Given the high-income status of the business professionals reading, it is essential that these writers have sufficient knowledge in order that they may connect confidently and appropriately.
Columnists make their living by writing a regular weekly, monthly, or quarterly column for a newspaper or magazine. They often comment on trends as well as review appropriate products, within their chosen genre. Landing a regular column is like gold to a writer, although constantly finding material can prove a challenge!
Copywriters
Copywriters reap little public fame but instead freelance capacity these writers are some of the highest-paid as their talent lies in writing text that sells products. A staff copywriter however will earn less and could be expected to write anything from marketing material to a grant, to a speech for their Managing Director.
Freelance Writers
Freelancewriters have the benefit of freedom in their careers. They often specialize in particular areas of expertise and work when they want, and as much or as little as they want. This makes freelance writing perfect to fit around family commitments but means making a decent living can be difficult as in between fruitful commissions can be vast periods of drought.
Ghostwriters
Ghostwriters although totally anonymous, make up a fairly large section of book writers. They write for people with a high media profile and their specialty is to write as if they actually are that person. Planning of the book through interviews and in-depth research with the client is a major element of this type of writing, so patience and people skills are essential. However, the pay can be substantial depending on the customer’s media profile.
Journalists
Journalists are those writers who most of us read the words of on a daily basis. Many have a degree in journalism and work in local and national newspapers as well as magazines. Often they work to super tight deadlines at an impressive rate of output due to news articles becoming outdated fast.
Non-Fiction Book Writers
Non-fiction book writers have a specialized field that they are able to write about confidently as readers expect factual and correct information from the writer. These books could be on anything from an interesting travel experience, to an account of a historical event and will have been born from a strong passion for the subject matter.
Novelists
Novelists have a talent for writing long stories, but this talent must extend to their ability in completing the whole story to the full length of a book. This means extensive time spent in the planning stage of character development and plot. As a novelist’s output in a year is minimal, this work is best run alongside another writing-related job until you reach best-seller success!
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12/22/2024 09:43 pm GMT
Online Writers
Online writers focus themselves purely on websites and ezines and are mostly freelancers working from home. Although the prestige is not as coveted as being published on paper, the market is vast and can therefore provide a decent income. Sadly, many online markets attempt to source material for free as the online world does provide an attainable platform to increase a writer’s profile. But still, a good writer can be kept in a reasonable amount of paid work through word of mouth.
Play, Screen, and Game writers
Playwrights write plots, create characters, and write dialogue. Play writers have more potential for fame in the theatre world than for a decent income and getting a script accepted has a lot to do with the right connections.
Screenwriters too need good connections within the movie and television industry, but once a script has made it successfully to screen the potential for good earnings is high. Game writers also have good earning potential but they must work closely with a team and due to gamers’ high expectations, these writers are subject to many glitches and rewrites, which can make the work extremely demanding.
Technical Writing
Technical writers may not have the most glamorous way with words, but in these days of fast product turnover, writing manuals, and technical documentation can prove a lucrative business.
The trick is to get your foot in the door of a respected company by presenting expert knowledge in a chosen field, which will almost definitely bring continued contracts.
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