Paid by the Word

A New Guide for your Writing Career

There was a time when publishing your own novel was considered pitiable—the last resort of the untalented.

Luckily for all of us, that's not the case anymore. Thanks largely to Amazon and its pioneering of Kindle Direct Publishing, any author with a dream and a word processor can put their outstanding books in the hands of eager readers, maybe even make a whole career from their creativity.

The opportunity is there for the taking, but one of the first things you learn as an indie author is that you are in fact independent. You're all on your own. That means you have to pay for everything that a publisher would normally pay for. Editing, cover design, advertising, sometimes even book reviews. The list of expenses can get lengthy and for an author just starting off with their first book, it can seem an insurmountable barrier.

If you're working a regular day job, perhaps one that pays you less than the national median of $70,000 a year, how exactly are you supposed to find this money and put it aside for your publishing dream?

The obvious answer is to get a higher-paying day job and just sock some money away, but that's not possible for a lot of people. We’ve all heard the story of experienced professionals actively applying for jobs for two years and hearing nothing back.

That leaves the side hustle option—bringing in a second stream of income dedicated specifically to funding your first novel.

When I started writing my first book, Sunder of Time, the year was 2007 and I was employed as a receptionist for a company called Paychex. My salary was $11.00 an hour. I had no hope of being able to afford an editor when I was finished with my manuscript. But I was lucky enough to have found a critique group and was able to exchange editing services with another (already published and highly skilled) author.

Not everyone is so lucky, and your money doesn’t go as far anymore. It was a different time when I started. Even being paid $11.00 an hour in 2007 meant I was still able to live in a nice apartment with my sister, who made more than me at her entry-level job, but not by much. The economy is not so generous anymore and if you, as an aspiring author, intend to produce a quality novel, you're going to need to fund that dream.

Kickstarter/crowdfunding is a great possibility for social-media savvy authors. If you have a good-sized and/or a highly enthusiastic following, you can fund your publishing expenses just by asking your fans for it. If you are in that boat, I applaud you. But most people aren’t.

If you want money, you need to work for it.

The good news is you don't need to create an enormously stressful business startup plan. I am not pitching you an entrepreneurship program. You don't need to form an LLC; you don't need to work on branding a website or advertising for this whole new company. All you need to do is the digital equivalent of hanging out a shingle and making pure profit.

There are so many ways to earn money through writing, but here, we’ll be focusing on the big three:

• Copywriting

• Editing services

• Ghostwriting

It's just a matter of finding the one that vibes best with you, your skills, and your personality.

PAID BY THE WORD is my new book that will describe each of these money-making paths, including what is expected of you as a service provider, what you’ll need to get started, and what to expect. I will also use my 15 years of experience in running my own writing business to give you an idea of what types of knowledge will set you apart from your competition, what you can expect when you first start freelancing, and how to avoid pitfalls such as problem clients and screwing up your taxes. Trust me, you do not want to deal with that last one.

Nothing about this book is theory or general motivational fluff. They don't call me the Nonsense-Free Editor for nothing. And by “they,” I mean me. I named myself that.

Everything in this book is knowledge I acquired either through doing it myself or making professional connections with people who do. Not only do I do this, I do it successfully. I started off in the side hustle lane, generally making about $30,000 a year. This was on purpose. I only wanted to have extra cash on hand for editors, cover designers, and inventory to sell at conventions.

Later, I chose to grow my income and turn my side-hustle into a full business—something you may choose to do as well if you dislike your day job. Following the path laid out in this book will allow you to make that choice and having choices means freedom, which is something most of us value more than anything. Having the freedom to work just enough to meet your goals is a great feeling, far better than constantly feeling under stress and needing to perform. At the end of the day, this doesn’t have to be your livelihood—it can just be extra.

I don't pretend to be a fortune teller, but it seems to me that it'll be a while before we feel like our dollar stretches further and we have more breathing room in our budgets. So in the meantime, all we can do is make more money and this book is designed to show you how to do exactly that.

UPDATE: The book is now available on AMAZON.