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What Kind of Writer
Do You Want to Be?
By Terje
Johansen
New
writers looking for a career do not always realize just how
many paths there are to choose within the writing field. It is
easy to see the writer's role in the production of a book or a
newspaper, but writers are present in practically all types of
scripted activities for public viewing -- be it the evening news,
the morning cartoons or political speeches. Of course, most writers
find it necessary to do more than one type of writing! The art
of shaping words is employed in an incredible number of job types.
Academic
writers are all those who write for scientific journals, university
magazines etc. They are basically article writers and/or book
writers, but unlike most other writers they don't write for money
directly. The thing about academic magazines is that being published
with them is considered an honour;
there's no other pay for it. The reason those writers fight to
get in is that being published there furthers their academic career;
indirectly those articles help them keep their jobs as teachers,
professors and/or scientists. The articles and/or books published
are results of years of studies within the writers' field, and
can make or break careers. Aspiring writers should steer away
from this type of work: Leave it to the academics.
Article writers
include all the non-fiction writers who do short pieces on specific
themes, topics or news items. Travel writers, food writers, medical
writers; these are all specialists on their topic and usually
write for many magazines. Article writers can be freelancers or
staff writers; what they have in common is the ability to write
articles in a concise and crisp language. The market for well-written
articles is vast, both on and off the Internet. Experienced and
highly regarded writers with a deeply specialized knowledge (medicine,
bleeding-edge technologies, international shipping, shares etc.)
can make a very good living in commercial, pro-level magazines.
Business
writers are those writers who work for the commercial business
magazines and newspapers for high-income readers. It's like any
other type of article writing except for strict demands to language
skills and relevant business knowledge; the readers are cutting-edge
professionals and the writers must be on roughly the same level
-- or better. Business writing is done both by freelancers and
staff writers, but not by amateurs. Business writing is considered
well paid work, and there are many markets both on and off line.
Columnists
typically make their living by following and commenting on
trends rather than news. Columns are a staple item in newspapers,
magazines and newsletters. The better class of columnists is syndicated,
and their columns can appear in hundreds of newspapers.
Writing a new article every week for the same column can be a
challenge, though! In larger newspapers and magazines there often
are staff journalists with an established name who provide the
regular columns.
Copywriters
are among the best-paid writers in the whole business. All
marketing is written in order to sell something and normally a
good marketing text ('copy') sells more products than a mediocre
text, so good copywriters get paid well. There's little public
fame to find in this line of writing, but being known and respected
among the professionals in this line truly comes down to cash.
Copywriters' most valuable virtue is the ability to evoke interest
and enthusiasm about a product while retaining the readers' trust.
A dollar or more per word is quite attainable for average freelancers,
and many copywriters are staff writers in marketing bureaus.
Erotica writers
usually prefer to be anonymous, but it's hard to beat the more
expensive erotic magazines for payment; being paid up to a dollar
per word for short stories is not to be sneered at. Writing erotica
requires a suitably lurid imagination, a not too coarse language,
knowing the handful of standard plots and formulaic scripts that
most erotic stories follow, and a knack for not getting easily
bored. Many well known writers have a past
as writers of erotica, although most of them will be reluctant
to admit in later and more publicly successful years. Like
other storywriters they mostly work as freelancers; book writers
may work with only one publisher, and
even on contract with advance royalties if they are really good.
The main customers, naturally, are erotic magazines.
Freelance
writers are by definition all those writers who do not make
their living of one fulltime writing engagement. The term isn't
usually used about novelists, though, even if they write for several
publishers. Being a freelance writer has a lot to offer in terms
of freedom; you can work when you like and as much as you like,
combine your writing with parenting or take breaks for long vacations.
That sort of thing tends to affect your income a lot, however.
Many beginning writers will find freelancing work a lot easier
to get than staff writing positions, but only veterans working
full time can make a decent living from it.
Game Writers
are a specialized kind of screenwriter. They write the plots,
create the characters and describe the surroundings in general
terms, and also write the dialogue
used in the game. Unlike many other types of writing this is done
in close cooperation with a team. The programmers and artists
must be involved from the start to ensure that the game not only
will be possible to create, but also that the mechanisms vital
to any game are provided: playability, action curves, smoothness
and the necessary distance from the other current games in the
genre. Hardcore gamers spend a lot of money on games, but demand
a lot of the games -- and of the game plots. Larger game companies
have staff writers, but most of the small studios selling game
prototypes to the big companies engage freelancers for this. The
latter typically pays in terms of royalties, which means that
if the project fails there's no pay. Writing games is fun and
highly creative work, but the quickly changing demands of the
project team leads to rapid and incessant rewrites. Writers can
earn well, once they have a couple of successes behind them --
but the success depends on the entire team succeeding.
Ghostwriters
are an anonymous but quite large subgroup of book writers. Like
speechwriters, they have specialized in writing for other people
as if they were these persons. The customers are primarily business
leaders and/or people with a high media profile. In order to write
these books the writer must plan the book with the customer, perform
a number of interviews with the same, do research on the book's
topic (in order to understand it) and be able to capture some
of the customer's writing style. The work is challenging, requires
substantial people skills and much patience -- considerable rewrites
are often necessary. Naturally, the ghostwriter is obliged not
to reveal his or her work in the book. Depending on the customer's
media profile, the work can be from mediocre to very well paid.
This is not an easy market to break into.
Grant writers
are copywriters in a class of their own. Their specialized skill
is how to write applications for grants from governmental and
private institutions that hand out cash for various purposes.
This type of writing normally requires substantial knowledge of
law and business language. Since the decision of the grant giver
is based on this application and if positive will reap a large
financial result, successful grant writers tend to be paid extremely
well. Many grant writers are lawyers by profession. Large institutions
that base their income on grants will employ grant writers as
staff writers, but there is definitely a place for freelancers
in the business if they have the necessary deep knowledge of philantrophia.
Journalists
are a mixed group of writers. They are the writers read by the
most people; working in the national and local newspapers and
magazines that are read every day by millions of people. Working
as a journalist in a newspaper or magazine staff normally requires
a college degree in journalism, but there's often a place even
in those staffs for people with a nose for news and the skills
to communicate them effectively. The one unbreakable rule: Keep
the deadlines. The problem with writing news articles is that
the works normally are outdated fast and can't be resold. It can
be helped somewhat by turning each news item into several articles.
Many journalists are freelancers, who live by the quality of their
work rather than their school papers. Full time and experienced
journalists are usually able to make a living; part-timers can
make a respectable side income.
Nonfiction
book writers are a large group of writers that includes academic
and technical writers as well as people with even more enthusiasm
than writing skills. What they have in common is the ability to
take a large chunk of information within a specialized field and
turn it into a systematic and readable text that will leave the
reader satisfied after reading it. Non-fiction book writing is
pretty much like article writing in that it requires fact checking
and research, no matter if it is a deep political analysis or
an account of a historical event. Non-fiction books can be written
for love, money or both; what matters is that the writer has sufficient
knowledge of what he writes about. Non-fiction is usually written
in co-operation with a publisher; the publisher is usually quite
willing in helping to plan the book outline. As regular non-fiction
book writers usually work with a few narrow fields, there's very
seldom room for them as full time book writers. Most of them will
work with a publisher one book at a time, just like novelists.
If they also are technical writers it's quite a lot simpler to
find such work.
Novelists,
also known as authors, write long stories. Much can be said about
the craft, but the prime virtue of a novelist is the ability to
plan and COMPLETE the work. These days a fiction book is easily
200.000 words long for some genres; keeping track of the progress
of the plot and the characters' development requires forward planning
and much patience. With an annual turnout of at best two books
for most fiction authors, it's a long way to the best seller lists
where you have to be to make a living. Non-fiction book writers
have a slightly better chance as there are many companies with
projects they'll pay advance for, but you either make a living
as a best-selling author or you have a second job. On the other
hand, that second job can be a writing-related one!
Online
writers are best described as those who do a major part of
their writing for websites and e-zines.
Most are freelancers, many have no previous background as writers
from the paper world, and the vast majority has other day jobs.
This group includes article, poetry, short story and even book
writers. The pay for being published online is lower and the prestige
less than for being published on paper, but the online market
is vast and practically bottomless. Unfortunately, many low-class
markets are based on getting work from authors for free. It is
possible to make a modest living just writing for the paying online
markets, but experienced and successful online writers may profitably
work for the more lucrative paper market instead. For amateur
writers the online world is a Godsend, as it provides them with
an outlet for their work and allows them to climb upward as they
progress in their skill.
Play writers
are the most glamorous writers in the writing profession, but
the potential for fame is greater than the potential for making
an income of it. With a highly limited number of theatrical ensembles,
there's a market for only so many plays per year. To get a play
script accepted it is essential to live in the right place and
have the right connections in the theatre business, and the number
of hopeful beginning playwrights outnumbers by far the ones who
get lucky. Amateur theatre companies will accept the occasional
manuscript, but there's very little income in that. Radio IS a
market, if you can get in. There's also competitions.
Poetry writers
(poets) have the unenviable position of being the lowest paid
writers in the entire writing business. Poetry simply doesn't
sell, even if many read poetry. Many poetry writers find themselves
paying to enter contests where the top prize is being published
and get a complimentary copy of the magazine -- or in the worst
cases, be asked to buy the resulting
anthology afterwards (that only the submitting authors will be
interested in buying.) A number of poetry websites and e-zines purchase the occasional poem for small sums, but poetry
writing cannot be called paid work for the vast majority of the
writers who indulge in it.
Resume writers
are a small subgroup of business writers who specialize in helping
other people present themselves; the customers are exclusively
high-income business workers looking for a new job. These writers
work as independent consultants or in resume-writing companies;
there are a large number of those. A resume writer's job is to
take the information given by the customer, interview the customer
to find further information, and then reshape the result to focus
on the customer's best sides and most important accomplishments.
These resumes are the customer's key to be considered for very
well paid and prestigious jobs, and writing them is a job for
writers well-versed in the relevant business language and career
coaching. The work is, like most business writing, well paid.
Reviewers
are expected to have very good knowledge of their subject. Be
it books, movies, cars or computer models; the reviewer must be
both informative and entertaining without -- visibly -- be repeating
himself from review to review. Reviewing has nearly as many writers
as the product genres have enthusiasts, so getting a regular--paying--gig
can be difficult for freelancers. The pay for freelance reviewing
is at best mediocre. Sometimes the pay is the product itself (unless
we are talking luxury/expensive items). Critics of events manage
somewhat better; their work is more profiled and can make them
celebrities on a certain level. Many a website is based on free
reviews provided by enthusiasts! In larger newspapers and magazines
staff writers usually provide the reviews, but freelancers do
get in the occasional job.
Screenwriters
are the most numerous group of scriptwriters. They write scripts
for movies and television, and when the movies or TV series make
a hit the writers responsible can make tidy earnings as well.
Getting a script accepted is as hard as getting a book manuscript
published; only one in a hundred submitted scripts are accepted
for production. Not to mention that many productions never make
it to a screen. For getting movie scripts accepted, it is usually
considered crucial to live in the vicinity of the studios in order
to be able to do changes during the production; this explains
why the majority of US screenwriters seem to be living in Los
Angeles. Networking is very important.
Songwriters
are seldom paid much for the texts they write; a successful writer
with several decently selling musicians or studios as customers
can make a living, but for most the song writing is just a side
income. Many songwriters are musicians in other respects as well.
Recording studios are the most frequent customers and pay at least
moderately well, while a number of well-doing music artists buy
material from writers with a reputation in the trade. As with
screenwriting, living close enough to the customers is important.
Speechwriters
are essential for covering up the fact that many leaders can't
write speeches for larger audiences. Company leaders and politicians
depend on speechwriters shaping their clumsily phrased messages
into media-friendly communiqués complete with sound bites and
jokes. Top-notch marketing bureaux
and political parties keep a number of excellent speechwriters
on their staff, while some freelancers work one-to-one with speakers
who are known to the public for one reason or another. Writing
for CEOs and board leaders can be very financially rewarding,
but requires expert knowledge of both topic and the speaker's
style. People on this level often have writers on their staff
just for this purpose.
Staff
writers are writers with full time engagements -- permanent
or otherwise -- in the staff of larger newspapers, magazines,
marketing bureaus, publishing houses and in some cases other types
of companies with permanent needs for writing work. A staff job
means that you are a hired hand with the pleasant inherent job
security, but it also means that you'll be told what to write,
what not to write, and that deadlines become vital to keeping
your job. Not to mention that all the work becomes the company's
property. On the other hand you get to work with professional
colleagues, which does wonders for daily motivation and long-time
skill growth. In most cases a staff job has a better income potential
than working as a freelance, too.
Storywriters
are a large and very creative subgroup of freelance writers. They
are specialists in writing short tales of one or more genres of
fiction, and have a big market of magazines to sell to. It's normally
not very financially rewarding, unless the writer makes it to
a nationally recognized magazine or manage to win a high-profile
story contests. There are many writing contests to participate
in, but there is often a substantial reading fee and the pro will
have to be very careful about where he'll join in. Many well-known
book authors have started out as story writers, and then moved
on to book-length stories as that's where the money is.
Technical
writers don't win much fame for their user manuals and system
documentation, but in these days of incredible technical development
and product turnover it is a lucrative writing business. Once
a writer is engaged by a company to write documentation, he can
reasonably expect further work updating old and writing new documentation
for other products. This type of work requires professional level
knowledge in the relevant technology and product, a methodical
nature and some teaching skills. Technical writers are often employed
as staff writers in bigger companies, but can easily find work
as freelancers for small companies.
Translators
are not the best paid workers among writers; the rates are usually
per completed page and the translator is expected to deliver the
same quality of language as the author of the original work she
has been given to translate. Neither is there much fame in translation;
a translator is lucky to have her name on the cover of the work
she has translated. On the other hand, publishers tend to come
back to their translators with further jobs. Translators are usually
freelancers; exceptions happen in major news publishing companies
where translations must be done urgently. Becoming a professional
translator often requires an university
degree! Not everybody will accede that translators are writers
as such!
This Article was found at: http://www.articleblast.com/
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