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What Makes a Successful Writer? Everything you need to be able to do besides write

September 14, 2019

The scene opens with the haggard writer hunched over a dilapidated Underwood, struggling to meet his midnight deadline. The air is stale and thick with cigarette smoke and there’s an empty bottle of scotch lying on the floor. By the smell of things, it’s obvious he hasn’t slept, eaten or washed his clothes in over a week.

That was the Hollywood image of writers before the information highway arrived in the early 1990s. Since then, the business of writing has changed in more ways than anyone could have possibly imagined in 1939.

These days, a writer’s job doesn’t end when they drop their query down the out-bound chute at the post office. Successful writers need to be equal parts writer, editor, transcriptionist, computer technician, website designer, software engineer, search engine optimization specialist, social media guru, marketing executive, and accountant. They have to be blessed with a fertile imagination and an insatiable thirst for understanding life. All of which, I learned during the course of writing over the past fifteen years.

If you work for yourself, you might end up spending as much time trolling for new clients as you do writing for your existing ones—maybe even more. But there are ways to make the job easier. Here are the things I’ve learned and the tools I’ve acquired to write professional-level work and make a living writing.

Write About What You Know

At the core of any successful writing career is, surprise… the ability to write. These days, people fall into writing careers from a variety of backgrounds other than English and journalism majors.

While a master of fine arts is certainly a great way to begin your writing career, it’s not necessarily the best if you plan to specialize in writing for the law, healthcare, real estate or other fields that demand specific, in-depth knowledge of the industry. I began my writing career by leaning on my master’s degree in exercise physiology, where I worked with cardiac rehabilitation patients and others at high risk for cardiovascular disease.

One day, while perusing Craigslist (believe it or not, it used to be a valuable resource for finding freelance work) I literally tripped over an advertisement by Demand Media for freelance writers. They were looking for people to craft interesting, well-researched articles for Lance Armstrong’s new health and wellness site, LIVESTRONG.COM.

I had so much information stored inside my head leftover from graduate school, I found I could crank out four to six articles a day—and that was in addition to holding down a full-time job. I not only earned money from writing thousands of articles for them, they also paid me royalties until they were bought in 2010.

Demand Media also sponsored a number of other popular websites including eHow, and Trails.com. At the time, I was teaching skiing in the Colorado Rockies and worked as a Wilderness Ranger in the White River National Forest during the summer months. So, I used my outdoor and winter sports experience to write articles for them. I was also the Gear Editor for Onthesnow.com, the most-visited winter sports site in the country, then went on to write for The Professional Skier and dozens of other newspapers and magazines. That was 15 years ago and I still occasionally write short pieces for them.

So, the moral of the story? Write about what you know. In my case, I couldn’t have written better articles for them if I had an MFA from Columbia University. But, I was smart enough to stay in my own backyard and write about the things I know. I still practice that approach today.

Can You Spin Someone Else’s Yarn?

One of the most gratifying ways to earn a living as a writer is to write other people’s stories. Termed “ghostwriting,” it’s a wonderful way to reach out and meet people who have lived incredibly interesting lives.

Ghostwriting is alive and well in a variety of forms:

  • Speechwriting
  • Short stories
  • Blog posts
  • Books
  • Audiobooks
  • Promotional material

One of the most popular (and lucrative) ghostwriting gigs today is writing books for other people. They’re oftentimes celebrities, sports figures or politicians who don’t have the time to write a book themselves. Others lack the expertise to write their life stories, so they hire a ghostwriter to do it for them.

But, why would anyone want to write a book for someone else? After all, they don’t get credit for their writing, do they? True, ghostwriters usually lurk beneath the surface receiving no credit for the work they do—although that’s changing. If you see the author’s name on the cover of the book, followed by “with Allen R Smith,” more than likely the book was ghostwritten.

If your portfolio is still a little thin, you’re probably wise to continue writing books and articles for yourself. But, you can add to your income by ghosting work for others.

Let there be no mistake. Ghostwriting is not for everyone. To write a book about someone else’s life, you need to be sensitive, understanding, dependable, an expert in time management with bullet-proof ethics, and capable of focusing on one job for months or years at a time. You’ll also be held accountable to your client and their wishes. Not all of them understand the writing craft and can be demanding at times.

You’ll also need to learn special skills like writing query letters aimed at literary agents and writing concise book proposals, capable of capturing traditional publishers’ attention. But, there is help available. Plenty of help. One of the best online courses I’ve ever taken was Jenna Glatzer’s “Your Big Book Deal: Sell Your Book Idea to a Major Publisher.” It’s a required skill isolated to writers who intend to write for traditional publishers.

Two of the main reasons why people like to ghostwrite for others are, 1) you get your fees upfront (well, at least some of them) and 2) after the manuscript is done, you get to walk away. Ghostwriters never have to worry about selling and marketing the books they write. That’s a job for the author and their agent or publicist.

Writing and Editing Software

No matter how tight you think your writing is, it’s always prone to minor grammatical and spelling errors, as well as those   mindless mistakes like typing an article three times instead of once. Fortunately, there are a number of easy-to-use and affordable writing apps to look over your shoulder and ask you, “Did you really intend to spell indasctructable that way?” Some of the most popular apps include:

Don’t get me wrong. You still need to be a schooled, experienced writer to make it today. But having an app like Grammarly monitoring your writing can save you hours of editing and making silly mistakes after you’ve bragged to people about how well you write.

Recording and Transcribing Your Conversations

If your work involves interviewing clients (in-person or over the phone), recording your conversations is a must. Even if you know Gregg shorthand, it’s impossible to write as fast as some people speak, capturing their speaking style, so it’s important to record and transcribe your conversations.

There are a number of quality voice recording apps. Some of the best for recording telephone calls on smartphones include:

These handy apps will record your telephone calls as .mp3 files. From there, you can store them for future reference, or listen and transcribe your conversations.

If you’re performing interviews in-person, there are a host of other apps to record your conversation when sitting in front of the interviewee:

Once you’ve recorded your conversation, you still need a way to transfer them from digital format to your word processor. If you choose to transcribe them yourself, you can download or buy a number of affordable transcription apps like:

If time is tight or you don’t feel like doing the job yourself, you can hire affordable transcription services to do the job for you:

There’s a wide range of costs associated with using transcription services, ranging from as little as $0.10 to $1.00/minute USD. Most are capable of transcribing and returning your work in one to three days. They also offer premium service and can email your transcribed conversations in less the three hours.

If you interview a lot of clients, it’s a good idea to record your conversations so you’re sure you get your facts rights. But, be sure to bill your client for the additional fees you incur. You might even consider putting a statement to that effect into your writer’s contract you and your clients sign.

Support Your Local Computer

One of the most valuable detours I’ve taken in life occurred when I was unemployed back in the late 1980s. I was at a crossroads in my life, trying to decide what I wanted to be when I grew up. After extensive research using the Occupational Outlook Handbook, I discovered that the strongest hiring trends all pointed toward desktop computers; from hardware to software to networking. That short detour ended up lasting twenty years and resulted in a wealth of experience and knowledge about everything that had to do with repairing, upgrading, and modifying computers and the software that runs them. But, more important, it eliminated any fear I had of rolling up my sleeves and jumping in to troubleshoot hardware and software issues myself.

Now, whenever my computer pops up with a blue screen of death, I know what to do. If I can’t fix it myself (which I usually can), I know where to go for solutions.

I also learned about critical applications like back-up software. Ask yourself, “If my home caught on fire, or I was the victim of a burglary, how long would it take me to replace my computer and get back to work?” If your answer is more than a day, you’re in trouble.

One of the most valuable applications for writers and other entrepreneurs who use their computer is off-site backup software like Carbonite. For as little as $59.00/year, you can rest assured, knowing that virtually every file on your computer will be backed-up and stored “in the cloud.” Every time you capitalize a letter in your manuscript, Carbonite automatically jumps in and backs it up.

Carbonite came in handy a few years ago when my desktop computer decided it had lived long enough, and refused to boot up. I could have lost thousands of valuable documents, invoices, and photos. But, fortunately, I was able to solve the problem by going online and ordering a replacement PC. After it arrived, I simply turned on the computer, plugged it into the internet and began downloading everything Carbonite had backed up from my previous computer. Within a couple of days, I had a new computer with virtually every file I had stored on my old PC; including all of my desktop icons.

If you’re not comfortable poking around your computer, I suggest you take a beginning Windows or Apple operating software class. They’re offered online and at local community colleges and will instill confidence in the way you use the most important business machine you own—your computer.

Designing Your Own Website and Domain

If you write for a living, you know that owning and operating your own website is the most crucial part of your business. Over the past 15 years, I’ve never encountered a prospective client who didn’t want to check out my portfolio or samples of my work.

With all of the current platforms available, it’s relatively easy to build and maintain your own website. Companies like Wix and Weebly make it easy for technically-challenged writers to get a website up and running within a matter of hours. But, short of hiring an expensive website designer, the best (and the industry-standard) platform is WordPress. While the learning curve is slightly steeper than Wix, the power and flexibility are well worth the money and time you’ll spend building your own quality website.

WordPress offers thousands of free or low-cost templates to instantly change the appearance and functionality of your website. Don’t see the fonts you’d like to use? Just pop in one of the hundreds of free or affordable plug-ins and install them yourself.

One important step you should consider taking before you build your own website is buying your own domain. Domain names are the website addresses you type into your internet browser that end with three characters like “.com,” “.net” or “.edu.”

The challenge with claiming your own domain name is finding one that hasn’t already been taken. You can search for availability and buy domain names through a variety of sites, but one of the best places to find and register yours is on domain.com. Site builders like Godaddy.com can also help you with domain registration as part of your site-building package. They typically cost around $10.00 USD a year and you own your domain for as long as you continue paying for it. Once you own it, nobody, anywhere in the world, can use it but you.

If your domain name, followed by .com, or .net isn’t available, there are dozens of new top-level domain names available that might meet your needs. Some of these include:

  • .accountant
  • .fitness
  • .yoga
  • .institute
  • .lawyer
  • .media
  • .pub
  • .photography
  • .wtf – my favorite

Creating a Custom Email Address

The biggest red flag consumers recognize is business professionals using free email services like Gmail and Yahoo. They shout to the world, “I’m too cheap or don’t care enough about my business to own my own domain email address.” As long as you use email services like Gmail or Yahoo, you’re at the mercy of the people who manage them. After all, you’re not paying anything for them, so why should they care?

Most internet hosts (the place where you store your website) offer up to six unique email addresses you create yourself as part of your subscription fees. You can use personalized email addresses like allen@allenrsmith.com on your business cards and marketing material.

During major marketing campaigns, I’ve created and embedded multiple email addresses for consumers to reach me in different sites like Medium, LinkedIn and Facebook. Depending on what email address they use, I can tell which platform is returning the most traffic from potential clients. But, more important, using your own email domain tells the world you’re a class act.

Become an SEO Specialist

If you’re not familiar with the term, “Search Engine Optimization,” then you’re short-shrifting your career and the quality of the work you write for your clients. Search engine optimization is the art and science of writing engaging copy using well-researched keywords or keyword phrases. Are people Googling “alpaca sweaters” or “inexpensive alpaca sweaters?” What does it matter? Plenty. If you’re copywriting engaging text and selling it to companies who are marketing their products, you need to know the best way to capture their prospective consumers.

While you probably won’t find many SEO courses in college curriculums, there’s an abundance of them online. One of the best is conducted by Heather Lloyd Martin. Her SEO writing course will teach you everything you need to know in as little as a few months. You’ll learn how to craft articles that capture the behaviors of consumers without sounding phony or contrived. She’ll also introduce you to SEO utilities like SEMrush, Moz and others. Warning: they’re not cheap; usually around $100/month, so be sure that you’re charging enough to cover the cost in your overhead.

Social Media Specialist

Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the past twenty years, you’re undoubtedly aware of how social media has taken the world by storm. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn allow you to reach out and connect with billions (yes, that’s a B) of other subscribers 365 days a year, twenty-four hours a day. Arguably, they’re the most powerful marketing tools you have at your command. And, for the most part, they’re free.

As writers, the two most important social media sites to communicate with new clients are Facebook and LinkedIn. Facebook boasts more than 2.23 billion users and is rapidly becoming the defacto place for user groups like the Association of Ghostwriters, Ghostwriting for Profit, Coffee House Writers Group and the Author Meeting Place, to name just a few.

LinkedIn claims more than 6 billion users worldwide and is the industry standard for professional services. It’s also a great place to post original articles like this one, to direct people’s attention to your services. According to LinkedIn, less than 0.01% of subscribers write original articles for LinkedIn Pulse—the equivalent of their blog site. But, how do you use them to bolster your business? Reach out and touch them!

After setting up your LinkedIn profile, the best way to get started is to search using keywords for the type of people you’d like to engage. Avoid using blanket marketing techniques like sending out useless invitations to people with little or nothing in common with you. Instead, search using terms like “freelance writer,” “ghostwriter,” or “literary agent.” Craft a simple request like the following:

Hello XXXX… I read your profile and thought we might enjoy connecting with each other. Are you up for making a new friend? I look forward to seeing you pop up in your LinkedIn feed. Stay well!

Always, always, always include the correct spelling of their name. Never blast out generic connection requests void of any message. I guarantee you’ll be ignored.

When searching for new connections, avoid user accounts without pictures or profile descriptions. They’re not worth your while. If they’re too lazy to post a recent photo and descriptive profile, what kind of work do you think they’ll do for clients? Studies have shown that 100% of LinkedIn users ignore profiles without photos.

After people have taken the time to connect with you, be nice… send them a thank you note. Even though you’re getting to know them in virtual space, manners still go a long way and will define you as a class act.

Becoming a Marketing Executive

Unless you’re J.K. Rowling or James Patterson, the bulk of your marketing efforts will be done by you. But, fear not. You needn’t worry about licking hundreds of envelopes, carting them off to the post office and paying exorbitant postage fees. You’ll be able to do everything on your computer.

There are two key approaches to reaching new customers: outbound and inbound marketing. Outbound marketing involves costly approaches like buying expensive advertising, mailing flyers and sending other unrequested material to potential consumers. It’s one of the most inefficient ways to find people interested in your services and will deliver a fraction of the customers you need.

On the other hand, inbound marketing brings customers to you. People see your work somewhere on the information highway and make a decision that you’re the writer for them. The easiest way to start is to install a mailing list app on your website.

You’ve probably experienced someone else’s inbound marketing efforts when you visited their website. Minutes after you’ve hit their landing page, an attractive box pops up, inviting you to join their mailing list. The most popular email marketing services are:

The beauty of email marketing apps is the visiting consumer decides for themselves if they want to opt into your mailing list, rather than being bothered by cold calls at suppertime. Chances are if your new visitors opt-into your mailing list, you’ve captured their attention and they’re interested in hearing from you again.

If you’re running your site using WordPress, installing email subscription apps is as simple as installing a plug-in.

Accounting and Tax Software

The happiest moment of my life (even better than publishing my first book) occurred when I discovered I no longer had to balance my checkbook. As someone who’s all thumbs when it comes to managing money and expenses, I was ecstatic when I learned that there were easy ways to increase my profit margin and save for the future.

Accounting and tax software is a must for anyone seriously into selling their services to clients. Some of the most popular apps include:

By using one of these applications, you learn how to charge and keep more of your hard-earned cash. Most of them also have ways for you to create personalized invoices and other business forms.

Read Volumes of Other People’s Work

The last (but most important) thing you should be doing as a writer is reading other people’s work. Volumes of other people’s work.

For those of us who never earned an MFA, reading other people’s books, magazine articles, and poems is one of the best ways to study sentence structure, timing and other techniques award-winning writers use in their work.

When I started out, I was interested in writing humor. I still am. I think I have a good sense of humor and can spin a good yarn. But you need to have more than that in order to write entertaining stories. So, I studied the work of the top humorists in the business. Some of my favorite articles and books include:

I recommend all writers, of all genres, read the following works by the people who know the craft of writing the best:

For a complete list of my favorite writers and their work, visit the “My Favorite Writers” on my website.

Having a Fertile Imagination and an Insatiable Thirst for Life

Arguably, one of the least tangible aspects of a good writer is our ability to look at life the way nobody else does. We have to have fertile imaginations and an insatiable thirst for the nature of life in order to write for a living.

For example, I might be walking on the beach one day and spy a half-eaten sandwich lying on the sand. Most people wouldn’t give it a second thought and keep walking. But that lonely BLT will spark a series of questions in my mind: “What’s that sandwich doing lying on the sand by itself? Who did it belong to? How did it get here?” Then, I’ll imagine any number of explanations as to how these two slices of bread found their way onto the sand. Maybe they fell out of a blind child’s backpack during a school field trip. Maybe an angry girlfriend threw it at her boyfriend in the process of a horrendous break-up. Or, perhaps it belonged to a homeless man, and now he has nothing left to eat. I could go on indefinitely.

Thankfully, the business of writing has changed dramatically over the past eighty years. If it hadn’t, I doubt I’d be able to make it. Updating a manuscript on my laptop while stretched out at the beach sure beats the idea of pulling an all-nighter hunched over an Underwood, drinking scotch and smoking cigarettes.

Allen Smith is a syndicated writer and ghostwriter living in Oceanside, California. He is a three-time award winner for America’s Funniest Humor and has published thousands of long and short-form articles in print, on the web and social media.

Smith has been featured on NBC News, ABC’s The View, KYSL Radio, The Hollis Chapman Show, TV8 Vail, and Plum TV16. He has also been published in The Writer Magazine, Funny Times, the Professional Skier, Denver Post, Aspen Times and was a founding writer for Lance Armstrong’s wellness website, LIVESTRONG.COM. Smith was the Gear Editor from 2008-2011 for Onthesnow.com, the most visited winter sports website in the United States.

Smith’s first book, Ski Instructors Confidential: The Stories Ski Instructors Swap Back at the Lodge was published in 2005, is in its second printing and continues to sell around the world in book stores and online. His second book, Watching Grandma Circle the Drain was published in 2011 and has received rave reviews on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million and dozens of independent websites and blogs. He has also contributed to Chicken Soup for the Soul: Runners (2010) and The Gigantic Armchair Reader (2008). His latest book, Monkey in a Pink Canoe was published in April 2014 and earned the Best Humor Award from the Colorado Independent Publishers Association. For more information, please contact him here.

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