Someone I worked with many years ago passed away last week. It caused me to recall our association as it relates to writing. It was around 1989 and fear of starvation as a writer had sent me back to the working world for a while. I landed a job in the admissions office for a local private school. After about a year, when I got my confidence level back and my article business seemed to be supporting me again, I decided to go back to it full-time. The director of the school contacted me before I left and asked if I’d like to write a book about the history of the school. I accepted the job and agreed to work so many hours per week on this project for a set fee per month. That gave me time to continue developing my article-writing business.
This was a most enjoyable project. I loved working with the school director and interviewing the many former teachers and students of note. What stories they had to share. The results of this effort was a 300+ page book—A Thread to Hold, The Story of Ojai Valley School.
A few years later, I worked with this man on his memoirs, which he presented to his family members as a surprise gift.
Have you ever written on commission? Or have you produced a book for a local business, etc? It’s generally fairly lucrative and interesting work. Aside from the history of the private school, I wrote the brochure copy for a local recreation area, a history booklet and newsletters for a local water department and I’ve rewritten manuals for a major international organization. I once designed and wrote the business column for a local newspaper. I’ve also written campaign material and fashion show commentary as well as web and ad copy.
If you want to earn money writing and you have the skill to organize and write a variety of material, you might consider sending your resume and a few ideas to local businesses, utilities companies, candidates, etc. Offer specific ideas: “I see that you are celebrating your 25th year in business in 2012, would you like to come out with an anniversary booklet to handout to customers and business associates?” Or “I notice that you are planning to run for the school board, can I help you with your campaign material?” or “Perhaps a blog would help you gain more recognition and credibility, let me write one on a regular basis for you.” Or “Does your company need help revising your employee manual or updating your website?”
If you want to earn some extra money, gain more writing credits and experience and have some fun doing it, consider approaching some of the individuals in your community who might need help with a writing project.
Announcements
My article, “Do Bookstores Matter to Authors” appears this morning in Fran Silverman’s Book Promotion Newsletter. Are you a published or unpublished author? If you aren’t doing so already, you should be subscribing to Fran’s enewsletter.
http://www.bookpromotionnewsletter.com
I’ve invited a colleague to be a guest blogger here. She’s going to write about writers groups. She belongs to two of them and gets something different from each. I think this would be a good follow up piece to the one I wrote last week on how to find a good writers group. Watch for Sandra Murphy’s post coming up in a week or so.
Sue Collier, co-author with Marilyn Ross for The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing will also be a gust blogger sometime this month. She’s on a virtual book tour and asked if she could stopover here and write something for you.
Do you have something of value to say that would be of interest to authors, hopeful authors and freelance writers? Let me know if you want to be guest blogger here at my Publishing Blog.
Visit my websites:
http://www.matilijapress.com
http://www.patriciafry.com