Making a living writing while pursuing your fiction dreams

[Today's guest blogger is Sandra Gurvis, the author of fifteen paperback and hardback books and one novel. Her second novel, COUNTRY CLUB WIVES, is available as an ebook on Amazon and, for Nook and other ereaders, Smashwords.com. She wrote COUNTRY CLUB WIVES, a contemporary satire/romance about women, money, and homeless animals set in “New Wellington,” Ohio while freelancing for a major medical center, book packagers/publishers, and several Web sites. More information on Sandra and her work can be found at www.sgurvis.com. Thanks, Sandra!]

I was originally asked to do this blog on how to get into freelance article writing while working on fiction. Unfortunately only a very few – and even that number is dwindling – are making a living as full-time print magazine writers. Even fewer “mid-list” authors like me are seeing book publishing contracts come to fruition, even with two full-time agents (one for fiction and the other for nonfiction).

Before you bring out the torches and pitchforks, let me explain. It is entirely possible to make a living as a full-time freelance writer doing what you love while still writing fiction. It’s just that the game has totally changed.

Ask your friends how many magazines they read/buy a month. If the answer is “one or two” that’s a lot. After all, there’s Facebook, Twitter, reality TV, Yahoo news, smartphones…. Information comes from everywhere and every angle. Why pay $5 a pop to read something that’s likely several months old when you can get everything you could possibly want to know and then some for basically nothing?

Books, while serving a completely different purpose, are also going the way of the dodo bird, at least in their traditional form. Look at it from a publisher’s point of view. If they print 5,000 copies of your beautifully crafted and wonderful tome, where the heck are they going to put them? Borders has just closed, and Barnes & Noble is devoting more and space to its Nook and kitchen utensils. Seriously, that place is becoming the “Stop & Shop” for trendies. On the other hand, for a while Wal Mart was the only outlet that carried the newest edition of my most recent release, OHIO CURIOSITIES, until the publisher corrected the situation. But, really, where are you going to sell 5,000 actual, physical books? Small bookstores have all but disappeared, and your car can only hold so many (if you decide to sell your books as your sole source of income, it may become really cramped because you might end up having to share space with the leftover copies).

So what’s a writer to do? In two words: A lot…with little imagination and some effort. For example, Websites such as Monster.com, Journalismjobs.com, Mediabistro.com, and yes, even craigslist provide a multitude of opportunities for no fee whatsoever. Sign up with Indeed.com (also free) and they automatically deliver jobs to your email box. Of course much of what’s out there pays nada or through “click throughs” and “hits” (read: less 5 cents an hour), but careful and consistent culling of these sources can provide lucrative and dependable freelance work for Web sites, specialty publishers, companies looking for writers, and even teaching, if you’re so inclined.

Patience, persistence, and a great resume and bio can take you far, as long as you carefully study the requirements and tailor your response to the needs of the potential publisher/client. Spend an hour or so a day doing that, the rest of your time with assignments or whatever “day job” you have, and you’ll have the weekend or maybe even half a day during the week to write fiction. I know because that’s how I got COUNTRY CLUB WIVES done. It may have taken me eight years but time was beside the point. The end result was worth it and satisfied myself, my agent, and hopefully the few dozen readers who purchased it on Kindle and Smashwords (Their royalties are between 70-80 percent, so put away the noose, please).

Also tap into the power of networking, for both your “real world” writing and fiction dreams. While I’ve been on Facebook for a while, and actually made some great contacts in terms of promoting my novel as well as other nonfiction work, I recently dipped my toe into Twitter, which can be a challenge to figure out. Nevertheless the recent premiere of the Style-TV reality series “Big Rich Texas” (Think COUNTRY CLUB WIVES meets “Toddlers & Tiaras” meets the Texas cheerleader murdering mom) prompted me to tweet to dozens of viewers who had commented on the show. The result: I got several new followers on Twitter, increased traffic to my Web site, and a few more copies of the novel sold. It’s very ad hoc, this digital era, but if you think fast and act even more quickly, you can get results.

Last but not least, consider joining LinkedIn. I found the site clunky to navigate and downright unattractive, especially when I first signed up a few years ago. But it’s an incredible resource and also provides an amazing array of solid freelance jobs. I’ve bookmarked the “search for jobs” page and they now even offer a beta listing of “Jobs You May Be Interested In.”

The days of mailing out article and book queries and waiting for publishers/agents to respond are almost as obsolete as the SASE (that’s self-addressed stamped envelope for those new to the freelance world). Build your platform — your body of work, knowledge, and ability to promote same — and network, and you will likely find the golden pathway or at least the yellow brick road to your writing goals.