How To Get Started As A Writer With No Experience

In the rapid digital landscape we exist in today, it is entirely possible to make a living without a traditional job. If you are skilled in writing and want to develop a career as a writer, this blog post is for you! Gone are the days that writers had to chase down editors and publishers to have their words read. Keep reading to learn my straight-forward tips to kickstarting your writing career!

Here Is How To Start A Career In Writing Without Prior Experience:

The internet has a vast variety of opportunities based on the niche of writing you are getting into.

The niches of writing can be divided into 3 broad categories:

Content Writers — these are writers that mainly write articles, blog posts, think pieces, informational tidbits, and the content you basically see when you are browsing online.

Copy Writers — like myself, these are writers that do marketing-based writing. This means that they write for brands and businesses. They write advertisements, social media posts, web posts, landing pages, marketing emails, product descriptions, and any sort of writing that converts to sales.

Book Writers — these are writers that self-publish books through platforms like Amazon Kindle Direct Publish (KDP). These authors can be nonfiction writers as well fiction writers who write popular novels.

Define which category your writing skills fall into and which path you would be most fulfilled by pursuing. This is important because the path in each of these niches is different.

Let’s run through each category and what steps you can take to kickstart your writing career!

Book Writers

This niche usually does not require prior experience, but it does require the utmost best writing skills. Writing a book is a lot more demanding than writing for sales or writing web content. You have to carry a storyline, proper literary devices, and characterization from start to finish, while keeping the reader engaged. This niche also require heavy social media marketing to build up a readership.

First, setup an Amazon Kindle Direct Publish (KDP) account. Secondly, brainstorm an engaging and riveting storyline. Setup a Google Doc and start drafting out your manuscript.

Simultaneously, start up an Instagram and most importantly a TikTok account to market your books. Peruse through TikTok’s BookTok hashtag to see how other self-published authors are posting about their books. Twitter also has a writing community in which you can post about your book.

Share your journey, tease snippets of your book, and create engaging content for your audience. Finish up your manuscript and hire freelance proofreaders and editors to give it a look for you.

Then ruthlessly edit your book and convert the document to the EPUB format. Publish your book on Amazon KDP and market your book. You can create a cover for your book on sites like Canva for free.

This is how you will start establishing yourself as an author. Now, if you are a nonfiction writer, your book would be marketed to a different audience as opposed to the casual novel reader. A nonfiction writer must also conduct market research to see what niches have space for more books.

Novel writers can often rehash common tropes and themes. Nonfiction writers typically do not have market space for redundant ideas.

In essence, your first book, if marketed well, can really kickstart your career as a self-published author. Do not be afraid to hire professional marketing services, such as someone to run Amazon KDP Ads, if needed. There is a lot of talent on the internet. You just have to network and reach out to people. I highly recommend Linkedin to network with similar individuals in the industry.

It can be tough getting sales on that first book. Hire help if needed and do lots of research about Amazon KDP marketing. A very successful author on Amazon is Jessica Sorenson. She has several books that have sold well and have plenty of reviews. Check out her profile for further inspiration.

She kept her first book free to download. It is still free today. This is a big move financially, but it paid off. People bought the subsequent books in her series because the first free book was so enticing.

This is just an idea. Ultimately you have to see what works for you.

Copy Writers

If you are looking to become a copywriter like myself, keep reading, because I have valuable tidbits to share. It can be tough getting your first few free clients, because you do not have a portfolio to show your prospects.

First create a portfolio and a website for yourself. There are several free platforms you can do this through. Go ahead and buy a professional domain for your site. Google domains sells them for as low as $12 a year. There are also plenty of professional website templates available on Etsy, starting at $10. Watch a few Youtube videos if you need to learn more about the actual setup of your site based on the platform you are using. This can be blogspot, wordpress, wix, squarespace, and so forth.

Create mock copywriting samples and post them on to the portfolio on your site. Mock samples are where you pick brands you like and write mock sales pitches, product descriptions, social media posts, landing pages, and mock marketing emails.

Create a few mock projects for brands in a niche you would like to work in, such as the beauty niche. You can also do some copywriting for your family, friends, and acquaintances’ businesses. Reach out and ask around. In the start, you often have to offer your services for very low prices, just for the sake of building up a portfolio.

Create a fiverr account and post a copywriting gig. Complete a few gigs on fiverr, so you have more projects to add to your portfolio. Many writers disagree with working for cheap in the start.

The truth of the matter is that any career requires a lot of low-cost upfront work for the sake of building experience, especially in today’s insane job market.

The goal is to build up a few solid items for your portfolio and then ditch the low payscale and start pitching yourself to larger brands at high-ticket prices. This way you will have something show for your expertise.

Create an Instagram and Linkedin account for your copywriting services. Use Canva to create visually pleasing graphics. Post about your work and share your expertise on Linkedin and Instagram. Connect with other writers and founders to generate a community and to generate leads.

Most of the heavy work will be done on Linkedin. Research about digital marketing and really put yourself out there on social media. Send your portfolio link to your leads and prospects.

You only need a few high-ticket clients on retainer to make a full-time income as a freelance writer. Once you have your first few clients, they can give you referrals to other business owners and founders. The ball really starts rolling after your first few legitimate gigs.

This is how you will set yourself up in the start as a copywriter. For reference, feel free to look at my Portfolio and Linkedin page.

Once you have built up some experience and projects to show, you can start applying to copywriting jobs at various companies, if you determine that the freelance route is not for you.

Content Writers

Web content writers essentially write content for various websites to help them rank better on Google. Your main skills here will be writing in an engaging way and learning SEO techniques to help your articles rank better.

To become a content writer, you need a solid portfolio. Follow the same steps as listed in the Copy Writer section of this post to start up your own website and portfolio.

Create accounts on free digital publication platforms such as Medium and Vox Media. Pick a niche, for example, health and wellness, and write articles consistently about that niche on these free publication sites.

Line your online portfolio with these well-written articles. You can also pitch your articles to larger magazines and publications such as Buzzfeed, PopSugar, or HuffPost. Do some research into the pitch submission guidelines for these major publications and pitch articles to their teams according to their guidelines.

It will take some time and relentless pitching before a major website picks up your article. But, having any sort of legitimately “published” web content can enhance your portfolio and career immensely.

You can also run a blog on your site, where you publish articles and posts within your niche. Build up a readership to demonstrate content marketing skills.

Conduct some research and watch some YouTube videos about SEO strategies such as keyword research, compatible headlines, backlinks, and so forth. The web is brimming with info-packed content about SEO optimization and ranking. You can even take courses for this on Udemy or Coursera.

Next up, activate social accounts for your writing, especially a Linkedin account. Use Linkedin to market yourself as a content writer. Similarly to the copy writer steps, engage and build a community. Post content showing expertise in your niche. Form connections with other writers and founders to generate leads.

After you first few content writing gigs, the flow of leads will get better. In the meantime, keep publishing wherever you can online. Building a readership on sites like Medium can also help build your authority as a content writer.

Finally, if you feel that the freelance route is not for you, build your experience and start applying for entry-level content writing roles at various companies.

Setting Up Your Career In Writing

Like any career, getting started as a writer will require lots of free work and network building on the front end. It can take a solid year before you land high-quality clients or land a coveted in-house writing position. The toughest part truly is the start when you barely have a network or any connections and when you barely have a readership. It can be a slow build-up. But, it is highly rewarding for those who intend to make a life-long career out of writing.

I am on this journey myself and will be sharing everything I learn about the ream of digital writing.

Follow me for more posts like this!