How to Become a Professional Writer

Some writers earn a living telling other writers how to make thousands of dollars a month as writers. They’re mostly lying. They wouldn’t make a living following their own advice. Now, I concede that a few of them do follow their own advice and do make those thousands. You might consider them the top 1 percent. They’ve found a successful niche. For some of them, that niche is telling other writers how to make a living. See how that works?

For the rest of us – the 99 percent – we’re just out here trying to pay the bills and put a little something by for rainy days. We write lots of things in lots of styles for lots of publications and platforms, and we’re not out here telling other writers that they can earn $10,000 a month writing for just two websites. So how are we doing it, and more importantly, how can you? It’s not easy, especially for beginners, despite the plethora of advice you’ll see that says otherwise. But, it can be done, and the steps to doing it are pretty simple.

What Kind of Writer Do You Want to Be?

You need to know this if you ever want to be a working, professional writer. Deciding to focus on one type of writing doesn’t mean your decision is set in stone and you can’t do other types down the road. In fact, you can do a few, or several, types of writing simultaneously to earn your living if you can switch styles easily and enjoy a challenge. Choosing one will eventually give you depth and expertise. Choosing many will make you a versatile generalist. Both work.

Here’s a resource to help you figure out what you want to write:

Learn. Practice, Practice, Practice. Get Feedback

You’ve heard it said that the more you practice, the better you get, right? Well, that’s only half true. Practice without feedback isn’t worthless, but it isn’t very helpful; it can amount to doing the same thing wrong over and over. Professional athletes, musicians, and actors have coaches, teachers, trainers, and mentors for a reason. Paying an editor to look over your work is often expensive, but there are resources you can utilize for free:

• Join writer’s groups and ask for feedback. People “liking” your articles on Facebook is not feedback.
• Take part in mentoring groups. The Vocal Creators Saloon group on Facebook has a mentorship program. Or reach out to people you know who might be willing to mentor you.
• Use Grammarly or something similar to perfect your grammar and writing skills. Yes, you’ll work with editors quite often, but you won’t get a foot in the door without excellent grammar.
• Read voraciously, but read like an editor. Pay attention to style, voice, formatting, grammar, and vocabulary. Limit your reading to magazines, newspapers, and books for this.
• Pick an article in a publication you like and write a practice article in the same style. For many freelance jobs you won’t be writing in your own voice and you’ll be expected to write to their guidelines.

Learn from the masters. There are millions of websites, blogs, and writers offering advice on how to get published. In the beginning, stick to old, established sources like Writer’s Digest, which is older than the web and has terrific resources for writing, submitting, and selling your work. The website is a rabbit hole worth falling down, and it’s free.

Spring for a Writer’s Market book. This granddaddy of where to get published is 100 years old and has several genre versions. The future of the book is uncertain since the company was sold, but the 2020 book will give you an idea of all the available markets – many of which you’ve never heard of.

Start Pitching and Applying

From fly fishing to fashion, there’s a publication out there that will pay you for an article in every imaginable niche, whether it’s for print or the web. That said, the first thing you need to do is learn to write a pitch letter. An editor will never know how mind blowing your article is if your pitch letter fails to impress.

Yes, you will get rejected. Most of the time you won't know why, but once in a while you'll get a note or personalized letter telling you why. Those are gold. Study them, adjust if necessary, and keep going.

Here’s an enormous list of paying publications, both non-fiction and fiction, print and web.

A lot of online companies use independent contractors for content writing. This gives you some of the freedom of a freelancer with the stability of regular work. There are also full-time jobs in writing. If you want to be a copywriter, look at getting a job working for marketing and PR firms, or in those departments in large companies. There are also temporary agencies and recruiting companies that specialize in placing creatives like writers. This can be a great way to get a foot in the door. You can do grant writing or technical writing as an employee or contractor.

A Word About Online Content Mills

They’re a mixed bag and you will be warned against them. The better ones have an application process so be prepared to submit examples of your best, error-free work. The best ones usually don’t have public openings. The worst ones will ask you to write on spec. That means you will write an article or blog post, submit it to the buyer, and then the buyer will choose whether or not to purchase it. You will also be competing against other writers. The work you do may never sell. That said, this can be good practice for beginners and you may make a little money. You will not keep the rights to anything you create.

How Publishing on Vocal Helps

Vocal has drawbacks for serious writers, but it is probably the best platform on the web for practicing and honing your craft. With so few restrictions and zero consequences for writing less than stellar articles, it’s ideal for trying out types of writing that are new to you. The Challenges are good for learning to write to guidelines, but look at all of the different communities and write a story for one that’s out of your comfort zone.

You need a writer’s portfolio and you need clips in that portfolio. Follow this link to learn how to create both. Vocal is a great platform for creating clips since you can publish pretty much anything your heart desires. Within the guidelines, of course. Get used to those. Guidelines, I mean. Everyone has them.

One lovely, fun, and easy thing about publishing on the Vocal platform is the use of first person. It’s rampant and encouraged, but if you want to be a professional practice writing pieces in second person and third person. You’re going to need that skill in your toolbox. Pretend you’re a journalist. Pretend you’re writing for a magazine. Pretend you’re writing the copy for a company website. Fake it ‘til you make it. Seriously. Then join the Vocal Facebook groups if you haven’t already and ask for feedback.

A Last Word About Self-Confidence

At the end of your life you’ll only regret the things you didn’t do. The things you didn’t try. It’s a cliché and it’s true. If you work at writing every day because you want it to be your job in whatever form, and you treat it like a job, and you spend time every week editing your work, learning, publishing, pitching, and marketing, you can call yourself a writer. That’s what a writer does. You’ve got this.