How to get paid for writing

Seven unusual ways to practice your craft and get your writing into the hands of a paying audience

Paid subscribers: You can download this as a short ebook at the end of the post.

There are almost unlimited ways to persuade someone to pay for your writing, but most people stick with the obvious tried and trusted methods like writing a novel, entering writing competitions or publishing articles and short stories in magazines. The trouble is that’s what everyone does, and you’re not everyone, right! All this results in a buyers’ market that sees too many submissions from an ever-increasing cohort of writing talent.

Of course, the fastest way to get to a publishing deal, if that’s what you’re looking for, is to be a recognised name already. But how do you do that if you can’t get a start?

This eBook will let you into a few little secrets practised by very few writers, variations of which I’ve used many times over the years to get my writing into the hands of people who will pay for it. And they aren’t always the end reader either!

When you get to the end, you’ll have 7 proven ways to sell your work which can help raise your profile and put you in front of an ever-increasing audience.

Why me?

It’s been said that to perfect a craft you need 10,000 hours of practice and with this guide, I aim to give you some simple ways you can get 10,000 hours of writing practice, at the same time as earning some money or other benefits.

I’ve been a writer all my life. I remember being inspired to write the next Tolkienesque masterpiece at the age of 9, after having read The Hobbit for the first time. My English teacher Miss Griffiths was supportive and encouraged me as much as she could within the boundaries of the school curriculum. It was through her I learnt that a good story underpins everything!

I launched my first website, a place for women to get vital health information, back in 1996. Despite being told by many people that women, especially middle-aged women, would never use the web because it was just for tech geeks, I had a hunch the Internet would be a game changer and within days of launch, I was proved right. That first amateur and very tiny website went on to support millions of women every single year of its 25-year life. And it was the reason I became a writer.

Supporting that site and my fledgling social enterprise required an income, a modest income admittedly, but money was in short supply at the beginning. At the time, there was no such thing as e-commerce, at least not for the little guys like me and my site. It was expensive, much more than my annual salary at the time so another way had to be found.

I hit on the idea of adding a simple form women could print out to order a booklet and it worked, beautifully. Within a few months of launching the site, I had a steady stream of envelopes through the letter box with a cheque for £1 and a stamped addressed envelope.

As the site grew, the need to earn more money grew with it and I became a freelance writer, usually ghosting for other people. I also wrote articles for magazines, contributed to some of the earliest blogging sites and wrote letters to journals and magazines I subscribed to. It paid well and I could fit it around my paid employment.

At the same time, I started writing my first book but struggled to find a publisher so joined a small but growing band of self-publishers at the beginning of the 21^st century. Since starting on that journey I’ve written and edited 17 books. I’ve had one traditionally published, but I can’t say it was the transformative experience I expected so have no plans to follow that route again, at least not without a lot of persuasion.

Since those early years, I’ve earned well over six figures through my writing, and it continues to bring in a stream of monthly royalty payments that add significantly to the lifestyle I enjoy with my husband and dogs.

And my writing has also taken me onto the BBC News, Woman’s Hour, and too many radio and magazine interviews to count. But I want to stress that books are not the only way I earn a living from my writing and it’s time to dive into some tried and trusted methods you can use too.

1. The letters page

I subscribe to three monthly magazines which have a readers’ letters page paying those people contributing either in cash or goods. Many other magazines do the same thing.

A typical letter is one that presents a personal take on an article from an earlier copy. Contributors often explain how they have been touched, inspired, or impacted by the information or story shared.

The amount of money you can earn ranges from £5 up to £25. And in some cases, you get something free in return; a new toaster, or kettle anyone?

These may seem like small amounts, but they build up over time and I’ve come to know a few people who now consider themselves professional letter writers.

The reason it works so well is that letters are just not that common, even though most magazines accept email as a replacement. Very few people bother to put pen to paper or finger to keyboard to say ‘thank you’ which means it’s relatively easy to get something quick and simple in print when you are just starting out.

2. Fillers and snippets

One of the magazines I subscribe to is for writers and, as well as readers’ letters, they are also interested in news they can share with their readers. These small pieces of information are often called fillers and snippets and come in many forms, from the highlight of an important anniversary coming up to a resource recommendation. They are used to fill in spaces between articles and longer form writing.

If you are a subject matter expert, whether it’s what you usually write about or not, then you have a good chance of spotting and contributing a useful filler or snippet for specialist publications in your field.

An easy way to contribute to the filler or snippet space in a magazine, journal or periodical is to answer another reader’s question, perhaps one posed through the letter’s pages or an article. Alternatively, jokes, humorous observations, recipes and short biographical stories are all well-used genres.

Although you don’t usually need to send in a speculative enquiry about fillers before submitting it does pay to follow a few simple rules:

1. Make sure you send it to the correct person or department

2. Include your details in the email you send

3. Send it as an easy-to-open attachment, Microsoft Word is the de facto standard and you can use it free of charge by signing up at www.office.com

4. Remember to check your spelling and grammar before hitting send!

3. Substack.com

Blogging is one of the fastest and easiest ways to get your work out into the world. But it can be a technical challenge to set up, give it the right look and feel and then promote yourself as well. Once it’s set up the challenge is to let people know your work exists. Most bloggers combined their website with a separate email newsletter services like MailChimp or Email Octopus, adding to the complexity and cost.

That’s where a site like Substack comes in. It’s a free platform that allows you to focus on the words without getting into the complexity of hosting, design, and layout. And once you’ve written your words are emailed to your subscribers in a newsletter format, automatically. No fuss, no bother and at no cost.

What’s more, it can pay you too.

Paid memberships offer your readers and fans the opportunity to support you in your writing endeavours. They may do it in exchange for content created just for them in the form of more detailed essays, posts or information. They may do it because you’ve set up a course or run regular workshops as I do with my Creative Hub.

All revenues are paid through Stripe and you must set up your own account with the company. One downside is that Stripe is not available in all currencies therefore blocking those writers who don’t have an account accepting international currencies such as the dollar. You set the rates you want to charge for monthly, annual and lifetime membership, you also set the amount of writing you choose to do.

Substack earns it’s income by shaving off a small percentage of what you charge your subscribers, it’s win for all and means no advertising is necessary meaning no algorithms favouring advertisers are forcing your words to the back of the queue. What’s not to love!

You can find out more about writing and earning through Substack here:

How to start a Substack