Soapbox: About the Industry

Being a Pro Writer

by Sandy Antunes
Dec 10,2004

Being a Pro Writer

by Sandy Antunes

It's time for my take on being a professional writer. Why is it time? I'll tell you at the end.

Now, I've only part-timed, with a best year of maybe $6k. After I get my PhD this year, I plan to be full-time with game writing, teaching, and science writing (so that's maybe a 2/3rd writer).

That said... write. Just, write.

1) Take every call for freelancers that either a) pays well or b) looks like fun.

That means everything from Monster one-page compendiums to Pyramid contests through sourcebooks. Many works = good practice, good resume, industry contacts, and pizza money.

2) Cultivate relationships that worked well.

"Worked well" means they like your stuff and you didn't have to hassle over getting a check, and that they fast-track you for future work. If it was hard to actually get paid, put them lower on your list. If you had to redo your work a lot for them, lower on your list. If each new book requires you pitch from square 1 ('send us 3 writing samples, plus a full chapter of the suggested work, and expect 4 weeks before a reply'), lower on your list. Bonus: if they let you know of upcoming projects before doing open calls or general announcements, they're a keeper!

3) Pitching steals time from writing.

So try to find recurrent work. Comics, monthly columns, interconnected sourcebook, adventure series, all are good ways to get steady work (steady paychecks) with minimum effort in a) pitching and b) initial research.

4) Write short pieces whenever you're inspired, even if you don't have a market.

Toss the short bits to magazines as 'fire and forget' submissions... if they sell, you're paid, if not, send elsewhere or file until they become timely. That D&D Druid article in 1989 may have been unpublishable, but would have been lucrative at the launch of D20! Save outlines of longer works, etc, for when you get an 'in' with a publisher and can try for a longer pitch-- that way, you aren't starting at square one.

Writing constantly can keep you fresh and inspired, even when paying work is in a lull.

5) Collaborate.

If you find you share an idea with someone, write it as a collaboration. Don't feel you always have to go it alone-- team ups not only make for stronger work, but give you networking contacts that can lead to future jobs. "Hey, I liked working with her before..."

6) Find a PDF publisher who likes your stuff, and toss the stuff you wrote in advice #4 but weren't able to sell.

Selling 40 copies of a PDF that is already written is 'free money'.

7) Diversify.

Do fiction, rules, game design, essays, adventures, comics, scripts. Get anything published where there's a niche. Heck, you might find a niche you like better than what you're doing. Plus it gives you a wider body of work to fall back on when trying to get more work-- it's easier to get work if you can state you've been published in that type of work previously.

(This is where the 'only wrote for magazines' is a _strength_-- it means you have a body of work! Magazine writing is a great career-enhancer, even if the pay isn't enough to support you solo!)

8) Make them pay.

Don't keep a live journal or blog-- that's giving away your work for free, with marginal return. If it's good enough to blog, _someone_ somewhere might buy it. Plus, you can easily become obsessed with writing about yourself, sucking down your productivity. If you really have something free to say, stick with a monthly column in something online so that other people will handle promotion and marketing of _your_ stuff for you.

9) Be nice, be polite.

Pay attention to what you write in emails and forums. _You_ are what you're selling, so make people think it'll be good to work _with_ you.

10) Know your productivity.

I can produce 4 pages/day of final draft as a part-timer _after_ research, so accepting a 72-page sourcebook with a 1-month deadline is a bad idea for me... but a 3-month deadline is easy. A comic script takes me 3 days to complete (start to finish), so 2 comics/month is easy. Know your limits and don't push them-- any good editor would rather you be honest and slow, than promise early and deliver late.

11) Set a weekly (or daily) money goal.

If you want to make $26k/year, that's $500 per week, $100/day-- at 3 cents/word, about 5 pages/day. So if you don't have 5 pages/day of assigned work on any given day, spend that day pitching and scoring more work. If you _do_ have enough work for the upcoming week or month, you have the luxury of only going after pitches that are a) lucrative or b) really intr

12) Don't self-publish.

You'll be risking your cash and taking up the time you could be using hustling up work or actually writing, all for a gamble. If your stuff is _that_ good, that you think you should risk it, it's good enough that you should be able to convince another publisher to handle it for you.

13) Know a bit about contracts.

And know which issues you want to fight for versus what you don't care about (your stance on 'work-for-hire' or on 'late fees' may differ from mine, for example). Make sure you get a contract you're happy with, and remember, there is no 'standard contract'. Don't spend too much on contracts, though... compromise and 'good enough' is fine, especially for shorter works.

14) If you have a writing assignment due, don't waste time writing 14-item advice essays for mailing lists.

... unless you know you have a monthly web column due, where you can re-run the material for a wider audience.

Cheers,
Sandy
sandy@rpg.net
freelance