I have reached a point where I am about ready to give up my dreams of
making a living from my books and my writing. For the past five years or so, I have
tried all sorts of strategies to try and break into the “professional” arena. But
just last week I learned a valuable lesson: there is no right or wrong way to do
it. When it comes to earning money from your writing, you simply need to have contact
with the right people in the right places, at the right time. For example, I could
submit a manuscript to a literary agent, but depending on if and when they find
time to look at it, I probably won’t make an impression.
The key lesson, I realised, is that we should never give up. I only
submit manuscripts once or twice a year to agents and publishers, unless I am
paying a publisher for their services. I have probably submitted even less
pitches for freelance writing work if I take an average. Mostly it is because
the publications I want to write for rarely share their contact details in public
places. And the smaller publications that I approach usually tell me they can’t
(or won’t) pay for my work, but they are happy to publish an article for free. Well,
I am done with that. I publish free articles on my SpookyMrsGreen blog three
times a week, and I have submitted more work than I care to remember to
professional organisations. It is time for some payback in the form of cold,
hard cash. I am still searching for that lucrative contract, but I need to give
myself a kick up the backside, stop being complacent, and get on with it. Let’s
see how we get on…
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