Think you can’t make a good living as a writer? Think again! Fawn Fitter started out as a journalist, not long before the era of the newspaper went into decline.
Finding herself out of a job when the paper she worked for collapsed, she scrambled to get work wherever she could, and stumbled into commercial copywriting, among other things. Without any role models, it wasn’t easy to make a go of it, but Fawn persisted, and it’s proven to be a good choice for her. When Fawn started freelancing, she made $9,000 in that first year. In 2010, she netted $70,000.
All from her creative thing.
A few of the things we talked about:
- The importance of networking with people who are more experienced than you are, rather than just hanging with your peers.
- The importance of being reliable.
- Creating and maintaining a financial cushion. (Fawn puts a portion of every single check she gets into two savings accounts, one for taxes and one as an emergency fund.)
- Pricing: if you’re charging too much, people aren’t going to hire you, but also if you’re charging too little, people aren’t going to hire you. Fawn’s advice (via a dear departed friend): If you don’t blush when you say your price quote, you’re not asking enough.
Fawn’s advice to anyone interested in doing their creative thing full time:
- Figure out how much you need to live on, and then figure out whether it’s possible to make that amount.
- Make sure that you have a cushion! (Starting a business is more expensive than you think.)
- Surround yourself with people who are doing what you want to do, at the level that you want to do it – ie, not just peers, but mentors and role models.
After the interview, Fawn emailed me some resources:
If you’re trying to make a living as a freelance writer, you can’t afford to skip the annual writers’ conference put on by the American Society of Journalists and Authors. I’ve earned back, in orders of magnitude, what I’ve spent to attend — in fact, a tip I got there in 2005 led to an ongoing client relationship that’s earned me more than $155,000 so far. It’s chock-full of great advice and convivial colleagues, not to mention editors as far as the eye can see, and you don’t have to be a member to attend. Info at http://www.asja.org/wc/
ASJA also offers a bunch of useful free resources for writers on its website at http://www.asja.org/pubtips/pubtips.php (Full disclosure: I am a longtime ASJA member and a former member of its Contracts Committee. When I say this is good stuff, you know I mean it.)
My friend and mentor Sarah Wernick created a page on her website for everyone who asked her basic questions about writing a book. Sarah, sadly, is no longer with us — but her stellar advice lives on at http://www.writersandeditors.com/so__you_want_to_write_a_book__63351.htm The rest of writersandeditors.com is darn useful, too.
Find Fawn at http://FawnFitter.com and her blog at http://buildingmywings.com
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