Getting Paid to Write…or Not

There is any number of ways to make a living writing. I’ve met bloggers that have been able to monetize their blogs, best selling authors, and professionals that pull in a check from outlets that need content (magazines, web sites, ghostwriters, etc). I’ve met writers who made their living providing ancillary services like promotion, editing, and writing instruction. I’m the type of writer that hasn’t successfully made money in any way.

When I wrote Average Joe’s Story: Quest for Confidence I wasn’t anticipating it being a New York Times Bestseller, although I may have had delusions of grandeur. However, I didn’t anticipate it was going to be a money pit either. I wanted to do something different so I set up a 100+ city book tour where I was hoping to sell 5 to 10 books per city, modest expectations. I didn’t make it to within a mile of my expectations. I found that trying to successfully promote a non fiction book requires you to be an expert with a preexisting platform, or selling books is going to be like going toe to toe with with the Heavyweight Champion of the World, with both hands tied behind your back while wearing a blind fold.

I hate the promotion aspect of writing, and I need an editor myself to clean up my content; I have eliminated the vast majority of writing avenues right off the bat. So after a brainstorming session with another author I was enlightened to an overlooked option that piqued my curiosity, screenplay writing.

There’s no foregone conclusion of being successful as a screen writer. It’s highly probable that you could sell a spec script and it gets shelved and never produced. However, there is one aspect of writing my first spec script that I find appealing; there are plenty of outlets that need content: Netflix, TV, Feature Film, Direct to Video, and the list is growing. With that many points of distribution there’s an abundance of opportunity if you can create original content, god only knows I don’t need to watch James Bond 37: Walker vs Cane.

The other thing about writing a spec script that I like is that if you create an original concept that someone else buys promotion becomes their problem. Who knows maybe somewhere down the line sales of Average Joe’s Story will skyrocket as a byproduct of selling a spec script to some Hollywood A-Lister, but there’s my delusions of grandeur again.

 

© Christopher L. Hedges and AverageJoesStory.com, 2015. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Christopher L. Hedges and AverageJoesStory.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.