Looking to the Ivory Tower

If you’re looking for a way to subsidize your writing and earn extra income, you might consider teaching. Teaching has always been a traditional financial base for writers. It’s often the first route freelancers explore, and for good reasons. The time you devote to it is relatively flexible. Let’s face it, the ivory tower can beckon invitingly after several years of scratching out a living as a freelance writer—the chase after editors, the haggling for peanuts, the worrying over the paying your mortgage or rent can all be debilitating.

What's waiting for you, if you decide to pursue this possibility? Aside from the benefits mentioned above, there are a few problems you may encounter as well, mainly stiff competition in a tight job market. If you want the kind of security that comes with a full-time position, you'll need an advanced degree. Without it, you'll face an uphill struggle. But if you seek a full-time position, will you have time to continue writing? Chances are once you get used to a regular paycheck, you’ll not want to go back to earning a living as a full-time writer.

The answer is to seek part-time employment, but not just any job. The work that will give you the most benefit and will fit nicely into your schedule and creative side is teaching continuing-education courses at local school nights, community colleges, and universities. Pay for these jobs generally runs from a low of perhaps $20 an hour teaching courses at community school nights to $40 an hour teaching at universities.

Most writers gravitate toward teaching the obvious—writing and journalism. But it's possible to devise a course based on a specialty of yours. If you’re an expert on money management, for example, you could offer a beginners' course on budgeting and finances or even tax preparation. If you also do photography, consider a course in basic digital photography. If you’re a science writer, you might create a course based on a fascinating topic, if you handle it broadly enough, might appeal to a wide assortment of students.

If you write travel articles and books, why not put together some travel lectures based on your articles and travels. These can be done individually or grouped into an armchair traveler series. Whatever your specialty, take advantage of it.

Before you plunge headlong into teaching, do some market research. It’s not unlike what you normally do to sell your writing. Ask someone in college continuing-education departments what types of courses students request most often. Find out what they’re looking for before you approach them with your own suggestions.. Plan ahead and prepare your resume to impress.

Remember, academics will be impressed that you have published. They’ve faced the publish- or-perish syndrome for years. The simple fact that you’ve managed to get your words in print can be a big plus for you. Today’s students want courses taught by people in the field. They seek first-hand advice and expertise. If you do teach a writing course, they’ll seek your insight into the latest techniques.

The fact that you're going to give students as much opportunity as possible to talk with you, a successful writer, about how you do things, what your frustrations are, how joyful it is to be your own boss and see your name in print, will give you a decided advantage.

In continuing education, there are no rules. It’s usually up to you how you want to put your courses together. You’ll need to produce a simple course proposal that includes a description of the course and a weekly outline. Most continuing education courses run from one or two weeks to as long as ten weeks. Each class usually runs from an hour and a half to two hours. You’ll be paid by the hour and only for the time you’re actually teaching, so take that into account for any writing courses. Remember, it takes time outside of class to read students’ work—time for which you’re not paid.

Add Value to Your Writing With Photos

Today, we live in an iconographic world. Images bombard us from every angle. In the good ole days back in the early 20th century, photography was a new form of communication and for the most part stood by itself. As the century progressed, writing changed as photographs drew readers to articles and stories. Photos topped the front pages of newspapers and the covers of magazines. It was the photos that began to be the main selling point for periodicals.

Many freelance writers look at photography as a chore, an extra step that takes them away from their main purpose, writing. In fact, photography can enhance writing, adding a third dimension to an otherwise two-dimensional medium. But creating good photos is a skill, and one not easily learned until today.

Photographs add value to any piece of writing. Most editors want them included with articles. Some pay extra, others include them in the price of the package. So as a freelancer in today’s upside-down, inside-out world of publishing, it will pay you to take the time to learn some photo basics.

With the advent of digital photography, learning to take good photos just got easier. One of the big advantages to using a digital camera is that you can see your photographic mistakes right after you make them. Instead of waiting until after your film has been processed to see your results, you can see them instantly. This allows you to retake the photo if necessary to assure you that you have the image you want and need to complement your story.

However, not all digital cameras are created equal. Don’t fall into the trap of purchasing a cumbersome, extremely complicated DSLR—a digital Single Lens Reflex is a camera which has removable lenses. Just because a camera like this has all the bells and whistles doesn’t necessarily make it a good one for you. And while you’re at it, forget the photo vests and all the other pseudo-professional gear. A fancy camera and fancy gear won’t make you a good photographer. You’ll only look like one. What you need is a good basic camera that will enable you to capture what you need to enhance your writing package and make it more saleable.

With today’s high-resolution, high megapixel-sized digital cameras you can obtain good photos without much effort. In fact, you can operate the camera on the AUTO setting and get fine results. No one will ask you how you took the photo. They’ll only see that it works perfectly with your article or story.

But you will need to learn a few things. Check in your local area for a non-credit digital photography course. These run from 4 to 10 weeks and cover all the basics. Don’t worry if the course isn’t taught in a computer lab. Remember, you need to learn to use your camera, not a computer as such.

The best type of camera to start out with is a compact model. One like the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS8, which sells for less than $200. It includes loads of features, allowing you to take great photos without straining your brain or your budget. Learn to use this type of camera well, then consider moving up to a super-zoom.

A super-zoom digital camera has a powerful zoom lens that will enable you to take photos at an extreme wide angle for overall shots to a long telephoto of up to 600mm. The cameras weigh less than a pound, and everything is included—no extra lenses to buy or lug around. This helps with your budget and your back. But start off with a simpler camera first. The photos you get from it will work just fine with your writing.

NEXT WEEK: More on using photos to improve your odds at publishing.

Doing the Lecture Circuit

As you get more into freelance writing, you’ll probably discover that you’ll need to support your writing efforts by going out on the road. You’ll have to brave audiences, interviewers, and television cameras to push your wares. This isn’t such a bad idea when you figure that the more visible you are, the more your writing will sell, especially if you’re doing books. The opposite is also true---you don't have to write a bestseller to find yourself in demand for speaking engagements.

And even if you don't have a book to promote, speaking engagements are a good way to promote yourself and your specialty, as well as to make some extra money. Begin locally at first. Start with small audiences and once you’ve gained the needed confidence in your abilities and in the value of your efforts, you'll be ready to speak before larger audiences and receive higher fees.

And speaking of fees: Organizations love to call the money they give you to speak an honorarium. Just as the word “literary” implies that you’re writing on a higher plane, so the word “honorarium” implies that it’s an honor to speak to a particular group, and since it’s an honor, the organization doesn’t have to pay you as much. Take the word “honorarium” out of your vocabulary. In order to give a good presentation, you have to spend time putting it together, so you need to be paid a fair amount. This might be as low as $25 for a short speech to several hundred for a one to two-hour lecture, to well over $1,000 for a six-hour seminar.

The best approach to being sought out as a speaker is by creating a good programs to start with, letting program chairmen know about them, and then letting your reputation spread. Charity groups, schools, businesses, clubs, retirement villages,in fact, all sorts of organizations might be interested in your presentations. Program chairmen are always looking for something new and interesting. Let them know what you have.

Your programs can be anything you make them, from a concise speech to a well-integrated Powerpoint  presentation. You’ve got a lot of material in your files just waiting to be used. Think about the work you've published and the amount of information you gathered that you didn’t use. What is there in it that would make a good program? Take a topic from your main subject, or look back into the files of your research material to see if there are other angles that, developed a bit further, might be of interest to your audiences. Use your own illustrations or find some that will illustrate your material. Remember, it’s important to develop an inventory, but certain programs may really catch on, so you’ll be able to do them a number of times. It’s much like selling reprints of your writing, only live.

How do you go about getting your name around to the right people? There are two schools of thought here. One is that you should be subtle about making arrangements and the other is the direct approach. 
Whatever method you use to line up speaking engagements, make sure you’re as professional as possible. Some believe you should never ask to be a speaker—always be in the position of being asked. They’re the ones who use the term “honorarium”—this attitude comes from the academic side of the lecture fence. But you’re not an academic. You’re a writer. Therefore, promote yourself as such. Eventually, people and organizations will come to you asking if you’d speak for them.

To seek a broader audience for your lecturing, produce a simple flyer announcing your subjects for either  seminars or speeches. Post it where influential people might see it. Hand out a few to your business friends asking them to pass them on to appropriate people. Create a special speaking page on your Web site where you can list some of your most successful programs.

As a spinoff of lecture engagements, you can also teach continuing education courses, either in-depth on the same subjects or on other related to the kind of writing you do. For instance, let’s say you write about genealogy. You could develop a short course to teach the basics. You can even develop courses based on the type of writing you do—article writing, short-story writing, novel writing, for example.

If you’ve written a book, you may want to alert the local press, so they can send a reporter to cover your talk. And don’t forget local radio and T.V. stations that may want to schedule you for an interview.  For radio, you can even do this from your home via phone. Create a press kit and email it to local media outlets along with a good digital photo of yourself. Have a professional photo taken or take it yourself, but make it as professional as you can.  And be sure to prepare a short bio to send to the organization for which you’ll be speaking so that whoever is in charge will be able to introduce you properly.

And when you’re doing a lecture or seminar, be sure to bring along copies of your articles and place them strategically around the room. Keep a couple in reserve in your briefcase to hand to special people you meet. If you have a book coming out, bring along a sample copy and order blanks for it. Call attention to the existence of all this material before you leave the podium if the person who introduced you failed to do so.

Building Confidence

Nothing builds confidence in a freelance writer like money in the bank and words in print. Until these accumulate in sufficient amounts, you’ll be forced to rely on words of hope and encouragement from friends and colleagues.

Whatever kind of writing you do, you won't feel confident all the time. Some days you'll be very positive, able to take on any challenge. On other days, you'll feel like pulling the covers over your head and staying in bed. What you need, no matter whether you're a beginner or an experienced freelancer, are some steadying influences—things you can count on.

Establish a writing routine. One of these steadying influences is routine. Establish a good writing routine early on. If you feel like you know what you’re doing, you’ll have the confidence to continue. Too many beginning writers constantly have doubts about their abilities. Write something every day. And remember to look over pieces you’ve written a while back to see if you can improve them. On the other hand, read one or more of your published clips. Nothing builds confidence more than reading our published work and saying to yourself, “Wow! I wrote that.”

Take a writing course. In the very earliest phases of your career, you can build confidence by taking a writing course or two. Perhaps you need to start with a good foundation course like creative writing, then branch out to more specific courses like article, short story, or novel writing. The feedback you'll get from your instructors and fellow students will go a long way to building your confidence as a writer. But don’t’ go into a course with the idea of just getting patted on the back. That’s secondary. Take a course for what you can learn from it.

Publish some short articles. Once you've made it into print, you'll need to keep moving farther out on a limb, so to speak—but without falling. Perhaps you’ve published several short articles in your local paper. Your next step might be to query a regional magazine, suggesting to them that you write on a subject you know well. But don’t try to move up the publishing ladder too fast. The more pieces you write and publish on a particular subject, the more you’ll know about that subject and the more confident you’ll feel.

Take a survey. Talk about what you do with friends and colleagues. Try your ideas on them for their reactions. Discuss your ideas. The more feedback you can get at this stage, the more confident you’ll feel as you progress into the writing stage.

Do your homework. You’ll gain confidence by conscientiously doing your homework—studying the publications in which you hope to appear, perusing publisher’s book catalogs, scouting  possible clients among the businesses and ad agencies in your immediate vicinity.

Make a positive use of rejection. If the letters, notes, or E-mail messages you receive from editors contain any expressions that you can interpret as praise, study them. But be careful. You may put more stock in an editor’s words than he or she intended which will lead to even bigger disappointment. It's more professional to quickly submit the rejected manuscript to another possible market, or to revise and resubmit it. But if an editor's words indicate some interest in your topic, immediately send more ideas or manuscripts his or her way.

Compare your work to that of other writers in print. A big confidence builder is to compare your work to that of other writers in print. But be honest. Look at the stories and articles in your targeted periodicals. Is your writing superior in research, wording, organization, timeliness, and clarity? If you can give yourself good marks on all of these counts, you deserve to be confident. In fact, it may be just a short time before you join or replace your competitors in those magazines’ pages. If you discover that your work is deficient on two or more counts, then you should correct those problems. That, alone, will increase your confidence.

Take credit for your successes—no matter how small. Lastly, it's important to see that you get credit for whatever successes you have achieved, from good feedback in a writing class to rave reviews or an award for a first book. Nothing raises the confidence of a writer more than being recognized for writing excellence by his colleagues in the form of an award.

Don’t Forget the Basics

With the advent of computers, the Internet, E-mail, and especially texting, many students have glossed over basic writing skills in favor of abbreviated forms of communication. While most will sadly be able to get by communicating in writing, those interested in becoming writers have to heed to the call.

If you have any dreams of becoming a published writer, you need to pay close attention to your writing skills and, for some, English usage. The writing business has standards of quality—strict ones—that all writers follow, from best-selling book authors all the way down to beginning freelancers writing for their local newspaper.

While most people think that writing skills mean punctuation and capitalization—what writers call mechanics—the truth is they also include things like phrasing and idioms, and at the top of the list, sentence structure and paragraphing. Way down on the list is vocabulary. It doesn’t take big words to make your readers understand what you’re trying to say.

So if you’re writing skills aren’t up to par, it doesn’t matter how great your ideas are because you won’t be able to express them properly.

If you find your writing skills below par or perhaps lacking altogether, enroll in a basic composition class or a basic writing class at a local school night or community college. The former are less expensive and usually run for six to eight weeks. That’s plenty of time to get your skills in shape, especially if you have assignments to write each week.

Of course, you can improve your writing skills on your own, but you won’t get any feedback and that’s very important—not only from the instructor but from other students. If you have any plans to publish anything, get started now improving a writer’s second greatest asset—your writing skills. The first is your ideas.

Read the Kind of Writing You’re Going to Write

Besides writing articles and books, I also teach writing. Over the last 25 years, I’ve had a lot of students take my classes. I’d venture to say that only about one percent of them had read the type of writing they intended to write. To be a good writer–to be a published writer at all–you need to read the kind of writing you intend to publish.

Unfortunately, the majority of beginning writers still hold the attitude that what they write is important. After all, didn’t they learn in school that every word is a nugget of gold. While that may be true in rare cases, in most a word is just a word, unless it’s strung together with other words that have meaning for the reader, for the reader is the most important part of the process.

When asked why they took one of my courses, many students say that they’ve been trying to get published but have had no luck. They think it’s their writing–and sometimes it is. But usually it’s because they have no idea of what’s being published out there. They have no idea of what editors want. And to find that out, short of asking an editor, is to read what that editor is publishing.

To learn to write a good article, short story, non-fiction book or novel, you first have to read ones that have been recently published. Notice I said recently. Reading short stories published in 1910 won’t get you anywhere. They’re just not written in a contemporary style. And style and structure, even more than content, is what you’re looking for.

So to learn how to write to get published, seek out good examples of the kind of writing you plan to do. By doing that, you’ll be well on your way to your first pay check.