As with any other group of creative individuals who attempt to live off their art, writers experience many obstacles and challenges in writing for a living. Writing for money is often an entrepreneurial feat: those who attempt to sell their writing must know the business and know how to sell themselves along with their writing to make enough money to sustain themselves. These are a few concepts writers must keep in mind to be successful in making a living.
Entrepreneurship Concepts
Entrepreneurs take their life into their own hands, which can be a scary concept, and is a reason that many people who sell their art and writing often have second jobs. However, in 2015, entrepreneurs made up 10 percent of the U.S. workforce, which means that 15 million people were self-employed and making money from personal ventures. As an entrepreneur, you are constantly selling yourself and your work to clients and firms, which means your verbal and written communication skills must be highly effective.
When running your own business or selling any kind of personal art, it’s important to market yourself in the way you wish to be perceived. Your name is your brand and people will associate the way you run your personal life with what your art stands for. Therefore, depending on who your intended audience is and what kind of writing you’re doing, it’s important that your online presence is in line with the beliefs of your audience and that you steer away from controversial topics that could polarize members of your writing community.
Marketing and self-promoting is your key to surviving as an artist, which means you should promote yourself and your brand through social media and content marketing, as these are some of the more accessible ways to gain recognition. Anything you post personally is tied to your craft and to you brand, which means you should think twice before posting content that could reflect poorly on your brand. Be intentional, highlight your name, promote your niche and practice good business tips for your freelance writing.
Writing Organization
To move forward with a writing career, it’s important to be diligent in managing yourself and your time to finish writing projects. One of the challenging parts of being a freelance writer, or writing a novel, is dedicating enough time each day toward your goals and keeping an organized schedule. When you’re your own boss, it’s easy to let things come between you and your goals. Keep track of your progress so you can celebrate your accomplishments and see how far you’ve come during times that you slow down or are not getting as far as you’d hoped.
Maintaining an organized workspace can help ensure that your writing process goes as smoothly as possible. This is especially important for online files, as some writers have the tendency to save files wherever is easiest with the intention of organizing it later. However, if you’re writing each day, this can become messy very quickly, and can be the cause of losing important files and even entire segments of work that you’ve completed. If you’re someone who keeps paper files, the best way to store your papers and documents may vary based on your work style, however, keeping a copy online can ensure your work never gets lost.
Being organized is an incredibly important part of being an efficient writer. It’s important to keep your work organized in its physical location, but it’s also important to stay organized in your work process to make steady progress. As an entrepreneur, it’s important to follow business concepts in your personal life to ensure your online and in-person presence doesn’t affect your brand. Writing for a living can be challenging, but by marketing yourself and living as an entrepreneur, success can be right around the corner.
About the Author:
Avery T. Phillips is a freelance human being with too much to say. She loves nature and examining human interactions with the world. Find her on Twitter; comment or tweet her at @a_taylorian with any questions or suggestions.
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I’ve heard a story about a bestselling author who isn’t confident about using commas. When she sends her manuscripts to her editor, she includes a page typed full of commas with a note, “I know these need to go somewhere, but you can figure out where.”
Conclusion
Lori Widmer at 
Studies have shown that the ability to focus and concentrate and the ability to think creatively as a writer has a lot to do with your physical surroundings.