Deborah Woehr

Do any of you aspire to write more than novels? If you have, what writing avenues interest you and why? I’ve given this a great deal of thought over the last year as I was clunking out the final draft of Prosperity and have come up with two areas that I plan to explore next year.

At the moment, I’m taking advantage of the downtime by compiling the piles of notes I’ve taken over the past year or so. I’ve come up with a list of the top 12 writing gigs for writers, thanks in part to Bob Bly. He’s written a great ebook called, Write and Grow Rich, where he discusses the different ways you can make a 6-figure income from writing.

1. Local newspapers. Check your paper(s) to see if they have a “reporters wanted” ad. This is a great way to build your portfolio for future freelance assignments.

2. Trade publications. Write case histories about companies or industry news.

3. Comic books and graphic novels. These have enjoyed a come-back, thanks to the popular X-Men movies. Fiction writers who have mastered the art of storytelling can break into this market by writing their own comic strips. Find an aspiring artist who can do the illustrating. Then use Lulu to publish the book.

4. Nonfiction books. How-to books have always been one of the most popular genres. Consider starting a content-based website and/or blog about one of your favorite topics. Once you establish a reputation in this topic, you can sell books to your readers.

5. Self-publishing and POD. Frankly, I’m surprised this made Bly’s list because I’ve seen only a small fraction of writers make it to bestseller status in this arena. If you’re thinking about using POD to publish your book, you must read Jeremy Robinson’s POD People: Beating the Print-on-Demand Stigma. This is an excellent book.

6. Ebooks. I haven’t tried this out, but I’ve read that people have made a fortune off of writing ebooks, the Internet Marketing industry in particular. The trick is to find a popular topic that people crave, write compelling copy that will make them want to buy your book.

7. Ghost writing. This can be a fun venture because you can gain a variety of assignments and meet interesting people.

8. Copywriting. The real money is with offline copywriting–marketing pieces, articles, speeches, annual reports, etc. You can also make a solid income with online copywriting. Businesses need content for their website, whether it’s to sell their products and services or to write industry articles.

9. Travel writing. This sounds like another fun venture.

10. Resume writing. There’s never a shortage of unemployed workers.

11. Games & Entertainment. One of things that really bugs me about my family’s video games is the flat and stunted dialogue between the characters.

12. Educational. You’ll find plenty of opportunities here in the forms of textbooks, how-to books, ebooks, web content, etc. Home schooling has become very popular, as well as distance learning for adult education.

That’s the list so far. Have you tried any of these areas with success? I’d love to hear your stories.