Time to get serious about yourwriting career
You won’t be able to quit work and write, but you might find a grant to make your writing goals easier. Or a crowdfunding opportunity to fund your project. Find serious contests, too. Only those that pay in cold hard cash. No pay-per-click, $1 per blog or exposure markets either. Hope Clark writes for a living. If she wouldn’t try these opportunities, she doesn’t post them. Our newsletters are our world. Free subscription.
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Thought of the Week
There is no one way to find ideas. There is no magic. It's being open to suggestion, always hunting, ever listening, playing what-if over and over again. It's fun, though nobody ever said it was easy.
Latest posts
Turning Our Volunteer Passions into Articles and Income
Nicole Watt / 2024-04-19Children's television host, Mr. Rodgers, said that whenever he watched scary news as a child his mother would tell him to "Look for the helpers." He said knowing people were helping was a great comfort. His words inspired me to write about my volunteer experiences. I've been a mentor to... Read More
How Do I Get the Word Out?
C. Hope Clark / 2024-04-19I hear this over and over, people asking me what is the magic potion that made people buy my books. 1) I made appearances. 2) I published a weekly newsletter. 3) I answered every email, text, and message. 4) I freelanced every chance I could. 5) I guest blogged. 6)... Read More
How to Write a Book While Maintaining a Full-Time Writing Job
Ross Robinson / 2024-04-19If you have a full-time writing job and want to write a book, you may wonder how you will accomplish both. You likely spend most of your time and energy on paid work. How do you complete a book AND maintain quality work for clients at the same time? I... Read More
What Books Should I Read as a Writer?
C. Hope Clark / 2024-04-19As you might expect, I get deluged with books. From publishers, fans, wannabe writers, published-yet-still-struggling writers, my book club, and friends and family as gifts. My to-be-read stack is two columns of a dozen books each, and that doesn't count my bookcase with books I still told myself I would... Read More
What to Expect from a Developmental Editor—and Why Hire One
Jayne Benjulian / 2024-03-15My first editor worked with me on five revisions of my debut story in a major magazine. Decades later, when I wrote about him, I understood what had inspired his stamina: my trying and failing and trying again to express what I wanted to say. The piece wasn't spectacular, but... Read More
The Biggest Grant Myth
C. Hope Clark / 2024-03-15A week doesn't go by without someone asking me for money to self-publish their book. Nine times out of ten, they are beginning authors. There are no grants for this. And there are lots of reasons why. I'll try to toss most of them in here, in abbreviated form so... Read More
Top 7 Things a Producer Wants From Your Screenplay
Mark Heidelberger / 2024-03-15What makes a screenplay successful? This question has haunted many a writer since the dawn of motion pictures. No single genre, subject or storyline has so dominated the box office as to be dubbed a surefire winner. If one had, that’s all Hollywood would make. We’ve seen hits and flops... Read More
Referrals
C. Hope Clark / 2024-03-15Most of you reading this have published somewhere. In newsletter, magazines, or blogs. Maybe you've done podcasts or YouTube episodes. Or you've published in an anthology, or even published a book or two. Along this journey, you've met people in the business. Don't forget these people. Some will be editors... Read More
Writing Critique Groups
C. Hope Clark / 2024-03-15I no longer belong to a writer's critique group. I used to belong to two at the same time. One in person and one online. The first was 25 miles away, and we met biweekly, with a limit of ten double-spaced pages. The second was online and international. It was... Read More
Leveraging Substack and Public Speaking to Monetize Your Passion
John Atwell / 2024-03-01As a starving freelance writer, I always look for ways to turn craft into coin. Enter Substack. Think of it as a personal online publishing platform with which you build a paying readership. Setup is free, intuitive, and quick. Fill it with previously published work, new articles, OpEds, short stories...whatever tickles... Read More