You’re probably not going to become the next Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, or [enter famous, rich, successful author here] but that doesn’t mean you can’t make a living from your writing. To supplement my desire to write fiction, (read: To make money so my wife doesn’t tell me to get a real job) I’ve started writing non-fiction articles under a pen name. I use the pen name for many reasons, but mainly because I really like the name I chose.
But, you say, I don’t want to write articles, I want to write the fiction, I want to make millions selling short stories to magazines and novels to publishers, and the women, good lord the women!
That’s fine, do that, but just know that, while you’re most likely insane, you’re also heading down a path that could (read: will) disappoint you. Writing isn’t the golden goose that you think it is. Writing can be lucrative, but it requires hard work. (Read: Doing shit you don’t want to do.)
For me, it’s all about finding a topic or two that interests me, then finding the many ways I can soak that topic. Just today I’ve written an article, outlined 3 other articles, and came up with numerous other ideas that will eventually form into articles. All of these were formed by using XMind to build a “mind map” of article topics. These were formed from a single topic: Passive Income. Why passive income? I find the old idiom “Make your money work for you” very interesting, and that’s exactly what passive income is.
I post these online, at sites like Constant Content, which allow my articles to be purchased numerous times for small fees, or a single time for a larger fee. The money is in the residual purchases. I learned that working as a freelance computer programmer, and doing the exact same thing with code snippets. You don’t make money with one purchase for a lot of money, you make money from a lot of purchases for a little money. This may sound familiar to you, mainly because it’s exactly how you will make your millions as a novelist. When your book sells, to start earning the royalties, you’ll have to make a lot of sales for the price of a single book.
So why not start now? Why not take that step, and start making that residual income? Even if you do a marathon of writing articles for just a month, but make sure they are timeless and high quality, there are many ways to make those articles bring you money in every month. Once you have a nice form of passive income coming in, you’re able to sit, focusing on your true passion.
Staring at a blank screen, drinking alcohol, and calling yourself a novelist.
At least, that’s my plan!
And now, a comic for your benefit. (Original VIA MindCircusComics.com)
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