Become a Sellout

Pssst, I heard you want your writing to make you money. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone.

This week the word "sellout" came across my twitter feed as I was preparing to type of a blog on marketing your writing. THIS blog on marketing and writing. There is part of me that writes because I enjoy the art. I feel better after I vent my thoughts into a document and I love to talk. There is also a part of me that hopes my writing will pay my bills. This part makes me feel like a sellout.

I blog about grief which is a topic that I believe one should feel guilty making money to write. But people do. People write books about their experience with death, they write self-help books on how to survive losing a loved one, they give seminars on these topics. They make money. The first big article that I sold was a widow's perspective on the U.S. Healthcare debate. The Yahoo! Contributor Network (formerly Associated Content) gave me a $500 reward for that article winning "Content of the Year". I made money writing about death. I became a sellout.

Part of me wants my writing to pay my bills, maybe, if I'm willing to admit it, all of me wants it. Do you want to make money on your writing? It's OK. I believe there are enough of us out there that want it, but how can we make it happen? For me, it all began with letting others know that my writing existed. I tweeted about my blog. I posted links on my Facebook page. I emailed my blog postings to friends and family. Eventually, my blog became listed on similar blog's blogrolls. I reached out with my writing, and my writing gave back.

There are many steps to marketing your writing, but I believe the first step is to let your future audience know that your writing exists. If you keep a personal journal, or a locked account of your writing, it makes you no money. Your writing makes you no money if it sits without readers. Readers is plural because you cannot be the only one reading your material. I needed to get over that writing about death made me money. I got over it because the more I shared about my journey with grief, the more people I found needed to read about that journey. The purpose no longer involved that it began making me money, but that it was touching lives.

Marketing your writing step one: share.

Originally published through Whole Story Media Group.