The 4-Hour Work Week for Writers

If you've read Tim Ferriss' 4-Hour Work Week, you understand that the four-hour work week isn't about working only four hours a week and lying around eating bon-bons, training for the sloth olympics, for the rest of the week. The 4-Hour Work Week, as Tim Ferriss explains, is about spending the least amount of time possible on generating the income necessary to be able to live the lifestyle you design.

For writers, Tim Ferriss' 4-Hour Work Week could mean spending more time writing and enjoying the writing life.

Readers of Tim Ferriss' 4-Hour Work Week often make the mistake of believing that their muse must be a traditional business requiring a cash investment with a cash return for product that is outsourced or automated. Writers should know that they too can utilize the skills they already have to create a passive income through the generation of royalties. Once thought the domain of novelists alone, there are now established companies like Associated Content and Demand Studios that will purchase written content and provide the writer with monthly royalties indefinitely. Intellectual property is an excellent sweat equity investment that costs only time and energy and will produce positive cash flow for the forseeable future.

Even the novelist with no real interests outside their genre can create valuable articles based upon their research. The crime novelist might produce helpful articles on crime or criminals. The romance novelist might write articles on costumes they've researched for historical romance or the social mores of cultures they have researched. Espionage or thriller writers might write on spycraft or expose conspiracies. Whatever fiction thrills you, there is always a non-fiction writing opportunity.

A writer who can successfully mix income streams from non-fiction work with companies like Associated Content or Demand Studios who pay monthly and fiction work with traditional publishers who pay quarterly and/or epublishers who pay monthly will be able to design the lifestyle they choose, have a true 4-Hour Work Week and spend the rest of their time living the writing life.

Here is an example of how an epublished author who writes regularly for Associated Content might create two viable income streams:

Lifestyle cost for a family of four living modestly: $4000.

Associated Content Income

Multiple articles generating 1,730,000 page views per month at Clout level 10 will produce $3460 monthly.

EPublisher Income

Multiple novels offered at $6.50 retail with a 45% royalty rate for total monthly item sales of 200 will produce $540 monthly.

Total income generated and paid monthly: $4000.

So what are you waiting for?