A Guide to Working from Home: Writing Books and
eBooks
The home computing revolution
and the advent of the Internet has made the dream of “Working from Home”
a very real and lucrative possibility for millions of Americans. And
this does not only apply to those who have found they can now
"Telecommute" in their chosen professions. Many have been bitten by the
next wave of entrepreneurial spirit that is sweeping the nation, and are
actually leaving their jobs to start their own home based businesses.
But choosing the right home based business can be a challenge.
If you have a creative streak,
have ever earned you living as a writer, reporter or journalist, or
anyone has told you “you know so much about so- and so you should write
a book” maybe it’s times you started your own business as a Writer of
Books and eBooks.
AT A GLANCE
|
|
|
Expected Hourly
Income |
$20 – 50.00 hour or more |
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Start-Up Costs
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High,
Moderate, Low |
|
Start Up Degree of
Difficulty |
Easy,
Moderate, Difficult, Very
Difficult |
|
Potential Problems |
Competition and
plagiarism |
Getting Started
As with any home-based business
to earn a living as a writer requires a few basics, in this case
primarily a computer with Internet access, and good writing and
researching skills. Starting a Home Based Business as a writer can be
very rewarding and profitable, I should know – I am writing this very
“Guide” on my Laptop from the comfort of my deck in Sunny South Florida.
I left my six figure a year job as a Field Reporter for a well-known
Television Magazine Series six months ago to earn my living as a
freelance writer and I have neither looked back nor regretted it. I now
earn almost as much as I did working for others, I work when I want for
whom I want, and I no longer have to live with a packed suitcase ready
to travel at a moments notice tracking down some story across the
country or across the world. I get to spend much more time with my
family and I am finally getting to see my daughter grow up. Now of
course 20 years as a professional journalist working with some very well
known names in the industry certainly have helped me build up my
clientele rather quickly, however you do not need that level of
credential to start and build a nice home based business as a writer. If
you have some good writing skills, and can research and write quickly
and have the patience to look for work, you can do this. The Internet is
hungry for content. I obtain a good deal of my work from a website for
freelancers called guru.com, you do have to pay a yearly or monthly fee
to join and bid on projects but one gig will usually pay for the cost.
There are also many free sites that post freelance writing opportunities
such as craigslist.com. There are also several sites and blogs that pay
to self publish articles and other content.
Start-up costs
There are the start up costs you
will need to set up a basic home office as a Writer of Books and eBooks
if you have not already done so. Since you are on this website we will
assume you already have a PC and an Internet connection. High speed
Internet is a must if you are going to do any writing of books and
eBooks, as you will need to use the net to research. Good deals on
broadband connections abound and can be had for as little as 25.00 –
30.00/month depending on the ISP’s in your area. As I said you may want
to invest in a site like Guru.com or The Freelance Exchange to look for
projects. These can cost anyway from 30.00 – 70.00 a month. You should
consider incorporating for tax purposes and that should cost around
500.00 depending on where you live. If you do not have that much writing
experince you may want to consider taking an online writing course, or
purchasing any one of the programs listed on these pages. Bottomline -
certainly for less then 2000.00 you can set yourself up in a Home Based
Business as a Writer. As in any Home Based Business – if you have left
work to pursue writing full time, and do not have access to health
benefits through a spouse, you need to include the cost of health
benefits in your monthly budget. More information on Insurance for the
Self-Employed can be found at
www.insurancebudget.com or
http://www.nase.org/
Hours and Income
As with any Home Based Business
what you get out is largely a factor of what you put in. Many people are
under the mistaken belief that working from home will require less hours
then their full time occupation. Perhaps in some cases you can get to
that point. Again speaking from personal experince I certainly have
saved the two to three hours a day I spent stuck in traffic driving to
and from my studio everyday. However now writing as a freelancer is my
“full time job”. I get up in the morning and pretty much put in a full
day either on writing copy or pursuing work. However if I feel like
sleeping a little later one morning and working in the evening I can. Or
if I want to spend a day on the beach with my kid because she is off
from school, I can do that to. Set real goals, be conscious of deadlines
and you can work some pretty flexible hours and still pull down 1000.00
to 1500.00 per week. Not bad for a job that lets you be creative and
work in your bathrobe.
Potential Problems
The greatest pitfalls to earning
a living as freelance writer of books and eBooks or articles or other
content is the competition. While there is a great need for content out
there, there is also a lot of competition, and a lot of it from some
very highly qualified people. Also as in almost all of the home-based
businesses we’ve discussed there are a lot of scammers out there. I have
personally run into many postings for many jobs (especially on the free
sites like Craigslist) that are nothing more then “Phishing
Expeditions”. Beware of any advertisement for a writing job that asks
you for your name and SS# or “bank transfer information to make payments
to you” BEFORE they have even given you a writing assignment. Also as I
said you do not have to be a trained journalist to do this but you do
need a basic command of English and know how to write. Just cutting and
pasting info from other websites will not “cut” it. Most legitimate
people looking to hire writers will subject your copy to Copyscape or
any number of other anti-plagiarism tools to ensure that your copy is
original and not in violation of any copyright laws. If you think you
will be able to make a living by just stealing other people’s work,
forget about it.
Other Resources
www.associatedcontent.com - A website that will publish articles on
any and all topics and does pay for them.
Conclusion
If
you have the skills Freelance writing can be a fun and lucrative Home
Based Business – take it from me.
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Fed
up with the rat race?