I opened my mailbox on a sunny September afternoon in 1962, unaware of how much a single envelope inside would dramatically alter the path of my life for half a century.
Actually, it wasn’t my mailbox, but my parents’. I had recently graduated from high school. A summer of short celebration and extensive boredom led me to write and send an article on my coin-collecting hobby to an obscure publication. The response letter was brief, yet said everything I wanted to know: my article was accepted. I was accepted! Confirming the fact, a check for $5.00 and a contributor’s token coin were enclosed. I was officially a “professional writer” – or so I imagined. After months of wondering what I would be when I grew up, the answer fortuitously appeared in the mailbox: I didn’t have to grow up. I could be a writer!
Attempting to prolong my professional status, I submitted article ideas to any publication Writer’s Market said “pays on acceptance.” Simultaneously, I started and soon filled a folder titled “Rejections” with form letters from some of the finer publications of the next decade. Each letter civilly told me that I should not give up my day job.
In the five-plus decades after my first writing paycheck, I ultimately learned to write well, sometimes even very well. I learned and shared information and thoughts on hundreds of topics, from how to build a house to starting a home business. To hone my storytelling skills, I extensively studied and practiced fiction writing. I earned a living as a part-time writer and then a full-time writer of books, articles, manuals, and other instructional documents. Half of my 50+ year career has been as a full-time freelance writer. My resume soon included authoring 102 published nonfiction and fiction books, hundreds of magazine articles, blog posts, and other creative documents. Writing has taken me across the U.S., Europe, and the International Dateline. It gave me a rewarding career as a Working Writer. A “Working Writer,” in my view, makes a good living and builds a meaningful life by developing and applying valuable communication skills to help others with their lives.
Along the way, I also learned many life lessons through writing. It’s been a fascinating journey – and, at age 80, I’m not done yet. In this book, I will share some essential writing tips that can help you in your life no matter what you write about. Maybe you’re in a job that somehow requires written communication. Most jobs do. But you’re not entirely comfortable expressing your ideas or opinions in written form. Most people aren’t. Or maybe you’re thinking, even dreaming, of the day you get paid for doing what you love as a Working Writer.
Most important, I want to give back to you, the reader. Over the years, millions of readers like you have given me a profitable and meaningful life as a professional Working Writer.
In Working Writer Tips, I want to share dozens of my best tips for writing anything – emails, letters, blogs, novels, novellas, short stories, memoirs, autobiographies, essays, term papers, manuals, messages, reviews, reports, journals, poems, plays, zines, you-name-it – better, faster, and easier. It’s free! Just tell me where to email it.
Working Writer Secrets is a longer ebook focused on proven information on how to build a career as a Working Writer—whether of fiction, nonfiction, or both. Learn from my many successes — and errors.
Working Writer Profits is a comprehensive business plan for turning your writing talents into a profitable business. It includes advice that can save you years of frustration and help you earn more money doing what you love.
These three ebooks are my gift to the world in gratitude. What I will share can be applied to any communication, including fiction and nonfiction (factual) writing. Please join me as a Working Writer!
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