Lessons learned as a pro writer (or any indie…)

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 8, 2018

This was a series of tweets by Alexander J. A. Cortes, unrolled into a single post. There is some fantastic advice here. It’s geared towards independent writers, but most of it applies equally well to art, game development, music, etc.

The Lessons of Making $$ from Writing

It’s a pretty solid list, all told.

If I were to try and sum it up and generalize it (maybe not the best idea, but I think about these things), it comes down to this:

1. Master your craft. You’ll probably suck when you start out, and you’ll definitely suck way more than you think.
2. Master your trade. This is the business side of things. Marketing, sales, management.
3. Be passionate about it. If you don’t love it, why do you expect anyone else to love it?
4. Be prolific. It’s important both for practice, and for getting yourself out there.
5. Be visible. Do all kinds of things to get noticed *that provide value to others.*

Gee, that’s it? Every one of those could be a full-time, life-long proposition all by itself. Well, maybe #3 can come naturally. But you have to do ’em all at once. There’s a reason so few succeed, or even try.

Filed Under: Indie Evangelism, Writing - Comments: Comments are off for this article



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