Writing

Fri Mar 2 23:15:42 UTC 2007

--- Aaron Vegh <aaronvegh-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> Thanks for the input Colin. I also write
> professionally and while I
> don't make a living at it, it still makes up a
> compelling 15% of my
> annual revenue, which I'm not prepared to lose! :-)

There are a few folks, such as sometimes visitor to
this list Marcel Gagne who I gather makes a reasonable
living from writing. Others, like Chris Johnson, I
gather make a significant percentage of their income
from writing. So, yes it is possible to make a living
writing, I'm just not there (at least not yet).

> I think it IS possible to make a living writing; I
> just just would
> rather it be a part of my overall technology
> business. Of course, the
> answer is to diversify: write for as many
> publications as possible.
> The trade press is the most profitable for
> mainstream stuff (I have a
> number of articles for Smart Computing magazine, for
> example), but
> corporate writing even edges that out. I've written
> a number of
> articles for HP, of all companies, for a specialized
> Enterprise
> computing magazine that you've likely never heard of
> ("Transforming
> Your Enterprise"). They pay _very_ well. I can see
> that if I were to
> string together a couple more magazines and another
> HP-class client,
> one could make a reasonable living.

Good point about the trade publications.

> I think the only real point I wanted to make in this
> reply though is
> to not be too picky about who you write for. The
> subject matter is
> important, but if you're looking to do it as a
> career, you need to
> think of writing itself as the reward, not the
> subject. I'd recast
> that sentence, but hey, this is email. :-)
> 
> Cheers,
> Aaron.
> 
> On 3/2/07, Colin McGregor <colinmc151-bJEeYj9oJeDQT0dZR+AlfA at public.gmane.org>
> wrote:
> > Earlier this week I was helping out at the Society
> of
> > Internet Profesionals booth down at the Career
> Door
> > job fair (long, and ugly story there ... don't
> ask).
> > Anyway of the hundreds of people I talked to down
> > there was one lady who noted that her husband
> wanted
> > to get into writing and I offered to sum up my
> $0.02
> > worth (done!). Now, I thought my experiences might
> be
> > of general interest to those on this mailing
> list...
> > Taken from that e-mail, here are my thoughts on
> > writing:
> >
> > In 2003 I set-up and ran a temporary Internet cafe
> for
> > a convention, all on very little money, using a
> > version of Knoppix Linux that I customized for the
> > event. This I thought was a neat trick about which
> I
> > wanted to boast a bit. So, in my case I went
> looking
> > around asking which Linux publication seemed to be
> the
> > most prestigious, and the best paying, which
> brought
> > me to Linux Journal (after all if Linux Journal
> > rejected me I could lower my sights :-) ). What I
> > didn't considered at the time was how long it took
> > between submitting an article and the article
> being
> > published (in the case of Linux Journal it can be
> a
> > while). I wrote the editor at Linux Journal,
> noting
> > what I had done, and outlining what I thought
> would
> > make a great article. A few e-mails back and
> forth,
> > then I got busy writing.
> >
> > Several months later I was talking to the local
> > Greater Toronto Area Linux user group about what I
> had
> > done, and the idea of doing a presentation about
> my
> > article came up. In reviewing what I had written
> with
> > the latest version of Knoppix Linux I discovered
> that
> > some of the material in my original article had
> become
> > dated, which lead to my 2nd article. From there
> things
> > have spluttered along.
> >
> > So, my suggestions,
> >
> > - Come up with a neat/clever idea.
> > - Make a list of what publication(s) would be
> >   interested in said idea.
> > - Contact the editor of the magazine with the idea
> >   and an article outline.
> > - Be ready to do some back and forth
> tweaking/changes.
> > - Write.
> > - Submit article
> > - Repeat above steps.
> >
> > Writing has varied, some articles I have sweated
> blood
> > on, others have been fairly mindless bits of
> banging
> > on the keyboard. Still, once you get a few
> articles
> > under your belt the ideas in a way become easier.
> The
> > Quake 3 game article came because the editor of
> Tux
> > wanted to do an all video game issue and asked me
> if
> > there were any games I wanted to write about. Then
> > came the idea of a follow-up article on Quake 4...
> >
> > Now, sad but true, I don't yet know how to make a
> real
> > living at writing. Depending on the publication I
> have
> > seen payments that ranged from a bunch of free
> > magazines (the little 200 word item I did for
> Linux
> > Format magazine), to $600 (U.S.) from Linux
> Journal
> > which is nice but not a living. Still, it has
> allowed
> > me to play with some neat toys/software (for
> example
> > my review of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 (which has
> not
> > yet been released to the general public) coming up
> in
> > the April 2007 issue of Linux Magazine :-) ). I
> also
> > get to increase the number of "interesting"
> keywords
> > in my resume.
> >
> > Hope this helps.
> >
> > Colin McGregor
> >
> > Publication List:
> > In Print:
> > - "A Temporary Internet Lounge", Linux Journal,
> > February 2005, pages 42-45
> > - "Overseas LUG of the Month", Linux Format, April
> > 2006, page 103
> > - "Debian GNU/Linux", Tux Magazine, April 2006,
> pages
> > 19-22
> > - "KDE Kontact", Tux Magazine, July 2006, pages
> 37-42
> > - "KDETV", Tux Magazine, August 2006, pages 21-24
> > - "Quake 3 and Doom 3 or Nightmares Spoken Here"
> Tux
> > Magazine, September 2006
> > - "Freespire 1.0.2" Tux Magazine, September 2006,
> > pages 56-58
> > - "Quake 4" Tux Magazine, November 2006, pages 51
> –
> > 53.
> > - "Tux People: Pamela Jones", Tux Magazine,
> December
> > 2006, pages 18 – 20.
> > - "Controlling Spam with SpamAssassin" Linux
> Journal,
> > January 2007, pages 94 – 95.
> > On the Web:
> > - "A Temporary Internet Lounge Revisited", Linux
> > Journal Website,
> > http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/8081
> > - "A Motherboard Upgrade HOWTO", Linux Journal
> > Website, http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/8219
> > - "A Look at the Linux World Canada Show", Linux
> > Journal Website,
> > http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/8262
> > - "A Video Card Upgrade HOWTO", Linux Journal
> Website,
> > http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/8511
> > - "A Beginning Look At MythTV", Linux Journal
> Website,
> > http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/8658
> > - "An Evening With Jeff Waugh", Linux Journal
> Website,
> 
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