A guest post by Carol Tice from Make a Living Writing

Do you worry that you aren’t qualified to be a writer?

I frequently have writers tell me they feel their chances of earning well from writing are doomed, because they’re not an expert in anything.

Or that it’s hopeless because they don’t have a college degree.

They can’t launch a successful blog, because there are already so many blogs farther along than theirs, with more authority.

We all know there are certain specialized writing niches that can pay very well, such as technology, finance, and healthcare.

What if you don’t know about one of these lucrative areas? Well, it does not mean the end of your writing career.

How do I know?

I don’t have a degree. And when I started out, I had no area of expertise.

I was a starving songwriter. No kidding.

What I discovered on the way to building a six-figure freelance writing and blogging career is this:

You don’t have to be an expert

Sure, it helps if you know a little bit about something.

I’ve gotten jobs writing for insurance companies because my dad sold insurance, and I had a fair idea of what it was.

I was a legal secretary when I was a teen, which has helped me get gigs writing for legal websites and law firms’ blogs.

I bought a house once…which helped me write stories for the real-estate section of a newspaper.

See what I’m talking about? Some basic acquaintance with your topic helps.

But I’ve also written about plenty of things I knew nothing about.

These topics include where Seattle’s trash goes, Washington State’s drunk-driving laws, venture capital funding for startups, and companies’ public offerings.

What writers need to know about

How did I get these gigs, if I didn’t know anything about their topics?

I knew the important thing — how to write well.

How to gather facts and organize them, and tell a story in a compelling way.

That’s what most markets hire writers for.

That’s what you’re expected to be the expert in — writing.

Here’s how you qualify to be a writer

You have to believe you have the skills to go out and find the story. To come up with ideas for pieces to write.

You have to have the confidence that you can do it.

Where do you get that confidence? From writing and writing and writing.

Try to get some feedback on that writing. Find a mentor. Keep improving.

The more you write, the more you improve. You’ll see that you have the chops to go out and write, and that others will pay you to do it. Gladly.

It isn’t hard to learn about a topic, now that we have the Internet. You can go out and learn about nearly anything in a single day, can’t you?

You can find experts in any field to talk to you, so you can learn about your subject.

What can’t be taught is the writing skill.

The reason they usually don’t hire “experts” to write is that most of them are awful writers.

That’s where you come in. You can write.

Not only that, but here’s the magic: nobody else in the whole world writes exactly like you.

You have your own approach and style to how you write.

That’s why you can launch a new blog and make it stand out and be a success, even now.

That’s why you’re qualified. And that’s the only skill you really need.

Carol Tice writes the Make a Living Writing blog, chosen one of the Top 10 Blogs for Writers 2010/11 here on Write to Done. She puts on monthly free podcast trainings for her subscribers.

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A guest post by Tiffany T. Cole of  Reader’s Den

Why should you hire a freelance editor?

This is definitely the eBook age. According to the Association of American Publishers’ report, ‘E-book sales continue to break records with a +164.4% gains for 2010.’ Actual reported sales for eBooks have only been rising since 1999, when the AAP first started noting the sales.

So what does this mean for you if you’re one of the many authors who plan on writing and publishing an eBook? Now, more than ever, freelance editors are needed.

Unfortunately, there’s already a large amount of people who associate eBooks, definitely self-published ones, with a lack of editing (or no editing at all). Don’t let your book become part of that stigma.

Sure you can ask friends or family to look at your work. Getting their opinions certainly wouldn’t hurt since their input could give you more to consider during the edits. However, there are a lot of downfalls to only turning to people you know. First, because they may be afraid to hurt your feelings, they’ll probably sugarcoat their comments. Even if you tell them to be honest, that doesn’t mean they won’t hold back.

Then you have to take into account that editing a story involves more than just a couple of general comments. Fiction books essentially need three types of editing – content editing, copyediting, and proofreading – and they should go in that order. When editing nonfiction books, the focus is usually on formatting, accuracy, copyediting, and proofreading. Whether the book is fiction or nonfiction, the chances of your friend or family member being as well-versed in those forms of editing as a professional editor is low.

How to Get Your Money’s Worth

First, it’s personal. You need to have a tight grasp on yourself and your work before you do any amount of freelance editor hunting:

Since prices can vary so widely, and rates are usually by the hour, you need to know how much money you’re willing to spend.

You need to consider just how rough your work is before submitting. If you’re sending an editor your first draft (which I don’t recommend; it’s always better to at least self-edit first) and the editor charges by the hour, consider how expensive that will be.

Last but not least, you need to know when you’d like the edits back, since a lot of editors will charge extra if you tell them, “Oh, I absolutely need this done in 1 week!”

After getting your money’s worth on your end by understanding yourself, it’s time to get your money’s worth on the editor’s end by understanding them. Hiring someone off of the internet can very easily be disastrous without enough research and investigation, so please don’t waste your money or time because you didn’t stop to learn more. Here is a step-by-step guide to investigating a freelance editor:

• Explore their website. Check if they have a page for their biography/resume, testimonials, prices, and submission guidelines. If they have helpful content, like articles, skim through a couple.
• Read their biography or resume and look for the credentials that matter most to you. Said credentials could be a degree, publications or other literary positions.
• Look at the payment page. If you really don’t think there’s any way you can afford it, you should either go on to another editor or figure out if you can pay in snippets.
• If the biography or resume impresses you, go to the testimonials page. Even if the biography or resume doesn’t really impress you, go to the testimonials page. Sometimes reading from others about how well that editor did can trump what a bio says. A good testimonials page will have a link or two under each testimonial. This way you can easily contact previous clients and personally ask them what working with that editor is like. If the editor has a sample or two that shows what their edits look like, you should look through those samples. If the editor will edit a thousand words or so of your story either for free or for cheap, take advantage! This is a great way to learn what working with that editor will be like.
• Whether or not you or the editor has a contract, it’s still very important to make sure you save all conversations and transactions between you two in the chance that something goes wrong.

In conclusion, it’s important you ask for editing assistance once your book is finished. Spending a day or two on understanding yourself, your work, and the editor(s) you’re considering will at least lessen the chances of you choosing someone who is not the right fit for you.

Tiffany T. Cole is the creator of Honest Crits – an editing and critiquing business – as well as Reader’s Den, a book blog dedicated to reviews and all things literary.

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