How to Start a Home-Based Writing Business, 3rd (Home-Based Business Series) (Paperback)

by Lucy V. Parker (Author), Karen Ivory (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
A front-page byline in The New York Times! A People magazine cover story! A travel assignment in Katmandu! Dream on. "This is a book," says author Lucy V. Parker, "about commercial writing, business writing, nonfiction writing. It is a book about obtaining practical, often unglamorous assignments that can pay the bills." Sure, celebrity profiles and investigative journalism can be thrilling, but so can paying the rent. Besides, someone has to write all those newsletters, brochures, press releases, speeches, instructional manuals, and articles for employee magazines. With Parker's help, you can write a business plan, form a business, market your services, learn what to charge (and how to collect your due), and deal with taxes and contracts. Parker even tells you how to cope with the loneliness inherent in running a solo venture. Hint: online chat rooms are OK, but "people breaks" are better. With profiles of 10 successful professionals from a variety of specialties and a list of 60 key assignments for home-based writers. --Jane Steinberg

Review

"A superbly presented, complete-in-one-volume manual on creating a professional writing career using the home as the basis of operation. . . . An invaluable, user-friendly, highly recommended 'how to' guide."--Wisconsin Bookwatch

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Globe Pequot; 3rd edition (August 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0762706600
• ISBN-13: 978-0762706600
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #422,455 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Evaluate, Plan for, and Implement a Rewarding Writing Career, October 30, 2000

By	Professor Donald Mitchell "Jesus Makes Me a P... (Boston) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)

Most people who want to have an at-home writing career simply have a burning desire to write. As much fun as it would be to stay at it until the Great American Novel emerges, most at-home writers earn their livings doing a variety of freelance business tasks, from creating newsletters to producing annual reports for public companies. While that may not sound like as much fun, it can save you commuting time that you can invest in your creative writing.

How can you tell if a home writing career is a good idea? This excellent volume will give you all the information you need to make an appropriate evaluation.

Here are some of the topics covered in chapter-length detail:

(1) What work do you do and for whom?

(2) Where can you find work?

(3) What are the legal requirements?

(4) How should office space and equipment be handled?

(5) What sort of computer and on-line services will you need?

(6) How should you market and sell your services?

(7) How much and how should you charge?

(8) How should you manage your business once you are started?

Each chapter features worksheets to help you decide what makes sense for you. If you do all of the worksheets, you will have a pretty good idea of how much it will cost you to get started, how much effort will be required, and when you can hope to make money and how much. If the answers seem practical, then you can launch. If not, go back and replan.

For most people, starting a writing career is a slow process. Consider starting part-time, working around your day job and home responsibilities. Whenever you get enough business, you can obviously drop your day job. If you do well enough, you can also hire people to do some of your at home tasks.

My advice is to assume that everything will take three times as long as you think it will. By starting slowly on the expense and lost income side, that will give you more time to find your niche and increase your chances of success.

If you cannot find any other writing to do for pay at first, I suggest that you write anyway. But be sure to get feedback on your writing. That's the only way to improve. You can do this by joining a writer's group or a workshop, taking a course, or simply posting book reviews on this Web site.

One of the best parts of this book was the section at the end of each chapter that profiled a writer who has founded an at-home writing business. Most of the inevitable pitfalls, delays, and mistakes show up in these stories. Be sure to pay serious attention to these lessons, so you don't have to repeat each mistake for yourself.

The book emphasizes the value of networking with other writers. I cannot agree enough with that advice. Almost all of the progress I have made in my writing career can be traced back to a helping hand or two from another writer. I suspect that most writers do not do enough of this. The other benefit of connecting with other writers is that it relieves some of the isolation of being a writer. You need to keep that isolation in balance. Without enough, you cannot write. With too much, you cannot write well.

I also liked the emphasis on finding a good match of your skills, adding to your skills, the type of writing you would like to do, and the type of clients you would like to write for. Many people will not know enough about each of the types of potential clients to know which ones to pick. I suggest that you go meet some people for lunch to get a flavor for that. You may be pleasantly surprised by whom you meet.

Becoming a home-based writer is a big step in most people's lives. Before taking that step, I suggest that you imagine yourself 25 years in the future at a banquet to fete you for your writing career. Who is there? What are people saying about you? How do you feel about that? How could this be an even more rewarding occasion for you? Looking backward in this way, what would have to change about your writing career to have provided you with the most fulfillment?

Do more than simply earn a living from your writing! Make a big improvement in all the lives you touch!! Write on!!!

35 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A superbly presented, complete-in-one-volume manual, February 16, 2001

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

Now in a thoroughly updated and expanded third edition, Lucy Parker's How To Start A Home-Based Writing Business continues to offer a superbly presented, complete-in-one-volume manual on creating a professional writing career using the home as the basis of operation. IN addition to all the necessary tools and strategies for successfully launching and developing a home-based business, Parker provides tips on honing writing skills, buying the right computer equipment, getting clients and referrals, bidding competitively, establishing a daily schedule, getting paid, determining start-up costs, marketing services, charging for servings, writing a business plan, publicizing the business, and more. An invaluable, user-friendly, highly recommended "how to" guide designed specifically for freelance writers, How To Start A Home-Based Writing Business is enhanced with business-success worksheets, prospect-information forms, estimating forms, and software selection guidelines.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Overflowing with invaluable advice, October 10, 2001

By	My Byline Media (New Jersey) - See all my reviews

One of the best books I have read on freelance writing. If you're ready to launch your own writing business or want to maintain a successful writing business, make sure you read this book by Lucy Parker. It's one of those books you will keep turning back to for insightful advice. I have been an avid reader of How to Start a Home-Based Writing Business since the first edition.