Most people approach the writing profession as if it’s a hobby. Many have a lottery mentality about success and no idea of what it takes to make it in this business.  

They will study hard, learn everything they can with the goal of finishing a novel, screenplay, or their memoir (which takes them forever to complete), and then once they finish writing their book, they jump into my world—and are subjected to the critical and often harsh judgment of a cerebral publishing world. In effect, their work is judged pass/fail—and the odds are that it will fail (at least at first).  It’s not because they don't have the right connections, or because they don't have enough talent, but because they haven't learned the skill-sets needed to write on a professional level. That takes time.

Failure can be so painful that some of us would rather chew off a leg than experience that kind of agony.  What’s missing is a better strategy—one that lets you feel positive and stay in the game.   

What’s missing for the average writer is a plan for staying in the game!   

I believe there are two reasons why most people don’t make money as writers. The first is that they haven’t logged enough hours at the writing game. 

Malcolm Gladwell wrote about this in his book Outliers—The Story of Success. Gladwell found that the common factor among geniuses—whether Mozart, Bill Gates, or the Beatles— was the number of hours spent practicing their craft. He determined that number to be around 10,000 hours. When I began, I didn’t have 10 hours.

Instinctually, I knew investing more time in writing would increase my odds of success. Gambling casinos use the Law of Large Numbers to maximize their games’ probability of success—the more times a game is played, the more likely the overall results will match the statistical probabilities, which favor the casino. The casino will always be the big winner, but more players also means more winning players. The only way to increase your odds of winning is to play the game over and over again. That became my plan.

I also noticed that a lot of people wanted to claim they had written a book without actually writing one, and would gladly pay someone else to do the hard work. That observation led to my successful ghostwriting enterprise.

Ghostwriting gave me an entrance into the arena, where I could gather experience and learned the craft, which increases my chances for future success.  

MY STORY

Most people are surprised when they discover I have ADD and dyslexia, that I
still make sixth grade spelling mistakes, and yet have written 49 books and 1000 plus articles. People often dismiss this accomplishment by saying it’s a gift. It’s not a gift. It’s a simple case of cause and effect. When you have to work five times harder to get the same results, you start developing qualities of persistence, perseverance, and tenacity. These are also the qualities that you need to get published, build a business, or make a living as a writer.   

Because I had to start from scratch I had to figure things out on my own and piece everything together. 

All throughout school I struggled with trying to put sounds and letters together in order to spell.  Kids who could spell and who were good readers were rewarded for that ability. They received a lot of praise and experienced success, which gave them confidence.

Not me. My school experience was the opposite—filled with criticism, and shame.   It wasn't until  I joined the army that my life changed.  Suddenly I was in a world full of people who had to move to think.   

I moved alright. I moved to ‘the head of the class’ and thrived in a world where everything was immediate, action-driven and exciting; in less than six months in Vientam War I was given a battlefield promotion to sergeant—an advancement that during peace time would takes years. ADD hadn’t been invented in 1968—if it had, someone would have put me on drugs, got me to sit still, and stay back in camp.

Still, it would be 20 more years before I entertained the possibility of becoming a professional writer.  I didn’t have a writer’s education.  My background was a hodgepodge of work experiences (good and bad) mostly to do with starting and running small businesses.  After my first book was published something strange started to happen.  People reacted to me differently. Because my ideas were in print I became the expert.  I had been responsible for managing millions of dollars of client assets, yet I had assumed I knew less than the people who wrote the books about money management.  I happen to read about Money magazine’s staff of 60 writers—only three of them (at the time) owned a mutual fund. That got me thinking about how much they didn’t know and how much I did.   I began getting invitations to speak at industry functions and conferences and the rest (as the ysay) is history.    

Today I embrace being both ADD & dyslexic, by letting the traits work for me instead of against me; I bounce between six projects—and that’s just fine.   

The following are the strategies that have helped me stay in the game and make a great living as a ghostwriter.

Strategy 1 -Stay in the Game

Strategy 2 -Re-Creating Success  

Strategy 3 -Running a Writer’s Business

Strategy 4 –Detaching from the Outcome   

Strategy 5 -Getting Paid 

Strategy 6 -Documenting Your Value

Strategy 7 -Marketing Your Business (Hassel-Free)

The 1st Strategy – Find a Way to Stay in the Game

Change Your Thinking.  No more thinking of the profession as a lottery to be won.  Stop thinking like an amateur.  Consider the differences between the two: The amateur writes for fun. The professional writes for many reasons, but one of them is always to get paid. To the amateur, writing is an avocation. To the pro it’s a vocation. The amateur writes part-time, the professional full-time.  The amateur is a weekend warrior. The professional is at work seven days a week. The moment a writer turns pro everything changes.  

When you think of yourself as a business entity, it gives you a healthy distance from yourself.  You’re less subjective and don’t take things personally. 

I’m the CEO of The Larry Chambers Company (LCC).  At LCC I can promote the hell out of myself because I’m not me anymore. I’m Me, Inc .

The 2nd Strategy – A Process for Re-Creating (Copying) Success   

I found the process of reverse engineering can be used to design anything, including a writing business, a book, or a marketing plan that works.  

The purpose is to deduce design decisions from end products with little or no additional knowledge about the procedures involved in the original production.   Reverse engineering has its origins in the military where it was developed in order to copy other nations' technologies, devices, or information that had been obtained by troops in the field or by intelligence operations. 

Here is a three-step plan:

Step 1 - Begin with the end in mind (whatever end result you desire)

Step 2 - Break everything down into the simple manageable components or tasks. 

Step 3 - Spell out who is responsible to deliver each manageable piece.

The 3rd Strategy – A Way of Running a Writer’s Business

Giving your writing business a name reinforces the idea of professionalism.  

When I worked as a broker at EF Hutton, we had Monday morning sales meetings where we’d sit in a conference room as our manager reviewed the latest stock offerings the company wanted us to pedal in the coming weeks.  When an assistant dropped the product list on our desks an hour later, we knew exactly what we would be doing for the coming week.

In my writing business, I have duplicated the Monday morning sales meeting—only it’s just me in attendance. I plan out my writing assignments storyboard style, and then I type them up on my Weekly Status Report.  Then I post it on the wall. 

As I finish each assignment, I cross it off; at the end of the week I cut and paste the whole week’s work at the end of my 2011 Accomplishments document.  That way I have a running record of events in order of months. (This is in case I have to recall what was said or promised, or in case of a tax audit.)  I have company stationery, business cards, and a separate bank account to run the back office operations.

Because I treat my writing practice like a business, I get to write off company expenses.  I hire a CPA who understands tax law as it relates to artists and writers to do my taxes. I’m a pro.

Good Enough Organizing System

I have trouble organizing things. I have trouble organizing time.   My objective is to always cut out clutter.  Once a month, I’ll dedicate three hours to chipping away at the mess— that’s just enough time to make a difference without overwhelming me.  

The 5th Strategy - Getting Paid 

I believe that charging by the hour limits your income and makes you look like everyone else.  Most writers have never considered charging by the importance of the project.                   

I have prospective clients meet me in Ojai, CA and spend two days working away from the distractions of their businesses.  For those two days, I charge a set fee.  Before they arrive, I have them sign an agreement spelling out what will be covered during the two-day period.  Once they accept my conditions, I add them to our agreement.  I use my contract to my advantage by linking the work to payments.   I always insist on a partial payment up front.  

The 6^th Strategy -   System for Documenting Your Value

Most writers are judged by the number of words they write. NOT by the value of those words.  If you want to get paid more for your work, then you have to keep track and find ways to document the value of your writing projects. For example:  In 1994, I was hired to write an article about a complex investment process. I wrote the article (bylined by my client), and placed it in one small industry trade magazine (30,000 circulation).   We found out later that the article had been clipped out and sent to a business associate of a reader.  What happened next took place over a period of several months. The reader’s business associate contacted my client and, after two subsequent face-to-face meetings, transferred $65 million dollars to my client’s management firm.  That transformed both of our businesses.  The fees on the $65 million dollars amounted to $650,000.00 of annual recurring income, which gave my client the resources to build his firm into a national enterprise, which they sold three years later for $25 million dollars.  My reward, besides doing a good job, was the word of mouth referrals that come with a successful campaign.   

The 7th Strategy - Marketing Your Business (Hassel-Free)  Challenge these ideas, test them in practice, adapt them to your needs, and make them yours. Use these concepts to challenge and inspire your own success—and when something works, keep doing it.   

 
Thanks

Larry

The Larry Chambers Writing Company Is a Certified Veteran Enterprise

407 South Signal St, (A)

Ojai, CA 93023   

(805) 640-0888 / Larry@Lchambers.com