Being a professional writer may earn you money; but it doesn’t necessarily earn you a good rate of pay.  As we said in an earlier chapter, some writers may write as part of their existing job, some may write for pleasure, some may write as a hobby, whilst some may occasionally sell the odd article.

We all hear about writers who are multi millionaires, signing contracts for books to be made into movies and living extravagant lifestyles. The truth though, is that very few writers will ever have this type of experience.

Speed of Writing can be Important
A professional writer will need to be able to work to a certain level. The level will depend on what you are doing. For example, an article writer may be employed to write 10,000 words a day on different topics.  An author may be required to write ten pages a day. A blog writer may have to write ten blogs a day of 500 to 700 words. The requirement will depend on what you are being paid to do.  Some writers working as part of their job may be required to produce a certain level of writing, for example, a blog a week or two “tweets” a day on twitter. Or five comments a day on Facebook.  People writing for pleasure will obviously not have the same deadlines to adhere to, but they may set their own limits and suggestions for how they work. For example, Marina Lewycka won prizes for her first novel, A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian.   Before, she was successful, when she was working, she would rise every morning early and write for a couple of hours before work. Now a successful novelist, she says that she works everyday from 6am until lunchtime.  She decided what works for her and sticks to it. 

So any writer may be required to write a certain number of words an hour or a day to meet the standards set by themselves, their publishers or their editors.  For example, the publisher of this book considers around 350 to 500 words an hour appropriate. Some writers may take much longer than this to produce that amount of words, or may produce a very rough draft of the words in that time.  Writers who are not able to meet the requirements of their publishers, editors or even themselves may not make a viable income from their writing.

Speed without Quality is a Problem
Producing a lot of words in a short period is not going to earn you an income if the publisher or employer is faced with above average costs to proof read and edit the material.  Also, if what you are writing is not very good, it will not necessarily sell or gain you work as a writer.  So it is not just about speed, but about the quality of the work you produce.

Increase Profitability with Illustration
Depending who you are writing for, some authors may find that if they can provide illustrations or photographs to go with their work, it can make their work more attractive to their publisher or editor.  If you build a stock library of illustrations or digital photographs you can put yourself in the position of being able to supply illustration with minimum effort. The visuals can increase your final payment, as you are paid sometimes for the illustration as well as the written copy. Some website are asking also for copies of video clips as well as photos to illustrate pieces of writing. When writing freelance for larger magazine publishers, many of these have their own stock of photos that they may use to illustrate a story and they will do this usually without consulting with the writer on which photo accompanies the final print copy.  If they like the writing piece they may be prepared to send their own photographer out to take a range of suitable photos, though this will often make it more expensive for them to complete the final edition, which could be an issue if funding is tight.