Professionals

Yesterday I wrote about being a hobbyist in the writing world. Once again I want to state that there is nothing wrong with being in either the hobby or professional category. In fact being a hobbyist can be great if you want to just have some fun and dabble but not have the pressures of making a living or growing yourself as a brand. It isn't as important to learn the marketing or accounting aspects unless you change to becoming more of a business so all you have t do is keep track of your sales in case you need to report a large enough amount of royalties for taxes.

Today I want to focus on those that do require this knowledge, the professionals. This designation does not mean that you have everything all figured out, that you don't have to keep practicing and learning. It definitely does not mean that all you have to do is write, hit publish and wait for the royalties to come rolling in. It is a constant learning experience. Even Stephen King, one of the best known writers of our time, practices nearly everyday.

This is the group I want to join. I want to be a professional writer. I have the making time for writing part down, to a point though like every other aspect I am still working on it some. I don't have a schedule to fit it in as much as I would like though I am doing my best to find the balance between my writing passion and the rest of my hobbies and obligations. I have a great deal to learn in the promotion department as well as the design and personal branding areas. I work with an editor and cover artists because at this point I am an Indie author though I am hoping to make it more of a hybrid thing with both self published books and traditionally published books to my credit as soon as possible.

Right now I am working hard to develop marketing materials that will assist in my ability to grown my own reach as well as locations to distribute them. Website building is difficult and I am grateful to everyone that has stepped up to help me. I am planning to tie everything together with logo, color and design and incorporate some of those elements into my covers as well so that my work as a brand can be easily recognized. I am pushing to get time to write at least five days per week and improve my editing skills. Mostly I am just trying to surround myself with those I wish to emulate and that can help me to become the professional I see in them and hope to one day become myself.