I have been with Xomba for some time but, as you might be able to tell, I haven’t written for them in a while.  Well, that isn’t entirely true.  I was being paid to write for them as a contributing writer at one time. Sadly, that time is past, but I can still write here.

The problem is that it’s tough to come up with things to write about.  Then I thought, maybe I can use this forum to bring about discussions about writing and trying to make a living as a writer.  Don’t get me wrong, I am not an expert, but my thought was, maybe I can write a few things and some other writers might leave comments and a discussion could start.  I have always found talking to other writers to be a great learning experience.

Look, I am hardly a world-renowned writer.  I have seven books published and, for most professional writers, only two of those (although soon to be four) would probably be considered “legit.”  I am hardly Stephen King, JK Rowling, Dan Brown, John Grisham or James Patterson.  Then again, when you consider that there are only one of each of them, you have to figure that there are a lot more writers like me than there are of them.  Probably some of them are writing right here for Xomba.  So, why not make this a place to talk about it.

I have been a working writer since 2006. I write freelance.  I write for magazines.  I get paid to blog at a few places.  I also write books.  I also work for a PR firm and spend a lot of time ghost-writing articles and writing press releases and things like that.  Again, I am betting there are more writers doing things like that than there are who make a livingly solely as a novelist or author.  We are the working class writers.  We are “grunts” living paycheck to paycheck and project to project.  We work where we can and when we can.

Sure, I would like to make the money that Xomba sometimes talks about.  However, I have been with Google Adsense since 2006 and have yet to get a first paycheck from them.  So, let that be the first lesson to any of you out there considering writing as a career: do it because you love writing and communicating and meeting people, not because you think you will get rich.  I am amused whenever I read the bio of an author, perhaps one who writes plays or non-fiction, then it says they decided to write fiction for a while to make money.

I do hope that those of you who have been doing this longer, and perhaps more successfully, will read and contribute.  I don’t want these articles to be lectures.  As I said, I am far from an expert.  I still consider myself at the bottom rungs of the literary ladder, trying to claw my way up.  I just thought right here might be a good place to talk about some of the things I have learned, and maybe learn a few things myself.

Thanks for your time and I hope you’ll come back.  I will share what I have managed to learn.  Maybe you will find it useful. Maybe you will find it funny.  Maybe you have a story you can share.  I hope that all of the above will happen.