Have you ever sold your writing? Do you make a living at writing?

I have one technical book that was originally published in 1989 as Surface-Mount Technology for PC Board Design and subsequently updated into a second edition by Glenn R. Blackwell, P.E. under the shortened title Surface-Mount Technology fof PC Boards. Given the years of effort to wriote that and the paltry sum it earned, I vowed that the next effort will be to wrote a pot-boiling piece ot trash that might earn me a few million dollars. Let the critics have a field day exclaiming how insipid and uninspired my work is. I will cry all the way to the bank.

I’ve also written a but of fiction that I was able to sell to magazines. But right now, the only writing I actually get paid for is content for web sites. Most of the sites I build use content the site owner generates, but for the few who need some help, I enjoy researching their market and writing some content that is fulol of keywords for search engines to index, and that sells the sizzle and not just the steak.

Early next year, an academic paper I wrote will be published, but not for money. I have not sold any of my work. I still feel as though my creative writing is too unpolished for publication. It is my hope to edit a few short stories and poems I am working on and send them off to magazines in the near future. Otherwise, my career as a published writer remains a distant dream.

I’ve had 2 short stories published in small press science fiction/fantasy magazines (both of which are now defunct). For one, I got paid around £20. For the other, I got a free copy of the magazine. Not likely to be able to make a living at it any time soon.

I write as part of my job (radio copy, press releases) and I’ve written a few newspaper articles (all published).

But I see this as writing versus what your trying to accomplish, which is WRITING.

What I do doesn’t make me an “author” by any stretch.

My answer is much like @cprevite.‘s Writing has been a part of several of my jobs, but not the main part. If I was paid on the basis of only the writing, I certainly wouldn’t be making a living. I haven’t written fiction in years (and none was ever published, anyway), so we’re talking about blog entries, marketing stuff (OP/ED pieces, brochures and the like), employee handbooks and designing/writing standardized letters and forms.

I’m a freelance writer and make my living this way. I’ve had my work published in magazines, newspapers, etc. I’m still tweaking a few short stories and novels that I hope to publish in the next year. It’s ridiculously difficult to be published, especially novels. Most publishers aren’t picking up new material from anyone they don’t already know. You really have to either beat their doors down and wow them or know someone in the business.

I make about 20% of my living doing technical writing, but there’s nothing sexy about that. I write things like instruction manuals… I also blog but I don’t advertise there (yet…)

Yes, I have sold some writing. I learned how to write with a terrific program called Site Build It! They have a complete writing course and they teach you how to create a successful website. I have loved it. I have a website up and running that is becoming more and more successful. I think if you are going to go into this business, you have to have a love for writing. Even more, you have to love what you’re writing about. This will bring success.