When you tell someone you're a writer, most people automatically draw up an image of constant creation, bleary eyes hunched near a monitor with stacks of research books piled nearby.
That's fine if you're looking for a reputation for being prolific.
However, if you want to make an impact on society and earn a decent living from your writing.
Stop right there! Your best income might just come from what you have already written.
The only questions you need to answer are: What topic am I most committed to? What am I the most passionate about? The answer to those questions will provide you with everything you need to move your career to the next level.
Today's information industry is hungry for content.
If you have enough knowledge and experience to write a book, a series of articles, or if you teach a course, you have more than enough information to grow an online business that will bring you greater income than you'll make from selling your writing through traditional means-whether it's book publishing or magazine articles, or journalism.
Unless of course, your name is John Grisham.
Go back to what you have already created.
Can that print article be reformatted into an electronic report (which sell for up to $297)? Can you divide that book into a teleseminar series (which sell for up to $1500 each).
Can you develop that book idea into a series of audio podcasts, an ecourse, a workbook, dozens of online articles...
or all of those? With royalties ranging from a quarter a book to two bucks a book, why keep fishing for new contracts when you can reap a bountiful harvest from the seed you've already sown?