People in general have an unfair and warped view of writing as a career. When you hear the word “writer”, the first (and sometimes only) image that comes to mind is that of a book author. It’s also fairly common knowledge that it’s not a well-paid job for the majority and the fact that many famous – and wealthy – authors admit to slaving away for years before landing that one lucrative deal.
Fortunately, what most people forget is that there’s more to writing careers than just penning books. The ability to shape and wield words is useful in many related fields and there are decent careers in the field even if you have no plans to be the next J.K. Rowling. These top 5 careers in writing include:
Columnist
A columnist makes a living by following current affairs, the news, or a specific industry and commenting on them, usually through a newspaper or a magazine. Depending on the medium, the company and perhaps tenure, the pay can range from being decent enough to support a family or above the pay grade of most office workers. There’s also a chance to become well-known, which can then be leveraged to secure jobs or contracts in other fields. Additionally, the Internet has not made this career obsolete, as many publications have migrated to the World Wide Web, where they still need regular columnists.
Technical Writer
Technical writing isn’t considered glamorous these days, mainly because user manuals and system documentation aren’t read for entertainment purposes. However, it can be a stable job, especially since there’s always new software or hardware that’s coming out. What’s more, technical writing is part of the IT industry, where the pay is above average even with the current economic downturn.
Scriptwriter
Whether it’s for movies, television, or video games, script writers generally have the advantage of being part of the entertainment industry, which is more of a want-based industry instead of a needs-based, making it a little bit more stable than other jobs once you get in. Additionally, the job can be really lucrative particularly if the project becomes popular. The only downside to scriptwriting is that you might need to relocate to places where the majority of productions are going on in order to get better chances of getting your manuscript accepted.
Ghostwriter
If you really want your words to show up on paper but don’t feel confident that you’ll land a book deal nor do you want to go through the hassles of self-publishing and promoting, ghostwriting may be the career for you. Ghostwriters basically serve as the actual writers for famous people who want to publish a book in their name, but don’t have the time or the skill to do so, such as celebrities or successful public figures. The pay in this field is really good depending on the client, and the only disadvantage is that it lacks the glamour of other writing careers because you obviously can’t brag about the books you have written.
Copywriter
Copywriters are, for lack of a better definition, simply people who write “copy.” Whether it’s for advertisements or press releases or marketing blurbs, these are writers whose words sell products, services, and brands. Naturally, they are some of the best-paid people in the industry.
Lastly, one of the beauties of writing for a living is that you’re not specifically tied down to a single career. Any kind of writer above can shift to another writing career or even do it as a side job. Additionally, the advent of the Internet did not make their jobs obsolete at all – rather, it has given them another medium in which to showcase their skills and get paid for it.
Image credit: Paul Carroll on flickr and reproduced under Creative Commons 2.0[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://writingtipsoasis.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/hv1.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Hiten Vyas is the Founder and Managing Editor of eBooks India. He is also a prolific eBook writer with over 25 titles to his name.[/author_info] [/author]