How come there's so much writing in world, but most writers are poor? It's because writers are writing stuff that makes other people rich. If you're writing novels for major publishers for example, you're pouring money into bank accounts of giant corporations, but stream of money, by time it reaches you, is a slow drip, not a river.

If you want to make money from your writing, you need to write words that sell. In other words, you need to become a copywriter.

Copywriters write everyday words, words you see and hear around you every day --- advertising, press releases, catalogs, newsletters, and radio spots. I've been a writer, and a successful one if you count publication credits, for 20+ years, but it wasn't until I made copywriting foundation of my business that I started to feel relaxed about paying my bills.

If you're an experienced writer, you can add copywriting to writing you do, and start making money without much effort. The skills of both fiction and non-fiction are necessary when writing copy. If you're a new writer, just starting out, skills you learn when writing copy are easily transferable to other kinds of writing.

The brilliant news about copywriting is that copywriters can make excellent money, with most experienced, enterprising, and productive copywriters scooping in a comfortable six figures annually.

You don't have to be a great writer to be an excellent copywriter, but you do need to recognize and be able to use attributes of both fiction (evoke emotion) and non fiction (be clear) in your writing. Of all writing I do, I love copywriting most. It's fun, it's easy, it's creative --- and biggest plus of all, it's usually short.

Here's successful freelance copywriter's mindset.

You:

* know that you're surrounded by copy every day, everywhere you look.

Radio, TV, Internet, newspapers, food product labels, signs: they all contain words, and a copywriter wrote them. To most people, copy is so ubiquitous it's invisible. To you, copy signals a market. You're observant and aware, and every time a message catches your eye, even if it's only a street sign, you're thinking: "Hmmm... a potential market";

* are interested ingetting your client's message across;

* are prepared to market, and then market your services some more.

Kick-start your freelance copywriting services business

You can kick-start your freelance copywriting services today, in three steps:

1. Become aware of all copy around you, and start thinking about kinds of copy you could write and have fun with;

2. Develop a prospective clients database;

3. Write your first direct mail letter advertising your services.

Copy is everywhere

Copywriters write for businesses. They write to sell. Your first step is some market research, and when it comes to market research, copywriting is a doddle. Unlike novelists who have to slog to library or bookstore to read latest bestsellers, and magazine writers who keep themselves poor by buying dozens of magazines, you get your market research for free, delivered to your door. If you have a little "No Junk Mail" notice on your letterbox, scrape it off.

On my desk right now, I have six flyers from six local real estate agents. The flyers were stuffed into my letterbox over past two weeks. Here's a taste of copy: "Don't buy a home until you see our exclusive range". Another one's headed: "Do you want best price when selling?" Their copy is obviously being written by someone in-house, so they're not getting ROI (Return on Investment) they should be getting.

by Laura Backes, Publisher, Children's Book Insider, Newsletter for Children's Writers

Suppose you've just gone through a divorce and lost custody of your kids. Or a loved one has recently died of cancer. Or you struggled in school as a child because you have dyslexia.

Many writers turn difficult periods in their lives into books for children, hoping to help young readers through similar painful experiences. Here are some tips to keep in mind when creating and selling books based on real-life events:

Remember that you're writing a children's book, not a personal essay intended to purge your soul from a painful memory. Children want to read about how they feel. Many writers create a child character and tell story through that character's eyes. Don't write in first person if "I" is you, adult author. Instead of explaining how bad you feel that your kids no longer live with you, show how a five-year-old character feels about only getting to see Daddy every other weekend.

Books for younger children (up to age eight) centering around a personal crisis are generally most effective if author uses a fictional vehicle for imparting information. If you want to stick closer to nonfiction, make sure book focuses on child in center of event, and is told in a narrative format with a beginning, middle and end. Older children can handle more traditional self-help books, with each chapter concentrating on a specific aspect of problem. However, interspersing advice with personal anecdotes from other children who have gone through same thing will make information more appealing and relevant to readers.