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6 Ways to Toot Your Own Writing Horn
If you don't, who will?
You know you've got writing talent. Others enjoy your work and you've even
sold a few things. You'd like to turn that writing talent into full-time
freelancing but you don't enough clients yet. You need to toot your own horn!
The problem is that we writers often aren't very good at telling others how
wonderful we are and how well we write. We'd much rather be writing than
marketing ourselves, but market we must.
These six actions are relatively painless, and they work:
- Get a business card that says you're a writer. You can
get 250 premium quality, color business cards FREE
from VistaPrint. Try some titles like this:
Anne Wayman
Freelance Writer
John Smith
Technical Writer
or even:
Anne Wayman
Writer/Coach/Ghostwriter
Make sure your phone number, email address and website are also on the card.
- Use your business card! They do no good sitting in a box on the shelf or
tucked away in your wallet.
Make sure you have some every time you leave the house, and don't hesitate
to hand them out.
Leave them with your tip at restaurants. Hand out one or two when someone
asks you what you do. Give them to the bank teller and when you pay for
purchases at a store.
You can also stick them in invoices, when you're paying your bills and even
to post on likely bulletin boards around town. If your day job requires the
use of a card, hand out both. You simply never know who needs a writer or
knows someone who needs a writer.
- Make sure your email signature either links to your website and/or says
you're a writer. It doesn't have to be fancy. In fact it's better if you keep
it to three or four lines, but make sure it's on every single email. I've
gotten good paying jobs because of my email signature.
- Get your own website with your own domain name! See Do You
Need a Web Site? for more details.
- Your business account checks should say that you're a writer - usually
under your name. Every time you pay a bill, you're also sending out a mini-ad.
- Speak up! When someone asks you what you do, tell them you're a writer,
even if writing isn't yet your main source of income. The more comfortable you
are saying "I'm a writer," the more likely you are to stumble into some
business, so practice.
Although there is a great deal more you can do to market yourself, these
basics will accomplish at least two important things:
- You'll get used to thinking of yourself as a writer, and,
- The world will begin to think of you as a writer
So get out there, and toot your own horn, again and again. It's magic.
Write well and often!
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