Interview with Professional Writer Carol Tice

I first encountered Carol Tice when I saw her blog mentioned in other sites I frequent.  I really enjoyed what she wrote about the art and career of writing, and contacted her for an interview.

Carol is not just a professional writer - she's a person that lives writing.  You can learn more of what she does - and what she has to share, here:

• She posts at Entrepreneur.com - http://blog.entrepreneur.com/
• Her Blog - http://www.caroltice.com/blog
• A group blog and community for freelance writers- http://www.thewmfreelanceconnection.com
• To add to all of this, she ALSO mentors authors: http://caroltice.com/mentoring

Now, let's see just how she does all of this . . .

1) First of all, tell us about yourself, who you are, and what you do.
Carol Tice, CEO & Janitor at TiceWrites Inc., my freelance writing business. Playing with words as a full-time freelancer since 2005. First paid writing gig was around 1989.


2) So let's get to the question any aspiring writer has - how do you make writing pay off so you can pay the bills?
Specialized knowledge and specialized niches are really key in the current economy. I write about legal, small business, public companies, insurance, real estate, and a bunch of other dorky topics for which I’m well-paid, because there’s not that many people interested and able to write really compelling articles and Web content on these topics. I enjoy business reporting and find it all fun. I’m also just getting into building and monetizing my own Web sites and writing content for them. Shortly, I’ll be publishing my ebook Make a Living Writing, which I’m building an audience for with a blog on my site, and through social media.

The other key is just being open to all the new types of writing that are emerging. I wrote a package of articles recently for a major Canadian conglomerate recently, for instance, and they used them to populate their Facebook fan page. I also blog for Entrepreneur magazine. There’s a lot of good-paying work online, not just $15-an-article sweatshop stuff.


3) With that done, how did you get into writing?
I began as a songwriter...was writing lyrics and music in my young teens. Then one day as I neared 30, I wrote an essay for a contest L.A. Weekly was holding, about how frustrating I had found that pursuit. They paid me $200, and I never looked back. I literally handed my 4-track machine to an acquaintance and asked them to take it out of my house. I had found the type of writing people pay you for, instead of you having to pay to play. Been living happily ever after ever since. Entered another contest the L.A. Times real estate section held about home DIY, won that one too, and I was off and running. I ended up writing for the Times editor for years, writing cover features for his section.


4) How did you evolve, over the years, to be the professional writer you are?  What were the major milestones?
At the time I broke in I had a script-typing business out of my house. I lived near MGM and had been an industry legal secretary, and had used those contacts to start the business.

As I fell in love with writing prose, I simply hustled more and more assignments, and gradually I typed scripts less and wrote more, and within about 3 years, with encouragement from my great husband, I went to freelancing full time. It happened pretty naturally — every assignment I turned in seemed to lead to another assignment. I had steady newspaper and weekly paper clients right away. I was so slow, though — it would often take me 4-6 weeks to write a Times article! I was doing a lot of over-reporting because I had a complex about not having a journalism degree and getting into reporting sort of by accident.

From there I ended up with a part-time job editing a small alternative paper, then had my first son, and freelanced some more. Then when he was about 17 months old, my husband was worried he was about to be laid off, so I looked for a full-time gig. I found this funny ad for a trade publication covering home improvement retailing and nothing else. That was just weird enough to suck me in, and I wrote for them as a full-time staffer for 5 years. I really learned journalism there, and how to cover business.

Years later, I asked them why-ever they hired me when I just had these funky alt-paper clips, and they said I was the best writer they saw. They gave like 40 applicants a writing assignment to do for publication in the magazine, and mine was the only one that was printable. And that’s been a big theme in my career — everybody seems to think they’re a writer, yet I find it’s not hard to stand out from the crowd if you truly write exceptionally well and have great interviewing skills.

That job had regular travel, so to get off the road I started looking for a better job without travel. After a couple years of steady looking, I found another great full-time gig, writing for The Puget Sound Business Journal. I had two amazing editors there who really developed my writing, whom I still consider friends. I got big raises every year. When I got my paycheck handed to me, I used to say, “All this and a paycheck too!” I couldn’t believe I got paid to do it, hang around the great city of Seattle and cover businesses in my town. Then the editors I started with left and it quickly became unfun, so in late 2005 I returned to full-time freelancing. Been living happily ever after in freelance-land ever since.

Shortly after I got back into freelancing, I discovered the world of copywriting — writing for corporations. I think most writers who earn above $50K a year or so have some copywriting in their mix. In my case, I seem to have developed a specialty in informational Web content, articles, blogs, white papers and things of that nature. I’ve ghost-blogged for CEOs and right now I’m ghosting articles for the team at a major Web portal. I don’t write sales letters or ads or anything like that. I write “unsales-y” sales tools. Most people aren’t even aware of this world, but companies need a LOT of writing done, and they generally pay well.

Over the past two years I started a side business, mentoring other writers. It gradually became clear to me as I read my online writing forums that although I was thriving through the downturn and loving the challenge of finding assignments in this tough climate, many other writers were floundering. They needed help identifying good-paying markets and marketing strategies. I only take 2 mentees a month, as I want it to stay a sideline to my writing. I mostly do it because I love it! And I want to give back to the profession that has given me so much. I enjoy helping writers build their careers. The mentoring sort of grew out of my Make a Living Writing blog (http://www.caroltice.com/blog).


5) With such a long career, how have you seen the profession of writing change, and what did you learn most from these changes?

Well, obviously when I started, getting published was a big challenge. And getting a newspaper byline was the usual break-in place. And pay was decent, right from the start.

Now, anyone can sign on to any content site and get published that day. The challenge is getting paid anything like a living wage. Now that I mentor writers, I find the siren song of these low-paying sites is a big trap for many — they’re so easy, you don’t have to market yourself, and they pay quick...and the next thing you know, it’s 9 years later and you’re still making $10,000 a year. Because no editor is mentoring you and helping you develop your writing skills, and you’re not learning to market yourself.

What I’ve learned is a lot of folks are dazzled by new media and freaked out by the implosion in newspapers, and they think it’s all different now. But the basics haven’t changed. Great writing, good marketing, having goals and a drive to move up are needed to become a successful freelance writer, now as then. You start at the bottom, get a few clips, and then move on to better-paying work.


6) For people who are going into writing now, what lessons can you give them?

If you need samples to break in, write them free and post them on your own site. I believe it’s better to write a few samples for free and then pitch good magazines or corporations than to get paid $15 an article. It seems to be a problem self-esteem wise writing for very cheap, and writers get trapped at this pay level. Where if you write for free, you’re motivated to move on to paying gigs!

And that’s what success in the 21st century is ALL about for writers — marketing your business and moving up. Those who market aggressively are still doing great. I had my best year ever by far in 2008, including my staff-writing years, and then in 2009 I made nearly 10% more. Those who won’t market their business now are starving, quitting, getting day jobs. I do in-person networking and use social media, and of the two in-person is by far the most efficient and effective. I haven’t done cold-calling...but I want to try out using InMail on LinkedIn — they say it has a 30% response rate, which is very high for direct mail.

Right now the biggest marketing tool I have is my blog for Entrepreneur magazine — I was blown away by how many people read it, and how many offers I got to write for companies through it. If you can write a powerful blog online and build its readership, you will get job leads through it — and it can lead to blogging for pay for others.


7) What kinds of writing seem to be more profitable in the near future?  The far future?

See above. I also wrote a couple of recent blogs on this on my Make a Living Writing blog about good-paying writing niches: http://www.caroltice.com/blog/32 and http://www.caroltice.com/blog/33, if you want more details on good niches.

The basics haven’t changed — specialized niches and specialized knowledge pay better than writing about what your dog ate this morning. In the far future, I assume we’ll all have the articles we’re interested in beamed directly to our brains while we eat breakfast...and guess what? Someone will still need to write compelling articles! As technology becomes more complex, the general public’s need for help making sense of their increasingly confusing world will only grow. Good writers will have plenty to do.

My personal prediction is that the super-low pay article market is going to shrink dramatically in the next year, as more people get back to work and the pool of people willing to write for $15 shrinks. More large companies will decide to work directly with writers as AOL is doing now, and more businesses will discover junk content won’t get them great new customers, and demand for junk content will decline. I’m expecting a boom in the need for high-quality writing that helps companies and publications establish themselves as the authority voice in their sector.


8) What role is networking and/or social media going to play in writing careers?

It’s huge already. If you’re not learning about it, you are falling behind. Personally, I use LinkedIn and Twitter for business, and Facebook for personal socializing and fun. Pick several major social-media forms and get to know them...because jobs will be coming where you’ll need to know about social media.

I got a great new client through Twitter last year, that pays $750 an article. They approached me through seeing my articles via links I put on Twitter.

Also, writers who understand social media are in increasing demand to write for corporations and publications. I just started my first copywriting gig that includes social media — I blog for them and then also post on industry sites and provide links to their content to spread the word. A recent survey showed copywriters were making $100-$300 an hour on packages that include social media. Many companies are very ignorant about social media, and all they know about it is they need to be on it! If you have that expertise, there’s going to be a LOT of work, and some of it pays very well.


9) Any further thoughts on writing?

Whatever you do, don’t take gigs that make you feel exploited. There is still good-paying writing work out there! Get out and find it.

I think the myth that’s out there is that writing has changed forever and now, you don’t need to market yourself, you go on cheap content sites and it’s a career. Or that the market is flooded and pay will never be good again.

I just totally disagree. One day, content sites  may all be gone. Many have gone bust in the past. What will these writers do then? Also, there are still plenty of great-paying markets right now!

Writers now should approach their career like writers always have. Write well, constantly market your business, find mentors to help you develop, and look to move up. I believe there’s going to be huge opportunity for freelance writers in the next year, as the economy turns.

Thanks to Carol for a great interview!

- Steven Savage