The Well-Fed Writer: How to make your writing pay

As some of my friends and followers know, I’m determined to turn my writing into my full time job. With that in mind, I’ve been delving into the arena of commercial copywriters, because it’s something I can do from my home office, it involves my favorite activity of writing and allows me to make money from it, and it is something I can start out at part-time and move into full time as the money starts rolling in.

The Well-Fed Writer, by Peter Bowerman should be required reading for all freelance copywriters. Bowerman is himself a successful freelance commercial copywriter, sharing his knowledge and experience, as well as a collection of advice from other freelancers.

This book is a basic guide to building a lucrative freelance commercial copywriting service, covering everything from gaining and dealing with clients to the different types of copywriting skills there are to add to your repetoir. It offers advice from successful copywriters who are making their freelance businesses work for them and makiing their writing pay. Although it does not feature many examples of the different types of copywriting projects you might want to offer, it does give links where you can find samples and explore those avenues; from white papers, to emails, to newsletters, to brochures and flyers. And Bowerman offers suggestions for other useful books you may want as well.

The way I see it, this book is like a bare basics copywriter’s handbook, and no copywriter that is serious about his or her craft should be without it. I found The Well-Fed Writer to be very helpful in knowing which direction I need to go to get my own commercial copywriting service off the ground. I give it five quills.

Kaye Lynne Booth does honest book reviews on Writing to be Read in exchange for ARCs. Have a book you’d like reviewed? Contact Kaye at kayebooth(at)yahoo(dot)com.