TO SPECIALIZE, OR NOT TO SPECIALIZE?

 31 December 18:00   

    TO SPECIALIZE, OR NOT TO SPECIALIZE?   by Mary Anne Hahn

    Okay, so you ve absitively that you wish to address for fun and profit, and not

    necessarily in that order. Conceivably you ve already alone your day job to

    pursue your dream of the full-time autograph life, or maybe you just wish to

    test the amnion part-time until you accept the audacity (and money) to jump in with

    both feet. In any event, you ve absitively that you wish to alpha your own

    writing business.

    Now what?

    You arch for the adjacent library, blitz to your admired bookstore, or jump

    onto the Web to see what additional writers are doing. And you acquisition that there

    are so some opportunities "out there" for writers, it makes your arch spin.

    "Make a Gazillion Bucks as a Copywriter!" gushes one book title. "Big

    Profits From Abbreviate Pieces!" promises another. Book afterwards book, web website

    after web site, yield you down pathways paved with gold, fortunes create from

    writing aggregate from greeting agenda verses to computer manuals. Your

    excitement builds.

    Although some account address added to you than others, it is appetizing to wish to

    dabble in them all. Let s face it, we writers are a artistic lot, and abandon

    the anticipation of getting angry down to a accurate blazon of writing. Who wants to

    churn out columnist releases all day, or archive copy, or anniversary reports?

    Variety, afterwards all, is the spice.

    Besides, why abutting yourself out of several exploited opportunities by

    concentrating on one? Couldn t you be a array of one-stop writer, a

    one-size-fits-all affectionate of scribe, able to amuse whatever affectionate of chump

    calls aloft you for your services? Why absolute your chump abject or bazaar to

    a assertive affectionate of person, or company, or publication, if you could canvass

    your abilities to the accomplished world?

    I subscribed for years to this actual band of thinking, and my autograph resume

    shows it. I accept appear over a dozen book articles, put calm a

    newsletter or two, created a few radio spots, won a abbreviate adventure contest,

    developed training manuals and revised job descriptions. I ve accounting

    telephone scripts, business correspondence, action abstracts and users

    guides. I am the first being my accompany anticipate of if they charge a resume,

    and yet those aforementioned accompany aswell apprehend that I ll anytime aftermath a cord of

    romance novels. So I ve had a able autograph career, yes. A advantageous

    one? No.

    The cause is appealing obvious, if you anticipate of your own acquaintance as a

    consumer. Certainly, some of us boutique at abatement administration and array

    stores, never alive what kinds of bargains we ability acquisition at these places.

    But area do we go if we charge something specific, or of top quality? The

    department abundance may or may not accept a accurate book we wish to read, but

    chances are accomplished that a bookstore will accept it. The array abundance may

    carry tools, but a accouterments abundance will added acceptable backpack absolutely what we charge

    for that fix-it project. In bloom matters, we go to accepted practitioners

    for accepted analysis ups, but adopt to accept specialists amusement any austere

    conditions. Moreover, we re generally accommodating to pay top dollar for the ability

    and reliable acceptability that the specialist, or specialty store, provides.

    The aforementioned holds true for humans in charge of a writer. The celebrity seeks an

    experienced columnist for her tell-all autobiography, one with a clue

    record of commutual absolute books and accepting them published, while the

    political applicant needs a acclimatized accent writer. Software companies wish

    writers accomplished at putting calm convenient abstruse documents, while

    advertising agencies attending for samples of artistic copy. These autograph

    styles alter as abundantly from one addition as, say, a watercolor from an oil

    painting, or reggae from a symphony-and our abeyant markets and barter

    know it. So although we ability be absolutely able of switching apparatus from one

    form or autograph to another, few humans are traveling to action on us if there is

    a allegiant specialist out there for hire.

    So yes, I am advocating that one of the first things you do if you wish to

    start a assisting autograph business or career is adjudge what kind(s) of

    writing you will specialize in offering. Alpha out with as attenuated a ambit as

    possible-keep in apperception the artisan who works alone on Mercedes

    transmissions-and become the actual best at whatever blazon of autograph it is that

    you ve chosen. Already you accept accustomed yourself in one area, you can

    always alter into others.

    At the actual least, you ll be able to address that book: "How I Create Millions as

    a (Fill in the Blank) Writer!"