Are You a Budding Writer? How to Get Your Name Out There

Are You a Budding Writer? How to Get Your Name Out There

While some careers are relatively easy to get off the ground, there are others that prove to be much more challenging and require a lot more work on your part. A career as a writer is definitely one of those that tends to be challenging. It can take years to even begin to get your name out there, which is exactly why so many writers do it as a side-job rather than their full time career.

So, if you’re new to the world of writing and you’re wondering how you can speed up the process and start to make a name for yourself, here are some tips that you can use.

Make Sure You’ve Got a Professional Looking Portfolio

As a writer, it’s your job to have a professional looking portfolio with all your best work ready to go. This can be done online and with a hard copy. When putting together a hard copy portfolio, look for ways to make it unique and stand out. If you’re going for a job interview in your field, perhaps as a reporter or staff writer, it will help to make a memorable impression on the potential employer.

One professional and unique option is to look into book printing. Typically, you think of publishing houses when you think of book printers, but did you know you can get book printing even if it’s just one copy you want? Print24 is one company who allow you to print your own book, and gives you the chance to print just one copy. You can then put your various pieces in a bound book which automatically makes them appear more professional and polished.

Give Credit to the Digital World

If your dream is to have a book printed one day, it can be hard to focus on anything else, but it’s important to recognise just how helpful digital audiences can be. Often, getting your work on digital platforms proves to be much faster and easier, and will allow you to start to connect with readers and slowly build a name for yourself. This doesn’t steer you away from writing a book, rather it helps you to gain experience and insight.

Today, you will find just about everyone has a blog, so what’s stopping you? You can easily create your own blog and start to build your own audience. Ezines are another great way to get published, just be sure you can use your own by-line rather than ghost writing.

Put Together Your Own Website

Along the same lines as digital media, you also want to be sure you’ve got your own website. This isn’t meant for socialising with friends, rather this is a website dedicated to your craft as a writer. Including a blog on your own website will help you to rank higher in the Google search results and will help you to build an audience. Pick a topic you feel passionate about, or multiple topics, and create blogs that are interesting to your readers.

Just as important as the content itself, your website needs to be user-friendly, fast, and professional looking. If you feel this is out of your skill set you can always hire someone to build the site for you initially.

You should be involved on social networks so you can then link back to your website/blog through your networks.

Take Your Craft Seriously

When you start out as a budding writer, it’s important you take your craft seriously. What this means is that you not only need to write, but you need to read as much as possible. Reading allows you to start to learn what kind of style and tone you want to use in your work. You will come across pieces that are written excellently and those that are lacking. It’s a wonderful learning experience for you.

Typically, writers will read content that interests them and those would be the topics they would write about themselves. While there is nothing wrong with this, it’s best to read a wide variety of content. This means fiction and non-fiction. As well, look at different media, a short story versus a novel, a magazine feature story versus a newspaper story. It’s all going to help you be the very best you can be.

Attend Industry Events and Join Associations

Networking is important in any career, and writing is no exception. There are all kinds of industry events that take place during the year that you can attend, plus there are associations for writers just like yourself. This is a great way to meet contacts, share ideas, and just learn more about the industry.

Stay Focused

Your career isn’t likely going to take off overnight. Writing can be a thankless career for quite some time before you start to see any sort of results. This is exactly why you need to stay focused and on track as you work to get your name out there.