Content Or Passion: Balance In The Writing
Journey
Author: Scott Lindsay

Is it better to participate in content writing or write for
magazine publication?

The above question is actually multifaceted and can help you
determine the overall thrust of your freelance writing career.

It has been estimated that a writer will need to pen a million
words before a publisher is likely to accept their first work.
That means a lot of rejection slips.

So, does that imply that content writing is preferred to the
crafting of a book or magazine article?

Well not exactly. Content writing is a means of addressing a
short-term need. If the immediate need is cash, then content
writing might provide the answer. However, if you are looking
for a means of affecting long-term royalty payments or a
greater flexibility in the ownership of your material you may
look at other publishing options.

When you agree to write content for a client you are
essentially providing a service for hire. Once you release the
article or story to the client and they reciprocate with a
payment you have no further interest in the article. You can't
use it again and you will gain no further payment for its
ongoing use.

When you write a story for potential use in a book anthology,
or a full manuscript for publication, you may have a variety of
rights to consider.

If you are the author of a story, you can negotiate with a
publisher for the rights you are willing to provide. You could
provide First North American Rights, which would allow you to
resell the story in the future as a second right, but you would
also have the capability of selling first rights to someone else
on an international basis. Nonexclusive rights allow you to
continue selling the material with the same rights to as many
publishers as are interested.

As we venture back to the original question it is important to
understand that freelanced writing can and should be a balanced
approach to writing. If it takes you a million words before you
find publishing success why not make some of those words
available to a paying content market to provide some
skills-based writing while you work on other projects that are
more personal and may have the potential to provide long-term
residual payments.

A writer should always find time to write about the things they
are passionate about, however the service of content writing
provides a means of gaining some writing income while learning
new skills and writing techniques while you are waiting for a
publisher's acceptance letter.


About The Author: Scott Lindsay is a web developer and
entrepreneur. He is the founder of FaithWriters
(http://www.faithwriters.com) and many other web projects.
FaithWriters has grown to become one of the largest online
destinations for Christian writers. Please visit the website
at: http://www.faithwriters.com