Danny wrote to say, "You’ve offered some basic ideas for those of us trying to make the move from part-time to full-time. What else do we need to know?"

I can think of several things that might be important…

First, invest in a separate business phone line. You can write it off as a business expense, and it’ll help you separate your private life from your professional life.

Second, invest in the technology you need. Let’s face it, if you plan to do any serious internet research, you need a fast computer and high-speed internet. (This may sound obvious to most of you, but I was speaking at a conference recently where nearly every writer in the class claimed to have dial-up. Yikes! I wondered if they were also listening to 8-track players and watching black-and-white TV.) The fact is, you’re paying for what you need and don’t have. So if you’re trying to get by with a cheap-o computer, you’re making a mistake. (And here I’ll offer an unsolicited commercial: I finally went to an Apple MacBook a year-and-a-half ago. In that time, it hasn’t crashed once. Just so you know.) The same goes for software, a printer, and whatever bells and whistles your particular type of writing requires. Organizational theory teaches us that things don’t get less complicated over time; they get more complicated. So educate yourself on the complications, then spend the money to bring your office up to date.

Third, invest in a great web site. People used to think of web sites more or less as freeway road signs — something you passed by on the way to your destination. Now we understand web sites are interactive places where we can get information, ask questions, and make comments. If you want to build a readership, think about spending some serious cash to create a dynamite site.

Fourth, invest in great business cards, stationery, and brochures. If you’re going to be a pro, don’t use something that makes you look like an amateur. Your card is often the one thing that gets left with an editor or agent — make it unique. With the advent of desktop publishing, there’s no reason to have cheap cards any more.

Fifth, invest in bookkeeping software. It’s time to pick up a copy of Quickbooks, spend the weekend filling out all the information, and start forcing yourself to use it. You’ll see the value come tax time. Your spouse will thank you. And your financial life will never be the same again.

Sixth, create a business budget. Figure out how much you need to make from your writing business. Give yourself a quarterly goal, then determine what projects you’re going to write in order to meet your goal. (This meshes well with the advice I gave last time to create a writing calendar. These two tools are some of the best steps you’ll ever make in terms of moving toward full time writing.)

Seventh, learn about taxes, expenses, and investments. Yeah, this one probably doesn’t excite you. But if you really want to go full-time, you’re going to start without an administrative assistant or an accountant to shepherd you through everything. So take the time to learn the financials. Besides, if you learn it, then you’ll be much more comfortable when you have some success and decide to turn the job over to someone else.

Eighth, learn to keep good records. This is really important, but it’s the one thing most creative types struggle with. Save your receipts. Write down your expenses. Keep track of your mileage. Record what lunch with the editor cost. All of that will help you come tax time, and once you  establish a system, you’ll find it easy to keep going.

Ninth, work to keep your contacts fresh. Publishing is all about relationships… just like every other business in this country. Who cuts your hair prior to a big meeting — somebody you trust, or somebody you’ve never met? When your car breaks down, do you want to take it to a mechanic you’ve come to know, or to whoever happens to be open? All of us prefer to do business with people we trust. Editors are the same way. If they like you and trust you, they’re more apt to do business with you. So keep the relationships strong.

Tenth, keep writing regularly. All the organizational advice in the world won’t help you as a writer if you don’t sit your butt down in a chair every day and write. Write every day. That’s still the best advice for moving forward in your writing career.

-chip

I’m not really in the state of confusion. I’m in the state of Washington. But the two apparently border each other. A week in the mountains with no cel service, no internet, no emails — and no chance to update my blog. Sorry! I’m back at it.

Dianne wrote to ask, "If I really wanted to move from being a part-timer toward being a full-time writer, what advice would you have? What are the steps I need to take in order to make the transition?"

I can think of a long list of things you should consider…

1. Find a place. Make this your writing space and designate it as your office. (If you’re serious about this, make that your official home office and start looking into the tax deduction you can get from the IRS for establishing a home office.)

2. Establish a writing time. Having a block of time dedicated to your writing is probably the first step every professional writer takes on their way to a writing career. You want to have a protected chunk when you’re not checking emails, answering phone calls, or meeting people for coffee to bitch about how little writing time you have. For many authors, it’s simply "morning." When I began writing full time, I set aside 6 to 8 every morning to write (I had one job and three small kids, so I couldn’t do it later in the day). I would get up and write every morning before going to the office… which was amazing, since I’m really not a morning person. But it was the discipline of sitting and writing for two hours every morning that really helped me flip the switch in my head and get me going on a writing career.

3. Create a filing system. All it takes is one office box and a set of files. You can arrange it alphabetically by topic, and create sub-files as you get deeper into your work. Doing this will keep you on track, and has the added advantage of giving you the feeling of being a grown-up — as though this writing thing were an actual JOB you’re doing.

4. Set up a bank account. Make this just for your writing business. Run all your expenses through it, so that you can see what sort of investment you’re making in your writing career. Deposit every dime you make off your writing into this account, so you’ve got a clear record of what your income and expenses are come tax time.

5. Fill out that stupid address book. Type in all the names, titles, addresses, phone numbers, and emails of everybody you know in publishing. Yeah, it’s a drudgery. But you only have to do it once. Then you’ll never be in that situation where you REALLY have to ask somebody a writing question, but can’t figure out how to get hold of him.

6. Give yourself a goal. Many writers have a goal of 1000 words a day. Others work on a bigger scale, like "one chapter per week." A writing goal gives you something to work toward.

7. Create a to-do list. Work on the top thing of your list every day, cross it off, and move to the next thing. On Fridays, start at the bottom of your list (so that you get to that one task you’re always putting off).

8. Establish a calendar. This is critical if you’re trying to move from part-time to full-time. A writing calendar just gives you a big-picture view of what you need to be writing. It might show something like "take the first two weeks of the month to complete your introduction and first chapter," then remind you to take a week to write that magazine article, followed by a week of revisions to an earlier project, then three weeks of working on your book chapters. In other words, you’re using a calendar to break a big project into bite-sized chunks. It’ll also reveal what night you’re going out to dinner and remind you to take Kaitlin to the orthodontist.

9. Learn to group similar activities. Do all your snail mail at one time. Schedule your phone calls back-to-back so that they go faster. Things that are "occasional-but-regular" (for me, that means "looking at submissions") will move much faster if there’s a time on the calendar to go through a bunch of them all at once.

10. Invest in yourself. Take a class, join a critique group, attend a conference, get therapy — whatever it is you need to grow. Oh, and buy a good dictionary and thesaurus.

That’s a start. Let me know if that’s helpful. And if you have a publishing or writing question, send it to me. Now that I’m back to work, I’ll catch up on the questions you’ve been sending.

Chip