[Long] Making Money in Technical Writing & Roger Peterson

[Peter Kent <pkent -at- TOPFLOOR -dot- COM>]

Roger Peterson suggested that I write to the list.

A few days ago Roger sent a msg to the list asking for people's comments
about my book, "Making Money in Technical Writing" in comparison with
Robert W. Bly's book, "Secrets of a Freelance Writer" Roger received around
60 responses; most were asking for information about the books, but a few
provided comments. Roger then summarized the comments, sent the summary to
those 60 or so people ... and, unfortunately, then deleted the list of
people.

I say unfortunately because at least one of the comments was a little
disturbing to me. I asked Roger for the chance to respond to the comments
(a book reviewer sent me a copy of Roger's msg), but as he deleted the list
that isn't possible. So I'm hoping you won't mind if I respond here.

These are the comments (with the most disturbing first), followed by my
responses.
(These are summaries of comments by people responding to Roger, not Roger's
comments.)

 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=
=====
(2)  One respondent wondered if plagiarism might be involved, since the
titles and content of both books are so similar.
 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=
=====

A suggestion of plagiarism is not one that any writer likes. I would not
normally care about this comment, as anyone who has seen both books knows
that they are _completely_ different! However, the problem is that many of
the 60 people who responded to Roger _haven't_ seen my book, but wanted to
find out if it could help them. I'd hate for these people to have the word
"plagiarism" in their minds when hearing about my work!

First, the idea that the title is plagiarised is quite strange: The main
titles are, after all, completely different. The person making this comment
was probably referring to the subtitles, though. Bly's subtitle is "How to
Make $85,000 a Year." My book was originally supposed to have the following
subtitle: "Turn Your Writing Skills into $100,000 a Year." In fact it
appears that the publisher never registered this as a subtitle, although it
does appear on the front cover as a "blurb." But in any case, apart from
the obvious similarity in tone (hardly a crime, that!), only _two_ words --
"a year" -- are the same.

As for the text itself, these are very different books. Bly has 13 pages
about Technical Writing, and another 131 on other types of writing that I
don't cover (Direct Mail, Ads, Audio-Visual, and so on). That leaves 130
pages, much of which covers subjects I don't touch: writing ads, premiums,
newsletters, extending credit, and so on. He doesn't discuss -- or barely
touches -- technical-service agencies, writing computer books, the
Internet, taxes, incorporation, the pros and cons of freelancing, buying
benefits, Sales techniques, interviews, calculating how much you earn, and
so on.

When you exclude Bly's sections of the book about types of writing that I
don't discuss, you're left with around 40,000 words, much of it on subjects
I don't spend much time with. My book, though, is over 135,000 words.
Plagiarism? That's quite bizzare!


 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=
=====
(3)   A few of you have discovered that telling others how to make $$$ can
be profitable,  and are now     working on  a "how-to-make-big-bucks" book
of your own.
 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=
=====

I've heard this comment before; it doesn't bother me too much, because it's
inevitable. I will say this, though. Writing this book was not a
particularly profitable endevour for me. In fact, I'll tell you exactly how
much I've made on this book so far. The first edition made me a whopping
$2250. The second has, so far, made $4,250. (Those are gross income, before
subtracting expenses related to the cost of writing the book.) Quite
frankly, I would have been better off doing a technical writing contract or
two, or writing a computer book -- The first edition sold around 5,000
copies; my Complete Idiot's Guide to the Internet has sold over 250,000.

Why did I write the books? I wrote the first edition early in my book
career. As my agent pointed out to me a while ago, "a writer has to write."
In other words, if you want a book-writing career, you'd better write
books. And early in your career you'll probably have to sacrifice income to
do so. As for the second, I decided to write it because after the first
went out of print people kept emailing me or calling me, asking where they
could get a copy. One organization even asked if they could make copies to
sell to their members. So, I figured, why not do just one more edition? As
it turned out, it was more work than I originally intended, as the 2nd
edition is 80% larger than the first.


 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=
=====
(4)      A lot of positive responses from those of us who are already
contracting!
 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=
=====

Thanks!


 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=
=====
(5)     A lot of "can-this-book-help-me-get-a-job" responses from those of
us who WANT to contract.
 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=
=====

Yes, if you follow the instructions!



 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=
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(6)     One response from an instructor wanting to know if these might be
good books to recommend to students.
 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=
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Perhaps. One or two teachers have told me that they plan to recommend my
book.



 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=
=====
(7)     A few negative responses from some of us who think that Kent and
Bly both painted "feel good" images in their books,
 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=
=====

Well, I plead guilty. As many contractors know, making a lot of money and
not having a boss feels pretty good!



 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=
=====
(7) continued ...
and that their suggestions do not mesh with the realities faced by new and
inexperienced
writers looking for work in the 90s.
 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=
=====

Some of you may remember that a year or two ago, when I said I was going to
do another edition of this book, a few people complained that the first
edition didn't reflect the "realities of the 90s." You may also remember
that nobody could actually explain what that phrase means.

Here are the facts...

I didn't start contracting until late in 1987. I wrote the first edition in
1991, and it was published in 1992. (I didn't notice any change in the
contracting market on Jan. 1st 1990!).

I continued contracting up until late 1995. Since then I've been
concentrating on writing computer books (a subject discussed in the book,
and related to technical writing of course).

I wrote the 2nd edition early in 1997.

Here are the realities of looking for work in the 1990s. There are plenty
of contracts out there. Many, many writers are successfully finding that
work. Others are not. Some modes of work are not suitable for some people
-- it's up to you to find what you are comfortable with. But if you have
trouble making it work, don't blame "the 90s". You can either try again,
and figure out what successful freelancers are doing that you are not, or
you can accept that this type of work is just not for you. (And there's
nothing wrong with that; we're all different! BTW, my book has an entire
chapter suggesting reasons that you might _not_ want to freelance.)

If anyone wants more info about the book (sample chapters, TOC,
testimonials, press reviews), visit http://www.topfloor.com/techwr/


Peter Kent








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