"Hey, forget about earning money as a writer," Stephen Elliott told us last week. Nobody ever chased writing dreams to become rich and famous. Some people get upset if you suggest that you hope to support yourself with writing, creating a bizarre dilemma--we want to do this thing we love, but we don't want to starve to death either.
I'd like to introduce you to Erika Dreifus, a practical writer and innovative writing professor who can help us cope with that problem. Over the last few years, she has built a dedicated web community focused on "the craft and business of excellent writing." For the rest of the week, we will explore her ideas about writing, web communities, and yes, how you can support yourself as writer.
I've turned to Dreifus for my deceptively simple feature: Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality interviews with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web publishing.
Jason Boog:
You've built up a subscriber base of 1,300 readers for The Practicing Writer newsletter. How did you build that community? How do you interact with your readers and maintain that community?
Erika Dreifus:
Yes, The Practicing Writer community has grown, slowly but quite steadily. I've relied on many promotional staples to build this community: press releases, business cards, e-mail signatures, and so on.
Once I connected with a Web designer (the incomparable Michael Borum of Etherweave Communications), I was able to point potential readers to The Practicing Writer's web site, where they could learn more about me and my work--including my credentials for publishing a writing-related newsletter in the first place--before signing up.
I've also been fortunate to publish articles in a number of writing magazines (both print and online) with high readerships. I include a link to my Web site in most, if not all, of the bio notes.
These articles reach readers who are highly interested in the newsletter's focus on the craft and business of writing for fictionists, poets, and creative nonfiction writers.
It's clear from Web stats that the online articles, in particular, drive lots of traffic to the site and newsletter. And after all that, I have to believe (or hope!) that the community has grown thanks to the quality of the content and information offered, plus the generous word of mouth (or e-mail, as the case may be) from our subscribers.
As for interacting with readers, I try to respond to e-mails as promptly as possible. I also offer a number of writing and publishing courses, both "live" and online. Subscribers have often signed up for these events.
Like many of my subscribers, I'm also a member of several online writing communities/discussion groups, so often our paths cross in those "virtual" venues, too.
Finally, my "Practicing Writing" blog, which launched in its current version last August, allows me to keep subscribers posted between issues of the monthly newsletter. I encourage comments there, too.
» Five Easy Questions, Erika Dreifus, Part One from ThePublishingSpot
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