MYTH: You Have To Go Into Marketing to Be a Real Writer

Even after I had started to edit books and work as a ghostwriter, this was a myth that I bought into: the only way to realistically be a full-time writer was to go into marketing.

This seemed to make a lot of sense. After all, the first few years I was editing and ghostwriting, the work was inconsistent. I’d go months at a time without a client and since I wasn’t charging much back then, I couldn’t live off of what I was making. Plus, what about benefits—health insurance, PTO, and so on? How could I replace those perks of a full-time job?

It appeared to me the only way I could call myself a “full-time writer” and actually make a living was to go into marketing. So I started educating myself on it. I read articles on things like SEO and keywords and product launching. I began to realize how much marketing wisdom had changed since the one marketing class I had taken in college when social media was still in its infancy. Back then, we had no clue that “social media manager” would become a real job.

In 2020, it looked like I might finally get the opportunity to go into marketing full-time. The company I was working for created a position that was basically a dream position I had described years before to a member of our senior team, but we didn’t have a full-fledged marketing team at that time. I went through all three rounds of interviews and was excited when they told me I was one of the three final candidates. While I didn’t have as much “on paper” experience with marketing as others, I had product knowledge and I really hoped it gave me the edge.

It didn’t. I ended up not getting the role and felt more deflated than a bicycle tire in need of a new inner tube.

I moped for several days after. The marketing job I felt like I had dreamed up was not to be.

No one is going to market your writing for you…you’ve got to learn how to do that for yourself.

Now what? If my own employer who was willing to consider me despite being a non-traditional candidate for a marketing job didn’t think I was the best fit, what chance did I have with a traditional marketing company?

Looking back, I’m glad I believed the myth for a season. For one thing, it made me take the time to learn about marketing and grow in my overall business knowledge. Likewise, I think every writer should learn some marketing basics to figure out how you can best position your work. If I’d learned some of this sooner, I’d be further along than where I am now. That’s not me being a downer. It’s just a fact.

And that’s why this myth is so powerful—because there is some truth to it. No one is going to market your writing for you. At a certain point, you’ve got to learn how to do that for yourself.

But I’m also glad I stopped believing the myth. The experience of not getting that job helped me wake up to the fact that I really prefer working on books and writing screenplays. If I was going to turn writing into a career, I was going to have to figure it out myself, not depend on a company to hand it to me.

I’ll probably devote a separate blog to some basic marketing tools, but it really deserves its own post. For now, I would recommend you concentrate your marketing education into what you feel will have the most immediate impact. I’m currently learning how to leverage social media more because it’s been a perpetual weak spot for me. I’m experimenting with what works for me (and discovering what doesn’t work) so I can optimize my efforts.

Don’t get me wrong—if you love marketing or copywriting and want to do it full-time, by all means, you should! There are so many more opportunities to be a full-time writer in the marketing community than ever before. An old coworker of mine from that same company took a bottom-rung job at a marketing agency and now she runs her own agency. The opportunities are definitely there for anyone willing to learn the trade and then go out and actually do it.

But it’s not the only way, just like you’re not only a “real writer” if you only get published by a major publisher. So yes, you should go out and learn some marketing. Learn about SEO, learn about title tags, learn about key words and all that fun stuff. Go follow writing influencers on LinkedIn and learn from them. Buy a website and generate buzz however you can at low cost. The skills you learn will transfer into any full-time writing path you choose.