Qualification - Diploma in Professional Writing

Learn to Make Writing a Profitable Profession

Writers are rarely 'born writers'  - it takes years of hard work, industry networking, experience and fundamental knowledge of the craft of writing: grammar, sentence construction, spelling and editing to become a good writer.

This course does more than just teach you the craft of writing. It is an 'experiential based' learning program that connects you to the industry and at the same time steadily improves your capacity to write and edit -  through the experience and feedback of experienced professional writing academic at ACS.

This course is felxible - it allows you to choose electives that best suit your ambitions and needs - whether you aim to work as a fiction writer, journalist, blogger, technical writer, editor or just need to improve your writing skills in other fields.

Modules

Note that each module in the Qualification - Diploma in Professional Writing is a short course in its own right, and may be studied separately.

Opportunities Abound if You are Prepared to Stay the Course

Being a successful professional writer requires more than just skills in writing. The work is always out there; but the industry is always changing and professional writers earn an income in varying ways. If you expect to find a secure and stable job as a writer, working five days a week in the same office; you are thinking about a world that largely, no longer exists.

Professional writers today are mostly lone wolves; moving from one employer to the next, one contract to the next, and sometimes earning as much from self publishing as anything else. If you are prepared to seek out and take work wherever you can find it; and hone your skills and attitude to provide what the client wants - you may have a bright future as a professional writer.

Self Publishing can be Profitable; but not Without a Distribution Network

Some writers may decide to self-publish. Self-publishing was once considered to be the poor relation of writing. It was something that writers did if they could not find a publisher to print their own work.  Today, self-publishing is not quite so simple. Some writers decide to self-publish as a way to cut out the middle-man (the publisher). It can mean that they will retain more of the royalties for sales of their books than they would if the publisher printed a book for them. To self-publish, funding is needed up front, and generally the larger the print-run the cheaper (overall) it works out. The trick to this is exposure and advertising. As a self -publisher you may need to approach each book shop individually and/or set up a well- constructed and linked web site to sell the books. It can take years to get back the final return on your initial investment so plan carefully for self-publishing and preferably develop a marketing plan at the same time.

In 2011, John Locke became one of the first novelists to reach the 1 million sales level for a self-publisher on Amazon online bookstore.  Locke found a niche in the market for Western novels. He self-published his work and sold eBooks of his novels on Amazon.  One of his books, “Saving Rachel” even reached the New York Times best seller list.   Amanda Hocking was another self-published eBook sensation.  

The increase in technology relating to eBooks and the growth in the popularity of eBook "readers" has meant that writers can self-publish their work more cheaply than they would be able to if they had to pay for their work to be published in a paperback or hardback format. This is also creating more competition. Many more writers are self-publishing their work, but not all texts published are polished and professional, and it is the latter that will sell the best at the end of the day. 

Self Publishers - Using Social Media

This book is not about using social media, so we will not go into this in great detail. But with the advent of the internet and social media, there are many ways that authors can publicise their work – for free. Successful novelists and professional writers will also tweet and put messages on Facebook, Google Plus, LinkedIn and so on. They will also write books. As we said earlier, all of this increases the online traffic to their work and hopefully increases their readership (and sales).

Gaining followers on twitter and friends on facebook can be a way to gain an audience to which you can market your books.  If you are not familiar with social media, but want to self-publish your work, it is good to find out more.  Perhaps you self-publish a book about dealing with stress.  Once the book is available via an online bookstore or you have set up your own online bookstore, you can start putting messages and blogs online. For example; “How to reduce your stress at Christmas”, then provide a link to where the reader can buy your book.  The more you do this, the more people will become aware of your book. Obviously this can be time consuming.  

As a self-published writer, there will be a tricky balance between writing blogs, tweets, messages and actually writing a book. If you want to sell your books without a publisher, however, then marketing your product is something you need to consider.   Obviously there are other ways to market your product, for example paying for advertisements, developing your own website and so on.

Technology has made it a lot more realistic for anyone to write and self-publish an eBook. Producing the book may be feasible for you, but unless you can sell it, you may be earning very little for the effort you put in.

How Do We Help You?

Through this course we grow your awareness of industry and opportunities through networking, and developing the sort of attitude that often makes a huge difference between successful and unsuccessful writers and editors.

This course is different to many others, because it goes well beyond just teaching you to write and edit. It is an "experiential based" learning program that is designed to get you involved with writers, editors and the publishing industry as you study, as well as build those writing skills.

The pblishing industry has undergone tremendous changes over the past decade and it continues to change. If you want to succeed in the world of writing you need to be aware of what is happeneing in your industry - and  adapt to those changes. This is fundamental to ongoing success as a writer. Networking with both your peers and others in the publishing world will help you to stay connected.  This course helps you to start netwroking and develop those important industry contacts. Knowledge of the industry and networking allows you to make informed decisions for your future.

Who Benefits From this Course?

This course will open up opportunities whether you aim to work as a fiction writer, journalist, blogger, technical writer, editor or just need to improve your writing skills in other fields.