Make Money From Your Writer Research Skills

Do writers have money-making skills they are unaware of? Yes, they do. Writers have research skills they take for granted, but could be bringing in money.

They’re Tools, Aren’t They?

Yes, I know. You say, “Well, these are things I do when I have to get background material for a novel. It’s really nothing. They’re tools, as far as I’m concerned”.

Writers have many research skills. We learned some of these on the job, and maybe we took a couple of courses. Finally we give them as much importance as our keyboard, the stapler, or the tape dispenser. They’re tools.

Think about where we get this background information, and how we get them. Ok, so we don’t use them all every time we do background research—but we do use them all at one time or the other. The skills are there, and where there are skills there’s the possibility of turning them into income.

Skills Writers Know and Use:

Sources

• Know the difference between Primary and Secondary sources.
• Know how to read them, and extract information from them.

Evaluate All Types of Sources

• Museum and expo visits

Preparation and Follow-Up

• Use museum or expo websites to their fullest in order to extract as much information as possible.
• “Long-Distance” museum visits, because the information we need for our novel is not always within “walking” distance.

Conferences

• Be able to go to a conference, understand, ask intelligent questions, and come home with the right information.

Digital Camera

• Every body takes pictures, but taking pictures for research is not exactly the same thing.

Films and Documentaries

• Films in general and documentaries specifically seem like good places to get background information for our novels. Think again! Film makers are in it for money, not for accuracy. Propaganda has a strange way of sneaking into documentaries.

Interviewing

• Writers talk to all kinds of people all the time for background information. Some of these people are volunteers, caretakers, speakers, other writers, or scholars. Sometimes writers talk to these people face-to-face, and sometimes on the phone. There’s a technique to this.

Available Options

• Renting out your services
• Classes
• Workshops
• Articles

Who Wants These Skills?

• Other Writers

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  A Writer, who juggles a full time job, a family, and a novel, doesn’t have time to do research. Such a person might be interested in renting your services. 

• Newbies

  Consider giving classes and workshops to budding writers. New writers have to learn the techniques of writing, but also how to do background research. Community Centers could be interested in having you teach a class.

• Specialized Magazines And Websites

  There are a lot of “How to Write” articles around. There are very few “How to Novel Research” articles.

Conclusion:

Don’t let those skills sleep. Put them to work.