BOOK SYNOPSIS

PREMISE: Writing drives business. In the course of communicating with customers (both consumers and other businesses) and employees, companies of all sizes generate an enormous volume of writing projects. While much of it gets done in-house, in today’s downsized business world, outsourcing is king. Many companies are asking: “Why pay salaries and benefits when freelancers – offering a wide range of talent and fresh ‘outsider’ perspectives – give us only what we need, and only when we need it?” Freelancing for companies is called “commercial” writing.

BACKGROUND: In 1993, in less than four months, Peter Bowerman built a lucrative “paying-all-the-bills” commercial writing practice: writing for businesses, large and small and for hourly rates of $50-125+ (and did so with NO industry contacts, previous paid writing experience or writing training).

In 2000, he released The Well-Fed Writer, a detailed blueprint to help others do the same. The book went on to become an award-winning Book-of-the-Month Club selection. In 2004, he released a companion volume (95% new content), TWFW: Back For Seconds (a triple-award finalist), to fill in the gaps left by the original title.

The new 2010 edition of The Well-Fed Writer includes the heavily updated content of BOTH original titles.

EXPLODING MYTHS: In its 368 pages, this new edition demolishes the stereotype of the “starving writer,” and with the same level of exhaustive how-to detail that earned the original titles high marks from readers. Indeed, the book assumes nothing on the part of readers other than decent writing ability and a desire to turn it into a handsome living.

Drawing from the author’s own experiences and those of dozens of commercial writers worldwide, TWFW shows why it’s a promising field for good writers, what qualities you need to succeed, how to get started (including strategies for building a portfolio), where the projects are, how to land them, what to charge, how to get paid, how to get hired again and again – even with less-than-brilliant writing ability and much more.

EASING FEARS: While marketing strategies fill the book, TWFW acknowledges the deathly fear of Sales and Marketing harbored by most “creatives,” and devotes an entire early chapter to demystifying the “Panic Pair” and helping readers develop a “marketing mindset” – minus the pulse-pounding anxiety.

In addition, the book speaks to writers with unusual writing niches as well as those building the business part-time or in smaller markets. Marketing by phone, email, direct mail, web sites and networking are all covered.

AUDIENCES: Writers (seasoned and aspiring), at-home Moms, ex-journalists and PR people, home-based business-seekers, 55+ career-changers, and others will all find TWFW a useful tool to start, build and manage an unusually profitable writing business.