Book Review: MAKE MONEY WRITING by Janice Hanna Thompson

A couple of days ago, I posted an interview of a writer friend, Janice Hanna Thompson, about her new book, Make Money Writing. She offered the book free in an e-book format from Amazon (still is for a few days more), so of course I had to download it. I'm into "free." Who isn't? And actually making money doing what we love? That's a huge no-brainer!

In the book, Janice addresses getting paid for writing magazine articles and speaking while waiting to be discovered for authoring the next All-American Classic Novel. She has an amazing number of so-practical "how-to's" and "where-to-find-'em's" in this e-book.

She should. She learned these lessons through the school of life. Having to pay the bills is an amazing incentive to learn and learn fast. And now she's sharing all that she learned with anyone who cares enough to download the book. It's still free until the 17th on Amazon. That's only two days from now, so hurry!

One of my favorite encouragements from the book comes from the chapter labeled "Stimulus Plan." After the relieving statement that even published authors go through career stalls, she reiterated a statement we hear over and over again, "Write your passion."

Writers have heard "Write your passion" so many times that it's highly improbable that we could come up with the first person who penned it. But how do you define what your passion is? I know mine: New Testament history. BUT what if your passion is just not the reading world's current fashion? Mine isn't. At least not right now.

So what does Janice advise us to do? If I'm not in a hurry to be published, I can keep writing that Excellent Biblical Fiction To Be Read For Generations To Come. Or--I can branch out. Write those magazine articles on, say, "Discovering Your Passion." Speak at your local churches, women's groups (or if you're a guy, guy's groups), local organizations, anywhere to keep your name in the mix while you're waiting for your genre to become popular again.

Or demonstrate your writing ability by writing in the current hot genres. She goes on to list the genres currently selling off the shelves, realizing that tomorrow they could change. But the advice is good, no matter what year this is.

Long story short: If you're interested in making money in this writing business, try this book. It's a short book. I read it in under two hours. It's free, until Saturday at midnight, that is. After that, it's still not going to be all that expensive, less than $5. It could be worth it.

Now, an incentive to comment on this article: Make Money Writing is already free, but how would you like a free copy of one of her most favored novels, "Love Finds You in Groom Texas?" One commenter today through Saturday will win a signed hard copy.