Meet Your Hosts

Now number six, this is a different aspect, but I think it’s really, really interesting, and that is being a producer. So to be a good producer, you need to have a few different things. One, you need to be Prescriptive without shaming. So a producer like my podcast producer Tiffany Baker. She can be very prescriptive. Hey, here are all the things she need to do without Being you know bossy or me you can be bossy in a good way But you know to come alongside you and do these things with you You need to be willing to support the creator. So I have podcast producers. I have newsletter producers I have trying to think of all the producers. I have website producers, graphics producers, all of those kind of people that I need to run the business I’m running. But they get paid or they’re interns of mine. We do a couple of different things around here. And if you are a good producer, you can get paid really, really well to help people produce the content that they want to produce.

So like I said, there are podcast producers, there are event producers. I’ve had event producers work for me before to produce events that I want to do and they will take care of the ticket sales, they’ll take care of the scheduling, they’ll take care of the recording, those kind of things. I have a live video producer that helps me produce my live videos. I have a newsletter producer, Kelly Wilbanks who is at this conference. She wanted to be a writer, but we saw that she was an amazing newsletter producer. She is now writing for other people’s newsletters while pursuing her own writing. She also writes for a newspaper and does other things. But she has a little kid she needs to support, but she is writing adjacent in her production. So she gets paid to write, but it’s often for newsletters.

I think of an assistant or a manager as a producer as well. There’s somebody who helps the creator create. And if you have those admin skills, if you are excited, this is why I want to say it doesn’t always have to be our own writing that changes the world. We can help other people produce their writing that can change the world. That’s what I do with coaching. I coach people and when their words get into the world, it thrills my heart. And I know that I am still doing God’s work by getting other people’s work into the world. It doesn’t have to all be my own. Okay, so think about, could you be a producer for somebody? Because here’s the beautiful thing, when you get really good at podcast producing, you can produce your own podcast.

When you get really good at newsletter producing, you can produce your own newsletter. Okay, number seven, write for hire. I think this is a really interesting opportunity that sometimes gets missed. If platform building is a struggle for you, this might be a really interesting way of making money and an impact as a writer. So most of the Star Wars books that my son and my husband read are right for hire. These are not people promoting their own books. They send in a book, they get it bought, and then,

All the graphics, the type setting, the covers, the promotion is done by the publishing company and by the trademark. Harlequin Romance, they’re not expecting you to do a lot of promotion. They need content. Our Daily Bread, they don’t need your platform. They’ve got one of the largest platforms in the world. One of my coaching clients, her platform was good, but it wasn’t huge. And she just got hired to do, she didn’t just, she just turned it in. I’m so proud of her. Jill just wrote 90 devotions about joy for our daily bread that will be a book that’s coming out in 2025. I have another coaching client who does, she writes speculative fiction, audio dramas.

So it’s not up to her to promote them. She can if she wants, but these guys have an outlet for these audio dramas and they need content creators. So one of the things I would say is get into Facebook groups, content group, whatever it is, for people who write the same things you do and find out where the right for hires are. You’ll probably find some at this conference. There are people. who can do that for you. And then there are people like copywriters. One of my friends just took a copywriting course and now she is crafting the sales copy for our collective sales, for our writing program. And so she is the one, because it’s a very different skill to write to be able to sell. So we’ve given her much of our writing about the collective as we can and she is going to put that into a format that really highlights the aspects of the program in a way that drives sales and is That the writing she dreamed of as a little girl when she was writing in her diary I’m guessing not but she’s really good at it and she loves doing it. What a gift right? 

Okay, so think about writing for other people where maybe you don’t get quite as much of the glory, but you don’t have to do quite as much of the promotion. And then eight is editing. I think editing is such a strong way of being able to be writer adjacent. And there is nothing as valuable as a good editor. And there are different kinds of editing.

So there is content editing, which is also called development editing. And this is about what direction the entire book, the entire chapter, the entire article is going in. Sometimes you need somebody to read something to just say, have you thought about this point or this way of saying, this direction on what you’re doing?

That’s the kind of editing I like to do is to read something and say have you thought about Then there’s line by line editing and we need these people these people are the ones who know where they the comma goes and we need them to know that I am severely dyslexic and I cannot publish just about anything except for a social media post Without a line by lead line editor and I will tell you most the time I go back and edit my social because I’m writing them in the car, not while driving. My husband drives pretty much everywhere these days because we’re always going into town together, not because I can’t. But think about where can, if you love that line by line editing, and then there’s copying editing, copy editing, really taking something that’s sales copy or that needs to get a point across, that needs to accomplish a purpose, a deep purpose or a sales purpose, and being able to edit for that. So if this is something you’re interested in and you want to do it professionally, I would say it would be probably really important to take an editing course.

I have two editors in my life that are just geniuses, Stephanie Nichols and Lynita Smith. I use them for most anything. There are different classes that they have recommended. So there’s a Writers Digest copy editing course. There’s the Berkeley’s Professional Sequence in Editing certificate, which is a few thousand dollars, but from what I understand, well, well worth it.

There is the Editorial Freelance Association, and ACES Society for Editing, and they offer continuing education classes. Again, if you sign up for my newsletter, I’ll be sending you a list of these places and links. Editors Canada, Stephanie Nichols is Canadian, and she says that this has been an excellent resources. And then there’s the Christian Proofreaders and Editors Network.

So those are some things to check out and look at. So if you’re considering editing, here are just a couple of things I would say. Start with small projects, just reading a friend’s thing and giving feedback. I think it’s really important to edit with not just the peace in mind, but the, not just the writing in mind, but the writer. That your job is to make what they are doing. just a better version of what it already is. I’ve had editors who’ve wanted to change my entire piece. Those are not the editors for me. So start by editing some other writers. When we have our group, people often volunteer to edit each other’s stuff. And then also to think about that publishers hire editors. I’ve had a number of friends who have just done freelance editing for other writers.

and they’ve taken a certification or a class and they’ve been able to be hired on by publishers. I’ve had a number of my friends who have edited, taken first passes at books through Harvest House and places like that. And I was like, I didn’t know you were editing for them. It’s been really, really exciting. If you have questions about any of this, feel free to connect with me at info at kathylipp.org. I’m happy to answer questions.

I just hope this has given you a little bit of insight to ways that, I love this because not only can you make money doing a lot of these things, but you can also be your own first resource for your own writing. Almost every job that I hire for, I have done myself, between podcast editing, between developmental editing, between event producing.

I’ve either done it for myself or for other people. And so I have been able to, in a lot of ways, DIY a lot of my career. And it’s exciting to know that if somebody on my team or one of my contractors can’t do something, I can step in and do a lot of these different things. And to be able to become competent enough at something to not only support other writers, but also get paid.

by other writers oftentimes is such a gift because we can’t do everything ourselves. And so maybe you’re great at editing and you can do that for other people, but you need somebody to be a producer for your podcast or something along those lines. It’s a great way to really invest in other content creators and have them invest in you.