I made the decision years ago that my motivation for writing a book would be purely to achieve an ambition rather than for monetary reasons. If, however, I could write and make a living whilst being able to spend quality time with my baby Cole then I would indeed have found my dream job that of being a mother first and foremost and an author on the side.

I wrote my first short story while at primary school. My mum keen to encourage any form of creativity hot footed it down to a lady in the village who owned a typewriter. A few days later she returned it, typed and bound in one of those little plastic folders with a red spine and that was it I thought I was a published author!

I’ve been a work at home mum for four months, not very long. But I’m encouraged by how it’s going. Work is coming my way and the big challenge is fitting it around my three young children.
It took me a long time to decide what work I could do from home. I looked into lots of different opportunities. First of all I considered virtual assistant work, but I realised it was a competitive market. Many people already doing it had a stronger secretarial background than me, so instantly it seemed …

Years ago I decided that being a  freelance writer was the perfect job for me. I didn’t have to be tied down. I could write about things that interested me. And I could stay indoors and never have to talk to anyone… But then I read that in order to go freelance, you had to have worked on staff and you needed loads of contacts. I put the idea to the back of my mind.

Your Name and Age: Alice Griffin – 33
Tell us about your family:
I am married to Scott – 36. We have one daughter, Isabella, who is 2 ½ and a dog, Milla. We suffer from consistently itchy feet and almost two years ago made the decision to sell up our life in a UK city, give up our main source of income and head off on an open-ended road trip. We wanted to travel for travel’s sake, but we also wondered if there was a different life for us out …

If you’ve been inspired to write for a living by the features in this blog, you might be interested in two one-day workshops in London and Birmingham for freelance writers wanting to make more money.
In the course, Linda Jones, managing director of Passionate Media, in Cannock, Staffordshire, advises freelancers to find new income streams and offers guidance on how these can run alongside writing for newspapers and magazines. Linda, who is also author of The Greatest Freelance Writers Tips in the World, said; “For a long time, just selling features …

I hope you’ve been enjoying the series of HotHive tips about writing and publishing.
Tip 6. is about ‘Going it alone – self-publishing’.

Nowadays, it is relatively easy to publish your own book and there are many people who are dispensing with the publisher altogether. With online printing options such as lulu.com and the amazing technology of print on demand printing it is now affordable for just about anyone who has a book inside them to get it out there into the public domain.
Self-publishing literally means that you create your own publishing name …

Fifty years ago, there was really only one way to publish a book and that was through the traditional publishing house. During the 1950s the term ‘vanity publishing’ was coined to describe the activity of authors who wanted to publish books that were unlikely to be of commercial interest to publishers. These books might have been books of a local interest, such as the history of the local church or golf club – or they may have been projects by amateur writers who simply wanted to see their book in …

Tip 4. Reviewing your first draft 

After several hours, weeks, even months of writing, you’ve finally got your first draft together. So what’s next?
Stop. Take a break. I recommend that you put it away for a couple of weeks if you possibly can and give your head and writing arm (or fingers) a rest.
It’s time for the first edit and the reason I think you need a break is that you are going to have to move into a new process. I like to think that I’m taking my creative, writer’s …

If you’re looking for creative ideas and inspiration, check out Creative Boom. The brainchild of Katy Cowan, founder and director of Staffordshire PR firm Boomerang PR, the online magazine and network hub aims to support freelancers, enterpreneurs and small to medium-sized businesses throughout the UK’s creative industries.
Launched in July 2009, the website, which is already getting an overwhelming response, has been designed and built by Boomerang’s own creative team. During the development of the site, Boomerang consulted its followers on Twitter, along with a range of its clients, to see how …