So why the hell should I waste my money by signing up with a Writing Guru?

Because it’s not waste, it’s investment.

Look at it this way, to get any attention as a writer you can invest one of two things, time or money. If you invest some money in a Writing Guru you could shave up to five years off that time. That’s five years you could be earning rather than learning. A good Writing Guru should be able to move you forward that much.

By a Writing Guru I mean a coach or trainer who is not only a good writer and gifted in educating, but one who has experience in the marketing and selling of new writing. With those attributes behind you, you could easily be in a position within a few months of submitting material with confidence.

The alternative is to learn such things yourself and there are plenty of resources out there to allow you to do this. But, and this is crucial, which information is valid and which is not, how many dead-ends will you end up, and how long will your patience last before you decide that the writing game just isn’t for you?

Let me take this as an example of what a Writing Guru might teach you on the marketing side. A publisher is a business and exists to make money, not to fulfil your fantasies of becoming a professional writer. You might take this for granted and know that the material you are submitting will definitely appeal to the market, but do you know the process that your material must go through before a publisher puts down his money and takes a gamble on you. It doesn’t matter how good you are because nine times out of ten the people who assess your work are failed writers and not competent to judge good writing. So how can you possibly win?

It’s an old marketing adage – sell the sizzle, not the sausage.

I don’t have the space here to go into this in depth, but just recall that those who sell you products and services sell you the benefits of the products, not the products themselves. That’s the end of your free info.

Your coach should be a hard taskmaster because writing is a hard game. Everybody imagines they can do it but ninety nine per cent can’t. You only have to surf the web for an hour to discover that. Your coach should be hitting you over the head about structure, about rewriting, about editing, about polishing, because these are the things that matter, the things that make you a professional writer and not just a dilettante.

Think of the despair of five years of learning this ball game on your own, and if your coach is hard on you appreciate that it’s to get you to the finishing line as fast as possible. Squeeze that five years into two or three concentrated and guided months.

I’ll say it just one more time, wouldn’t you rather be earning than learning?

For more help on writing go to

http://www.scriptschool.co.uk for free factsheets, resources and training.