Today as more and more businesses and employees go virtual, while job losses and business failures mount, writers actually have more opportunities in a virtual world.  In fact, virtual space is an ideal environment for writers, since we work behind computers and many of us work from home offices, so we can simply continue to do what we already do.  

The main difference is in how we are published or hired, whether it’s by a company or individual, in the topics of interest, and how to best reach prospective publishers or clients. Then, too, if there is a slow-down in writing for clients, this can be an opportunity to do your own writing, and perhaps try out different forms of writing.

That’s been my experience. Besides writing my own books on assorted business, success, and current event topics, I’ve been working as a ghostwriter for book proposals, books, and scripts, and for the first few months of the pandemic, the clients suddenly disappeared.  For some clients, it was the uncertainty of what was happening, for others it was a decline in income, but for whatever reason, I and other writers experienced this drop-off.  

So all of this extra time enabled me write a couple of books and work on a series of song lyrics, many dealing with the pandemic and society today, and I found a collaboration partner, John Covert of the Crystal Image Band who writes the music, while I signed with a music publishing company, Missing Link Music, that handles licensing.  Then, all of sudden, the clients were back, and besides writing books and proposals, many clients wanted to turn their books into films, leading to my latest book: So You Want to Turn Your Book into a Film? to be published by Waterside Productions.  And now developments in the last few years inspired my latest book comparing life in modern American to medieval times, with the name to be determined by the publisher.

All of these collaborations and publishing deals have occurred virtually, showing what is possible, using email, phone calls, Zoom calls, GotoMeeting, GotoWebinar, and other modern technology designed to facilitate these hookups.  In addition, some of these contacts have come through the new online platforms by local chambers of commerce, trade organizations, and business entrepreneurs.  These are typically one to two hour meetings with breakout rooms to connect about two to 12 people with each other  and sometimes a speaker talking about techniques for doing business online. 

Thus, based on my experience of working almost completely virtually for the last seven months, here are several suggestions for working virtually yourself.

First, if you haven’t already done so, get familiar with these platforms for connecting virtually with others and set up accounts with them.  

Second, sign up for the business connection opportunities you learn about through email or your social media accounts. Expand your connections by signing up for the major social media platforms, notably Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and LinkedIn, and join groups with other writers and with the types of individuals who might be your clients. For instance, if you write self-help and psychology books, join groups interested in psychology and the self-help topics you write about. If you write about home improvement and gardening topics, join groups interested in that.

Third, working virtually makes your website and any places where you can feature your work, such as through book trailers on YouTube or on sites appealing to book readers, like Goodreads, more important than ever. So create or update your website to provide examples of your latest work for prospective clients to view. Create some short promotional videos or book trailers, also known as sizzle reels, and post them on YouTube and provide links on your website to then.  

Fourth, you might also post articles based on books you have written on article and blog sites, like Medium and eZineArticles, and include links to your website and sizzle reel or reels in these articles. Then, after posting these articles, you can use a posting and scheduling software like Hootsuite or Buffer to post your articles or press releases on multiple social media pages .  Should you need help creating these sizzle reels, MyPromeo.com, which I work with, can help you do that.

Another recommendation is do promotions through Amazon Ads, Facebook, Instagram, or Google Ads to attract people to your published books or writing services. While it’s easier than ever to publish your book on Print-On-Demand platforms like KDP, IngramSpark, Kindle, Draft2Digital or Smashwords, the key is getting prospective buyers to know about your book, which takes doing some promotion, such as using social media promotions and other PR methods.  

You can also use giveaways to offer an article, chapter, video, or book you have written to introduce what you have written in that viewers will want to buy more or want to hire you as a writer to write for them. There are various services that offer these giveaway programs, including Goodreads and AppSumoPlus.

Another idea is sending out emails to targeted audiences, depending on whether you are pitching books to publishers and agents, selling books to buyers, seeking clients, looking for collaborators, or getting visitors to go to your website.  If you want to do a pitch to get a publisher, agent, or film producer, you can easily do a mailing through PublishersAgentsFilms.com, a company I work with, which already has databases of these companies, or you can create or buy your own database and do individual mailings. 

You can also turn your books and booklets into audio books. You can find a narrator on ACX.com as long as you have published on Amazon, or otherwise hire a narrator.

Additionally, you can find virtual assistants to help you with Internet research, creating email lists, doing social media posts, and other virtual tasks.

You’ll find that Google Search, which handles about 80% of the searches online today, is a good source of whatever you are looking for.

In short, going virtual is a natural for writers. You can continue to do whatever writing you are already doing and then use various virtual technologies to help you find clients, customers, collaborators, publishers, agents, and anyone else you want to work with. So even with the pandemic raging, this is a great time for writers to look for opportunities. And it seems likely that these virtual opportunities will continue after that as more and more people become adept at using these new digital technologies.

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