In the last five years online book sellers such as amazon, Barnes and Nobles and even Goodreads have boosted sales of short stories and fiction.
But no matter how inspired you are to write the perfect novel, selling your fiction is a business.
So, if you’re planning a career as a professional writer, then you must be good at both writing and selling. In order to do this successfully, you’ll need to formulate a business plan.
Making a Plan
To begin, decide on a time line. How long will it take you to write a story, how many pages a week you need to write? Who will edit your work? Do you plan to submit your story or self-publish?
To figure out which works for you, check out http://thewritelife.com/self-publish-or-traditional/#.hhrhb7:TOQm
Setting goals
Find the right market for your stories. Your fiction might not make you rich, but it should still be treated like a job. This means telling your muse that inspiration or not, it has to show up at a certain time every day to write. By having this dedicated routine, you avoid the distractions and pitfalls so many writers experience.
Do your Research
What genres are trending right now? There is a variety of websites to do your research to see what suits the market's needs; Goodreads.com provides titles in any genre as well as reader opinions.
You can also check out a list of publishers and their submission requirements at http://pred-ed.com/ to discover what’s hot or not.
Ghost writing as an option
Writing stories as your main source of income might prove difficult. However, there are other ways to supplement your income. One option is ghost writing. You can find work on websites like elance.com and odesk.com. When you sign up, you will see a list of opportunities that are not limited to ghost writing, there’s also blogs, web content, articles and press release writing gigs.
Things to keep in mind
You might want to consider is using a pen name. No matter what genre you write in, a pen name provides a sense of anonymity.