It was in 1997, that I realized my love of writing could be turned into a career. I began to read everything I could get my hands on about writing for a living and it wasn’t long before I ran across WritersWeekly.com Over the years, I’ve learned everything from How to Locate More Markets to Writing and Marketing Personal Essays. The variety and wealth of information definitely gave me a push in the right direction.

After five years of seriously pursuing a career in freelance writing, and slowly building my relationships with editors as well as learning how to query for the best results, I am thrilled to say that I made $35,000.00 last year on writing alone. I plan to increase that amount this year.

My plan included sending out five new queries for articles every week and completing at least two books a year (sometimes more). I have to say that I’m not sure I could have done it without your help. The wealth of materials available definitely keeps me in learning mode, even now.

All of this also inspired me to finish my master’s and go after a Ph.D. in what I love rather than what was “safe.” I earned my Ph.D. last January in Journalism and Creative Writing and don’t regret it for a second. True, I can only use it to write or teach, but I have no desire to do anything other than write, so I see nothing wrong with that.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart and keep up the good work!

Lori Soard has published thousands of articles and short stories and several books. Her new romance novel, Housebreaking a Husband, was released by Thorndike/Five Star in December.