One "Digital Native"s View on Getting Paid

Another in the occastional series of "Here's how I made money in the new publishing ecosystem" comes from Laurie Penny. Still only age 26, she's transitioned from blogging to having her byline on traditional name publications including The Guardian. In a brief Q&A promo for a talk she's giving next month on the topic Penny has a couple pieces of practical advice.

The first one that appealed to me is for aspiring writers to practice pitching, particularly pitching ideas that stretch the author's capabilities. It's easy to write what you know and find yourself repeating what's already out there; pitching slightly newer, different, or even riskier ideas may catch publishers' attentions. She also advises not trying to monetize one's blogging, but rather to use the for-free writing as resume, and as a way to garner attention on social media.