In May 2018, I attended Kathryn Hulick’s workshop on work-for-hire writing at the New England SCBWI Conference. This wasn’t the first time I’d noticed presentations on work-for-hire writing at the conference, but it was the first time I attended one. I was interested in finding out what work-for-hire was about, but when push came to shove, workshops on world-building or character voice or with a particularly interesting editor won out. But finally, I made time for it.
In retrospect, I wish I’d done that earlier in my writing career. I went home from that conference and submitted writing samples to a couple of publishers and book packagers. Just a couple of months later, one of them asked if I wanted to develop a pitch for a book in the middle-grade mystery series they were developing. I had my first book deal in hand by August.
Since I’d piled up my fair share of rejections from agents on my manuscripts, this seemed incredibly fast.
Work-for-hire is writing that’s done to a publisher or packager’s specifications, not a story developed solely by a writer. After the manuscript is written and revised, the writer is paid for the work and the company retains the copyright. The writer gets no future royalties and is not responsible for marketing the finished book.
The kidlit work-for-hire market covers:
- Fiction and nonfiction,
- Picture books through young adult, and
- Just about any genre you can think of.
When you apply to be considered for projects, you can let the publisher know the category and genres you prefer or the nonfiction topics that you have prior knowledge in.
If your goal in writing a book is to see the book of your heart in print on book store shelves, work-for-hire might not be for you. But if you’re open to writing the book that someone else wants to market, there are several benefits:
- Experience working with editors,
- Experience writing to a deadline,
- A writing credit for your bio,
- Income, and
- A confidence boost.
For me, those benefits made the projects well worth taking.
There are some challenges in writing for the work-for-hire market. The deadlines are short, usually just 2-3 months. The book you write may or may not have your name on the cover. I wrote 2 middle-grade mysteries which were published under a pseudonym, though I have a nonfiction book coming out in the fall that will be published under my name.
If you’re interested in learning more about writing for the work-for-hire market, you can attend my workshop at the WriteOnCon online kidlit writing conference on Sunday, February 23rd at 10 am EST.
To learn more, read this interview on writing the What Happened? series and this one on The Eastside Extra series.
For more on WriteOnCon, see this post. I hope to see you there!
