I frequently receive emails from people hoping to break into technical writing. It’s not an easy answer, but here are some things you can do.
1) Remember You’re Always Auditioning to become a Technical Writer
Publishers want technical writers that understand technical topics and can express themselves with the written word. If they’re considering you, they may Google your name to see what you’ve written online. If your online writing is filled with spelling and grammatical errors, it will color their view.
Also, if you’re contacting anyone asking about becoming a technical writer, make sure you give them your best writing. While this person wasn’t asking to become a technical writer, his words do reflect similar content I’ve received from others that wanted to become a technical writer.
Clear email communication is especially important as a technical writer because almost all the communication between authors, editors, and project managers is via email.
2) Become a Technical Editor before Becoming a Technical Writer
One of the best ways you can break into technical writing is as a technical editor. A technical editor reads the author’s material and provides input to correct any technical errors.
I’ve always enjoyed writing and did a lot of writing on different topics over the years. When I first turned to technical writing, I wasn’t able to get a publisher to hire me as an author.
However, I did get some offers to be a technical editor. I did my absolute best, which helped me build a relationship with the publisher. Eventually, this relationship turned into me authoring or contributing to several books.
How do you become a technical editor. Tell every technical writer and publisher that you know or can identify that you’re interested in doing so. Make sure you get to the point right away. It could be as simple as this:
I love technology, enjoy writing, and am trying to break into the technical writing field. If you have any technical editing opportunities coming up, I’d be honored if you considered me.
Best regards,
Your Name
p.s. You can see my writing style on my blog: yourblog URL
3) Write as a Technical Writer
It might sound silly, but writer’s write. If you want to be a technical writer, write about technical topics.
Today, it is relatively simple to create a blog and start writing about technical topics. Your blog doesn’t have to be perfect. You only have to get started. And the great thing about blogs is that you can always tweak them to improve them if you need to.
And of course, your blog can be your audition. It shows publishers that you can write.
4) Start Small as a Technical Writer
Another way to break in as a technical writer is to start small. You don’t need to write a full book, but can instead contribute to a book by writing a single chapter. This is one of the ways that many technical editors jump into technical writing.
5) Find a Technical Writer’s Agent
Many publisher’s don’t want to hear from writer’s directly. However, if you have a respected agent, you’ll have a much better chance at getting publishers to listen to your proposals.
Also, if you have an agent and you’ve been getting good reviews from publishers, you’ll often get job offers out of the blue.
Carole Jelen has been my agent through Waterside, Productions, Inc for many years and I can honestly say she has opened many doors for me. She’s also written a great book to help authors and prospective authors build an author platform: Build Your Author Platform: The New Rules: A Literary Agent’s Guide to Growing Your Audience in 14 Steps. Waterside’s website also has a lot of good information for authors.
Remember Step 1 when you contact a prospective agent. This first contact is an audition and if your query is a quick note sent from a smartphone with some spell check fails, don’t be surprised if you never get an answer.
