Writing Tips from the Founder of “The Write Edge”
by Ekta Garg
I got my master’s in magazine publishing from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern in 2002, and in 2005 I began working at what is now the Pamplin Media Group in Portland, Oregon.
Pamplin was responsible for The Portland Tribune, one of the state’s larger newspapers, and it also produced many of the regional papers for the smaller towns in the area.
After Years Editing Newspapers, I Started Blogging
I was hired as the Contract Publishing Editor; any publications considered special projects were under my purview. While I oversaw several publications, the one regularly under my supervision was The Portland Physician Scribe, the member newspaper for the Medical Society of Metropolitan Portland.
During my editorship, I enlisted new freelancers, (giving the paper a refresh in terms of content style), doubled the page count of the newspaper by working with the ad department to bring in new advertising, created new regular features for the publication, and also did original reporting. I leaned heavily into my journalism training while working on The Scribe.
When our family moved from Portland to Houston for my husband’s medical fellowship, I had to leave my position but carried with me all the tricks I’d learned on the job. With two young children at home, I found myself missing writing with a ferocity that made me decide I had to do something.
I started blogging in 2010, and The Write Edge is now 11 years old!
As a Wife and Mother, It’s Easy to Forget I’m a Writer!
The blogging started out as an outlet for my own writing, to remind myself that I am, in fact, a writer. It was easy to forget that as the mother to a toddler and a preschooler and the wife of a man busy in medical training. Through blogging, though, I discovered a whole network of writing friends. Some of them I’ve never met face to face, yet we share writing adventures and life adventures to this day.
About a year after I started blogging and sharing my editing experience, a writer approached me and asked whether I would be interested in editing his novel. He said he was willing to pay, and it was like someone turned on a lightbulb.
I realized this was an easy way for me to continue being there for my children while staying in touch with the publishing world and keeping my skills sharp.
That was 10 years ago. Since then, the majority of the freelance editing jobs have come to me by word of mouth and there are writers who come back to me over and over for their stories and books. I keep my workload on the lighter side, because my children are still my first priority, but now that they’re older I can devote more time to my professional pursuits.
I Earn the Majority of My Income from Editing
My work portfolio has grown from blogging and freelance editing to include conducting writing workshops for our local library, sitting as a judge in various writing competitions, reviewing books for several outlets, creating monthly tweets for a writing group for craft discussions, and, most recently, podcasting about the craft.
I also have worked with wonderful people like Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi as a member of their social media street team to get the word out about new book releases. (Check them out. Their writing thesauruses are necessary for all writers, no matter your skill level.)
I earn the majority of my income from editing. As for the other opportunities, not all of them are paid but they all allow me to strengthen my professional network. That’s just as important to me.
I’m so fortunate to have met so many incredible people through the years who were so generous with their time and talents, and that motivates me to pay it back to the writing community in any way possible.
I’ve Come to Enjoy Magical Realism
When I first started writing I focused on what is broadly called women’s fiction or stories about relationships and families, almost always with a female protagonist. Over time, however, I’ve really come to enjoy magical realism as a genre—that is, writing about every-day people and situations with a bit of magic worked in.
One example would be a holiday-themed novella I wrote about one of Santa’s elves. In that story world, being an elf is normal and functions like a job in a global corporation. Naturally, because of the holiday angle, there’s magic in that “little kid,” “White Christmas” sort of way as well as a happy ending. I’ve submitted the novella to an independent press for their review and also a writing contest (one of many submissions for this story!).
Another example is about a priest in India who discovers that a young boy who visits the temple can predict the weather. In a country where monsoon season is a big deal for the thousands of farmers working the land to earn a living, the priest decides to use the information to his advantage. This story got published in 2019 in an anthology by the Stone Soup writers on Facebook and is still a favorite of mine.
It’s Important to Me to Expose Myself to Different Viewpoints
For editing, I’ve worked on short stories and novels in several genres. I’ve acted as the managing editor for anthologies (what I call my editing blizzard: 5 weeks, two dozen writers of varying skills, and me.) Writers also come to me with book-length projects, both fiction and nonfiction, for editing either for content or syntax, or an assessment of the manuscript (in which I read the manuscript and write an editorial letter about the book, focusing on 10 key areas).
If I had to pick a specific niche, I enjoy editing historical fiction, women’s fiction, magical realism, and mysteries. A broad spectrum, I know, but because I read so many books in these genres and others and am constantly learning—reading craft articles and books—I know I’m qualified to edit in these stories and novels.
My reading is even broader in terms of genre and scope than my editing. It’s important to me to expose myself to different viewpoints and different age groups in books so I can be a better writer in my own stories as a result. That means I read and review in a wide variety of genres.
My Marketing Tactics: Blogging, Social Media, and Genuine Relationships
I still blog regularly—three times a week in a normal week and more in the weeks when I do special features. My blog is connected to Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, so everything I post on The Write Edge automatically goes to my profiles and pages on those platforms.
In addition, I engage in conversations with other writers on a daily basis on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram independent of the blogging. Sometimes it’s just a reaction to something they’ve posted, but my radar is constantly up for offering advice and suggestions based on my experience and education.
That’s actually the biggest piece of marketing: genuine relationships. Reaching out to others and offering help before expecting them to come to you. When I work with a writer whose story I particularly enjoyed, I’ll stay in touch even after the editing is done. I encourage other people on social media, and I stay humble.
It’s easy to do the last part; there will always be someone who has accomplished way more than me. If their writing resonates with me, I follow them and try to incorporate some of what they’re doing in my own platform engagement.
I made a decision a long time ago to pursue editing on a freelance, part-time basis, and I’m blessed that our family doesn’t depend on my income. When business slows down, I use that time to ramp up my own writing and reach out to former clients. There are times when several weeks go by and I don’t have an editing job on hand. I see it as an opportunity to work on my own stories and devote time to my kids and volunteering.
Advice for a Young Writer: Take Your Craft Seriously
I really do want to encourage young writers. I want them to take their craft seriously, to work at it like they would an athletic skill. Olympic champions don’t stand on top of the podium or even reach their respective teams without years of training and discipline.
Yet the sad fact is that publishing is also a business, and not enough writers are willing to accept that or even understand it. They think their art should be valuable for art’s sake. While that is certainly the case, it also makes sense that in order to earn money a publishing company has to make some hard decisions.
We can disagree with the details of those decisions—the royalty amount a traditionally-published author gets paid, for example—but you’d be hard-pressed to get away from the decision itself.
And if you decide to self-publish or go through an independent press, those are still business decisions. Because if you’re content to hold a printed copy of your book in your hands and maybe have enough copies to share with family and good friends, then you can do that in about a week or two. But if you want to have a career and make money writing for a living, that’s a much more arduous, circuitous route.
I’m not saying it can’t be done. All I’m saying is that it’s harder. Then again, aren’t the hardest things in life the ones worth doing?
I would tell a young writer the first thing they have to do is learn their craft.
Spend time honing it and getting better at it. I use a tripod approach to my work: reading, reviewing, and editing all support my efforts to make me a better writer. Reading widely exposes me to different ideas, different ways of life and people, and different writing styles. Reviewing books professionally makes me articulate what I liked or disliked about a book and why. Editing heightens my awareness of the weaknesses and blind spots of other writers so that I don’t make those same mistakes in my own stories.
I would also tell the young writer to be prepared to have diversity in your career. The vast majority of writers do more than just write books for a living. Many of them teach writing in person, as in the education sector, or online through courses. Many of them, like me, also freelance edit or even work for a publishing company in some capacity. Literary agents have been known to write novels and still keep their day jobs representing other authors.
It’s possible you might need to hold down a non-writing job to help pay your bills, and if you have a partner and family that will severely limit the time you have to do any actual writing.
Is it worth? Absolutely. Will you sometimes feel like it takes forever to get anything published? Probably. But I think every author, big-name, midlist, or local, would say the same thing.
Here’s also another fact about writing that I’ve seen. Once you get the ball rolling with submissions, that ball tends to keep rolling. Meaning the more you connect with people and offer help and advice, the more you reach out to the writing community and keep writing and submitting, the more writing you’ll be doing and, eventually, be solicited to do. Writing outlets will start contacting you for pieces.
You have to find it within yourself to get up every day and do the work, though. You have to stick with it when people you thought were in your corner turn out to be surprisingly nonhelpful and even discourage you. You have to stick with it when your writing friends and people in the community seem to be signing deals left and right and you have yet to have a single successful submission. You have to stick with it when you just want to stomp on your computer because the characters and plots refuse to do anything coherent.
(Well, maybe don’t stomp on the computer. That could be expensive, and it’s hard enough as it is to earn money as a writer. Maybe go punch a pillow instead. Several times.)
The point is, it will be incredibly hard. But it’s worth it. Every day.
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Since her start in niche publishing in 2005, Ekta Garg has written and edited about everything from healthcare to home improvement to Hindi films. She became a freelance editor in 2011 to cement her belief that words have the power to change people and the world.
A moderator for two online writing groups and a writing contest judge, Ekta also hosts Biblio Breakdown, a podcast where she examines book themes to offer writing exercises. Ekta reads and reviews at least one book a week (and plans to increase that when the kids go off to college.) She also manages The Write Edge and its extension blogs of original fiction, book reviews, and parenting adventures.
Outside of writing and editing Ekta spends time with friends (the ones other people can see) and counts her many blessings, which include a loving husband and two beautiful daughters who astound her on a regular basis.
For more information about Ekta and her work, please see her website or connect with her on Facebook and Twitter.
