{"id":2315,"date":"2025-12-07T12:44:31","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T17:44:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kel.zone\/?p=2315"},"modified":"2025-12-07T12:44:31","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T17:44:31","slug":"writing-services-a-trillion-dollar-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kel.zone\/?p=2315","title":{"rendered":"Writing Services. A trillion dollar business."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The web is full of folks making a fortune off \u201chelping\u201d writers. It\u2019s big business. But does it really help you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before the web, in the pre-digital days of the 1990s, writing support was limited to publishing, journalism, and technical writing. There was also a $350 billion global advertising industry, which included copywriting. Aside from the advertisements in the backs of magazines soliciting artists and writers to test their talent (widely acknowledged as a scam) there was no genuine content writing services industry.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The 1999 kelzone focusing on VR. Thanks to internet archives!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The late 1990s spawned platforms for bloggers. That\u2019s when I created my first kelzone websites; here is a later one focusing on VR<\/a>. But still there weren\u2019t services for writers to improve their writing. Also in the late 90s we saw academia offering some focused courses on writing. Purdue Online Writing Lab in 1994 focused on academic writing, grammar, citation styles. It is the earliest major academic website dedicated to teaching English and writing. The Cambridge Online Dictionary also started in the mid-1990s. The Harvard Writing Project in the late 1990s was created to help its faculty and students integrate writing into courses. Elance (founded in 1999) and oDesk (2003) were the first freelance platforms to connect writers with global clients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 2000s, a formal market for content writing services was still nonexistent, but online advertising spending increased from $10 billion in 2000 to $60 billion by 2009.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So that is all about content writing services, meaning I\u2019ll create content for your ads, websites, blogs, whatever. Today, what is on my mind is the business of promoting, helping, and teaching writers how to be writers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, that market is at least $6billion and maybe as much as $2trillion. Anyone who ever wanted to write a book, be a journalist, or even get rich creating low-content books, can do so. Self-publishing is big business. Amazon doesn\u2019t break out exact KDP revenues, but analysts estimate KDP authors collectively earn between $400million and $1billion per year in royalties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some writers can improve their writing (or publishing or marketing) offline or online. Offline means taking part in local writing groups, conferences, retreats, residencies, etc. but the biggest share of the market is online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Online takes many forms. A few: education, workshops, and tools. <\/p>\n\n\n

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You also have places like Bowker who charge for ISBNs, copyrights, and other services. And hundreds if not thousands of entrepreneurs; for example, Kindlepreneur (classes and tools), Reedys (services), Barnes & Noble Press (services), etc. It is unknown just how big the industry is but there is the following: <\/p>\n\n\n

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Creative Industries is a $2,900,000,000 business. WOW!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I\u2019ve been going through my writing \/ publishing journey, I have tried many opportunities to improve my writing. I know for a fact that an excellent editor is golden for successful (meaning over 12 people buy my book) writing. I also know that because of the enormous boom of writers wanting to publish their works of art (or not), it is nearly impossible to land a moral agent, editor, and publishing deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I would guess that those folks who go through college, and probably grad school, studying English and Creative Writing hold the inside track. They create networks, make contacts, get good constructive criticism, and that all dovetails into more opportunities with agents, editors, publishers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you don\u2019t have that, you go the self-study route. You spend money on classes, and tools, and editors and whatever else. But that\u2019s an enormous gamble on whether you\u2019ll see a sizeable return on that investment or break even.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then there is the question of how much the classes or tools or editors actually help you.<\/p>\n\n\n

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I recently took an online, Zoom-based class on writing hosted by a successful author I highly respect. I dropped out pretty early on because it was wrecking my head. In one of the initial sessions, the host and students discussed the criticality of character names. Some said they wouldn\u2019t even read the book if they didn\u2019t like the character\u2019s names. Now, I have to confess, I never really liked the name T\u2019nia, and yet that\u2019s the name of one of my main characters. Hearing what these folks were saying, I was like, \u201cOh shit! I knew I should have changed that name!\u201d. Sometimes I watch YouTube videos and get advice from the channel creator that makes me think, \u201cOh my gods. Is my dialog like that? Are my characters like that?\u201d So, for me, lots of these \u201cservices\u201d can tease out my deepest insecurities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the first tips I received when I joined an in-person critique group was which member\u2019s opinions I should trust the most. Hmmm. I knew what they meant. It\u2019s like knowing which of your readers will love what you write and which are likely to be the harshest critics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think that finding the online services that fit you best is like finding a therapist that is best for you. It\u2019s that intimate and important of a relationship. Don\u2019t stick with something that\u2019s making you hate writing or feel bad that you are not a fine arts graduate. Don\u2019t spend a lot of money on tools you won\u2019t use. Example 1: It may work great for lots of folks, but I can\u2019t make any good decisions based on Publisher Rocket data. Example 2: Hiring an editor gave me a feeling of confidence about my book, but you have to prepare yourself because it may not help your sales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bottom line, I think we write because we must. Publishing is an \u201cI FINISHED IT\u201d kind of milestone. But think deeply before you help feed this trillion-dollar industry because not all (or much?) of it will actually help you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The web is full of folks making a fortune off \u201chelping\u201d writers. It\u2019s big business. But does it really help you? … Continue readingWriting Services. A trillion dollar business.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2318,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[452],"tags":[512,457,513,511],"class_list":["post-2315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essays","tag-marketing","tag-publishing","tag-writing-industry","tag-writing-services"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kel.zone\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kel.zone\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kel.zone\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kel.zone\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kel.zone\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2315"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kel.zone\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2322,"href":"https:\/\/kel.zone\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2315\/revisions\/2322"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kel.zone\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kel.zone\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kel.zone\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kel.zone\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}