How to Write for a Living

How to Write for a Living

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How to Write for a Living
How to Write for a Living
No-one’s reading your work - should you keep going?

No-one’s reading your work - should you keep going?

Why your words matter even when your audience is small.

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David McIlroy
Apr 24, 2025
∙ Paid
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How to Write for a Living
How to Write for a Living
No-one’s reading your work - should you keep going?
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➡️ If the thought of promoting your writing gives you the heebie-jeebies, make sure to download my free 3-page guide, Sharing Without The Cringe.


What you’ll learn in this paid post:

  • Why writing to a small audience is still worth it

  • How to reframe your expectations about growth

  • Practical ways to share your work (without feeling like you’re void-screaming)

  • How to build confidence and momentum even when the numbers aren’t there (yet)

You’ll find all that below.

But first…


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Screaming into the chasm of infinite darkness

Have you ever written something and thought “This is an absolute banger, everyone’s going to love it!”, only for it to fall completely flat and get very little traction?

Sure you have. You’re a writer.

It happens to all of us.

I remember the early days of my time on Medium and Sustack. I’d just started dabbling in online writing (why the heck did I take so long to get into that, by the way?!) and everything I posted seemed to float gently into the freezing cold oblivion of unread content.

Those days sucked. They made me want to quit.

(I didn’t, obviously)

But if you’re in that place now, trust me, I understand what you’re going through.

One of the reasons we struggle so much in the early phases of our writing careers (yes, you’re a writer who wants to generate an income from your words, damn well call it a career) is because our expectations are massively skewed.

We see posts from other creators bragging about their colossal numbers. About their seemingly-straightforward rise to fame and fortune. About their zero-to-six-figures journey, which always seems to happen overnight.

[Narrator: it did not happen overnight]

And of course that’s going to get us down. We’re not robots, thankfully.

But it’s a real problem. And it really stops a lot of talented writers from achieving the success they deserve.

Your first steps into the online writing world will always be the hardest.

So how do you get through those early days, when it feels like no-one’s reading your work?

How do you keep going when you feel like you’re screaming into a chasm of infinite darkness and your own echo doesn’t even bother responding?

Let’s discuss.

This post is for paid subscribers. If you want to dive into the rest of it (and support me in the process), consider upgrading to my paid tier. You know it’d make my day. ☺️

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