I am currently reading the print edition of your book The Wealthy Writer which I purchased from Writer's Digest Book Club. So much of it goes right along with information I am hearing in an E-Commerce class I am taking.
I am interested in starting my own home-based writing business, but I am concerned about one thing. I notice on your web site that you are able, obviously to promote yourself because you are a published author and you have been in the writing business for most of your life. However, I am somewhat older than you, and I have spent most of my life in a career as a laboratory technologist. I have been presented with a lot of opportunities in this career, serving as assistant laboratory director and building and maintaining a laboratory information system, a position in which I now serve as director. During my life, I have always been interested in writing and a writing career is my life-long dream. I have won several writing contests in the area of fiction and poetry and I have also done a lot of newsletters and presentations in my line of work. I am a very motivated person, and very computer-literate (the E-Commerce class I am taking also involves web-page building). I am interested in photography and creative presentations, and I feel very comfortable writing articles and business letters, memos, newsletters, mailings, etc. I know that I could do this business, but my concern is that I have no real writing credentials to back up my abilities.
Can I be successful in a freelance writing business? Are clients always looking for someone with a background in journalism, or can someone with a medical background "make" it in such a business?