How To Make it as a Climbing Writer

Or at least get your foot in the door...

I wrote this article in hopes that it would be helpful to new climbing writers trying to get a start in the industry. It's a list of 5 tips that I would have found useful years ago when I started out. Hope you enjoy; and as always (trolls) if you are not interested, please just don't click the link.

Yes, I wrote this, yes, I am providing a link to my blog. Full disclosure for anti-trolling.

How to Make it as a Climbing Writer

He's not a baseball player.

alpinejason, (thought it would be funny to toss that in with the mixed metaphor.. if you can attribute a wayne gretzky quote, you probably know what sport he played: golf.)

The most important thing is to get a blog and pimp it relentlessly on climbing sites.

so how much money do you make?

christoph benells wrote:so how much money do you make?

Off of writing - maybe about $6000-$8000 / year. Most of that is not off climbing writing. As I said in the article, that is a relatively small portion. I always have some other job to supplement.

And as for the blog: I don't get paid anything for it. I write it, encourage others to send me work for it, and share it with people simply because I enjoy doing it, and I hope others will enjoy it as well.

If I thought blogging was a useful tip, I would have put it in the article. With a few exceptions, though, I don't think it does much to help you get your start in writing.

MojoMonkey wrote:The most important thing is to get a blog and pimp it relentlessly on climbing sites.

Back to the bridge you crawled out from under...

There's a difference between pimping and sharing. More to the point, you're wrong. I don't make money on the blog, and I don't ever expect to. I started it as a way for climbing writers frustrated with the mainstream climbing media to share their stories that were not deemed noteworthy.

If you don't like it, don't click it. If you're so worried about me pimping my blog, don't bump the post with your troll hate.

well thats definitely enough to pay for some climbing trips,

nice job!

Have something epic happen.

This guy figured it out and is most likely making a killing off his blog.

sportsess.blogspot.com/2011…

Chris Kalman wrote: Back to the bridge you crawled out from under... There's a difference between pimping and sharing. More to the point, you're wrong. I don't make money on the blog, and I don't ever expect to. I started it as a way for climbing writers frustrated with the mainstream climbing media to share their stories that were not deemed noteworthy. If you don't like it, don't click it. If you're so worried about me pimping my blog, don't bump the post with your troll hate.

Ha! Clicking on your profile I remember you now - you got criticized for your dishonest spamming of your site across the web a year ago. I guess that explains the oddly defensive tone of your first post. Note that - aside from the unattributed linking of your site all over the web - I was also annoyed that you were solely using those communities for your gain and not otherwise participating. You post new threads only to link your site, even when the topics were already being discussed. Looks like only 1 of your (few) posts since then has been something besides linking your blog or replies in those threads.

My post here was a joke since everyone with a blog seems to bring it up everywhere - I didn't remember you or have a grudge and I'm sorry you fit the type. I see you are still assuming anyone that disagrees with you or has an opinion you don't like is a troll; I guess that is a handy mental shortcut to not have to consider other opinions or reflect too deeply.

Another tip: proofread your work.

I hope the Gretzky thing was a bad joke. Canada is going to crucify you right after they finish apologizing to Gretzky for crucifying him when he left the Oilers for the Kings

J Marsella wrote:"Strunk& White suggest that one "omit needless words."

A freakin Strunk & White reference on my break from classes. Thanks for that

I just read your article. It's awful. There are typos and the punctuation is atrocious. Your style is so choppy that I felt like I was getting peppered in the forehead with a small rocks. If I were your editor, I would send it right back and tell you to work on a few things.

The bottom line is that the odds of making a living writing about anything are slim to none. It's even harder in fringe interests. You can't write for money. It has to be done because you love to write. If you're fortunate enough to make a little money while you're at it, great.

Pretty amazing to see someone drop a Ron Jeremy quote.....!!

Here is my tip:

Trying to make money off climbing is really hard, whether it is writing or photography or both. Your better off writing in a different field if you are truly a great writer. BTW I see lots of mediocre writing in the climbing world.

Making money off climbing is really hard. Making money off writing is really hard. Making money off writing for climbing is really hard squared.

People do things like writing and photography because it serves a need to create - it's a compulsion. If you would do it regardless of pay, that's a good start. If you are after a buck via the arts, it shows.

This makes me think of a climbing writer like John Long. He is a climber first, and his writing is engaging because he lets us into his current head space, his soul and his memory. That's something no one can duplicate, and that's why it's fresh and interesting. Long would have done what he did in Yosemite whether writing or not - it's clearly passion, and writing about that is just plain engaging.

I also think about great climbing books like "The White Spider" by Heinrich Harrer. The book not only tell us the story of the first ascent of the Eiger, but really gives us a glimpse into what was going on between the climbers, and gets to universal themes the same way other great books like "The West Ridge" does.

Yeah this is sounding like a book review I guess, but I would say go in the direction of living. You're going to stick with writing regardless of what others think of it if it is indeed a passion. Writing can be retooled, edited, corrected, reconstructed, but life cannot if it is honestly recounted. If climbing is the genre you want to write in, find the story no one else is told, but LIVE it first, then write about it.

Ok I'll jump on the bashing bandwagon.

"What I have learned the long and hard way is that it’s not about how good a writer, and certainly not about how good a climber, you are"

Good a writer?

Jim Turner wrote:Good a writer?

And when have you seen good a writing?