How to Make Money Writing Comedy, an overview
First of all, you need to know that this will take a long time and a lot of work. Anyone who tells you otherwise is trying to sell you something. However, you can certainly take the first step today. And what’s more, you should.
Okay, let’s get started.
Figure out what you want to make
If you already know what you want to make, start making it and putting it out. Get yourself into the improvement loop: make work, release work, judge reaction, incorporate what you’ve learned, repeat, never give up.
If you are filled with the sense that a career in comedy is right for you, but you’re not sure what direction is right, the only thing you can do is go in all directions.
Take an improv class. Take a standup class or just do an open mic. Take a sketch writing class. Self publish a humorous novel. Make a funny video and share it with your friends.
Go in all possible directions for a while until you find the thing that is your thing. Do not be paralyzed by any pressure to be good. You’re not trying to be good. You’re trying to find the direction that suits you.
This might take a while. Like, years. But each of us only has so much time here. We need to focus.
How To Start Right Now From Anywhere
If you have never written a word of comedy before and you need to make a couple hundred bucks this summer I’m not going to tell you it’s impossible …but it’s impossible.
If you want something you can start right now, this minute, I recommend getting into the habit of writing.
Write five bad jokes every day.
I say bad jokes because I don’t want you to get hung up on trying to make your work good. Worry about good later. For now, just get into the habit of writing comedy daily. This could also be one sketch a day or 500 words of your novel a day or whatever.
Pick a target you can hit every day.
If that’s 10 words, so be it. If it’s a single humorous syllable, fine. It’ll be better to write a tiny amount every day than to let yourself not work. A year without writing anything can go by in an instant if you’re not careful. Just pick a target that you can hit every day.
When you’ve hit it every day for, say, 6 months, raise your target.
You can do this while you’re searching around for the thing you like best. And you can share your daily jokes with us on the subreddit or in the discord server. Try to hang around and be part of the community, though. Don’t just paste your jokes and leave.
It’s All About Your Audience
Most of getting paid to make the work you want is about building your audience. Keep this in mind because you’re probably not going to write one amazing thing that pays your bills forever. More likely you start writing, never stop, and over time your audience grows which means your options for more work and better earnings also grow.
Sooner or later in your comedy writing career you will be told some variation of, “We like this, but we’re not going to make it because you aren’t famous enough.” When your head and all your arms and limbs have finished exploding, you’ll say, “But if you helped me make this, we could both be more famous.” There are millions of brilliant people out there with groundbreaking work that won’t get made. A famous person with a huge audience can get garbage make this week. That’s just how it goes.
If you work on your audience, 20 years from now people will hold up the work you’re doing today and say it’s magic. But it’s not magic. It’s just work.
Do your work, work on growing your audience, and let it take time.
How To Grow your Audience
As soon as you can afford it, get yourself a web site and a mailing list. The job of your web site is to showcase you, what you’re like, and the work you have done. The job of your mailing list is to keep your community up to date on your work.
If you want to post to social media that’s up to you, but keep in mind that social media sites can disappear.
If you’re writing jokes to twitter every day but you’re not making progress on your main work, stop and have a talk with yourself. Are you trying to be a pro writer or a pro twitterer?
Jack and Zuck are making money from all your posts. What’s in that relationship for you?
Should I Work for Free?
Yes. You are going to do a lot of writing for zero pay. It’s unavoidable. You have to make a lot of work to find your voice and get good. But do be careful where you place your time.
I don’t recommend pursuing opportunities that are hiring contests unless you approach them totally as a networking opportunity. Often people appear in our universe with an offer that sounds like “Write some stuff for us and if we use it we will hire you!” Someone joined our Discord server just last week saying his “friends” are “legitimately internet famous” and are looking for writers to help with their YouTube channel. Red flags upon red flags.
If you look into one of those “opportunities” and it seems legit, go nuts. For the most part, though, I think people looking to hire should say (1) what the work is and (2) what they’re offering in return. There should be no “maybe” part of the equation.
If someone’s holding a contest, like a fiction contest, it should be called a contest so everyone knows what to expect.
There are three parts to any show: development, production, and promotion. Beware festivals or contests that make you do all three yourself. There are some very famous “Festivals” that have a submission fee, then you pay a production fee to put your work on stage, and you’re required to bring your own audience to the fest as well.
How to Collaborate
The best way to find collaborators is to not need them.
Often times when people are “looking to collaborate” what they mean is that they are hoping to get work done without having to do it. They’re looking to be the lab partner who slacks off but still gets a decent grade. Watch out for that.
The best thing you can do is train yourself to be motivated and prolific. Keep your eyes open for other motivated people. Guaranteed they are keeping their eyes open for you.
When Will I Start Seeing Money?
At minimum I would estimate you can start seeing a trickle of money in 3–5 years of busting your ass. If your goal is to be full time, expect it to take twice as long or longer.
You can make more money faster if you’re willing to write copy at an ad agency or other jobs of that kind, but it’s also very easy to get comfortable there. Next thing you know you’ll have a condo payment and a car note and you’ll be too tired to write and on and on.
You can make money doing anything you want to do, but making money will always be work. You have to constantly evaluate whether it’s more rewarding to be an artist — making the work you want to make and to hell with everyone else — or more rewarding to make money, meaning you make more relatable work.
You can find that balance, though. Sometimes it’s project-by-project. But that’s okay. And years from now when you do find that balance and the money starts coming in people will look at you and say, “Wow, how’d you become an overnight success?”
