5 Freelance Writing Side Hustles For People Who Love To Write
forbes.com – Monday April 20, 2026
Side hustles are popular amongst working Americans. SurveyMonkey found that 37% of workers have a side hustle. They’re a great way to earn extra income, especially as 43% of Americans did not experience a pay rise in the past year, and living costs continue to bite.
If you’re someone who considers themselves a bit of a wordsmith, you should explore a writing-based side hustle to supplement your income. While AI has lowered the barrier to entry for written content, the myriad of AI-generated “slop” on the internet has led to increased demand for creative, strategic, and nuanced human writers and communications professionals. Tech Radar reports that communications jobs have surged by 25.2%.
Here are several side hustles that leverage your writing expertise and can be turned into a profitable freelance writing business.
Fantasy becomes reality for next-gen speculative fiction authors riding self-publishing boom
abc.net.au – Sunday April 19, 2026
Make-believe is having a moment.
At Clunes Booktown this year, a literary festival in regional Victoria, between half and two-thirds of the authors peddling their wares were writers of so-called "speculative fiction".
That term is a somewhat clumsy umbrella term that covers everything from fantasy, science fiction, and horror, to "romantasy", alternate histories, and stories set in dystopian futures.
Australian book sales also point to a boom in these genres and sub-genres.
According to Nielson Bookdata, science fiction and fantasy sales have more than doubled between 2019 and 2023 to more than $50 million annually.
Winners and judges out of pocket as £20,000 writing awards appear to have closed
theguardian.com – Saturday April 18, 2026
The Plaza Prizes offered 10 awards in 2025 but some judges say they were not paid, while a number of winners hit back over AI accusations
A competition for new writers that promised a £20,000 prize fund appears to have shut down, leaving winners and judges, including a Booker prize-winning novelist, out of pocket.
Established in 2022, the Plaza Prizes last year offered 10 awards that were judged by the “finest poets and writers in the world”.
However, some of the judges for the 2025 competition say they were not paid, and a number of winners say they had their entries withdrawn after being accused of using AI to create their work – allegations they strenuously denied.
One judge, the 2021 Booker prize winner Damon Galgut, described the competition as a “scam” after he did not get paid for his work judging a fiction section of the annual competition.
Anthony Joseph, who won the 2022 TS Eliot poetry prize, also says he was not paid for his work.
New Literary Agent Listing: Meredith Miller
firstwriter.com – Friday April 17, 2026
Handles adult fiction and nonfiction across a wide range of categories. Represents bestselling and award‑winning authors producing transportive fiction rooted in vivid settings and personal narratives, including dark or darkly humorous work about women challenging expectations, as well as contemporary novels exploring relationships, family dynamics, and coming of age. Seeks fiction with fearless voices, high‑concept ideas, and elements of thriller, speculative, or horror. Nonfiction interests include voice‑driven memoirs, narrative nonfiction that reads like fiction, social justice writing, cultural criticism, music and pop culture, elevated true crime, deep dives into unusual subjects, and essays examining race, class, and identity.
Open Call: The Queen’s Commonwealth Writing Competition
www2.fundsforngos.org – Thursday April 16, 2026
The Royal Commonwealth Society Queen’s Commonwealth Writing Competition is a global platform for young writers aged 18 and under to showcase their creativity through essays, poetry, and storytelling. The competition introduces regional winners across five Commonwealth regions, followed by a global winner, ensuring diverse representation. It promotes creative expression, global dialogue, and youth engagement on important global issues.
What Is the Queen’s Commonwealth Writing Competition?
The Queen’s Commonwealth Writing Competition is a prestigious international contest organized by the Royal Commonwealth Society. It supports young writers from across the Commonwealth by providing a platform to express ideas, tell stories, and engage with global themes.
The competition encourages:
- Creative writing across multiple formats
- Youth participation in global conversations
- Diverse cultural perspectives and storytelling
Screenplays Aren't Novels, So Stop Writing Them Like They Are
nofilmschool.com – Wednesday April 15, 2026
It is totally possible to move between writing screenplays and writing books, and many, many writers have done so. But to get good at it, you need to realize that the styles of writing are completely different, with different audiences and ultimately different uses.
If you've been a prose writer your whole life, don’t despair, and don't throw out everything you know. Your sense of rhythm and your ear for language will help you. But it serves you differently in film.
If you start your screenplay like you start your novel, there’s a chance no one will go past the first 10 pages. It applies both ways, too—if you try to write a book like a screenplay, the typical reader will be confused and wonder where all the internal stuff went.
Avery Dohrmann's recent video dives into the topic. He talks about these writing types being two entirely different sports, although they both use the same “ball.” Watch the full thing here.
Bloomsbury Reorganizes Its Global Publishing Business
publishersweekly.com – Wednesday April 15, 2026
After a five-year period from 2021 to 2025 in which U.K.-based Bloomsbury has seen sales double and profits soar 154%, the now £361 million ($484 million) publisher is streamlining its organization.
The publisher’s rapid growth has largely been driven by an aggressive acquisition policy that has seen Bloomsbury make 35 deals in the last five years that has raised the number of employees from 736 to 1,238.
Under the new structure, rather than operate with three major editorial divisions served by a global sales, marketing, and publicity division, Bloomsbury will operate in three vertical business units, with each unit operating with its own editorial, sales, marketing and publicity, rights, and audio functions reporting directly into the managing director of each.
The three new business units will be:
Bloomsbury Global Academic & Professional (A&P), which will be led by Jenny Ridout, whose responsibilities expand to include A&P sales, marketing and publicity, rights, and audio in the U.K., and the rest of world.
New Magazine Listing: The Alchemy Spoon
firstwriter.com – Wednesday April 15, 2026
Publishes poems up to 40 lines and considers up to three pieces per submission, seeking unpublished work presented in a clear, standard format. Also considers essays on contemporary poetry topics by prior discussion, along with original artwork for covers and interior pages, favouring portrait‑orientated images or work suitable for cropping. Accepts up to three low‑resolution artwork samples in a single document, with higher‑resolution files requested upon acceptance. Invites recommendations of poetry collections and submissions of reviews. Poetry submissions accepted during specific windows only.
Tucker Carlson to launch publishing imprint with books by Russell Brand and Milo Yiannopoulos
theguardian.com – Tuesday April 14, 2026
Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson is set to launch his own imprint and publish books by the likes of Russell Brand and “alt-right” commentator Milo Yiannopoulos.
The imprint, Tucker Carlson Books, will be part of the US-based publisher Skyhorse. “I think most people don’t read books anymore because they’re too absorbed in all the other available media,” said Carlson, according to the Wall Street Journal. He added that those who do “tend to be disproportionately influential in policy conversations and conversations about ideas”.
Among the titles set to be published by Carlson’s imprint is Brand’s How to Become a Christian in Seven Days, described by Skyhorse as a “testimony and guide to a timeless, yet zeitgeist-capturing, grounded, yet psychedelic encounter with Christ”.
Quick, Playful Writing Exercises for When You’re Feeling Stuck
electricliterature.com – Tuesday April 14, 2026
A student recently asked, looking at the bookshelf in my office, “How did all these people get from here to there? From words on a screen to bound on the shelf?” I started to give her practical advice about staying in the chair and reading the right novels, but that is only a small part of how a piece of art grows up.
We are not ever just writers—we are also sons and daughters of good parents and disappointing parents and we are partners who need to grab a quart of milk on the way home and parents who crawl into bed with the little ones late at night to admire them when they are still, even though we know we don’t have any tiredness to spare. We are students and teachers. We are readers, taking in the universes created by other minds. Our stories and poems and essays are written in and among and because of these moments. A scene is not only a moment on the page that takes place in space and time—the writing of that scene takes place in space and time too. I remember working on an especially dark section of my first novel, No One Is Here Except All of Us, in which the character based on my great-grandmother escapes pogroms by fleeing with her children into the Russian wilderness where she survives on tree bark, and it so happened that this writing day took place beside a swimming pool at a Southern California hotel where my father-in-law was staying while he visited us. I spent the morning in the shade surrounded by Disneyland-bound families and I wrote about starvation. You can’t see that in the pages, but the energy of that good, easy day provided an opposite to the story from the past and its fictional counterpart. That strange pairing was part of how I powered the writing.
We do not write outside of our lives or in spite of them, but because of them. Writers make a choice to carve out significant time—some squeeze writing in while a baby sleeps on their chest or during the lunch hour. Some dictate a story while driving to work. The walls of stuck-ness are easily built. Time is always short; fear is a capable bricklayer; self-doubt and envy can construct a windowless room in seconds. While I love encouragement and good cheer (can you see me waving my pom-poms? I am!), those are not enough to free us. What I believe in, what has worked for me over and over, is a repertoire of small, playful, and unintimidating experiments. Lots of them. A small choice is huge. So often you need a little light, some air, and a handle turns in your hand, you peek through to the next thing, and you’re back, you’re in, you’re running.
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