The same questions comes up time after time, "Can you live off speech writing alone?" or "Is there any money in speech writing?" They have with multiple versions of the same question: "What about the money?"
Well, how much do you want to make? I checked a speech writers' average salary on PayScale.com, and it suggested that speech writers make anywhere from $37,000 up to $139,000, depending on how good they are, how many years they have worked, who their past clients are, and how their overall reputation looks.
Just as with any career, whether or not you can make it as a professional speech writer depends on how good you are. Is your work high in demand? Is there someone else who does a better job for cheaper? Are you good enough that you can expect to be paid well. How long have you been in the business?
All of these questions factor together to form a question all speech writers should ask themselves, "How dispensable am I?" If every answer to this question is negative, chances are, you either won't make it as a speech writer, or you had better do something to make yourself a higher necessity. Become indispensable.
But how is this done?
William McGurn, one of President Bush's speechwriters, provides a model for fellow speechwriters to consider. At the time that McGurn replaced Michael Gerson as the President's head speechwriter, he left the Wall Street Journal as chief editorial writer. He had a broad range of skills; he was marketable."But 'we don't always set the agenda,' " says McGurn in an interview back in 2006. "'We're not in a vacuum....We have to respond to whatever's in the news, regardless of what we'd rather be talking about.'"
Flexibility, McGurn seems to be saying, is a necessary trait a speechwriter must master. He also talks about the long hours that speech writers pull: 6:45 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. is normal.
Upcoming speechwriters must be diversified, flexible, and devoted in order to make it as a speechwriter.
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