How can I make money writing about running?

Unless you get a sportswriter gig that lets you focus on running with a major newspaper or magazine (and gives you a staff position) you won't make much of a living and will probably have to supplement your income.

The Dream wrote:

I'm obsessed with this sport and love to write. I am wondering if any of you have any advice about how to get my foot in the door? Would it be worth it to get a degree in journalism?

I'm not an expert in writing or running, but it seems to me there's not a lot of money in writing about running. I could be wrong, but it seems the ones that might be making some money off of it are those writing novels that turn out to be best sellers. An example that comes to mind would be Born to Run, which is a good enough book that the author sold millions of copies and a movie deal out of it.

A degree in journalism that allows some writing about running, but mostly about other topics (other sports, current events, news) seems likely to be higher yield than a sole running/writing focus.

Having sports and hobbies is a great thing. Monetizing them is another story, entirely.

Ask Rojo or Wejo for a job

The Dream wrote:

I'm obsessed with this sport and love to write. I am wondering if any of you have any advice about how to get my foot in the door? Would it be worth it to get a degree in journalism?

As a former journalist who has written about tons of things including running, my sincere advice is to not put too much behind this dream of yours. Journalism is even more rapidly now going toward video only.

Sometimes though, we go after our passions no matter what.

My advice:

1) Do you have a college degree at all? If not, this greatly limits you, and if you are not a young person, I would not recommend you go get one.

2) Contact Milesplit and Flotrack. Offer to write some stuff/cover some meets for free. See what they say. They DO have turnover, so if you prove yourself worthy, they may give you a shot. I have NO idea what they pay though.

3) Start a running blog. You can write to your heart's content. No pay, but a writer writes.

4) Start a running Youtube channel. WRITE content for it. Again, a writer writes.

5) Contact your local paper and offer to be a "stringer". Tell them you would like to cover track and cross country meets. This will not earn you a living, but if you can get some bylines, it could lead to that down the road somewhere else.

The above suggestions are really just shots in the dark. There is not a huge market for writers about running, and you have to be good as well as lucky to get a gig as a running writer that will pay your bills.

Check out author Matt Fitzgerald. He basically did what you're seeking to do.

Win a major marathon. You can be a terrible righter nad mkeas ltos of mnoey in book sales. Just get an editor

Contact Greg Zawaski NOW. He has already written a screenplay. If you two can combine heads, you'll come up with something GREAT that will actually turn into a movie.

Flagpole wrote:

The Dream wrote:

I'm obsessed with this sport and love to write. I am wondering if any of you have any advice about how to get my foot in the door? Would it be worth it to get a degree in journalism?

As a former journalist who has written about tons of things including running, my sincere advice is to not put too much behind this dream of yours. Journalism is even more rapidly now going toward video only.

Hahahahahhahaha of course Flagpole was a jouro it all makes sense now...it all makes sense....

This being said OP do not be a journalist, don't strive to be one. If you want to write about running start a blog or a substack. It's probably not something you can make a living off of but one should never try to make a living off of their passions.

If Gault were to suddenly and mysteriously disappear, there would be big void to fill. I'll be watching the front page for the announcement.

Start your own publication/website. The running world has never really had a quality publication on competitive running. Runner's world is to flakey. Letsrun is low quality. There should be room to do something in between the two. Flotrack is not worth the $ and has minimal original content.

You do not need to go to journalism school to become a journalist. Liz Bruenig did mostly stuff in divinity in college and grad/post grad. She writes for NYT now.

Precious Roy wrote:

Start your own publication/website. The running world has never really had a quality publication on competitive running. Runner's world is to flakey. Letsrun is low quality. There should be room to do something in between the two. Flotrack is not worth the $ and has minimal original content.

You do not need to go to journalism school to become a journalist. Liz Bruenig did mostly stuff in divinity in college and grad/post grad. She writes for NYT now.

+1

Guessing you’re in high school. Couple suggestions in no particular order:

Major in communications/journalism or both, don’t mJor in English like I did

Start your own blog

Write on upwork or another platform like that, even if it’s for free or little money, just something for the practice

Hi there.

It seems to me that the best option for you would be to be a freelancer. The writing process requires a lot of practice. It seems to me that a good opportunity is also a consultation with a professional. You can send him some of your articles for review and get feedback on your work. If you plan to write in essay format, it is best to do it online on

https://essayforsales.com/

. If you have an article format, you need to find some good edits first. As for me, first, start with freelance platforms, and then offer your resume to major professional publications.

The cream rises to the top and that is where a living can be made. But to get that good, the writer writes as someone else mentioned here. If you ask successful musicians, ones who make millions of dollars, they would still play the instrument for several hours per day if the money disappeared. Even to an audience of none. It's a passion and that is why they are successful.

Painters paint, photographers shoot anything, dancers dance.

There was/is a trend towards writing about something specific rather than being a generalist. Lawyers write about law, accountants write about managing money, etc. You have a passion for athletics, write the hell out of it and see if you develop the skill, voice, and knowledge required to rise to the top. But it is true, writers write. So get on it. But, like running fitness, or music, or painting the proverbial 10,000-hour rule applies.

I know people who claim to write and want to write and it might take them a week or a month to get around to it, then complete a story, then they will admire it for a month. Useless. Write every day. If you can, write without interruption. If you have time, edit endlessly (the story will never get perfect). Send some stuff to educated friends and get honest feedback.

If you can't think of something to write about. Read a story and think, "how would I tell this story differently, perhaps even better?"

Then do that, at least for your owns skills and development.

Also:

Employers are typically educated, so they look for education on the resume. It's a bias. Some great writers are not educated. Take music, for example. Dave Grohl writes songs on guitar, records playing the guitar (doesn't hire session musicians), and plays live. He is not a shredder, but is decent and writes the music. Also plays piano, drums and sings.

He doesn't even know the name of the guitar cords. He also doesn't know if some of what he is doing includes actual cords. He plays in rhythm like he is playing the drums, which he also learned by feel. No education. High school dropout. He has a voice and I don't mean his singing voice, but his writing voice or "creative-talent voice."

10,000 hour rule also applies there. Meanwhile, a classical musician toils in obscurity on the oboe in perfection as a volunteer or low-paid classical musician, playing someone else's music, Bach, Brahms, or Gershwin perhaps.....

The Dream wrote:

I'm obsessed with this sport and love to write. I am wondering if any of you have any advice about how to get my foot in the door? Would it be worth it to get a degree in journalism?

This old thread was bumped by a spam post on freelancing.

Still, to answer the OP's question, it's impossible (in my opinion) to make a living writing about running. It's nearly impossible to write a book on running that sells enough to make even minimum wage equivalent pay for writing it.

As a case in point, I've written a book on running. It has testimonials from two Olympic trials qualifiers and many age-group national and world champions. My book hasn't even sold well enough to cover the costs of publishing.

Even more telling, look at the sales rankings of Earl Fee's books. Earl Fee holds... I can't remember, 40 or so... world records! That's a stunning accomplishment. In my opinion, Earl has written the definitive work for masters 200m to 800m runners, yet very few posters here even know it exists.

Nonrunners aren't interested in reading a book about running. Very few runners are interested in reading books about running.

The sad truth is that so few people are interested in reading about running that even most of the articles in Runners World aren't about running!

The letsrun folks are living that dream for 20 + years.

Main business model:

- Links to other sites who wrote the article

- An army of runners who provide top notch content in their forum

Conclusion:

You would be stupid to go down this path. Nobody will pay you anything.