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Writing Hobby or Writing Business?
When does a writing hobby become a writing business?
This article first appeared in print in the February 2025 issue of Writing Magazine
Have you ever wondered when our writing hobby becomes a writing business? Is it when we win a small writing competition and bank the £25 cheque? Is it when we have a letter published in our favourite magazine and win a small prize? Or is it when we sign a publishing contract with one of the top five traditional publishing houses?
My writing began as a hobby. I first dabbled with writing stage plays and scripts during my teen years, after school and at weekends. When I started work, having done a full nine-to-five (and often longer) day in the office, I would come home and write in the evenings.
Then I sold my first piece. It was a word search puzzle, for which I received a £3.50 postal order. Already, I could sense HMRC rubbing their hands with the excited anticipation of taking their slice.
Hobby Hours
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a hobby is “an activity done regularly in one’s leisure time for pleasure.” Well, that summed up my writing. But had something changed now I’d sold some of my work?
