Why and How to Specialize in a Writing Niche
Focusing your writing on an industry niche may be more rewarding than generalist work
Without our talented guest writers, we would not have the incredibly relatable strategies we share with you. Gloria Lesher talks about niche vs. generalist writing. She is one of the best storytellers I know and a prolific writer. Here’s her advice on how to decide which works best for you.
We writers usually begin our careers as generalists, writing about anything and everything we can. Often, we fall into a certain industry or field by chance, because we’re young, eager, and need the work! But we have to remember that niche-focused writing could be a better option.
Is generalist work really the most effective way to build your writing career? Should you specialize? The only reasonable answer is, “It depends on the writer.”
If you’re a versatile, jack-of-all-trades generalist, you dive into a pool of potential clients or employers that’s wide and deep. The specialist writer jumps into a much smaller pool. While finding work is often more difficult for a specialist, once it’s found, niche work may pay more than generalist — in terms of both satisfaction and cash.
For me and many other writers, focusing on a niche has proven rewarding. We know this only because we’ve experienced significant portions of our careers working both as generalists and as specialists. Pros and cons exist for both career approaches, much like the poet Robert Frost’s “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood” choice.
Which road will you choose?
This article explores choosing the niche road. It may take more time and effort than the generalist road, but in the long run, niche writing can prove more lucrative and satisfying for you. The reasons have to do with the following five areas:
Balance. Writing about your strong interest as a sideline hustle to your regular career may not only provide more balance in your life, but also supplemental income.
Knowledge. Knowing all about your niche’s target market or audience and its products, services, and fundamentals demands time, effort, and education.
Specialization. Choosing to specialize in a type of work, such as white papers or B2B case studies, rather than a specific industry, is another route you can take on the niche road.
Freelancer vs. Employee. Freelancing often requires you to be a generalist writer, whereas salaried work, whether for a specific organization or within a single industry, lends itself to niche writing.
Personal Brand. Developing and publicizing your personal brand is crucial to niche success.
When your work is meaningful, you feel that your life matters and you have made a difference. To feel that way, you must have passion for what you do. Television’s “Dog Whisperer,” Cesar Millan, says he is changing the world one dog at a time. That’s passion.
But success takes more than passionate interest.
In his bestselling book, Good to Great, Jim Collins says that passion alone will not produce great results. You have to put in time and effort to become among the best at what you do, plus it must make economic sense. When you start achieving the great results Collins talks about, you’ve arrived. You’re not only an expert in your field, but you also know how to make a good living at it.
Are you interested in politics and government? Or fitness and health? Financial planning and the stock market? Real estate and property management? Science? Relationships?
Early signs usually appear in your childhood or teen years. You have a strong interest in one thing or another, and one day you realize you know more about it than any of your friends.
With that said, it’s still possible to become a generalist writer whose passion remains a sideline rather than an absolute focus on a single niche. Let’s look at this possibility first.
Balance: Counterbalancing your career with a side hustle
Take writer Wesley Hyatt. As of today, Hyatt is a content writer and editor at IBM. Because I worked side by side with him for many years at a PR firm in North Carolina, I know firsthand that he has done a great deal of generalist writing throughout his career, including some freelance work.
At the same time, Hyatt has enjoyed huge success in complementing a generalist career with his specialized focus as a TV historian.
Even as a teen, Hyatt says he showed a propensity for remembering odd bits of information regarding the television industry. He became an expert after years of learning, studying, and research. Hyatt spent untold hours watching old television shows, and that knowledge paid off for him.
After graduating from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with a bachelor’s degree in Communications and English, Hyatt served as editor for weekly newspapers in Hillsborough and Jamestown. While doing research for a story, he noticed that no definitive book on daytime TV had ever been published, and he decided to write the first.
Hyatt sent out three query letters to potential publishers, and all three responded positively. He chose his first publisher when the editor asked insightful questions and offered to expand the book's scope to include photos.
Hyatt had found his niche! To research the book, he relied on Shokus Video, a leader in supplying classic 1950s TV shows to the home video market. Watching old television shows for hours became a part of Hyatt’s daily routine.
His first book, The Encyclopedia of Daytime Television, came out in October 1997 and covered multiple genres — everything from game shows, soap operas, sports, and cartoons to kids’ shows. The book proved popular with libraries. Hyatt did most of his publicity himself, garnering an article in the Chapel Hill Herald and good reviews from the Library Journal and American Reference Books Annual (ARBA).
Today Hyatt’s latest book is I'd Like to Buy a Vowel: Spinning 50 Years of Wheel of Fortune (2024). Others include Betty White on TV: From Video Vanguard to Golden Girl (2020), Bob Hope on TV: Thanks for the Video Memories (2017), and The Carol Burnett Show Companion (2016).
Hyatt speaks to groups and makes appearances at bookstores to promote his books. He does all this while continuing to maintain his generalist career as a salaried writer and editor for different organizations.
Like Hyatt, I spent years working as a generalist, but eventually I was able to jump whole hog into my chosen focus of medical/healthcare writing. I’ve never regretted it.
Knowledge: Key to breaking into and succeeding at niche writing
Succeeding in a niche may require specialized training and education. Medical/healthcare writing is a good example. If you have an interest in this niche, go take a look at the American Medical Writers Association website.
I had a master’s degree in English from the University of Northern Colorado, but to enter the field of medical/healthcare writing, I knew I needed to learn medical terminology and medical transcription. So I obtained certification in 2005 from Arapahoe Community College, in Denver, Colorado, in the Career Step Medical Transcription Course.
That certification helped me take a second step toward my medical writing career: real-life experience in a clerical position in the Intermediate Care Unit (ICU) of University of Colorado Hospital in Denver. I transcribed physicians' patient care orders, maintained medical records charts, and interacted with doctors, nurses, social workers, technicians, patients, and their families. I also learned McKesson software, which was used to admit, discharge, and transfer patients, including ordering their diets, consults, labs, and procedures.
Software experience and training can help you succeed as a technical writer. It’s no secret that Software as a Service (SaaS) companies are constantly on the lookout for writers. In fact, technical writing of any kind may require specialized experience and/or a related degree, but that goes for other industries as well. For instance, a business or economics degree, or a CPA background, would boost your chances of success in the finance and cryptocurrency niche.
My background in medical and healthcare writing enabled me to specialize in this field from 2005 to 2015. The clients I served included insurance agencies, physicians, dentists, a specialty pharmacy, two different science institutes, and pharmaceutical and medical device companies.
The types of writing I did for these medical/healthcare clients included press releases, case studies, website content, bios, video scripts, white papers, nominations for awards, marketing materials, and ghostwritten articles.
Ghostwriting in particular was challenging, as I often failed to comprehend what my highly educated subject matter experts (SMEs) were talking about — especially if I had only one brief opportunity to interview them.
Because my clients were physicians, scientists, and researchers, they spoke a jargon understandable only within their particular fields. Many times, clients barely had time to grant me a 10-minute phone interview. My solution was to record interviews and transcribe them word for word, then use the transcription to write the article and submit it to the client for review and approval. My medical transcription training thus proved invaluable.
It was a fascinating career. My favorite type of writing was white papers, which are documents that inform and educate readers about a topic, propose a solution to a problem, and often promote a product.
During the last years of my career (I’m semi-retired), I wrote many white papers for Medco Forum, a medical newsletter headquartered in Evergreen, Colorado. Medco Forum provides healthcare professionals with an exclusive preview of the latest innovations in their medical field prior to their annual conference. My clients included Forest Laboratories, Olympus, Roche, Aptalis, and many others.
Specialization: Your niche may be a type of work or a specific industry
Your niche may end up being a type of work — white papers, for example — rather than a specific field or industry. Do you enjoy writing B2B case studies? Or marketing brochures? Focusing on your favorite written content may end up being your niche.
For example, my mentor, Patty, the owner of a PR firm where I worked, taught me how to write highly successful bios. These bios helped our clients, who were mostly C-level professionals, apply for and win prominent awards, since we used the bio to write the nominations.
Patty’s advice was to include in the bio what she called a “puppy-dog story.” She told me, “If our client volunteers at the homeless shelter or mentors young people, play that up in the bio. If the client has overcome great odds — maybe a physical handicap or cancer — be sure to use it to wrench people’s hearts.”
When our client won an award, we milked it for every last drop of publicity. We sent out a news release to local newspapers and relevant media in the client’s industry or profession. We reminded them to announce the fact on their website, saying, “You and your company are now ‘award-winning’ leaders in your industry.” People featured in the media are seen as trusted experts, and for that reason, potential clients, customers, or patients will seek them out.
That translates to a better bottom line. Your client will thank you and return to you again and again.
Bios are cogs in the marketing wheel. Other types of marketing materials that you can specialize in writing include brochures, mailing campaigns, online funnel pages, fliers, social media posts, video scripts, and entire websites.
Marketing objectives fit hand-in-glove with public relations (PR), a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics. PR firms, nonprofits, and corporations with PR departments hire writers to create all sorts of different written content. Consider joining a PR team if you’re drawn to working for a single company rather than freelancing on your own.
That brings us to the all-important decision between freelance and salaried positions that you must make for yourself. That choice can be critical and life-changing, but it doesn’t have to be permanent.
Freelancer vs. Employee: Deciding whether to freelance or accept a salaried position at a single organization
Freelance writing often demands a generalist approach, where you find yourself scrambling to find work — any work — and living month-to-month on a fluctuating income. Yet many writers enjoy the challenge, variety, and freedom of freelancing. Is that you?
On the other hand, a salaried position within a specific organization, whether in business, government, or a nonprofit area, lends itself more naturally to niche writing. So does wrapping yourself within the comforting blanket of a specific field or industry.
If the work itself ever grows stultifying, you can always search for and obtain a position in another organization within the same vertical field or industry.
Your decision whether to be a freelancer or employee comes down to knowing yourself and what you prefer as a writer, which is sometimes difficult to do without first getting a few years of experience under your belt. Reading an article like this one helps you to consider your options, but it’s no substitute for actual know-how, the world’s best teacher.
Feel free to explore your options, especially in the early stages of your writing career. Don’t box yourself in. Keep an open mind, and be ready to take advantage of any opportunity that presents itself.
Personal brand: How to discover and develop your own writing niche
You’ve heard the saying, “Write about what you know.” Your niche should be either a field you’re knowledgeable about — or one you are willing to learn about on a continuous basis. That means knowing your niche’s target market or audience, as well as its products, services, fundamentals, and inner workings.
It also means rubbing shoulders with professionals in your chosen niche. If your niche is writing about relationships, you’d better enjoy interviewing counselors and therapists. If you specialize in real estate, getting to know Realtors, mortgage lenders, developers, property managers, and even contractors goes a long way.
One freelance niche writer on Medium, Areeba Seher, explains why developing her personal brand was not difficult. She established her authority in her field by:
publishing her field-related work on LinkedIn
posting her articles on her blogging site and Medium
following Search Engine Optimization (SEO) practices
She acquired many more clients as a result.
Personal branding is essential when it comes to establishing yourself in a niche. Making a good living as a writer depends on it. Can you verbalize your personal brand? Aim for being able to tell people who you are, what you do, why you’re unique, and how you create value and benefits for your target client, industry, or employer.
Find ways to let people know how you can benefit them. A personal brand represents a promise, and delivering on your brand promise builds trust with your clients. A brand promise answers a potential customer’s question, “What’s in it for me?”
When I worked as a ghostwriter, my 30-second commercial or elevator speech was, “I can get you published without your having to write a single word.”
Personal branding creates expectations in others about what they will get when they work with you. “Will it help me increase sales? Connect with a powerful network? Excel at my job?”
My mentor Patty said the biggest secret to outstanding success in business — the idea most people don’t get, because it runs contrary to just about everything they’ve ever been taught or heard or read — is that it’s not about you.
It’s all about helping others.
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Excellent and thought-provoking. No matter how much new technology we have, it’s still all about serving others and making connections. And we writers must appreciate—as Gloria points out—that unless we have other reasons to write (and there are plenty of good ones), our work is a business and should be treated as such.