I did not make up the annual income figure in the headline.

That is the mean annual salary earned by technical communicators across the United States in 2005 according to the 2005 Technical Communicator Salary Survey conducted by Society for Technical Communication of which I'm a proud Senior Member.

The lowest paid entry-level tech writers made $40,730 and those writers in the supervisory senior-levels made as much as $111,100 in 2005.

Not bad considering the image of a starving artist that the word writer conjures up in popular imagination -- and sometimes with good reason as well.

Just because you like writing does not mean you need to live a life of want and destitute.

If you are sick and tired of not making the ends meet as a writer you owe it to yourself to check out technical writing.

Not only the average tech writer made over $67K last year but those working within a corporate environment enjoyed a rich benefits package as well.

Just like the engineers and the managers they work with, most tech writers enjoy medical insurance for themselves and their families, paid leaves and vacations, 401K and sometimes even retirement plans, dental and vision coverage, reimbursement of college-credit classes, etc.

Keep in mind that the demand for technical writers is very strong across all industries and geographic regions in the United States and Canada.

Here is a short and random list of companies that regularly look for technical writers:

Software, hardware, networking companies, security access equipment manufacturers, medical manufacturers, hospitals, all government agencies, publishers and advertisement agencies, military installations and agencies, all Fortune 500 corporations, all non-profits, Internet and web companies, all international organizations like the United Nations or NATO, any company that manufactures anything, all real estate and mortgage companies, financial institutions and brokerage houses, etc. etc.

Why? Because every business or non-profit organization needs someone to explain to their clients and consumers in a plain language how to use the product or service they are providing.

We usually think installation guides and user manuals are a nuisance but think how frustrated we would be if the products we bought came without any manuals? Think about the expensive lawsuits that would be filed for lack of user manuals and the consequences that might follow.

Or, would you like to buy a software product that does not have a help file? Of course not. Technical writers write those help files as well.

Thats why, as long as people manufacture things and offer services, therell be technical writers explaining them to the consumers.

In cities and regions with vibrant economies like Seattle, Boston, Northern Virginia, Research Triangle in NC, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Miami, Houston, Austin, Dallas, New York, and Chicago there are always good jobs for technical writers. Just check any employment listing for these cities or at where you live and the chances are youll be convinced.

And you really do not need to be a creative genius to become a technical writer either.

Forget about plot, dialog, character, original concept, etc. Actually someone quipped if it aint boring then it aint tech writing. The truth is, technical writing is not about flowery descriptions, emotional rhetoric and linguistic pyrotechnics at all.

If you like explaining hard-to-understand processes and concepts in a plain language and with a consistent vocabulary, if you like simplifying complex processes and make them easily accessible, then youll enjoy technical writing while saying goodbye to your financial worries.

Its the kind of writing job that you can retire from with a secure nest egg, at an age when some of your writer friends who insisted on trying their luck with poems or screenplays might still be waiting tables.

There are two downsides (if one can call them that) that I can think of to tech writing:

1) Youll never get any bylines. So if you are counting on making your name a household item or win an Oscar, youll be very frustrated in tech writing. This is not a job for ego aggrandizement and flashy personality trips.

2) A great majority of technical writing jobs require you to be present on the premises due to the need for constant interaction with the engineers, managers and other corporate departments. A tech writer always writes as a part of a team, in close consultation with other project members. Thus there are almost no telecommuting technical writing assignments that you can perform from your home office.

Yet in this day and age of global outsourcing, the local character of tech writing also translates to relative job security. Many North American companies have seen their engineering positions exported overseas due to outsourcing but not the technical documentation positions. Not yet anyway.

Besides knowing how to write well, having a good command over MS Office Suite is usually a sufficient qualification to confidently apply for an entry-level technical writing position. You can learn the rest as you go along.

Depending on where you live and the local economic conditions, youd be surprised at the number of employers who would be willing to give a novice tech writer with no track record a head start in technical writing.

Writing is not starving. Ask any technical writer and he or she will probably wonder why the idea even occurred to you in the first place.

Ugur Akinci, Ph.D.
http://www.writer111.com