A Day in the Life of: Amy Suto from Make Writing Your Job
What it *actually* looks like to design a freelance writing life that supports you.
Welcome to “A Day in the Life,” a series where I invite fellow Substack creators to walk us through a cozy day in their world. From slow mornings and creative rituals to the unassuming habits that bring comfort and inspiration — these glimpses are a celebration of everyday rhythm, presence, and the beauty of life lived intentionally.
I wouldn’t call my approach “slow living” — unless you count the time I spent studying yoga in Kyoto before jumping into a whirlwind last-minute trip to Taiwan and Singapore as a form of stillness.
For the past five years, I’ve been a full-time digital nomad and six-figure memoir ghostwriter, helping fascinating people tell their stories while hopping between cities like Copenhagen, Paris, and rural Tuscany, where the Wi-Fi was questionable but the pasta was not.
It’s been a little chaotic at times. (Okay, maybe a lot chaotic.)
But here’s the thing: I used to thrive in unstructured chaos. Back in my Los Angeles days, I’d go clubbing all night and show up hungover to yoga teacher training the next morning — wearing sunglasses indoors, sipping green juice, pretending I had it all together. Spoiler: I didn’t. That lifestyle wasn’t sustainable, especially after I was diagnosed with an autoimmune condition. Doctors said I’d be on medication for life. I said, “Watch me” and then did a full system reboot worthy of an HBO miniseries.
Putting my illness into remission forced a full-life reboot. That meant less burnout, fewer bad habits, and a much healthier obsession with Notion spreadsheets and color-coded calendar apps. I stopped letting chaos be the default and started designing a life that actually works — one that supports my creativity, career, and health all at once.
That’s the real ethos behind ✍️ Make Writing Your Job, my Substack for freelance writers and ghostwriters. It’s not about slowness — it’s about sustainability. It’s about building a life where you don’t have to trade health for hustle, or creativity for client work you hate. I share high-paying writing jobs, teach live classes on building your portfolio and landing freelance writing clients, and run a 24/7 paid chat where opportunities get posted faster than I can refresh LinkedIn thanks to our awesome team.
The Substack started as a way to help writers make money and gain freedom. It’s now a Substack bestseller and a growing community — powered by a team of editors and curators I’ve hired to help scour the internet for job leads and resources. I built my writing career on precision, intuition, and strategy, and now I’m paying it forward.
So no, I don’t live in a slow cottagecore dreamscape — but I do believe in building a system that prioritizes the life you say you want. Because if you don’t design your days, burnout will do it for you. And if you’re not careful, you’ll wake up one day stuck in a corporate job you hate instead of writing your way into the life you actually want.
What does a cozy day in your life look like?
These days, I’m based in San Francisco, working from a light-filled home where the bay windows in my office overlook the Sutro Tower and rolling hills. The morning sunlight spills across my desk like melted gold — it’s hard not to feel inspired when your workspace looks like a painting.
On Wednesdays, I wake up around 7:45am and slip into my Pilates clothes to catch an early class just down the street. After class, I pick up breakfast burritos for me and my partner Kyle — a little ritual that makes the morning feel complete.
By 10am I’m showered, dressed (in something writer-core like a button-down Buck Mason shirt or a dreamy cotton Doen skirt), and settling in for a few solid hours of deep work. Right now I’m revising my next book (out January 2026!) so my mornings are usually a blend of working on my book, handling client drafts, and answering emails.
At noon, I hop on a call with my book marketer to go over launch strategy, and then answer some emails my publicist has for me about positioning for the book. Then I take an afternoon walk — my favorite way to reset and shake loose new ideas — grab a bite to eat, and wrap the day with a few more writing sprints before dinner.
Tonight, I’m heading out to a concert (The Kooks and lovelytheband), because one of the perks of being a freelance writer and author is getting to say yes to joy midweek.
Every day is different — some involve travel to interview memoir clients, others are deep-focus writing days — but the throughline is simple: a few hours of meaningful work, movement, something green, something grounding, and time with the people I care about.
For writers just starting out, what’s one thing they can do today to move closer to making a living from their writing?
Start freelancing. Not when Mercury’s out of retrograde. Not after you finally redesign your website. Today.
Freelancing is the single best way to start getting paid to write — not in theory, not in five years, but now.
You don’t need a fancy website or a perfect portfolio. What you need is to start pitching. Apply to one writing job. Publish one post. Reach out to one potential client. Every small action moves you closer to the kind of writing life you actually want.
And underneath all of this? Mindset. That’s the engine. If you believe you’re only “aspiring,” you’ll stay stuck there. But if you believe you’re capable of learning on the job, charging more, and building something sustainable — then you’re already on your way.
Freelancing isn’t just about get paid good money to write (though that’s nice, too). It’s about learning how to talk about your work, how to negotiate, how to build your confidence in real time while sharpening your writing skills — all while getting paid. That’s why I recommend it over a day job: because every freelance hour compounds. You’re not just trading time for money — you’re investing in your career.
What do you wish more people knew about ghostwriting, especially those who are curious but unsure where to start?
That there’s no one-size-fits-all path. Also, ghostwriting isn’t just one thing. There are many kinds of book ghostwriting: business books, thought leadership, hybrid memoirs, and then, my personal favorite — full-length memoirs.
I specialize in memoir ghostwriting because I love the depth, the intimacy, and the creative challenge of helping someone tell the story of their life. It’s not just about writing a book. It’s about excavating meaning with someone, making sense of the chapters they’ve lived through, and shaping their memories into something powerful and cohesive.
It’s also taken me around the world — literally. I’ve been flown out by clients to places like Austria, Canada, Singapore, and Greece. It’s surreal and beautiful to be invited into someone’s life in that way. You get to know people you’d never otherwise meet, and you help them articulate something deeply personal and lasting. That’s a privilege.
But memoir ghostwriting isn’t for everyone. It requires empathy, emotional stamina, and a genuine curiosity about people. You have to love asking questions. You have to be able to sit with trauma, ambiguity, and nonlinear memories — and then translate all of that into a clear, compelling narrative. And if that doesn’t sound like your thing, that’s okay. Some ghostwriters thrive in more strategic genres like business books or guides, where the work is less personal and more tactical.
If you’re curious about starting in this field, ask yourself: what kinds of stories do I love to tell? Do I want to be in close collaboration with someone? Am I comfortable being invisible for this type of project — letting my client’s voice shine in this space instead of my own?
Then, start building the foundation. That means creating a strong portfolio, writing samples, a compelling pitch, and a clear service offering. If you don’t yet have client work to show, write your own essays, Substack posts, or book excerpts that demonstrate your narrative skill and emotional range. Clients aren’t just hiring a writer — they’re hiring someone who can understand them. So lead with your curiosity and your point of view.
At the end of the day, ghostwriting is a deeply human art form. The better you know yourself — and the more authentically you can show up — the better stories you’ll help bring into the world.
What advice do you have for freelance writers who are trying to land better clients that value their work and pay well?
Start with the fundamentals. I know — it’s not a flashy answer. But it’s the one that actually works.
Writers tend to think the secret to landing better clients is some advanced negotiation tactic or complicated sales funnel. And while those things can help, they only work if your foundation is solid. Most of the big jumps I’ve made in my career didn’t come from chasing the next shiny trick — they came from revisiting the basics and doing them better and with more ingenuity.
That means having a clean, compelling portfolio. Writing a bio or pitch that makes your value obvious. Putting together a sample that actually shows off your skill — not just tells someone you’re “detail-oriented” or “passionate about storytelling.” And yes, tightening up the email or message you send to clients so it actually connects.
It also means asking for more money. A lot of writers undervalue themselves simply because they’ve never practiced saying a higher number out loud. Or they assume clients won’t pay more — and never test that assumption. But better clients exist. You just have to meet them with a better pitch and a stronger presence.
Once your foundation is in place, then it’s about volume and experimentation. Put yourself out there more. Apply to writing jobs in new niches. Try a cold outreach campaign. Reposition your services. Treat your freelance business like a living system — something you can tweak, test, and tune over time.
If your freelance career isn’t running smoothly, don’t assume you need to blow it all up. Just pop the hood and see if it’s a busted pitch or an outdated portfolio — not everything requires a total engine rebuild. Sometimes all you need is a shift in how you talk about what you do.
Strong fundamentals, paired with consistent action and smart mindset shifts — that’s the formula. Everything else is just strategy.
You’ve built a thriving Substack community around paid writing gigs and freelance writing advice. What have you learned about turning a newsletter into a steady source of income?
People don’t pay for newsletters. They pay for value. Ideally, the kind of value only you can provide.
For me, that meant turning my inbox overflow — a steady stream of freelance writing jobs I didn’t have time to take — into a writing job board on Substack at ✍️ Make Writing Your Job. Clients were already reaching out to me asking, “Hey, know any great writers?” And I did. So I built a system where they could hire directly from my community. Win for them. Win for my readers. Win for my sanity.
From there, things snowballed. I hired a team of newsletter curators to help me update the job board 24/7 and send out twice-weekly roundups as well as drop fresh listings in the paid subscriber chat. Then I launched ClassStack, a monthly Zoom class series where I teach the strategies behind landing (and crushing) the kinds of writing jobs I post. And suddenly, that $8/month subscription turns into a full-service writing toolkit for people who want to make writing their job.
The math is wild. You pay $8 a month. You could land a $2,000 assignment from the job board (or more!). That’s a 25,000% ROI — something your savings account could never do for you.
But underneath all of this is the same rule I tell anyone who wants to monetize their newsletter: find your unique angle. Don’t just share what you know — share what only you can offer. And then build systems that make that value repeatable, reliable, and ridiculously worth it for your readers.
At the beginning of my journey, I set out to help writers make writing their job. Turns out, when you do that well enough, the income follows.
You’ve worked across so many writing formats: screenwriting, ghostwriting, novels. How do you decide what to say yes to creatively, and what to pass on?
I follow the heartbeat. If a project doesn’t make me buzz with excitement, it’s probably a no.
That’s my north star. I’ve learned over the years that when I say yes to something I should do, rather than something I want to do, the work suffers. Or I suffer. Or both. Creative projects demand energy — and if you’re not genuinely curious or passionate, that energy runs out fast.
I’ve written for TV, ghostwritten memoirs, published novels, and built a Substack community — not because I thought it would look good on a résumé, but because each format pulled me in during a different season of life. I’m not interested in sticking to one lane just because it’s easier to brand. I’d rather let my creative career expand to fit the full shape of who I am and what I care about.
That said, I also believe in focused curiosity. The book Essentialism by Greg McKeown has this great metaphor about going from being a lamp (diffused) to a laser (focused). That resonates with me on so many levels. There are seasons for experimentation — for dabbling, sampling, trying. But there are also seasons where you need to go all in on one or two things. That’s how real progress happens.
So I toggle between the two. I give myself space to explore, but when something lights me up, I commit fully. I pour my time, energy, and attention into it. And when you do that — when you say yes to what makes your soul sit up straighter — the results are almost always better. Freer. More joyful. More you.
Because at the end of the day, the best work doesn’t come from obligation. It comes from obsession. From that little inner whisper saying, “this one matters.” I’ve learned to listen to that voice — and trust that it always knows where we’re going next.
Find Amy here:
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Thanks for having me, Olivia! Appreciate the feature.
This is really solid advice. Thank you. 😊