Peter BowermanCame across a blog post on 30-Day Books recently that excitedly shared the news of a contest awarding a free book-cover design to a few lucky self-published authors. Of course, we’re talking about crowdsourcing here… Just to get us all on the same page, crowdsourcing is the practice of throwing out a job to a … Read more
I recently heard from an old commercial writing client for whom I hadn’t worked in probably five or six years. She had a small copywriting project, along with a vague “and we’ve got a few other things cooking we might need your help with.” Always a nice treat when old clients surface, but there’s always … Read more
I don’t quite remember when I stumbled upon commercial writing as a viable freelance profession, but as soon as I did I was sold. My background was in event marketing and sales, which I enjoyed but wasn’t necessarily passionate about. I have always loved writing and I knew I wanted to do something using my … Read more
Came across a great interview on LinkedIn lately, from three-decade journalist Porter Anderson about trends in publishing. I was cheering out loud when I got to this section: The advent of the Internet has made almost everybody who can crawl over to the National Kitchen Table and hoist a Bic pen feel that he or … Read more
I landed a new commercial writing client some time back – a graphic designer a few states away who’d found me via the web. His freelance copywriter had walked out the prior week and he was stuck with some looming deadlines – one just 24 hours away. When I gave him a quote (with a … Read more
Came across a great interview with well-known blogger, author, serial-entrepreneur, marketer and Tribal Author founder, Jonathan Fields. Here’s the part that got me nodding: Newsflash: the moment you seek someone else to exchange value for the things you create, what they think matters. You may not like that. You may not want it. But that … Read more
I went fulltime with my commercial writing business about three years ago. A scary move, as so many of you know, but within about six months, I was starting to build momentum. I was landing copywriting projects on a fairly regular basis, and some referrals were starting to come my way. Then in late 2010, … Read more
I got an email from a recent Well-Fed Group Coaching participant that made me smile for a few reasons. She wrote: This is all becoming less and less theoretical and more real. Which is eerie. It seems I’m beginning to live in your make-believe world! Too funny. I swear, it’s as if, until people experience … Read more
I weighed in on a publishing forum post a few weeks back. One commenter said: I know of an author whose book launches this summer with one of the top publishers, top editors in the industry. The book is truly phenomenal. The publisher is even putting money behind a tour (sounds antiquated). But the author … Read more
Call it “inadvertent self-promotion”… Men With Pens recently ran a guest post about dating rules you can apply to client prospecting. Considering I’ve inadvertently won over a commercial writing client while on a first date, I found the post pretty funny. This has actually happened to me not once, but twice. Dating your clients? To … Read more