(The original version of this article—adapted and augmented here—was published in the IBPA Independent in November 2011) I attended college at the University of Virginia, one of a relatively small group of schools (including all the military academies) with an honor code, and one of the very few whose code is totally student-administered. The terms … Read more
I got an email from a commercial writer recently voicing a common concern: The one sticking point I keep running into is not knowing how many hours a project will take me to complete (and the obvious quoting struggle related to that). Do you know any resources where I can find that information? By trolling … Read more
If you listen to the news media, we’re living in “tough economic times” right now. But, if you keep listening to the same outlets, when aren’t we (according to them)? You however, and of course your writing business, don’t have to suffer through the “tough times” the media prescribes. In fact, you should completely ignore … Read more
Came 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