Getting Ink

If you don't blow your own trumpet, who will?

Just a short note to say how much I am LOVING the PR executive who's emailed me with a story idea this morning.

Her email address is "PR Superstar".

Fortunately, it was a cracking story, or the irony might just have been too much for me.

It's like, totally cool.

It used to be the only time I heard the word "awesome" was in the context of Biblical events or at Microsoft press conferences (Microsoft execs seem to have some kind of verbal tic that means everything is awesome. As in: "that new feature allowing you to save documents straight into HTML is totally awesome").

But in recent months I've had the word used in pitches from PRs a number of times, mostly to describe new enterprise technology deployments or research into corporate HR policy. These things aren't 'awesome'. Look up 'awesome' in the dictionary and I doubt you're going to see anything about 'reduced time to answer customer queries by 8%'.

I'm an English grad, so I accept I'm a bit of a word nerd. But you know what? Basic literacy shouldn't be too much to ask for. Yesterday, I got an email from a PR asking for some details about a project I'm working on.

"plz cud u send the synopsis thru agen - thanx!"

When did illiteracy become cool? Was I out of the office for that memo? What do you think I infer about your status as a communications professional when your email makes you sound like an eight year-old who has just been given her first ever mobile phone? And what's thanx? You've saved yourself from typing one whole letter there, missy, well done.

I thought it might be helpful for anyone emailing journalists to know the three top language quirks that are likely to make me think you're probably not that bright:

• Using text abbreviations in email. Please don't do it. Nobody ever got ridiculed for using full sentences and correct spelling. The same can't be said for people who use thx, l8r and u. Especially if they're over 23.
• Not knowing the basics of grammar. Don't use 'like' when you mean 'such as'. People like me will judge you. For the record, 'like' is a comparison, 'such as' is an example.
• Putting kisses at the end of emails. Ugh. I might overlook it if you work in beauty or fashion PR, but when your client is a management consultancy? It's just weird, bordering on upsetting.

How to Find Commercial Writing Work

One of the things new freelancers often ask at the moment is how to find commercial writing and copywriting clients?

It’s an understandable question. Copywriting tends to command higher rates than journalism, and even when newspapers are Kate-Moss skinny, there are still supplements, websites, brochures, marketing collateral and user manuals to be written.

My work would usually be around a 70/30 split between journalism and commercial writing or training work. In 2008, it was closer to 60/40 in favour of journalism, and I suspect 2009 might be the first year that I earn more from copywriting and training than from journalism. It’s a trend I’ve discussed before: it’s not necessarily that what I’m writing has changed, but the people paying the bills are different.

That said, commercial writing isn't easy and usually involves far more scrutiny and criticism of your work than other sorts of writing. You will have the hassle of dealing with multiple executives within a company, all of whom have their own ideas about what you should be producing. It’s not for everyone. One very experienced journalist I know took umbrage to his beautifully-crafted words being covered in digital red ink by a client and replied: “Who do you think you are? George Eliot???”  He doesn't do much copywriting these days, obviously.

If you still have the inclination, here’s how to find commercial writing clients:

1. Specialise. Nobody hires you as a commercial writer because you’re a fantastic, creative wordsmith. They hire you because you’re likely to know their product and their audience. When a construction employee benefits company wanted a bylined article written for a particular HR magazine, they approached me because – guess what – I write regularly for that magazine and have a good idea who the readers are and what they find interesting.  
2. Put yourself out there. Commercial clients aren’t necessarily commissioning editors. They don’t know you can find writers in the NUJ Freelance Directory or Gorkana. They’re more likely to rely on looking at writers’ websites, LinkedIn pages, blogs, Google search results. At the very least, build a website using a blog platform like Wordpress. Post excepts and links to your work with nice, SEO-friendly tags.
3. Find out who the big players are in your sector. Some work is commissioned directly by the client, but things like customer magazines or newspaper supplements tend to be commissioned by specialist publishers or agencies. If you write regularly on food and health, check out who publishes the customer magazines for supermarkets and health shops. You can pitch those editors in the same way as any other – I haven’t met an editor yet who wasn’t interested in hearing from great new writers.
4. Practice good karma. Perhaps half of my copywriting and commercial writing work has come through recommendations from colleagues. These are colleagues I recommend whenever I have the opportunity and I’m grateful whenever they point a client in my direction in return. If you can’t take on a commission, always try and recommend someone good who could. I promise, it will benefit you in the end. 
5. Start small. It takes time to build up to bidding successfully for big projects. But there may be a local business or charity that would welcome some help with their website copy – it might not pay much, but it helps you build your portfolio to show bigger clients.
6. Finally, if you want to continue as a journalist and be able to look at yourself in the eye, consider where you draw the line between commercial and editorial work. For me, I would never take on work I wouldn't feel happy telling a commission editor on a newspaper that I had done. This means I don't do commercial writing for or about anyone I write about as a journalist. Other hacks have different approaches, but it's good to think about what approach works for you, and stick to it.

The changing face of reporting

There are three really interesting posts on the future of journalism today that I wanted to share.

First, there's Charles Arthur of the Graun arguing that a reporter starting out today should learn programming if they want to get ahead. I'm a bit lost in some of the techie details, but I think fundamentally Charles' point is that with data being increasingly accessible, reporters who can code script to interrogate, manipulate and display that data will have an edge when researching stories.

Perhaps Charles is right - but, to be frank, I don't know that many people who have both traditional journalism skills (interviewing, writing, editing) alongside the more maths/analytic skills needed for coding and programming. Charles says he regularly uses script he's written to turn copy into house style before subbing. I don't. I use MS Word's rules feature and run a number of custom dictionaries for different clients. Perhaps that makes me a Luddite, but my argument is that technology often evolves to make the underlying process invisible to the user - and I wonder if something similar won't happen with data manipulation. Surely there's going to be a way to produce something like the BNP map using a higher level of abstraction (by which I mean saying "I want to know X" and the computer doing the hard work of selecting the right code to do that, rather than me laboriously writing code to perform the task)?

Next, there's Danny's fascinating post on a site that allows communities and individual Internet users to fund journalists' writing projects. So, for example, I might have an idea about a fabulous article, but I can't get it commissioned because my clients don't have any money or pages. I set a fee on Spot.Us, and users of the site can pledge cash to help me research and write the article. It's a great article, and I recommend you read it here.

Finally for today, I liked a Tweet from Kevin Allison of the FT (updates protected here) arguing that most citizen journalism is coverage, not journalism - Andrew Smith cites this as an example.

I'll buy anything if it's shiny and made by Apple...

This made me laugh a lot today - from The Onion, via Chris Norton.

Social Media in Action

I thought this post from Brendan about his God-awful experiences of moving his phone and broadband service (is anyone surprised?) was fantastic.

He stuffed the post with keywords and links and - hey presto - up pops one Alex Brown from Virgin Media in the comments offering to help out. Even better, Alex has also apparently contacted Brendan over Twitter offering to help address the problems.

Obviously, it's not a universal solution - and nor should it be. We shouldn't have to resort to search engine blackmail (which is what a whiny blog-post is, ultimately) to get decent customer service. Or just a service, frankly.

I'm sure it's an easy mistake to make...

I love a good f*ck up. Which is fortunate because, Lord knows, I make enough of them.

I remember when I was features editing on one paper, running a column written by one industry analyst and running a photo of a completely different person at the top of the page. Oops. I also remember that sinking feeling when I sent an email referring to a colleague as a "coke snorting lunatic" and accidentally sending it to a PR contact, not my housemate. (I'm still scrupulously nice about that PR's clients on the basis she didn't rat me out) 

But some mistakes are truly awe-inspiring. I heard this morning about a consumer magazine that went to print and forgot to print not one but TWO ads.

You don't need a degree in publishing to know that the pretty ads are what pay for the rest of the magazine. If you forget to print the ads, you've basically just spent a shedload of cash printing a lovely magazine - completely out of your own pocket.

Glad I'm not working in that office this week.

Subs ... who needs 'em?

If you work outside journalism, then you might not be familiar with the role of the sub-editor. They're basically the people on newspapers and websites who take raw copy produced by oiks like me and shape it into something readable, grammatically correct, non-litigious and the right length.

While I'm obviously a perfect writer, many (lesser) journalists have had their hides saved repeatedly by the involvement of a sub in their copy.

But all that means nothing to publishers when there's a chance to save some cash, hence the new-fangled idea at places like City AM that journalists should sub their own copy, or subbing can be outsourced to one of those countries where people might not be native British English speakers, but they're a darn sight cheaper. Or, in some cases, publications simply went insane and brought in computer programs that automate many subbing tasks.

Does it matter?

Well, check out these three typos taken from a single instance of one UK newspaper yesterday. Sloppy, and a decent sub could have edited these out in two minutes flat. Personally, I'd have thought typos would have damaged the brand and potentially mis-spelled words must also have an SEO impact - it's hard to find something if it's mis-spelled, right?

Because life's never simple.

Dear BT,

When I ask to move my business phone and broadband service to Virgin's ADSL service, it would be really great if you didn't actually cancel the phone line completely with no warning, and then cancel my direct debit. Also, next time you're cancelling direct debits as a special New Year surprise, it'd be smashing if you could let me know rather than sending scary letters from debt collection agency for non-payment of phone bill. But I am just loving the fact it's easier for me to order an entire new phone line from sales than get anyone in customer service to actually switch the old line back on.

Thanks,

 Love Sally x

I'm struggling to see the 'public interest' here...

Admittedly, I'm not a fan of the Daily Mail at the best of times, but this story in today's paper seems breathtakingly intrusive, even for a British tabloid newspaper.

Apparently, the paramedic who treated Jett Travolta has given an interview with revelations like "The film star broke down after his desperate battle to save his son's life failed" and in the ambulance, Jett's mother "was tenderly rubbing Jett's hand, and saying, 'Come on baby, come on Jett'. She was in tears throughout and the couple was praying."

On what level is "What John and Kelly said and did when their son died" news? Does anyone feel better for knowing what some stranger went through on what must be the worst day of their lives? Was anything they said or did any different to the sorts of things any parent would say in that situation?

It all seems a bit too much, and almost made me wish they'd written another of their ridiculous hateful rants about "sachs-gate".