Category: Copywriting

Why no one is reading your work

  By ,
image by Proxy Indian

image by Proxy Indian

I was terrified. I was ecstatic. Sending my novel – my brainchild – out into the world for the first time. By “the world” I mean, to a few of my closest friends. My brother and best friend finished within a week. Probably due in part to a feeling of obligation. “It’s great!” they said, “Wouldn’t change a thing.”

Months went by. I checked in with my other best friend, who hadn’t gotten past chapter seven. “I’ve been busy,” she said. “That’s fine,” I said lightly, but felt hurt.

Years later, she (and the few others I sent that draft to) still haven’t finished reading it.

Oh, I was hurt for awhile. Angry. I distinctly remember telling some of them off in a forum message about eight months after that draft went out.

See, I had poured my soul out into that book. My soul. And my soul wasn’t interesting enough to even tempt the attention of my closest friends? I told myself the writing wasn’t the problem – after all, no one could tell me a thing that needed changing, aside from a typo or two. No, my friends just didn’t understand how important this was to me.

Awhile later, I realized chapter seven was possibly the worst combination of English words ever typed on paper, and I began a complete overhaul of the novel (one of countless overhauls). It occurred to me that the people close to me are naturally going to look at my book differently from one they’d pick up at Barnes & Noble – they’re not going to notice much wrong with it, specifically. But if they can’t finish it – that’s a sign it ain’t too good.

I started to realize that the problem was the writing, not my friends.

But I didn’t fully realize what that meant until a few years later, after I had been in marketing for awhile. You see, if an advertisement doesn’t get any attention, nobody blames the audience. It’s not a shortcoming of the product advertised, either – it’s a shortcoming of whoever created the ad.

If people aren’t reading your stuff, it’s not because your soul is boring.

It’s because your writing is boring.

There, I said it. Don’t get offended; I’m in the same boat.

It doesn’t mean we have to get depressed and self-deprecating. It just means we have to get better.

See, I discovered something copywriters use, that few aspiring novelist even think about.

Strategy.

An example: What do most novelists think about? Grammar. Punctuation. Plot. Character development. Poetic descriptions.

Copywriters, on the other hand, are asking: Who is the target audience? What part of my message will resonate with them on the deepest emotional level? What’s the quickest way I can convey that message? How can I grab their attention and keep their attention? How can I make them feel a certain way? How can I make them take action?

Funny how a lot of those questions could be applied to a novel, huh?

Oh, we’re told a lot of the same things copywriters are told. Show, don’t tell. Create relatable characters. Keep the action moving. But if you’re like me – if you’re experiencing the same kind of thing I described at the beginning of this post – you’re just not getting it. Not really.

So I propose this: we step back and look at our work from a different perspective. From a marketing perspective. In the next few weeks, I’ll share some of the things I’ve learned, some of the things I’m implementing in my own novel right now – all while digging deeper into how basic marketing principles can be applied to fiction. We’ll learn together.

You see, I want to write a novel that no one can put down.

Who’s with me?

—

UPDATE: READ THE WHOLE SERIES

Attention

Interest

Desire

Action

What it’s like to be a copywriter

  By

It was St. Patrick's Day. I don't wear that hat all the time. I swear.

 

Considering a job as a professional copywriter? Here’s a quick rundown of the day to day pros and cons.

There’s plenty of variety. Any given day, I might be working on billboard headlines, radio scripts or website copy. I might be writing about whiskey, fecal incontinence, or the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Good job for an introvert. I have just the right balance of sitting in my office working alone in blessed peace, and collaborating, brainstorming, and joking around with my coworkers.

You need an organizational mind. Not that every slip of paper on your desk has to be alphabetized, but you have to be able to decipher a garbled mess of notes, identify main points, and rework it until it not only makes sense, but it’s easy and fun to read. And you have to enjoy it. For hours on end.

You have to work under deadlines. This scared me at first, but I soon discovered it isn’t so bad. You get in the habit of writing for long periods of time. You discover new ways to tap into your creativity. And it sparks your imagination like crazy. I had to get an Evernote just to keep track of all the ideas that come to me randomly throughout the day.

Burnout does happen. I was afraid writing copy full time might mean I’d be too burned out on the weekends to work on my novel. It happens sometimes – last week, by Saturday, just thinking about writing made me kind of sick. But most weeks I can start writing around two on Saturday afternoon and work into the evening (with a few breaks). I take Sundays off.

You’ve got to have thick skin. People are going to ask you to change your work. But it’s a lot easier to distance yourself emotionally from copy than from, say, your novel. I mean, you’re passionate about the copy you write (otherwise you’re doing it wrong), but it’s not your soul on paper (like your novel is).

Your writing improves. Fast. Practice makes perfect, after all.

You’re not allowed to lie. Forget the stigma that all advertising professionals are spin doctors. We tread carefully with every word we write. We don’t make any claims we can’t back up with solid evidence. Even if I know my client makes the best cowboy boots, I can’t say so, because it hasn’t been scientifically proven. Sure, we make our clients sound as awesome as possible, but we’re only telling the truth.

You learn something new every day. I know more than the average Joe about a dozen different subjects, including rodeo clowns (those guys are freaking awesome), banking legislation (you lost your free checking because of restrictions on overdraft protection), and where to get heavily discounted home improvement materials while helping struggling families become homeowners (Habitat for Humanity’s “ReStores”)!

You can believe in your clients. Maybe I’m just lucky to work at an agency that pursues the best clients, but the more I learn about my clients, the more I believe in them, and the more excited I get about telling their stories and showing the world how great they are.

You get to tell people you’re a writer. At a party, when somebody asks what you do for a living, you get to say “I’m a writer.” That never really gets old.

 —

Do you write for a living? What kind of work is it, and do you enjoy it?

—

How to put writing talent to work in the “real world”

  By ,

 Nobody writes their first novel and suddenly hits it big. Well, almost nobody. Most of us need some way to pay for peanut butter and Spaghetti-O’s while we’re shopping for literary agents. 

The good news? All this novel-writing experience can be used towards something other than novel-writing.

Continue reading