True story:

Not too long ago I was approached by a marketer who had a product idea — just the idea mind you.

And he wanted to hire me to develop it… market it… sell it… and everything in-between.

The reason being — he didn’t have the time to do it himself.

My first thought was… now here’s a man after my own heart — lazy as the day is long, and dying to be rich and famous without lifting a finger.

Seriously, if I could take a pill to give me muscles like the Governator’s (in his prime)… play tennis like Federer… and attract women like Pitt — I’d order a life-time supply as fast as yesterday!

Anyway, I was up for the challenge… even though there are more than enough products like his already on the market (which is actually a good thing).

So… I cracked open my secret black book of sales and marketing pros and considered which “Mission Impossible Team” would be perfect to attack this beachhead.

Then, I sent the marketer my proposal… including my fee.

He was totally impressed. He told me I had brass balls (I think that was a compliment)… and then told me to get real.

He said he already had copywriters lined up to do it all for under $2,000 — flat fee, no percentage.

Yeah, right!

But, you know what… I bet he can find a copywriter to do it all for under $2,000 — and, boy, what a job he’ll do — he’ll even throw in the Brooklyn Bridge and shares of Enron at no extra charge!

Anyway, I checked back with him a few weeks later, and asked how the project was coming along… and… heh, heh… he still hadn’t hired a copywriter.

Moral of the story (sorta)… you can hire a copywriter to do practically anything for you… but if you’re not willing to pay the price for delegation, abdication and sloth — better to work together, following these simple “save money and make money” guidelines:

Ask Not What a Copywriter Can Do for You—Ask What You Can Do for Your Copywriter!

As Hemmingway said, writing is easy… all you’ve got to do is open a vein and bleed all over the page.

And yet, copywriters are actually more than just writers, they’re… ta dah!… Super Salesmen!

Copywriters aren’t hired to entertain, or dazzle the reader with unparalleled wordsmithing…

They’re hired to sell the client’s product (or generate a qualified lead).

And if they can’t do that — it doesn’t matter if they can write a poem like Frost, a play like Shakespeare, a thriller like King or a humor column like Barry (not me, the other Barry, Dave Barry).

But… if they can sell in print — does it matter if they employ broken English, fragmented sentences or any other type of grammatically dysfunctional construction, intentionally or not?

The only measure of a copywriter’s talent… is how much and how fast he can sell his client’s product!

But… since the product is not the copywriter’s brainchild… he neither conceived it, nurtured it in its embryonic stages, delivered it into actuality nor surrounded it with a supportive family… that’s never an easy thing to do (to sell to a stranger off the page and for maximum dollars, too!)

So he needs your help.

He needs research… background and market info, access to data and the ability to conduct interviews, etc. Indeed, there are tens of questions that need to be answered.

(For a comprehensive list of questions that always need to be answered, click here: Questions)

Now, as the baby’s parents, aka the marketer, you can leave the copywriter to discover all the answers on his own.

But first understand one thing — a copywriter typically makes a living by selling time — his time. And time equals writing, which equals money.

So if he has to spend time doing research — he ain’t writing, and therefore he ain’t making money.

So in light of that, copywriters will charge for research (it’s factored into your over-all cost — that’s why you’ll never get a separate bill).

And, depending on the complexity of the product and the intricacies of your targeted market — plus, the amount of research the copywriter must do on his own — research can be quite expensive (regardless of whether the copywriter does the research himself or hires someone to do it for him).

Now a good copywriter is fairly expensive to begin with. A-level copywriters can command a $25,000 advance plus 10% of gross sales, minus fulfillment costs.

So unless you’ve got a bottomless bank account… well… need I say more?

The other option, of course, is for you to provide the copywriter with the research he needs to get the job done (which is to quickly make you a whole bunch of money).

Now, most marketers obviously opt for this latter approach — but, unfortunately, in a very casual, hap-hazard fashion.

Don’t Short-Change Yourself by Short-Changing Your Copywriter

Too many marketers feel they’re doing a copywriter a favor by providing research.

They’ll give the copywriter… oh, about five minutes of their time.

They’ll send him an email with a bunch of URLs to investigate, a couple of sentences about their target market, and a couple of words about the benefits and features of the product (though most times they get the two confused).

And then they’ll end by saying that they’re always available to answer any further questions… just call.

Needless to say… this isn’t much help to a copywriter — and that’s why typical turnaround time for the completion of a copywriting project is often quoted in weeks if not months.

Experienced and successful marketers, on the other hand, those in tune with the rigors and demands of writing a money-pulling promotion — and who, quite frequently, wrote copy themselves — will send a FedEx box packed with collateral and emails filled with megs and megs of info and data.

After all, you can never send too much background research to a copywriter.

In fact, I would estimate that the success of any promotion is directly proportional (times ten) to the depth of research done on the product and the targeted market.

Furthermore… you should recognize that the ability to conduct research is a talent in and of itself — a talent which many copywriters do not possess.

So my advice is this: share the hours, if not years of information, wisdom and knowledge you acquired while growing your business and developing your product — however much effort it may require.

And if you do this… your copywriter will not hesitate — indeed, he’ll be empowered — to open a vein and pour his blood, sweat, and money-sucking talent on to the page for you — just to make you rich.

–Barry

by Philip Yaffe

When I am introduced at social gatherings, the host or hostess usually says: “Hi, I want you to meet Philip Yaffe. He is a professional writer.” I almost always get the same response: “Oh, really. What type of novels do you write?” In other words, people automatically associate the term “writer” with “literature”; as if fiction were the only type of writing. It isn’t. And for most ordinary people, such as myself, it is the least important, yet it always seems to take pride of place.

Scholastic snobbery has a lot to do with this.

Virtually every secondary school and many universities require students to take courses in literature. However, virtually no one who takes such courses will ever write a novel, a stage play, a film script; or any other form of fiction. On the other hand, few schools and universities require students to take courses in writing non-fiction. Yet virtually everyone needs these skills to produce reports, memos, letters, marketing plans, company newspapers, and all the other types of non-fiction texts essential for getting on in life.

Internet searches for quotations about writing almost invariable turn of the thoughts of novelists, poets, playwrights, etc., again as if fiction were the only category of writing of any consequence.

I made such a search in order to put together this article. At first I was disappointed by the lopsided results, but on further reflection they turned out to be quite fortuitous.

I normally make a strong distinction between “creative writing” (fiction) and “expository writing” (non-fiction). In fact, this difference is the foundation of a book I recently wrote on the subject, where I explained how and why they are truly very different genres. Nevertheless, when reviewing the quotations, it became apparent that the feelings and emotions of good writers in both genres are remarkably similar.

Thus, whether we are creative writers (the tiny minority of us) or expository writers (the vast majority us), we can all learn something from these renowned writing practitioners.

For convenience, I have tried to categorize their insightful quotations. However, creative writing and expository writing are both highly unified activities. Their fundamental features are so intimately interwoven that any attempt to separate them must necessarily fail. Nevertheless, pretending to disjoin them helps organize our thoughts. So with no apologies for any “mis-categorized” quotes, here is what these respected writers had to say.

1. The Essence of Good Writing

Inventor Thomas Edison once said: “Genius is 1 per cent inspiration and 99 per cent perspiration”. In other words, it’s hard work. The same is true of writing, both creative and expository. This is good news, because it means that even the least inspired of us can write well if we are just willing to expend the necessary energy.

Here are a few more quotations along the same line.

“A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.” – -Thomas Mann

“The secret of good writing is to say an old thing in a new way or to say a new thing in an old way.” – - Richard Harding Davis

“Good writing is clear thinking made visible.” – - Bill Wheeler

“Writers must constantly ask: what I am trying to say? Surprisingly often, they don’t know.” – - William Zinsser

“There are two kinds of writers in the world: bad writers and improving writers.” – - William Blundell

“Every writer I know has trouble writing.” – - Joseph Heller

“Good writing is hard work” – - Snoopy (Charles Schulz)

2. Writing as Discovery

“I know very dimly when I start what’s going to happen. I just have a very general idea, and then the thing develops as I write.” – - Aldous Huxley

“There are thousands of thoughts lying within a man that he does not know till he takes up the pen and writes.” – - William Makepeace Thackeray

“The act of writing is the act of discovering what you believe.” – - David Hare

“Writing became such a process of discovery that I couldn’t wait to get to work in the morning. I wanted to know what I was going to say.” – - Sharon O’Brien

“I never know what I think about something until I read what I’ve written on it.” – - William Faulkner

In other words, if you believe you have nothing to say, pick a topic and start writing. You may surprise yourself.

3. The Objectives of Good Writing

“We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out – - Ray Bradbury

“I write because I’m afraid to say some things out loud” – - Anonymous.

“The skill of writing is to create a context in which other people can think.” – - Edwin Schlossberg

“When I sit down at my writing desk, time seems to vanish. I think it’s a wonderful way to spend one’s life” – - Erica Jong

4. The Techniques of Good Writing

“The faster I write, the better my output. If I’m going slow, I’m in trouble. It means I’m pushing the words instead of being pulled by them.” – - Raymond Chandler

“Work extra hard on the beginning of your story, so it snares reader’s instantly. And know how you’re going to end your story before you start writing. Without a sense of direction, you can get lost in the middle.” – - Joan Lowery Nixon

“Detail makes the difference between boring and terrific writing. It’s the difference between a pencil sketch and a lush oil painting. As a writer, words are your paint. Use all the colors.” – - Rhys Alexander

“What I like in a good author is not what he says, but what he whispers”. – - Logan Pearsall Smith.

“Cut out all those exclamation marks. An exclamation mark is like laughing at your own jokes.” – - F. Scott Fitzgerald

“Nothing is so simple that it cannot be misunderstood – - Jr. Teague

5. Writing & Rewriting

“I’m not a very good writer, but I’m an excellent rewriter.” – - James Michener

“Having imagination, it takes you an hour to write a paragraph that, if you were unimaginative, would take you only a minute. Or you might not write the paragraph at all.” – - Franklin P. Adams

“Write your first draft with your heart. Re-write with your head.” – - Anonymous

“The time to begin writing an article is when you have finished it to your satisfaction. By that time you begin to clearly and logically perceive what it is you really want to say.” – - Mark Twain

“I have made this [letter] longer, because I have not had the time to make it shorter” – - Blaise Pascal

“I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” – - Mark Twain

In other words, the first draft is almost always too long and poorly structured. To be clear and concise requires at least a second draft, and often more. Or put more succinctly:

“The first draft of anything is sh*t.” – - Ernest Hemingway

6. Clarity & Conciseness

“When something can be read without effort, great effort has gone into its writing.” – - Enrique Jardiel Poncela

“Easy reading is damn hard writing.” – - Nathaniel Hawthorne

“What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.” – - Samuel Johnson

“Resist the temptation to try to use dazzling style to conceal weakness of substance.”

- – Stanley Schmidt

“Don’t write merely to be understood. Write so that you cannot possibly be misunderstood.” – - Robert Louis Stevenson

“The writer does the greatest good who gives his reader the most knowledge and takes from him the least time.” – - Sydney Smith

7. Style & Words

“‘I love writing. I love the swirl and swing of words as they tangle with human emotions.’ – - James Michener

“A good style should show no signs of effort. What is written should seem a happy accident.” – - W. Somerset Maugham

“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what’s burning inside you. And we edit to let the fire show through the smoke. – - Arthur Polotnik

“Writers must rely more on the feel of a sentence than on the dictates of a rule book.” – - James J. Kilpatrick

“Like stones, words are laborious and unforgiving, and the fitting of them together, like the fitting of stones, demands great patience and strength of purpose and particular skill.” – - Edmund Morrison

“The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.” – - Mark Twain

8. Egoism Unbound

Few writers ever have the opportunity to quote themselves. I don’t know if anything I have ever said will be remembered a hundred years from now, or even a hundred minutes from now. But for what they are worth, here are few ideas I have encountered, developed, and believed in for over 40 years.

“Convoluted writing is easy, it takes little thought. Simple writing is difficult; it takes all the thinking you can muster – and then some.”

“Simple writing is a challenge whose rewards are boundless. Once a writer recognizes this, everything else falls into place.”

“Good writing – and by extension good speaking – depend on only a handful of fundamental principles. Once you have mastered these, all the tips and techniques for applying them become almost self-evident.”

“Clarity can be defined as a quasi-mathematical formula, which is also a recipe for effectively applying it. To be clear, you must do three things:

1. Emphasise what is of key importance.

2. De-emphasise what is of secondary importance.

3. Eliminate what is of no importance.

In short: CL = EDE”

“Conciseness can be defined as a quasi-mathematical formula, which is also a recipe for effectively applying it. To be concise, your text must be as:

1. Long as necessary, i.e. adequately cover all essential material

2. Short as possible, i.e. avoid all superfluous words, sentences and paragraphs

In short: CO = LS”

“Clarity and conciseness are two sides of the same coin. To be clear, you must be concise. Unnecessary verbiage obscures, so it must be eliminated. Likewise, to be concise, you must be clear. Only by knowing precisely what you want to say can you eliminate obscuring words, sentences and paragraphs.”

“Writing is like cooking. You assemble the ingredients and start mixing. When the lifeless liquid begins to stiffen and take shape, you know you are making a cake. For me, the feeling is really that physical.”

“Continually ask yourself: ‘Why the hell should anyone want to read what I am writing?’ If you can give at least three good reasons, stop writing and start thinking. Otherwise, you will be wasting everyone’s time – principally your own.”

“Aim for the lowest common denominator. Virtually no one will object that your text is too easy, but some may object that it is too hard. Focus on those who may not understand; they are your true audience. The others will not object.”

“The basic principles of good writing and speaking are few and easy to understand. Unfortunately, most books on the subject bury them under an avalanche of tips and techniques.”

Having just written a book myself, let me conclude with something I wish I had said, but in fact comes from someone else. “Inside every fat book there is a thin book struggling to get out” – - Anonymous

Amen.

Philip Yaffe is a former reporter/feature writer with The Wall Street Journal and a marketing communication consultant. He currently teaches a course in good writing and good speaking in Brussels, Belgium. His recently published book In the “I” of the Storm: the Simple Secrets of Writing & Speaking (Almost) like a Professional (84 pages) is available from Story Publishers in Ghent, Belgium (storypublishers.be) and Amazon (amazon.com).

For further information, contact:

Philip Yaffe

Brussels, Belgium

Tel: +32 (0)2 660 0405

Email: phil.yaffe@yahoo.com

One thing that every writer wants to know is how to earn more money from writing. This is because being a writer can be a fickle business sometimes and so you need to have as many sources of income as possible.

You also need to use your time wisely to be able to write as much as you can and be as productive as you can. You need to use the phrase “Don’t Get It Right, Get It Written” as often as possible to get you off the starting blocks and writing as much as you can, instead of trying edit your work and be as perfect as possible as you go along. It’s so much easier to just start writing and don’t stop till you’ve finished and THEN go back and edit your work later. Remember that writing and editing and two different jobs and should never be done together.

But what you really want to know is how to earn more money from writing. And below are 10 easy ways for you increase your writing income.

1. Write more. I know it sounds obvious that writers should be writing but you’d be surprised at how many people call themselves writers yet they hardly ever write. To improve your writing, get a book of an author you like (or a writer whose style you admire) and copy their work. Just sit and copy out their writing word-for-word. This will give you a really good understanding of their writing style and how you can incorporate it into your own writing.

2. Read more. Successful writers are avid readers as well as being prolific writers. Reading improves you knowledge, exposes you to different writing styles, and can also help you to come up with great ideas for your own writing.

3. Find more freelance markets. If you want to make more money you need to sell more writing. So spend a bit of time every week surfing online and browsing through magazines looking for new writing markets. You can also sign up for regular writers ezines that contain current writing markets. Always be on the look out for new writing opportunities.

4. Submit more queries. Once you’ve found new markets you then need to make sure that you do actually get your writing published. So make a definite decision to send out at least 5 queries or short stories to different writing markets every week. And then make sure you do it, even if you have to get up early or stay up late.

5. Try different writing projects. Instead of sticking to the same kind of things you write, try branching out into something new. For instance, if you mostly write articles for women’s magazines, trying writing jokes, verse, puzzles or children’s stories and find new places to submit them.

6. Write and publish eBooks. EBooks are a great way to earn a passive income. You can write an eBook in as little as 24 hours and publish it online in only a few minutes. And because there’s no cost involved in selling eBooks you can write as many as you want for as long as you want.

7. Write and publish books. There’s nothing more wonderful for a writer than to feel the first copy of your book in your own hands. It’s so easy now to publish your own books that there’s nothing to stop you from becoming a prolific author and publish several books a year.

8. Learn new writing. There may be areas of writing that you don’t feel proficient in. Maybe you’ve never really tried writing fiction, or, like me, you want to learn copywriting or SEO writing. Choose a area of writing that you’ve never tried before but would like to learn, and then learn to do it.

9. Invest in your writing. Don’t be afraid to spend money to further your writing career. Splash out on some really fancy notebooks and expensive pens or treat yourself to a new computer. Or how about taking a seminar or a writing course or maybe there’s a book about writing that you’ve been thinking about buying. Just open your wallet and buy whatever it takes to help you write more and earn more.

10. Write more. Now you probably notice that this is the same advice in step number one. But it is so important that it needs mentioning more than once. To be a great writer you need to be great at writing and the more you write, the more natural writing will be for you and so the better a writer you’ll become. As you write more and more your words will flow onto the paper (or computer monitor) more easily and so your writing will sound more natural. Never stop writing.

The bottom line is that writers write. They always write. When a writer is not writing, they are thinking about writing. And when they’re not writing nor thinking about writing, they are reading about writing. So if you want to be a writer, be the very best you can and start writing now.