Friday, September 23, 2005
Less competition than I thought
I've got good news for copywriters seeking work
with major mailers.
It's not as bad as we thought.
I've been listening to the AWAI call that was held
on July 20. I could not listen to the live call,
and for some reason had never downloaded or
listened to the MP3 file. But I did just get the
CD-ROM, and now I'm glad I did.
It was hosted by Denise Ford and Robert Bly, for
AWAI. It had 4 guests -- Jenny Thompson of Agora
Health Publishing, which has just been changed to a
name I forget exactly, Lisa Bruenette of Early to
Rise, Kevin and Marcella of Schaeffers Research,
which is most well known for publishing Bernard
Schaeffer's Options Hotline, but also has a number
of other products and services.
One of the questions asked the panel was how many
queries they got from copywriters in a week.
This is what surprised me. See, my original writing
background is in fiction, especially the science
fiction field. Magazine editors get a large
number of story manuscripts every single day. Book
editors don't get quite as many full length novel
manuscripts, but they get more than enough to keep
them busy, plus they get shorter query letters and
sample chapters.
Any major fiction outlet must employer "first readers"
to screen out the dreck -- which is 95% of all submissions.
That's why you sometimes read that your "chances"
of a story or novel being published are 1000 to 1 or w
hatever statistic they're given by some overworked editor.
(In reality, that's very misleading. It's NOT a lottery.
Story editors don't choose stories by random chance.
The 95% that are dreck -- and I have seen some slush
pile stories. By dreck, I mean absolutely abysmal! --
have absolutely ZERO chance of being published. About
4% are so-so. They're basically competent, but just
exciting enough to break through. The 1% that are really
good have a fighting chance.)
I'm sure that the basic concept applies to copywriting
queries. More than we would think make basic mistakes.
Some were listed by the panel through the call. Spelling
errors. Not understanding the client's business.
(Jenny complained that some people thought going to an
acupuncturest qualified them for writing for her health
publications. Kevin and Marcella said some copywriters
asked basic options questions which indicated they hadn't
done their research and weren't ready to tackle a real
financial copywriting project.)
Then some fewer copywriters don't make mistakes but don't
shine either.
And a very few DO breakthrough.
And Kevin and Marcella said they got around 5 queries a
week from copywriters during normal periods. (They get
more after such calls and after AWAI's bootcamp).
Only 5? That's about 1 a day. Write a great query letter
showing you're good, you're competent, you understand
their business and you have a good shot.
Copywriting self-marketing
with major mailers.
It's not as bad as we thought.
I've been listening to the AWAI call that was held
on July 20. I could not listen to the live call,
and for some reason had never downloaded or
listened to the MP3 file. But I did just get the
CD-ROM, and now I'm glad I did.
It was hosted by Denise Ford and Robert Bly, for
AWAI. It had 4 guests -- Jenny Thompson of Agora
Health Publishing, which has just been changed to a
name I forget exactly, Lisa Bruenette of Early to
Rise, Kevin and Marcella of Schaeffers Research,
which is most well known for publishing Bernard
Schaeffer's Options Hotline, but also has a number
of other products and services.
One of the questions asked the panel was how many
queries they got from copywriters in a week.
This is what surprised me. See, my original writing
background is in fiction, especially the science
fiction field. Magazine editors get a large
number of story manuscripts every single day. Book
editors don't get quite as many full length novel
manuscripts, but they get more than enough to keep
them busy, plus they get shorter query letters and
sample chapters.
Any major fiction outlet must employer "first readers"
to screen out the dreck -- which is 95% of all submissions.
That's why you sometimes read that your "chances"
of a story or novel being published are 1000 to 1 or w
hatever statistic they're given by some overworked editor.
(In reality, that's very misleading. It's NOT a lottery.
Story editors don't choose stories by random chance.
The 95% that are dreck -- and I have seen some slush
pile stories. By dreck, I mean absolutely abysmal! --
have absolutely ZERO chance of being published. About
4% are so-so. They're basically competent, but just
exciting enough to break through. The 1% that are really
good have a fighting chance.)
I'm sure that the basic concept applies to copywriting
queries. More than we would think make basic mistakes.
Some were listed by the panel through the call. Spelling
errors. Not understanding the client's business.
(Jenny complained that some people thought going to an
acupuncturest qualified them for writing for her health
publications. Kevin and Marcella said some copywriters
asked basic options questions which indicated they hadn't
done their research and weren't ready to tackle a real
financial copywriting project.)
Then some fewer copywriters don't make mistakes but don't
shine either.
And a very few DO breakthrough.
And Kevin and Marcella said they got around 5 queries a
week from copywriters during normal periods. (They get
more after such calls and after AWAI's bootcamp).
Only 5? That's about 1 a day. Write a great query letter
showing you're good, you're competent, you understand
their business and you have a good shot.
Copywriting self-marketing
