by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
Jane Friedman had a great post on Writer Unboxed on Wednesday. She said that copywriting is the number one overlooked skill for authors.
In her post, Jane covers several different ways that copywriting is important to writers.
I loved her post because I’ve found exactly the same thing. There have been tons of times when copywriting skills have come in handy. Here are some places I’ve found copywriting useful:
Very short and sweet copy: Bookmarks, directories/catalogs, tiny bios for places like Twitter, Twitter headlines, etc. If you write enough Twitter headlines, you’ve mastered the art of headline writing. For bookmarks, you’ve really just got a few words to say something about your book. Twitter is 140 characters for a bio or tweet.
Long copy: Writing a long bio is one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to write. My life isn’t the most fascinating thing on paper. But it’s amazing how many times I’m asked for a long bio. Plus, we always have an “about me” page to fill on our website or blog. If you self-publish, you would need to come up with a product description for your book, too—not too long, but not too short, either.
Short ad-style copy: My editor sometimes asks me to read other books from Penguin authors and to blurb them if I like the books. If I’m writing copy that goes on a cover or inside the book, it’s got to be pithy and persuasive.
Titles: I’m always asked to submit title ideas for my books. My publishers rarely choose them (they have a whole department of professional copywriters), but I want to submit something to them that is worthy of being chosen. I did come up with Pretty is as Pretty Dies.
Epub Everything: In this new era of publishing, we’d better be ready to write all kinds of copy. For Progressive Dinner Deadly, I wrote all the copy for the book…product description, title, and any short ad copy related to the mystery.
Professional emails: Copywriting skills come in handy even with something that seems basic and mundane, like emails. But it’s good to be able to write an email that gets to the point quickly.
Writing copy is definitely different from writing our novels. I’ve found that it can be very satisfying, though (maybe because we’re using a different part of our brain? Or because it’s a challenge.)
What kinds of copy have you had to learn to write? Have you found that it comes easier with practice?
I find it easier to writer shorter vs longer which is not good if I’m trying to get a novel out of an idea. But, I do think I tend to use fewer words than not.
On my last job I did a lot of Technical Writing which was fun. And I’ve helped friends many times write a resume and letters for job apps. At my new job, I recently put together two brochures, one for attendance and one for our homeless population.
Teresa
Elizabeth – Learning to write copy is most definitely important. I’ve actually done some of that as I’ve written abstracts for papers I’ve presented, and bios to go with them, etc.. You’ve reminded me of the value of that skill in fiction writing, too – thanks :-).
Do you have any resources you have found to be helpful in learning to write (and write WELL) the different types of copy? Any books or websites? Because I struggle with this – I’m either too long-winded or too bland – and I would love to improve, but short of going back to my old college, and retaking one or two of my English classes that I zoned out it the first time around, I’m not sure of the best way to really learn it well. I know practice makes perfect, but unfortunately, practicing something the wrong way also makes a bad habit!
I read that post too! I try to put on the appropriate writing hat – the business letter writing hat, the press release hat, the ms writing hat (that one has feathers) as appropriate. As long as I don’t mix them up, I’m fine.
I suspect that Twitter will help writers practice writing that very very short copy — taglines and such.
I find that one way to develop the skill is to practice informally telling people about the book. We tend to summarize better when we have a specific audience in mind, and the fluid nature of conversation helps us be less worried about getting it perfect.
We’ve had to know how to do this for pitches/queries but in the future it’s going to be even more important to catch reader’s attention!
Articles and guest posts – and lots of them!
I’m fortunate that I wrote a lot a copy back when I was working for a variety of marketing and outreach contexts, so this aspect of professional writing hasn’t been too much of a problem for me yet, and as a pre-published writer, I haven’t had to deal with some of the things you mentioned here. But I do know the copy practice I’ve had made creating my query letters much easier for me than some of my writing friends.
I’ve written a wide variety of stuff over the years and I’ve also edited much. One thing I’ve noticed is that a lot of us don’t read what we write. We think we do, but we don’t. We read what’s in our head.
You are so right! Over the past few years, I’ve written far more that wasn’t a book. Professional letters are my biggest challenge. I usually have my husband proof those for me.
E Louise Bates–Blogging is great practice but there are also some really helpful guides out there. One of them is Copyblogger’s, which Jane mentioned on her post for W.U. The link to their Copywriting 101 post is: http://www.copyblogger.com/copywriting-101/. Good luck!
Journaling Woman–There always seems to be a really high demand for technical writers. Resumes are tough, but I’ve written a few for friends, too. And I’m like you–I write very sparely and usually have to go back in and add more, later.
Margot–I bet you’ve done a lot of it! And so many of those skills would transfer over for copywriting for our novels, too.
Laura–And those all-important samples that readers can download to see if they enjoy our writing.
Alex–Good point! Blogging is a fantastic way to practice copywriting.
Bluestocking–I think that your background is perfect training for all the copywriting you’ll be doing as a novelist!
Helen–You’re so right. Reading out loud helps with that a little, but it’s still tough to see an error when we *meant* to say something else.
Diane–And I’m not wild about writing titles! We all have something. :)
I used to write for newspapers and then I was a publicist for quite a while. So short and punchy isn’t too hard. I know about hooks and topic sentences and drastically cutting down to the essence. With fiction I’m like Journaling Woman – I tend to want to go long. All fun though. Killing your darlings, tidying up your text, dreaming small instead of tall. Sure.
In college learning how to write succinct, well-proofread emails was essential if you wanted your professor to respond in a timely manner! A professor’s inbox gets so crammed with hundreds of emails daily (I interned for a professor and saw it with my own eyes-holy moly!) that it’s easy to ignore the sloppy, vague emails. They’d much rather get right to the emails which have a point!
Elspeth–I think I need a hat with feathers. :) I could write in it all day, then conveniently forget I have it on and embarrass my teenager with it…
The Daring Novelist–I think Twitter is fantastic for it.
Oh, gosh, and that’s one of those things I hate to do—tell people what I’m writing about. It’s sort of like telling people the baby’s name before the baby is born and then they feel free to make comments! I’m usually really vague.
Jan–You know, it’s funny, but I have a hard time writing long, too. I don’t write a lot of filler so I’ve usually got to go back in and add in layers later.
Laura–I can imagine! I’m the same way…if I just don’t understand the point of an email or if I can’t *find* the point and know it’s going to take several email exchanges to figure it all out..I’m probably going to procrastinate answering it!
Oh, I didn’t mean before you finish it. I meant finished books. That’s exactly what a blurb is. You’re telling people about your book.
Your blurbs will get better if you practice different ways of telling folks about your book. (You don’t have to go and accost real strangers: you just have to practice as if telling them.)
For that matter, it really helps your blurb writing if you summarize OTHER things orally. Heck get together with other writers, and tell each other about a movie or a TV show you recently saw. Keep it short, like when somebody says “Oh, the poster on that looked interesting, what’s it about?” What would you say, given that you don’t want to give spoilers?