The Copywriter Underground

Reading the words of a good writer is almost as satisfying as writing something decent myself.
A recurring favorite is Garrison Keillor. I like his writing style and observational bent, and his most recent Salon.com essay lands squarely on the bullseye. He’s finishing a book project on a deadline, and experiencing all the doubts, questions, and […]

Vacations are good. Vacations are our friends.
My just-concluded ten-day fly fishing vacation to Tennessee included a four-day backpacking trip into the Great Smoky Mountain National Park backcountry.

It’s gorgeous territory and vibrantly green this time of the year.
It’s also pretty unstable on the weather front, so when it started raining hard one morning — blowing out […]

Writing’s a relatively simple gig.
Pen and paper will get you going, and a purist could make a cogent case for keeping the exercise exactly that simple.
Naturally, that’s not what happens when you add commerce to the mix — and humanity’s unquenchable desire to complicate life.
I’ve been copywriting long enough that I wrote my first bits […]

The last couple weeks have flown by. Copy’s been flowing like the Amazon at flood stage. Juggling work, proposals, blogs and a personal life meant a few late nights at the keyboard
Now even my friends say I look like hell.
From all this, one thing is clear; all-nighters aren’t the fun they used to be.
Lots of Vowels. […]

A new meme is in the air; this one focused squarely on “Why I blog.”
I was tagged by the redoubtable Michel Fortin, and in only twenty-two words we’ve already stumbled on my first reason for blogging.
Reason #1: Other Bloggers.
When you’re blogging about copywriting, you’re doing so alongside an intriguing group of new, experienced and […]

From Designers who Blog comes the story of a now-anonymous article repeatedly copied and reposted on Craigslist - one aimed squarely at those who expect creatives work for free.
Though focused primarily on illustrators, it should be a mandatory read for any artist selling their work at rates that won’t buy a fast food dinner (and […]

Recently discovered via Carson’s new-paint-and-drapes Content Done Better blog is the provocatively named “Screw You!” - a freelance writer’s blog that’s destined to become a fixture on my RSS feed.

 She dug up a John Irving quote, good for a solid whack upside the head:
If you don’t feel that you are possibly on the edge of humiliating […]

The Deep Jive Interests blog references an interesting study - one that exposes a certain amount of hypocrisy in the Public Relations industry (yes, we’re shocked too). According to Deep Jive:
Yes, you can file this under “talking a good game”, because the results show that while most PR executives believe in the blogging as an […]

Newsweek columnist Anna Quindlen pens a review of the movie “Freedom Writers,” but also touches upon the value and role of writing in today’s society.
Jan. 22, 2007 issue - The new movie “Freedom Writers” isn’t entirely about the themes the trailers suggest. It isn’t only about gang warfare and racial tensions and tolerance. It isn’t […]

I just finished reading an intriguing blog post about article marketing using affiliate links. While I see the logic, it’s a wholly foreign concept to someone who’s written ads, direct mail and Web sites for better than two decades.
Have It Your Way.
If you’ve read the Copywriter Underground for long, you’ll realize I’m hot on the […]