An Introduction to Commercial Writing

by Dawn Copeman

Moira and I sat drinking tea and discussing the Inquiring Writer topic when I said that one way that writers could increase their writing income would be to do some commercial writing. Moira hasn't done any commercial writing and asked me what was involved, so we chatted about it for a while and realized that this is an area that we don't cover at Writing-World. Or rather, it is an area that we haven't covered well until now.

Commercial writing, or corporate writing as it is also known, doesn't sound as interesting as writing articles or stories, nor as impressive writing a novel. But it is an exciting field, a growing field and more importantly, a very lucrative field that you ignore at your own cost.

So if this is an area you've never considered before, let me introduce you to the wonderful world of commercial writing.

I decided to study copywriting almost from the moment I decided to become a writer. And I'm glad I did. There is always a need for copywriters. Commercial writing pays well and is a varied and interesting line of work, particularly if you enjoy learning about new things and working with language, which most writers do.

So far, in my short copywriting career, ( I do it part-time on an occasional basis), I've been paid to find out about amongst other things: sardines, the health benefits of red grapes and cocoa and the top selling toys at Christmas and then write about them in press releases, company newsletters and sales letters. Once the job is over I've then put my new-found knowledge to use in articles. The fact I can get paid to find out facts I can then use in my own future articles is just one of the attractions of commercial writing. Another attraction is the sheer variety of work on offer.

What is Commercial Writing?

Commercial writing is writing for businesses. It is also known as copywriting. A copywriter or freelance commercial writer, writes 'copy' or text to help businesses communicate with their customers and more importantly, with potential customers. Every advertisement, every brochure, every catalogue and every sales letter you've ever read was written by a copywriter. As were the words to all the radio and TV ads you hear, and those fundraising letters from charities. And all those catalogue descriptions you read.

Copywriting is a huge field. The typical jobs a copywriter can be called upon to do involve the following:

• Press releases
• Advertisement copy
• Brochures
• Sales letters
• Catalogue descriptions
• Company newsletters
• Website content
• Website advertisements
• Scripts for television/radio advertisements
• Scripts for promotional films
• Direct mail campaigns
• Articles for publication in trade/specialist magazines
• Speeches
• White Papers

But in addition to these external jobs, a copywriter can also be asked to perform services inside the company, services such as knowledge capture for example. This is where a commercial writer goes into a company, learns about the company's procedures and writes them all down as operating manuals. I've done this kind of work. It's fun and if you think you like the sound of it, then rest assured that we already have an expert knowledge capture writer lined up to share some of his knowledge with you.

As well as the specialist field of knowledge-capture, copywriters can also be called upon to write:

• internal corporate newsletters
• training manuals
• office procedures
• job advertisements
• corporate vision statements
• company reports
• motivational posters

What can I earn as a commercial writer?

That varies according to the job you are doing and your experience level, but you can make a real living from doing this type of work. If you want to do this full-time as a career, you can earn enough to do so. If you want to do it part-time, then it's a great way of supplementing other income streams.

Let me give you some examples from my own experiences. One of the jobs I've done involved writing short 300 - 350 word articles for a newsletter that went out to a company's customers. These articles would take about an hour to write, the company gave me the topics in advance. All the work was conducted by email and for each article I earned $25. Not a lot you might say, but this works out at $25 an hour, because the job was quick and easy to do and it was a regular contract.

I also write press releases. I'm quite a novice at these; I've only written five, so I can only charge novice fees. I earn £60 ($120) for each press release I write. I generally get about ten days in which to write each press release and I spend most of this time just thinking about what I'm going to write. The actual writing takes no more than two hours, giving me an hourly rate of $60.

Both these hourly rates compare very nicely to what I earn per hour writing articles and they both use the same skills. For both these jobs I had to research the topic, pick my slant and then write my piece. So you see, commercial writing is not really that different to normal nonfiction freelancing. In fact, it's often easier as companies will provide you with lots of information on which you can base your piece.

How do I become a commercial writer?

The good news is that anyone can become a commercial writer. Just as with all other areas of writing there are lots of books and courses about how to get started in this area. Peter Bowerman and Bob Bly are the definite experts at how to do this for a living, but others like Beth Ann Erickson, have also made a good income from this area.

The even better news is that most of this work is freelance. You will not be competing against staff writers or contributing editors as you often are with magazines. Most companies now use freelance commercial writers rather in employ someone in-house because freelance commercial writers are flexible, are only paid when they're working on a specific job and it's easy for a company to change writers if they're not happy with the service theyÕve received. This last point could work both ways for you; you could pick up a new job because the last writer didn't meet their needs, alternatively, if you don't give them the best service you can, you will be the writer being dropped.

And how do you give them the best service you can? How do you meet and exceed their requirements? How do you deliver a press release that out of the 3000 or so that are written every day, actually gets published by the press? How do you write the sales letter that brings in the sales? Simple, you read and learn from expert copywriters and from the articles we'll bring you in Commercial Corner. The fun starts next month so watch this space.