Can I Write Content For a Living?

I know - kind of a clunky headline. The alternative was 'Here's What I've Learned About Content in the Last Couple of Months at the Telegraph' which is even worse. I'm hungover so best I can do today.

The Telegraph news room.

In November I answered a request for male writers on a Facebook group and the commissioning editor gave me the gig. The first job was writing how beards are over. For the foreign readers, about 18 months ago Brits started thinking it was cool to wear a beard. Shoreditch in London was reckoned to be the birthplace, an old term 'hipster', (last heard in the sixties) was brought out of retirement to describe these new trendies and soon hairy faces were springing up everywhere, including mine. It was good through last winter, but felt a bit out of step come the spring. The Guardian published a feature claiming we had reached 'peak beard' and the fad faded fast. You can read what I wrote here and it lead to two further commissions.

I'd obviously heard of 'content' and I knew advertisers were desperate to keep people on websites that had their logo on it but in truth, I still don't really get it. Even if someone finds a feature about beards entertaining for two minutes, are they really likely to click through and buy a £100 shaver? The conversion rate must be tiny. Anyway, judging by the size of the creative teams involved, Braun must have handed over enough wedge for it to be a successful concern for all involved. The Telegraph has been really busy in ramping up it's online content. No brainer really; if people aren't buying newspapers because they can get their news free online, that's where the advertisers are going to concentrate their efforts. All the features options on the Telegraph Braun hub are certainly like to keep readers there for a while.

I always thought that writing for a brand was selling out. Maybe it is. The truth of it is that I always like a challenge. Give me a subject and I like figuring out how I can write it, keep it entertaining and most importantly, have the commissioning editor come back to me with more paid work. And if you want to make a living out of words, you have to go where the money is. It certainly helped pay for Christmas. 

You should be reading the Telegraph Magazine

I've long been an admirer of the magazine that comes with the Saturday edition of the Daily Telegraph. If you're interested in writing features, you should really be reading it. They generally have five or six long form essays covering wildly varying subjects and the design is really smart - uncomplicated, easy to navigate and allowing a respectful amount of space to photography that deserves it. It's £2 for the paper on a Saturday and that is a small amount of money to pay for a very good magazine. My Dad switched me onto it. He keeps it in a very undignified place: the smallest room in the house.

Pretty well thumbed I know.

It has a good hit rate of keeping me glued as the mix of features is usually interesting. This week there was an interesting encounter with the actor Benedict Cumberbatch with simple but striking pictures by Platon. The written portrait served up by Mick Brown was just as insightful. A feature on the human rights abuses being committed by Bahrain was also thought provoking. The Bahrain government has strong ties with the US and Britain and it seems no one wants to talk about the terrible injustices that are going on there. The story of @maryamalkhawaja, a 27 year old who continues to protest against the abuses being committed there and someone who had to see her father emaciated by beatings and hunger strikes, is nothing short of amazing. Lastly there is a story about HenPower, an organisation that gets older people to look after chickens to combat loneliness and depression. That's the kind of sentence to a commissioning editor that couldn't fail to result in a commission.

You can find all these things online but they are not grouped together as they are in the magazine. Plus, buying the print edition will keep journalists in jobs. You know what to do.

Who are you (and where are you from)?

Blogger has a tab that I've only recently discovered called Stats - I'll admit to being a bit slow on the uptake.  I was relying on Google Analytics for a while but for some reason its stopped recording traffic and I'm not enough of a nerd to work out how I can fix it.  Initially that was depressing as I thought absolutely everyone (even mates) had deserted the blog but then I was getting reactions to posts via Twitter, Facebook and the rest.  I'll get to the point - in the last few days theres been a real upsurge in hits and from countries where I dont know anyone.  This is both heartening and intriguing and, if you're reading this from a country outside the UK, please get in touch on the email address above.  I'm curious as to what you're reading and if you're finding it interesting. In particular I'd like to hear from anyone from UAE, Canada, Germany, China or Belize but wherever you're from, write.

The numbers going up has been a real boost as otherwise, its been a bit of a crappy week.  I wanted to write truthfully on here so if that's the case, I should write about the times when you're not getting anywhere with your pitches to magazines.  I have a really good story about Ben, who was the in-house photographer at a New York club in the mid 80s - his photos are choc full of celebrities, most of whom are at the beginning of their career.  Lisa Edelstein is there, 20 years before 'House', Russell Simmons, hanging out with Scorpio from Grandmaster Flash, young artists Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, Rick Rubin and the Beastie Boys, BB Buell (Liv Tyler's mum)...the list goes on.  Specifically, I was hoping the Saturday Telegraph magazine would take it, just because they are great at giving space to both words and pictures for photo-stories.  They've turned it down though, as 'there isn't enough narrative'.  Frustrating, as I think the narrative would come from a finished piece once commissioned.  Also, to 'fess up, there were a couple of typos in the pitch - who's going to commission a sloppy writer?  Very embarrassing.  I'm going to push on with this one to other magazines and papers and if no one bites, you'll see it on here.  I also pitched something to Short Cuts in G2, but no joy with that one either.

On top of that my leg is fecking killing me but I'm determined not to whinge as it was my own bloody fault!  To leave you with something good to read, here are a couple of links to features on Rachel Johnson, sister of Boris and editor of The Lady.  I wouldn't pretend to know her very well though I've worked for her in the office and she ran one of my pieces of course, but my feeling is The Guardian feature gets her spot on and to my mind, is a great interview by Zoe Williams.  A great phrase Zoe uses is 'superior conversation-management' - its something I wish I had.  First read Rachel's boss saying 'You can't get her away from a penis' here and then the Grauniad one here

Rejection...

OK, time to name some more of the good guys. Two more replies, but unfortunately two more rejections. However, the 'at least they got back to me' awards go to Lydia Williams, who writes for The Resident, Grove and NW (lydia.williams@archant.co.uk) and secondly Liz Hunt, who writes for The Telegraph (Elizabeth.Hunt@telegraph.co.uk). It is disheartening getting rejections so to try and put off the blues that potentially come with this I've told myself that I'm going to wait until I have had one hundred rejections before I let them get me down. Some target! I'll keep you posted (here) to let you know if that works.

I feel like I'm doing as much work as I did when I was employed, the only difference is that I actually get up and look forward to the day now. The morning is spent working on a book I'm trying to write and that will usually last 2 or 3 hours depending how the inspiration is flowing. After that I break to eat and then the afternoon (and sometimes the evening) is spent trying to work up the contacts book and writing up ideas for features. In some ways its better being away from an office, in other ways not. Breaks were difficult at Live Magazine due to the relentless work flow and also because you were looked upon as a slacker if you disappeared for ten minutes. Now that I'm my own boss I can go for a walk, or a run, or a bike ride whenever I want and I like the freedom of that. Breaking from the screen also makes me work better I think. Thats fine when its the summer; wonder if I'll still be thinking the same thing in December?