Copywriting v. Journalism and Ethical Considerations

A question about ethics came up recently on a Yahoo list for copywriters. Heather thought my answer might be helpful to others with similar questions, so here it is.

The situation: A business hires a freelance writer to write a profile of their company, and asks the writer to submit it to a magazine.

The question: Is it ethical?

It depends. There's copywriting, and there's journalism. Writers who do both are ethically and morally obligated to know which hat they're wearing.

1. If you're writing a company profile for the company, you do the best job possible for that client. Writing a promotional piece *as if* it is objective reporting is doing a service to your client (the company, not a magazine publisher). The whole point of an advertorial is to get people to read it, so it shouldn't look like an ad.

2. If you are a journalist working for a publication, you will never take payment from the subject(s) of the articles. That would be a conflict of interest and a HUGE ethical no-no. Now, if the editor wanted to run that company profile, knowing what it is and who you're working for, that's up to her. (They do it with press releases all the time.) As long as you don't misrepresent it as objective reporting. And if you REALLY want it to be nice and clear, the client should submit the profile to the magazine. Then there's no question.

Writers have the ethical obligation to clearly be working for either the client or the publication - NEVER both. There may be more to it than that (i.e., should you ever write a reported piece that includes a company you once wrote advertorials for?), but in the context of what we've been discussing, that's the basic difference.

Questions? Comments? Objections? Let me know. We should all strive to maintain a spotless reputation, in my opinion, not only for the good of our careers but just because we're great people.

Should I?

Lately, like a crazy person, I’ve been turning down job opportunities.

One of them – a job selling ads for a local magazine - might offer some opportunities to grow with a publication. But it would probably shut doors for freelancing locally.

Part of me says, "What're you, crazy? Ground floor opportunity, here!”

But what’s crazier? Accepting a job that helps a magazine I really like, that might pay pretty well, but completely shuts doors to competing publications, or turning down a job offer that will take me off of a course I’ve waited for years to get on? I’ve done a lot of off-roading in my career.

What if I accepted the position in ad sales and found that I was really good at it? Would my freelancing career get derailed because all my time was consumed with making heaps of money? Would it really even be an opportunity – or just the end of an opportunity?

But still. It’s hard to say no...

I shouldn't do this. I shouldn't. It's not what I want. All my reservations are valid; the feeling in my stomach when I contemplate this job just reinforces my hesitance to accept it.

So for this week, at least, I’m going with “no” on the ad sales.

It would be different if I would be doing more than just selling ads. Editing, or helping with production, planning issues, writing....

E-mail Etiquette

This week my inbox has been bombarded by little pop-ups that say something along the lines of "So and so would like to know when you read her e-mail, would you like to send a read receipt?" And I would select "no" and grumble about people who need to know exactly when I open up and read their e-mail. Shall I send a "wipe notice" too, as in, when I get done using the restroom facilities....

OK, yes, I'm venting.

As a freelancer, I usually find myself handling a large amount of my communication online, specifically e-mail. It is how I send queries, interview requests, invoices and even the finished article.

And while I realize not everyone will be annoyed by the same things I get annoyed about, I do think there are some recognizable standards. I've tried to compile a few:

1. Your e-mail address should be YOUR e-mail address. Don't send e-mail from an account that lists your name along with your husband's name. If you don't know what your e-mail says in the from line, send yourself an e-mail to find out. It should say your first and last name.

2. Your e-mail address should be professional. This is not the time to use your "momoffour" moniker. Even when you select what you think is a professional e-mail, ask someone else to look at it. I was once told my slslsherwood made people think of "slasher."

3. Do not send attachments that aren't expected.

4. Do not request read receipts the first time you send an e-mail. Save this feature for the time when you are sending a requested item a second time and there has been a demonstrated problem.

5. Use complete sentences and expected conventions for business letters.

6. Ask yourself if your requests are reasonable? Are you asking the person to "respond immediately" and sending it out at 4:57 p.m.?

7. Don't follow-up immediately. Just because e-mail lets your communication land in another person's box immediately, don't expect an immediate response. Wait at least a week, preferably two, before following up on an e-query.

8. Realize that not everyone has your standards for e-mail. Be aware that some people might not appreciate the cute photo or background that you like to use. For business e-mail, stick to plain text.

9. Do not send jokes, hoaxes, or warnings to people just because you have their e-mail address.

10. Pay attention to that TO line before you hit send. Some e-mail programs fill in addresses automatically, so make sure you are sending your e-mail to who you intended it to go to.

11. Make the subject line clear and concise. If I am sending a query, I write "Query: Great Article Title" in the subject line with the text "great article title" being replaced for a catchy title of my current proposal.

12. If you send out your e-mail query to more than one place, do not include every single address in your To: line. Learn how to use CC and BCC. Be careful using CC and BCC.

What tips do you have for e-mail communication?

The Long Road

I think often of Robert Frost's poem, The Road Not Taken. (Go here to read it because it would be wrong of me to post it here methinks... I'm all about the rules!)

I am a life traveller, as we all are, but I'm a frustrated one. Because I have always wanted to take ALL THE ROADS. I want to double back and take shortcuts and longcuts and reach dead ends and go back again.

(In fact, I remember being in elementary school and thinking about college degrees. I thought: I think I'll just go to school and get ALL the degrees, wouldn't that be good?)

But Frost is smart. He knows he has to choose a road and commit to a journey. "And be one traveler, long I stood and looked down one as far as I could". He seems to be saying "I'm only one guy, with one life to live... I'd better consider my choices and make smart ones."

And then. Then! A man after my own heart he goes and takes the one that it looks like no one has taken recently. He thinks about both paths though, and he knows that he'll be on one and may want to go on the other half way through.

He looks back at the end and knows that the journey has made the difference. The walking through uncharted paths has made the trek his own.

I feel as though that's what my life is like these days. I'm walking on a path of my own choosing. Each morning, like this morning, I get up at 5:00 am and I try to be oh-so-quiet as I get ready for work. The kids are asleep, Major Man is asleep. It's just me and my cobwebs.

Truly it's the only truly alone time I've had in years I think. Other than naps maybe. I try to enjoy the process, putting on make up, doing my hair, choosing my outfit. And as I leave the house at 5:45 am and it's pitch black and I can still see the stars I feel good about myself and my path.

I can do this. I am doing this for my family. I get up at this horrible hour, go to work and put letters in their correct order and I'm helping my family. I may not be the full time writer I wanted to be at this stage, but this is only one path. This is just the part of the path with the weeds and the brambles where I need to move slowly and carefully, where I need to pause often to make sure I'm still on course and my family is still following me.

The road is long, it's winding and at times I wish for another. But if I stop and look around, even the weeds and brambles have some harsh beauty to them.

Lessons Learned - Lesson 1

One of the great reasons we have this blog is so that writing mothers can share their experiences and what they’ve learned. As I learn things that help me build my writing career, I want to chronicle them here on Mama Needs a Book Contract. My hope is that I can be helpful.

I hope that somewhere out there on “the Internets,” as Heather says, some aspiring writing mother will click her way here, and find kinship, information, inspiration, and most importantly encouragement that yes, Virginia, you can be a writer.

I hope for this because two years ago I was that mom.

I was an unpublished, hopeful wannabe writer. Had been, in fact, for at least 30 years.

My mommy always said I could be a writer. ;-) My dad said I could be a writer. Dear, sweet Mrs. Calloway, my high school English teacher, said I could be a writer. My high school magazine teacher told me I was a writer. My distant relatives always asked me if I was a writer yet.

Later, my husband told me I could be a writer. My friends told me I could be a writer. My college English teacher told me I should be a writer.

But I shed some tears on my 37th birthday because I was almost 40, and I wasn’t a writer. It wasn’t as if I regretted the path my life had taken. I loved all of it: the years I spent in a Christian leadership program, the years following when I spent most of my time helping and ministering to people, the first years of marriage when we focused on stability and our new life together, and the first years of motherhood, when I focused on enjoying one of my dreams come true.

But now that I had all that in place, I wanted to be a writer. So on my 37th birthday, I prayed to God. There was some whining involved.

Two months later, my husband and I went to a Bible conference where I ran into an old friend. She pulled me aside as if to tell me something important.

She described a series of events that led to her getting a job working at home as a proofreader for a major educational publishing company. She remembered (after all these years!) that I wanted to be a writer. And she looked for me at this conference so she could tell me one thing: “Carolyn, God can open doors for you.”

It was like God was talking to me. Heck, He was talking to me. Answering me.

Before I turned 38, I was a writer.

Lesson learned: Yes, Carolyn, you can be a writer.