There are two components of any copy, whether it’s an article, a Web site, or a book: content and appearance.

Content means the words that actually appear on the page – your message. It can be serious, humorous, elegant, bold, technical, or conversational in tone. But the message is the words themselves. What you’re saying and how you’re saying it. Content includes grammar, spelling, jargon, acronyms, and the like.

Appearance relates to the way the words (content) look on the page.

These are things that affect the way the words look on the printed page (or monitor, for Web copy) – all of which goes in to making your copy easy to read.

Are your paragraphs all piled up, one on top of the other, with no graphics, subheadings, or other means of breaking them up? Are they manageable in size and easy to digest? A paragraph is supposed to contain one chunk of related information. Sometimes they can get fairly lengthy and still be in correct literary form . . . but keep your reader in mind. If there’s a way to break up one big, gigantic, one-and-a-half-page paragraph, DO IT!

THE 5 C’S OF CONTENT

Make you content CLEAR. Avoid the overuse of jargon and acronyms in your copy. Unless you are writing for a specialty Web site where only people intimately familiar with your industry and/or business will visit it, make sure your language is understandable to the broadest possible audience. Get someone objective (i.e., not in your industry) to read it for you. If they don’t get it, chances are some of your other readers won’t get it either.

Make it CONCISE – even for books and long-copy sales letters. Most people have a tendency to overwrite. Be precise with your language. Avoid run-on sentences. Avoid long, meandering phrases when one or two words will do.

Rule of thumb: Polish your written piece until it gleams. Get it to where you think it’s perfect. Then go back and cut it by 25 percent.

“Not possible!” you say.

Oh, but it is. Get rid of phrases like “of the” and all the extra instances of “that”. Delete redundancies like “simple, effortless, and easy-to-use.” Sometimes more is better. Other times, more is just more – and might actually work against ease of reading and understanding – which means it works against you.

Make your content COMPELLING. Use motivating language. In sales copy, for example, detail your features and benefits. Give people a reason to want to buy from you or use your service. An isolated product list probably is not going to compel anyone all by itself. However, whatever you do, do not ever lie or misrepresent yourself! This will only come back to harm you in the long (or not-so-long) run.

If you claim to have contacts who are producers at Warner Bros., you’d better be sure the person you know at Warner Bros. is not the sister of the assistant to the catering manager. Or if you offer 2-day delivery at no extra charge, you’d better be ready to fulfill that promise, even if you receive 1,000 orders in a day!

Also, tell stories. Don’t forget you’re the expert. If you’re writing a book about job hunting for baby boomers, and you’ve helped a lot of baby boomers get jobs, use those stories in your writing to illustrate your points. Stories are compelling because they help your readers relate to your material. They can be entertaining, offer lessons, or dramatize particular elements – but use stories in all of your writing to create and maintain interest.

Make sure your content is CONSISTENT. This is another place where you can tell a sloppy writer from one who takes time to double- and triple-check their work before they submit and/or publish it.

There is not necessarily a correct answer to these ones. Simply determine what your personal and/or company standard is, and stick with it. One of the worst offenses of inconsistency appears when there are several different spellings or phone number styles within a single document. Mistakes like these make your work – and by extension, you and your company – appear sloppy.

Is it on line, online, or on-line?

Is your style ABC Deli or A.B.C. Deli?

formatting phone numbers: Do you use 602.253.8463 or 602/253.8463 or (602) 253-8463?

Make your content CORRECT. Proper grammar and spelling are essential!!! There’s no way to state this strongly enough, particularly with respect to Web copy. There is so much competition for business on the Web – if you have sloppy copy that is badly spelled and riddled with grammatical mistakes, the next site is just one click away – and you won’t get a second chance to bring those lost visitors back.

Although everyone makes a mistake now and again, please do not underestimate the importance of correct grammar. If you don’t know whether it’s correct or not, ASK someone who knows, LOOK IT UP in a book or online resource, or PAY a professional editor/proofreader.

The most glaring grammatical errors:

Stupid spelling mistakes. Write your copy in Word and SPELLCHECK before you dump it into html (or Publisher, PowerPoint, or whatever other format you might use for delivery).

Missing and incorrectly used apostrophes. Again, there’s no excuse for this mistake – and it is one that will set you apart from the others in your industry. Apostrophes are NEVER used to create plurals – but you see this all the time. A ridiculous sign of sloppy writing and a complete lack of editing.

EXTREME EXAMPLE OF COMMON ERRORS:

In this writers opinion, dumb grammer mistake’s cost people more business than they reelize.

TIP: If you use ALL CAPS, change your text to lower case or initial caps to run SpellCheck. SpellCheck will not catch errors in text in ALL CAPS unless you set it to do so.

TIP: Use ALL CAPS sparingly. Text written in ALL CAPS is exceptionally difficult to read. The fact is that the shape of a word, as much as its spelling, facilitates quick reading. Words written exclusively in capital letters lose the shape differentiation caused by the ascenders (b, d, f, h, k, l, t) and descenders (g, j, p, q, y). As a result, words written in ALL CAPS take a great deal more effort to read.

Remember, it is virtually impossible to edit your own work. You’re too close to the material and have seen it too many times to even notice errors any longer. If you find yourself in a position where you must edit your own writing, take a significant break from it – two hours, at minimum, but two days is suggested. This will allow you to return to your work with “new eyes,” able to spot errors you would likely have missed had you not taken the break.

Whether you are working for a small business, large corporation, or are a student, there are numerous sources that you can turn to for help with writing. Businesses need to be able to effectively communicate with their customers, their employees and their potential customers. Effective verbal communication is equally important, but nonverbal communication in the form of copy writing, article writing, press release writing, and more requires a certain level of expertise and experience. The typical small business wants to focus their efforts on their core business activities without spending too much time on projects that can easily be outsourced to consultants or freelance professionals. Many small businesses turn to freelancers to help them save time and money. For example, a certified public accountant opened his own accounting practice after working in another accounting firm for the last ten years. One of the ways he decided to search for new clients was to embark on an advertising and promotional campaign. Although some of his previous clients followed him to his new practice, he wanted to increase the number of accounts he currently handled. These accounts included various individuals and small businesses from around the town. Rather than hire new employees or handle the projects himself, he decided to hire a consultant through a freelance web site to work on copy writing for a local newspaper ad campaign as well as to help with press releases and company news distribution. By outsourcing these non-core business activities to an independent consultant, he is able to save himself time and money and also gets the expertise of an established professional who specializes in the types of writing that he needs assistance with. He decides to list his writing projects in a freelance marketplace and receives bids from independent consultants and freelance writers. He was able to choose a service provider based on factors related to cost, the service provider’s experience, references, and previous feedback from clients. All small businesses have a decision to make about whether to outsource certain projects or to complete the work in house. Using economics as a deciding factor, it makes sense economically for businesses to outsource writing projects when the projects are non-core business activities that do not contribute to the company’s bottom line.

Small businesses also need to be able to effectively communicate with their current customers. Some of the more effective ways to get help writing effective communication for current customers involve using tools such as newsletters, email lists, and articles written by outsourced consultants. Newsletters are very effective ways to keep customers informed of current events and happenings within the company. They also offer you the opportunity to gain new clients as the newsletter gets passed around and is often seen by more than one person during its life cycle. It makes sense and is a smart move to outsource corporate communications instead of keeping it in-house. Hiring a separate professional will save your business money and time. For less than the cost of hiring a full time employee, and because it will contribute to allowing more concentration on the activities that will earn your business money, contracting with a consultant or freelancer for your corporate communications (writing of press releases to distribute company news, getting publicity through pieces in newspapers and magazines, and getting help writing newsletters or articles) simply makes sense. An expert in the field who has amassed many years of experience with business writing, persuasive writing, and copy writing in addition to having experience writing press releases, articles, essays, and possibly academic or technical research and term papers will have a lot to offer you and your business.

Large corporations use writing to effectively communicate on all levels of business. Business writing and corporate communications are essential elements that keep the public informed and give companies their corporate image. A company’s image or its publicly perceived notion of credibility and reliability is extremely important to its bottom line. For example, upon its introduction many years ago an American car company introduced a car known as the “Nova”. After some time, it was discovered that the car was not selling well in many Spanish speaking countries. Because in Spanish, “No van” translates to “doesn’t go”, the car sales in these countries were dismal. Effective corporate communication can have far reaching effect. Ineffective corporate communication can result in lower sales as shown in the car sales example. Large corporations also need to be effective communicators with their current employees. Internal corporate communications are equally important and keep your employees abreast of company accomplishments, events and human resource issues.

Finally, students also need to be able to write effectively as well. Writing assignments can include writing essays, writing term papers, report writing, and thesis writing not to mention having to demonstrate writing ability in other subjects outside of English class. For example, law students need to be able to write not only persuasive but argumentative writing as well. Foreign language students need to be able to translate into their native language and then back again. Science and technology students need to be able to demonstrate scientific writing ability. Taking writing tips from college professors that teach correct formatting and usage, including APA style, and improving you’re proofreading and editing skills will result in quality writing assignments. For the student that is looking for writing help and homework assistance for their assignments, freelance marketplaces that allow you to hire a consultant or tutor could be a productive and time saving solution.

From a freelance or independent consultant’s standpoint, marketing writing skills to potential service buyers is important to keeping any consulting business thriving. Registering with freelance marketplaces will enable you to showcase your writing skills, talents and abilities. Previous experience with all kinds of writing ranging from grant writing, fiction writing and interactive writing to writing short stories, articles and eBooks or even technical pieces, in addition to all forms of business writing will enable you to prove your varied background and skills. All of which can be showcased in your freelance marketplace profile. Creating and managing a profile is important to make you stand out from the crowd of freelance writers competing for new writing projects. All in all, those looking for writing help can find a vast array of resources in the form of consultants who are more than willing to lend a helping hand.

So you’re an author (or an aspiring author) who has an interest in writing erotic fiction. But many authors worry about using their real name when penning erotic pieces, for several reasons. Several famous authors who at one point, sooner or later in their careers, wrote erotica chose a pen name, including Harlan Ellison and Anne Rice. Some, like David Sedaris, write erotica under their own name.

However, the fact that it is known that these authors wrote erotica has a lot to do with their current day popularity. If you are considering using a pen name, be aware that it is not only acceptable but also the general practice. For many authors, the pen name is akin to the stage name; despite the lofty cerebral aspirations of writing, a lot of writing success is still based on marketing. While writers often wish that people did not judge a book by its cover, the truth is, we all do. We judge two hour movies based on thirty second trailers, and we remember actors’ names based on their catchiness. Authors are unfortunately, not immune to this, and choosing a pen name when writing erotica is actually an opportunity to start marketing before the book is even written.

However, there are many other reasons to consider when deciding if you should use a pen name.

First, there is separation between your real life and your written works. Many erotic fiction writers are women; and like it or not, some people cannot separate fantasy from reality, and thus a woman who writes erotic fiction might be thought of a sexually available and exhibitionist when is isn’t true. It’s sort of the same issue with the actors on the Sopranos – many people actually believe they are gangsters, not thespians. Actors who are well known for recurring villain roles have many stories of being reprimanded on the street by fans that could not separate the fact that the actor was not the character.

Thus, it is beyond mere prudishness that someone might choose to employ a pen name. It can be a method of separation between an author’s real life and the written word. Stephen King has stated that in the books he’s written which reveal details of his life, he has changed details and street names to prevent people from invading too much of his privacy. Men who write erotica might not face the same exact issues as female authors, but there is more than enough reason to create a veil of secrecy around your life. Be aware that writing under a pen name does not mean you can’t do radio interviews or podcasts, any more than an actor would. However, if your writing career advances to a point where you are as popular as say, Dean Koontz. You might want to consider changing your tactics then.

Another reason to use a pen name is because some authors may want to try different styles, and sell to different genres. A writer of romance may want to tackle fetish erotica, but may want to establish two distinct pen names to do so; authors are also artists, and often like to experiment, and it is easier to do so if readers are not aware of an author’s existing works. I suspect that the reverse is true for aforementioned authors such as Anne Rice, whose erotica probably remains a consistent back list seller simply because of her current day notoriety.

As an editor, I am often asked by new authors (or, at least new to erotic fiction), about using a pen name and they often express anxiety that the publisher will use their real name. They envision a racy title finding its way to the bookshelves with their real name plastered all over it, and they imagine the mortification they would feel if everyone they knew suddenly saw it. While this is a most unlikely scenario, I must state that no serious publisher would ever use an author’s name if the author did not want to, and that publishers of erotic fiction are more than aware that many authors want to use pen names. If you are paranoid, ask for a line or two in the contract about which pen name will be used and that your real name never be used without your written permission.

Also be aware that even if you write a best-selling erotica book, your name is not likely to be all over the New York Times best seller list and your name is not likely unique. A quick visit to the web site howmanyofme.com reveals that there are 221 people in the United States named Anne Rice and 1,563 people with the name Stephen King. There are even 19 people named William Shakespeare. The point is, just because it’s your name doesn’t mean people all over the world will even know it’s you. If it makes you feel better to use a pen name, do so, but also realize that it’s probably more for your mental awareness than anyone else’s.

Now one thing I personally recommend to authors is make sure that your contracts with any publisher list your real name, not just your pen name. Contracts should list both if desired, but the rights established and the length of the contract is assigned to you. There is some legal wrangling that can be done in many cases to get your rights when it is not accurately represented in the contract, but why worry about that? Get it in writing right up front. One publisher I work with, Sensorotika Press, has told me on several occasions that most authors never really look at their contracts, and that even though the publisher attempts to create fair, thoroughly defined contracts, authors constantly return to ask questions long after the contract is in place and in effect. The issue of authors and their contracts is too much for this article, but as it pertains to your pseudonym, this is a business for both the publisher and the author, and if the author feels more security having their pen name and the like in writing, then they should say so.