July has seen a lot of diversity in the writing jobs people have been asking me to help with in Whangarei, Northland and Auckland.
- People I provided writing services for in July 2018 were largely in Whangarei, although I did some work for a creative talent agency in Auckland who are a pretty good company to get along with. That project involved creating the right words for a brochure and website text for a property developer in a part of rural South Auckland.
- That same project gave me some knowledge I used in some columns I wrote for a great Northland writing client, Property Plus. Very soon I will have delivered 100 columns for Property Plus. An excellent client with stimulating challenges each week – and definitely a client on my Christmas present list each year.
- A column is the art of writing a factually-sound piece using enjoyable conversational language. In July I helped polish a couple of columns for a great Whangarei guy with a strong voice who has been a client for a few years now, and always a pleasure to deal with.
- I took some steps to keep my freelance journalism skills alive over the past month. What I’ve realised is media publishers around the country often don’t have writers and photographers in Northland, so that’s a gap in the market I can help fill. I worked with North & South magazine to write a story about the obscure sport of Jugger and worked hard to get excellent photographs for the client.
- Another freelance journalism job was for AA Directions magazine, which has one of the largest circulations in the country. The magazine has a submissions style I’m not used to, but that’s cool. I enjoyed producing some Northland tourism-y material for them. Again – they’re a mag which has a need for more content from the winterless north.
- I did some proofreading for clients and helped spot out of date references, spelling mistakes, factual inaccuracies and missing bits of info before things went into print.
- Whangarei clients also asked me to help write official letters, web pages, FAQs, blogs, social media and newsletters over the past month, and there’s been some uptake of the services I offer helping get fiction writers’ ebooks onto internet platforms. It’s about having a set of images, branded phrases, titles, numbers and quotes ready, then sharing the same words and images on platforms including Createspace, Kobo, Kindle, Amazon, BoobBub, Bookfunnel and more.
- Massive thanks to all the clients who left me five star Google My Business reviews.
…I also found time, somehow, to complete the latest draft of what should be my first published literary fiction novel, Crimechurch. I aim to launch this before the end of the year. Needs some beta readers and a cover, though.