M. Sharon BakerThree Resources to Improve Your Writing: These resources force me to think about voice, transitions and storytelling and can help writers improve their writing.
Read More M. Sharon BakerLooking for a freelance B2B writer who can write conversationally, professionally interview subject matter experts, meet deadlines and who understands content marketing strategy? Here’s what I sent one prospect.
M. Sharon BakerLiving within walking distance to a university has many benefits, including acce
ss to a large library and a college bookstore.
When I went with my daughter to buy books for fall semester, I browsed the bookstore stacks and found two books on my wish list I thought were out of print: Ogilvy on Advertising and Hey Whipple, Squeeze This.
If I remember correctly, well known copywriter Bob Bly mentioned those two books long ago, and that’s how they landed on my radar.
Any writer working with commercial clients should pick up a copy of Luke Sullivan’s Hey Whipple – it’s full of how-to’s for coming up with and refining ideas, looking at things from a different perspective, and writing for television, radio, print and social media.
Finding it was timely for me because I recently landed an assignment writing a brochure, something I haven’t done in a while. The book has earned a place next to Roy Peter Clark’s books on my primary writing reference shelf. I’m re-reading a book from that shelf as well: Jack Hart’s Storycraft. I’m knee-deep in a developing profile article and Jack’s advice on narrative storytelling has given me many angles to consider as I pull the many pieces together.
I also added To Show and To Tell by Phillip Lopate, but it is seemingly more academic and harder to read.
Stephen King’s On Writing has made many a writer’s recommendation list so when I saw a copy at my local bookstore, I bought it.
The first part is autobiographical and the second contains pointers on writing – many I’ve heard before but not quite in the same way.
I haven’t cracked Ogilvy on Advertising yet, but I will have to soon as it, Storycraft and Hey Whipple could soon be on my other daughter’s required reading list since she’s a comm major at Murrow.
Tell me – what have you been reading lately?
M. Sharon BakerLike many freelance writers, I’m extremely busy working on client projects which leaves little time for me to update my own blog. And I see I haven’t posted anything of value since February. I’m not surprised as I’ve doubled my business so far this year.
New prospects often look at my website before calling, and since I generally wait six months or more to post new samples of my work, I find it easier to create blog posts from time to time outlining what I’ve been doing to give them an idea of the types of work I do.
This list also serves as a reminder for me to grab links and copies of my work after an appropriate time has passed as much of what I do has a certain shelf life and value to clients whether it be lead generation, website traffic generation or marketing awareness, for examples.
What follow is a list of what I’ve been doing since February of this year.
I’m looking for new business for late October through the rest of the year, so if you are looking for a writer, give me a shout.
B2B Case Study Work
After years of writing business stories for newspapers and magazines, I find I still love writing business stories, only for most clients that entails writing case studies. I write case studies for companies in many different industries.
So far this year:
B2B White Papers and Thought Leadership
Many companies continue to use white papers and thought leadership articles to establish their expertise, educate customers and as lead generation pieces for their marketing automation campaigns.
This year, I’ve:
B2B Sales Materials
I’ve worked with a number of content marketing agencies and companies working in the B2B sales space this year, completing projects of different kinds. Examples of my work include:
Freelance Writing Coach, Book Editing
I’m a moderator at the Freelance Writers Den where I also serve as one of several hosts for weekly Thursday podcasts. As a veteran freelancer, I answer many questions in the Den forums, and schedule podcast guests. I also help several women in sales with their book projects, serving as writing coach and editor.
Here are some of the topics we’ve covered on weekly Den Podcasts:
I’m also serving as a writing coach and editor for a book on B2B sales, and we’ve just finished the first three chapters.
Journalism and other Articles
I miss being a full time business journalist. It’s really tough to make a decent living solely writing business features for 
newspapers and magazines given the low rates and third-world payment terms that many magazines – not all, thank goodness – continue to insist upon. So my list of journalism projects isn’t as long as I would like. I still like to tackle assignments from time to time. My recent work includes:
In between times, I’ve moved to Central Washington, prepared and sent three children to college, and I’m acclimating to 100-degree desert living and days of smoke filled stagnant air due to fires burning in north central Washington and Idaho. I’m wondering how much water it will take to establish Kentucky Blue grass and choke out and replace the previous lawn of prickers now that we are connected to the local irrigation system.
My current pet project: I’m gathering strings for a profile on a high tech executive making international waves.
Tell Me: What have you been working on this year? I’d love to hear about your projects in the comments below.
M. Sharon BakerMy name and work popped up all around La Conner, WA on all the La Conner Weekly News’ paper boxes earlier this week.
I took the photo of the artist in the tulip field last year.
I also took the red tulip row photo on the side panel below.
Both photos © M. Sharon Baker
