From: Brett Lorenzen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> creative written content. Bottomless pit to them, and they have no desire
> to water down otherwise successful technical and graphical development
> teams by wading into editorial waters.
I think that is partially because it can be very hard to price and
justify the pricing (in the client's eyes) for the writing. After all, we
can all write, how hard can it be, why should I pay someone to do
it...
That being the case, it can be very difficult for people to get decent
remuneration in this area for just throwing a couple of sentences
together.
At least with good graphics, scripting etc, it's clear that you need
specialist skills. Good writing, in some cases (particularly, say, ad
copy or marketing material), is often sufficiently smooth that you
don't notice how good it is unless you get a chance to see what it
was worked up from :-)
Add to that the frustration of having clients who then tinker with the
prose without understanding why the particular word or phrase was
chosen and how such tinkering can change things, and it can be
an unrewarding (in all senses) area in which to work.
I recall some classic scenes when working in Japan where native
English speakers would put together something (manual, ad copy,
releases, newspaper stories), only to have the final material
changed by the head honcho (or bucho, as the case may be). The
one which really stuck in my mind was the tag line which Kanebo
(a cosmetics firm) eventually had for a number of years : "For
Beautiful Human Life."
That's an extreme example across two cultures and languages, but
it's the sort of thing that happens to content writers on a regular
basis.
Good luck,
Vicki Hyde
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