Substack shamed me
So I'm writing a newsletter to placate it
Hello.
I was going to start off and say that I’m sorry for the delay in sending this email but I’m not. I’ve been busy and while my aforementioned four day working week was supposed to be so I had one day to spend on business development… I’ve not been doing that. I’ve been to and from London twice, I’ve been to Dublin, Rhodes, Manchester, Liverpool, Durham and Belfast. All since the last email. We’ve also had friends and family staying with us, for a few days at a time.
So I’m not sorry, because something had to give and in this case, it was this newsletter. But it’s Festival Season here in Edinburgh and I’m feeling inspired to write, so let’s get going.
Self-employment is tough, and at the moment, particularly so, with clients hesitant to spend money on contractors, and withdrawing their accounts and spends from agencies, which has a trickle-down effect on sole traders.
But I count myself as a lucky one. I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before, but overnight, in 2020 I lost all projects that were in the pipeline. I made a loss that year, the first since I began my copywriting journey back in 2017. But after a while, I threw myself into online communities of other freelancers and copywriters. And, the connections I made then have served me so well everyday since.
I’m lucky that I’m great at chatting online. I grew up spending my adolescence on MySpace and MSN Messenger (RIP), so making friends and connections online comes easy to me. I’m more awkward in person, and hate networking events for this reason, but online, I’m great.
And, because of my ability to chat shit online and throw myself out there, I’ve made some amazing friends and colleagues. These friends and colleagues, and the wider community of copywriters and freelancers I know, have allowed me the opportunity to work on some incredible projects, some challenging projects and, ultimately, have allowed me to pay my bills.
So I consider myself one of the lucky ones; my skillset and, some might argue (I’m looking at you, Lisa 👀) my penchant for choosing chaos and violence, have allowed me to work this year. I worked on a massive website project for a semi-state organisation, then learned more than I ever need to know about marine insurance, then worked to develop the tone of voice and website content for a fintech start-up.
In fact, I wrapped on my last project on Friday the 11th, after working on it since April; so a pretty long stint. But I’m not here to brag, I’m here to say that every project I have worked on in 2022 and 2023 has come from my community of fellow copywriters, creatives and contractors. But in the beginning, I viewed other copywriters as my competition. I thought they were all out to get me and steal my contacts and contracts like thieves in the night.
But I’m old hat at this now, and Specky Scribbler turned 6.5 years old a few days ago, and I honestly wish I knew this back in the early days. I also wish I knew that I didn’t enjoy blog writing for clients but I had to learn that the hard way. Essentially, this newsletter is to say that when times are tough in the market, we should all try to bolster each other and recommend each other.
TL;DR: Peers are not competition, they’re the biggest source of potential work you have so be sound.
(Yes, I know that TL;DR is meant to go at the beginning but it ruins the flow, so I’ve put it here.)
Now for my favourite part of the newsletter
Stuff I’ve liked
📚 Small Things Like These - Claire Keegan
📚 Shy - Max Porter
📚 This Is My Body, Given For You - Heather Parry
📚 Open Water - Calem Azumah Nelson
🍿 Léon: The Professional
🍿 Barbie
📺 The Bear, Season 2
Edinburgh Festival enjoyments… so far
🎭 The Half Moon
🎪 YUCK Circus
🎤 Michelle Brasier: Reform
🎤 Nick Mohammed presents: The Best and Worst of Mr Swallow
🎤 David O’Doherty: Tiny Piano Man
Edinburgh stuff I’m looking forward to
🎪 La Clique
🎭 JM Coetzee's Life & Times of Michael K
👂🏻Tam Lin: A Future Tale
👂🏻 Max Porter at the Edinburgh Book Festival
My books are open for the end of the year and I’m particularly interested in third sector, NGO and charity work, so if you’ve a Christmas campaign coming up:
MSN Messenger hive rise up !!!