Really, I'm asking. I don't have the answer, but I keep running into this discussion on other blogs. Apparently this is a controversial topic in the writing world, so I really want to hear about it. When there is no conflict of interest, say a writer develops brochures for a local travel agency but their niche is writing about parenting and child issues for national mags. What is the issue?
I haven't had any problems - that I'm aware of - but it came up when I went to revamp my Web site. Should we include corporate writing clips or not? I argued I'd seen the big whips like Linda Formichelli list their corporate work along with mag clips. Maybe after you're established to the point where people put you in their blogs as big whips you can.
I would love to hear editors take on this. Is it a big deal or is the blog world blowing it out of proportion?
Finally, if you do both, how do you "hide" your corporate writing - especially in this information heavy world? Is hiding it being dishonest?
1 comment:
I don't totally hide it (I have a link to my marketing site on my writing site) but I have 'em separated out because I think it shows that I understand the boundaries. But I'm also doing it because of branding. I think one reason it works for Linda is that she writes a lot for trades (and I think this is potentially a bigger conflict of interest but I think trades worry less about it); and she has a very rah-rah professional personality, which is totally a marketing personality. Me, I'm trying to build a more serious career alongside rah-rah marketing and I need to treat the two as totally separate brands.
I really don't know why editors can get hung up on it. but I think that part of it is that many editors have never been freelancers and they don't understand how much hustling it takes to earn a living.
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