A. James Editing, Inc.

I’ve got exciting news!


Yours truly is featured in the monthly e-zine of esteemed freelance copywriter, Peter Bowerman. You know, the guy whose book is permanently featured down the right side of my website? Yeah, that Peter Bowerman.


Whoo hoo! I’m in the big-time, baby!


Here’s a link to the goods.

It’s in section four, DESSERT: Sweet Success Stories and Tips: OR FLCW Sets Her Writing Sights on Sportswear Giant and Scores!


I’d like to thank the Academy blah blah blah, my mom blah blah blah and wouldn’t it be great to have a little world peace around here?

I’ve met quite a few freelance copywriters over the past few months, and the general trend I’ve discovered is that not many of us are attending networking events. This is at once wonderful and not so wonderful.


Why Wonderful?
Because it means I’m the only writer around and I have the run of the room!

Why Not So Wonderful?
Because the business owners and decision-makers I’m meeting have often never worked with a copywriter before, and have very little idea what our work is worth, thus, not budgeting for our professional involvement in their projects.

The more copywriters out there talking to people about what we do, and exposing them to the vast contributions we can make to their businesses and organizations, the more people who will understand our profession and what our work is worth. It’s about collaboration, not competition.

To encourage this mass ride of sorts, I would like to share all the networking events I know of around town. Below are the networking events coming up that I know about. As I learn about more, I’ll post them to my blog.


Here we go:


Thursday, May 12 (tomorrow/today depending on when you read this)
The University Club Grand Reception. It’s swanky so RSVP and gussy up. 3-7pm. Free to attend. Details.

Partners in Diversity Say Hey. Portland Business Alliance program. 6-8pm. Business casual. RSVP. Free to attend. Details. They also have a Facebook page.

Monday, May 16th
The Portland Business Alliance puts on one-a few events per week. Times and prices for attendance vary depending on the level of the event. I typically go to ShopTalk and Business Leads Exchange. As a member, I pay $5, non-members be prepared to pay $8. I would check their website here and add all their events to your calendar.

Wednesday, May 25th
Partners in Diversity Breakfast of Champions. 7:30-10am. Business casual. RSVP. Free to attend. Details. Looks like registration is closed, but it’s a quarterly event so keep your eyes open for it later.


That’s all I’ve got for you so far this month. Check back for updated info as the month goes on and as June rolls around. There were some events earlier this month that you’ve already missed. (I know this because I was the only writer there. Except that one event where I met fellow marketing writer, David Small.) I go to anywhere from four-eight networking events per month depending on my workload and the amount of sleep I get the night before (some of these events are early!).


What networking events do you know about around Portland that you’d like to share?

The ever-confusing conundrum of the order of closing quotation marks and punctuation. There are certain circumstances in which the closing quotation mark comes before a piece of punctuation and others when it comes after. Usually when a direct quote is involved the piece of punctuation goes inside the quotation mark like this:

Together they would form, in the words of their press release: “The world’s first fully-integrated media and communications company for the internet century.”

In The BBC‘s article, “Why AOL Time Warner failed to change the world,” the previous quote appeared. In the same article, however, this quote also appeared:

“Shockwaves from the merger are already being felt around the business world”.

In the first example, the punctuation went inside the quotation mark and in the second, a sentence of similar construction, the punctuation went outside the quotation mark…hmm.

Unfortunately for The BBC, not only is this second sentence grammatically incorrect, it is not consistent with the manner in which quotes are managed elsewhere in the article. I praise you, BBC, for your excellent reporting and I look forward to the day of grammatical perfection in online news copy.

Love Skype. Love eBay. Love The BBC. Do not love typos. Off the front page of The BBC is an article entitled, “eBay in Skype deal with founders.” Forgiving a few commas here and there whose presence or absence is open to interpretation, no copywriter worth her salt could let these “ises” go uncorrected.

The BBC said:

The deal, announced by eBay in September, is is expected to be finalised in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Freelance copywriter Amber would have said:

The deal, announced by eBay in September, is expected to be finalised in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Simple.