Hi, Michael, I am seriously considering returning to corporate writing, but this time as a freelance opportunity. I used to do so PR based work as an employee for a variety of businesses and non-profits. It seemed that no matter where I worked I always became the one responsible for all production work related to the creation of newsletters, brochures, annual reports and the like.
I am more than a little gun shy about returning to such work. All I want to do is the writing of the copy. I don't want to have to hassle with layout work, finding clip art and/or photographs, setting up camera ready copy, dealing with printers, deciding what stock and colors to use, picking up and delivering blue line copy, etc. To me, that moves into the realm of desk top publishing work and dangeorusly close to graphic design and the like, which I find entirely too boring.
Yes, one can probably make a pretty dollar assuming full control over such production. But I have burnt out entirely too many times juggling the writing end with the production end. I prefer to do the interviewing, and the writing, and what they do with the copy after that is their business.
Am I being realistic in the niche that I want to carve out for myself? For example, in creating my own writing brochure, I became acutely aware that it was an interesting trick to do just the copy without first laying out the brochure. And I wondered as I listed what I was willing to write, can I sell this concept of being willing to write brochure copy without getting involved in brochure layout? The same with newsletters, annual reports, training manuals and the like.
So when you talk about making money writing for corporate/business entities how far do you go with the writing?