The Golden Thread – The Week in Review
November 28 – December 4, 2004

Welcome to The Golden Thread Online, your free e-letter from American Writers & Artists Inc. Every Saturday, you will receive this recap of all the strategies, insights and opportunities we send to you and your fellow AWAIers each week. Whether it’s a message from a fellow writer about how he landed a new client … a technique from a Master copywriter for writing a control … an insight into how to succeed in a new market … news of a brand new writing job or business opportunity for you … you’ll find it here in this easy-to-access and always available “Week in Review.”

In This Issue:

• The Easiest and Fastest Way to Promote Yourself - and It's Free
  There's great opportunity for copywriters. Directresponsejobs.com helps you find it.
• Quick Tip: Kill Your Darlings
  The phrases you fall in love with in your copy might be killing your results.

The Easiest and Fastest Way to Promote Yourself – and It's Free

The jobs are out there.

Over $219 BILLION was spent on direct marketing in 2003. And $48.6 billion of that was spent on direct mail alone.

The direct-marketing industry is booming … and it needs you to write and design for it.

With the improving economy, these numbers are soaring – along with your opportunities for getting a job.

And now, getting a job in direct marketing just got easier … MUCH EASIER.

You're familiar with the job search board Monster.com. Well, AWAI has taken that concept and morphed it into an online job board exclusively for AWAI students.

This valuable resource is called DirectResponseJobs.com. And it's now part of your complete AWAI training.

The Board has two sides to it. One is for DM businesses to post jobs for writers and designers. We’re promoting it as the place for marketers to find their next superstar … and put a serious dent in the deep pile of back-logged projects they have on their desks.

The other side of the Board is for you – AWAI-trained copywriters and graphic designers – to hook up with an array of marketers from all sectors of the Direct Response world.

Here's how it works for you:

If you're currently enrolled in AWAI's Accelerated or Masters Copywriting Programs or our Graphic Design Success Program, you will receive an e-mail from info@directresponsejobs.com.com tomorrow with your private log-in and password. (If you haven’t received it by Wednesday morning or are not part of these programs but would like access to the Job Board, please contact directresponsejobs@awaionline.com)

Next, go to www.directresponsejobs.com and sign on.

From there, search for jobs that suit your needs. All the details will be there … and so will all the information you need to make your first contact. (If you’re a Master’s Student, you can take it a step further and post your resume in a special “Master’s Students” section so marketers can contact you directly.)

Check back often. New jobs will be posted daily.

We're excited about what this new tool can mean for your career. Please keep us posted on your successes.

Quick Tip: Kill Your Darlings

William Faulkner once said, "Kill your darlings."

With his type of stories, he might have meant kill off your favorite characters. But he didn't.

He meant something far more important for any writer or graphic designer.

When you revise your work, you'll come across things you've written or designed that strike you as especially beautiful or strong. It may be a lyrical phrase. Or a word that perfectly captures what you want to say. Or a bit of cleverness most people won't quite get.

These expressions of beauty, eloquence, and sophisticated cleverness … these are your "darlings." They interfere with your prospect's reading. They get in the way of your sale. Kill them.

Strike them from your copy.

It won't be easy. But ideas that you're strongly attached to are often weak.

Here's a strategy many accomplished writers use that can also easily be adapted to graphic design …

When you come to one of your darlings, figure out a way to express what you want to communicate more simply. Then cut out the offending section and paste it at the bottom of your file.

Continue editing. After several revisions, go back and examine each of your "darlings" critically. Did you really need it? Does it add power to your writing/design? You'll probably answer "no."

If you're still reluctant to lose your darlings, paste them into a separate file "to be used later." After several months, you'll discover that you've never used any of them. More important, you'll discover that your writing/graphic design is stronger without them.