Catching Up

In the words of ever-fabulous Alan Carr, what a week it’s been.  Here at Katie Lingo Towers (okay, the junk room I like to call my “study”) I’ve been cramming away working to spread the word and reach out to those in need of proofreading and copywriting services.

Indeed it’s probably been less strenuous than last week, which actually saw me getting up and moving away from said junk room to meet the University of York’s new cohort of students at the Freshers’ Fair. This week however saw me exploring opportunities closer to home.

First up, I feel hugely privileged to say I have been given the opportunity to write a chapter for Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Success, soon to be published by Athena Publishing. As a woman I feel particularly humbled to be contributing to this, as Athena Publishing has a strong focus on successful women in business. Katie Lingo is still relatively new and yet I’ve been extremely lucky to work with some wonderful clients, so I am touched that I am already being invited to contribute to publications like this. I’ll be writing a chapter on knowing your goals and facing your fears – two extremely important things to consider when going freelance. When it’s published it will be available for sale on Amazon and selected book stores, in paperback and e-book format, so watch this space.

Next up, and back to the University of York once again, (four years since I graduated and I still can’t get away…) I’ve signed up for some advertising in York Vision. If you’re not familiar with the publication, it’s a termly tabloid format newspaper written for, and by, students. After giving out some flyers last week I thought I would go one step up with a newspaper ad, and now my favourite little panda can be seen in 8,000 copies of this award-winning publication! I must give credit to the wonderful designer Andy Cox who put the ad together for me. It has to be said, his skills certainly trump my “interpretation” of a panda, created using solely Microsoft Paint. (I was never about pictures – only words.) Oh, and did I mention I used to write for Vision myself? Of course this was back in the days of parachute pants and VHS tapes…

Freelance Journalism

Slightly further away from home, I’ve also taken a trip to the Press Association in Howden this weekend  to potentially explore some freelancing opportunities. Nothing is set in stone yet but it was nice to get a glimpse of how their newsroom worked, and I even had a play about on InDesign doing some subbing. It took me back to my NCTJ Production Journalism exam, which I have to say is probably the only exam I have ever enjoyed doing. Writing for national papers is such a rarity living in this part of the world, so it was great to take a look.

Other than that, I’ve also been keeping busy with some client work – after all, it’s important to look after my current clients whilst I’m on the lookout for new ones. I feel like I’ve hardly had a chance to sit down with everything that’s been going on, but in reality, that’s exactly what I’m doing – invariably, in a onesie.

So for now I’ll be clocking off, but hopefully next time you hear from me I’ll be published in paperback. Check back soon!