Test Me As a Potential Copywriter?

Why not kill two birds with one stone?

Write a sales letter offering your copywriting services.

That way if you DO have it, you can get going straight away.

It's not what you've got. It's what you're willing to do.

Look around you, pick something interesting, write an ad for it, then the post the ad.

The best judge of your work is the marketplace.

Or someone whose critique would provide valuable instruction - i.e. not most of the people who lurk here looking to tear apart work.

I will tell you this: this is a brutal field. There's no way around it. When you create, there's a whole subset of people out there (actually, it's the majority) who can't create, never have created in their lives, that feel like they are entitled to criticize.

In client work, there will always be someone who wants to put their "stamp" on it - even if it's technically perfect as delivered.

Everyone theoretically learned how to write in school, so they all know their present participles from their gerunds and they absolutely know that grammatical and spelling mistakes sabotage the sale, so won't this random edit I proposed sound better?

I say this not to dump on clients. I say it to welcome you to the world of creative work.

Maybe/possibly/kindly/etc - not really what it takes to make it here.

Politesse works, for sure. But faith in your work, determination to succeed, gumption to back up your ideas and back down when the data proves your ideas don't work as well as you'd hoped.

I agree with Chris in the truest sense - put yourself out there to paying clients. That's the best test.

If not, try writing a sales letter for something completely and totally necessary that tends to "sell itself" - like toilet paper. It'll force you to think of this in a new light - what's special about THIS paper? Why is it the best paper you'll ever buy?

Writers write. Copywriters write to sell. Get to selling, man.

Thanks for the great responses.

Since I am out and about and posting this response by phone, I will need to respond in a better way later on.

gjabiz, your proposal sounds very interesting. I will be emailing you.

Nice work gjabiz ;D

Thanks again for all the responses.

Hey, if I do post a sales letter here offering my services, will anyone even know I did it and check it out? Or will I end up like a bride waiting at the altar?

Hmmmm?

Before writing a sales letter, read a book that teaches basic copywriting. That will give you a frame of reference.

Alex

So how is it going Genocris?

Good work!

Best of luck as a copywriter!

best of luck for you. be a great writer