Unlike the spoken word, the written word does tend to create a permanent record of what we say. Our readers can review it over and over, study it until they’re blue in the face, and refer back to it until the ink starts to wear off the page. If it’s going to be written, it really ought to be accurate, concise, and unambiguous; and, if it’s going to move anyone to take action, …like buy something from you, it certainly helps if it carries a touch of emotion and inspiration. Please be sure that the spelling and grammar are correct. You’re representing yourself, your expertise, your professionalism, and your competence to do a job.
Heavy stuff, huh? Sometimes it’s best if we each do what we do best, …and then find others to help us out who have talents or expertise that we ourselves haven’t had the time or the interest to develop. I’m suggesting that you do what you do best, and allow me to help you by doing what I do best.
I absolutely love working with words. It’s a passion. Can’t stop it! I get a real kick out of painting mental pictures, weaving colorful stories, or even clarifying for a reader what at first appears fairly complicated. I have been moved to tears, and I have been driven to fits of laughter, by well-chosen words. I have been elevated to lofty plains of inspiration, and I have been disgusted down to the pit of my gut, …all by a couple of carefully-selected words. They’re just marks on a page; but they can carry awesome might and power! Please don’t waste them, particularly when they may be the only window that a prospect may have to peer into your business.
Corporate Marketing Brochures and Web Copy
Marketing materials, of course, have to focus on the benefits to a potential customer of what you have to offer, whether a product or a service. Good writing should do that, and do it clearly. The writing ought to entice customers to visualize themselves improving their situation, maybe solving their problem, by using what you are offering. And that benefit must be clearly shown to outweigh the cost involved.
Marketers have known this probably since the day that Grog finally invented that wheel, but couldn’t figure out how to convince his fellow cave dwellers that they could finally stop dragging stuff around all the time.
Although I have been in marketing for some twenty-five years now, I fully expect that you have been too, or at least have found people who can do that very well for you. My role would be only to protect their work, or maybe to add a little polish. When marketing materials, no matter how well-intentioned, fail to communicate clearly, or fall a little short of motivating prospects to make a purchase, perhaps I can help. Sometimes, as we’ve all seen, the words themselves are pretty well-chosen. It’s the misspellings and the terrible grammar that create the fog, or worse, the grinding of the teeth, of a potential prospect. There too, maybe I can help. It’s generally a good thing to cut down on that teeth-grinding.
FEES:
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Brochure
Proofreading for spelling and grammar
via e-mail............................................................................... $10/pg* @ 12 pt type
via U.S. Mail, using hard copy................................................ $12/pg* @ 12 pt type
* a two-sided bifold or trifold brochure is considered 2 pages
Original composition, with information you provide............ $300/2-page
Web Page
Proofreading for spelling and grammar................................. $20/pg
Original composition, with information you provide............ $300/pg
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TV/Cable/Radio Commercial Scriptwriting
Now you’ve really got your work cut out for you! And you’ve got, what, maybe 30 seconds? Maybe 60? Phew, it’s gonna be tight. And now you’re writing for speaking, not for reading, and we humans don’t really write the way we speak, do we? We’re less formal when we speak; we cut off endings on words ‘n stuff. Sometimes we pause in places where it sounds right, even though the written page doesn’t tell us to. Every once in a while, we even end our sentences in a preposition. Heaven forbid. Sometimes it just makes ya wanna can the whole thing and go back home and do a brochure or somethin’, doesn’t it? Be a lot easier. Be cheaper, too. Hmmph; but maybe it wouldn’t be as effective, huh?
Well, maybe I can help. I’ve been doing it for quite some time now. I’d be happy to write it for you, or perhaps to write it with you, or maybe just to edit what you already have come up with. If you’d like, I’d even record it for you, on video or audio, maybe adding a little music or a couple of sound effects where appropriate (your choices, or I can offer suggestions), and have it ready to go for use in a radio or TV broadcast.
FEES:
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Radio Commercial
Writing a 30 second or less script for radio..........................................$200
Writing a 31-60 second script for radio................................................$250
Recording the script with voice and music...........................................$50
Adding appropriate sound effects where helpful..................................$50
Television or Cable Commercial
Writing a 30 second or less script for television...................................$300
Writing a 31-60 second script for television.........................................$400
Recording my own voice as the voiceover............................................$50
Adding appropriate music and sound effects.......................................$50
Videotaping, editing, and producing the finished product................... $200*
* Videotaping, editing, and producing a 30-second t.v. commercial
that has been written and acted by others, at 1 location.....................$400
…60 second t.v. commercial at 1 location...........................................$500
(please refer to the "Let's Go to the Movies" section of this website)
*** PLEASE NOTE that these fees are only for the writing and producing of the radio or t.v. commercial, and do NOT include the fees for air time on the various radio frequencies or t.v. networks, as that involves many variables.
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Speechwriting
All right, so we all get butterflies. Seems like the trick is to get them to start flying in a row. That little bit of nervousness is really a good thing, as you know. It can go a long way toward sharpening our senses up there on the podium, or maybe even to sharpen our wits, …or maybe even our tongue if we get a couple of wise guys in the back row.
There is no doubt that body language can have a tremendous impact on the success or failure of our speech. So can dress, personality, speed and clarity of your speech, and whether or not your audience has just finished a big lunch on a Friday afternoon. Some factors we really don’t have as much control over as we would like.
The elements that we can control absolutely, however, are the words that we choose to use to convey our message. It’s so important to pick the right ones. Be sure that they are creating visual images in the minds of your listeners. Choose words that have an emotional impact wherever they may be appropriate. To merely state facts is to bore to tears. Most of us get plenty of that the way it is. Offer something much better. Offer a speech that will penetrate to the minds and maybe even to the hearts of those whom you hope to reach. Make their time with you worthwhile for them, enjoyable for them, …how about even exciting for them. Let them know how much you value them by the care with which you prepare. That sort of stuff does not go unnoticed. Maybe I can help.
I have been fortunate to have had the opportunity to speak in front of people ever since I was a kid, emceeing all those grade school talent shows, and doing all the school announcements on those archaic PA systems back then. I’ve also studied for the Catholic priesthood for nine years through college and grad school, went overseas with the ministry to Latin America for a year and a half, spoke professionally to corporate audiences throughout southeastern Michigan for Citizens Against Crime for five years, and spoke professionally as a marketer for a large home health care company for twelve years. Currently, and for the last 10 years, I have been acting professionally in a self-written, one-man, two-act dramatic presentation that is performed several times a year during the Easter season for various local churches, playing to audiences, generally, of about 400-800 people (please feel free to stop in at www.scriptureonstage.com for further info, if you’d like). All I’m trying to say is, I feel your pain; …I mean, your excitement!
Did I already mention that I was hoping I might be able to help?
Writing successful speeches really has a lot to do with understanding the personality of the speaker, understanding the audience, and understanding where the speaker would like to take the audience in the time that he or she is allotted.
It is helpful to write a speech so that you can deliver it comfortably, without having to make up some persona that’s not really you. It usually helps to add a little touch of humor, maybe a great deal--depending, and also to leave the audience a little inspired to think or act a little differently because your words, and you, have briefly entered into their lives. Generally it’s also helpful to weave a simple story or two into your speech in order to paint a couple of pictures of what you are saying. Audiences seem to remember things much more readily and easily when they can see them in the context of a larger whole. Stories can really help here.
I like to think of myself as having studied many of the great speakers of modern times, and I have certainly tried to learn from them: Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Orson Welles, Mark Twain, Dr. Wayne Dyer, Marianne Williamson, even “speakers” like Billy Crystal or Lily Tomlin, and many more like them. While so much of the power of their speech is derived from the awesome power of their lives, nonetheless, we can certainly take a lesson from the way they use the language and the power of a podium to communicate their message.
FEES:
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Speechwriting, including interviews with you and a study of the message or information that you would like to convey, averaging about 3 minutes of speech per 1 double-spaced, typewritten page................................. $35/pg*
* Minimum of $100
30 minute = 10 pgs. = $350
60 minute = 20 pgs. = $700
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Company Newsletters — In Print or Via E-Mail
Company newsletters can be for internal or external use. They’re a concise, potentially entertaining way to communicate to employees, customers, and other associates the news of the company. Taken together over time, they also make for a wonderful record of the company’s history, a month at a time.
Some elements that might be included are the following:
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- Recent successes and accomplishments of employees and teams
- A Word from the CEO or President
- Summaries of meetings that will have a significant effect on the company’s policies or activities into the future
- Basic company policies, or changes in these policies
- Profiles or interviews with select customers, associates, or even an Employee of the Month, presented even better with a couple of photos
- Lighthearted news about the activities of various employees or departments, either within the company or even outside of it, i.e., accomplishments of company-sponsored sports teams, or of company personnel’s charitable activities outside of work
- Honorable mentionings of birthdays, anniversaries, or significant dates in the history of the company
- Tidbits from the past – stories from the history of the company
- A separate column for the opinions of the employees
- An employee “suggestion box”
- A “Just 4 Laffs” jokes column
- Miscellaneous helpful information on health, nutrition, finance, travel, etc. that may be particularly relevant to employees or other reader audiences
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FEES:
There are very many variables to consider:
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- Total number of pages per publication and size of paper
- Photos, at a single location, or at multiple
- Originally-written articles
- Interview and research time, if necessary
- Page layout
- Editing of others’ articles
- Printing & Distribution, and to how many locations?
- Distribution as an e-mail or as hard copy?
- Frequency of your publication: weekly, each payday, monthly?
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By way of offering a ballpark figure, however, allow me to offer this sample pricing:
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All page layout of monthly publication of 8 pages @ 8_” x 11” each (2 double-sided 11” x 17” sheets stapled together at the spine), with an average of 1-3 items per page (article, cartoon, crossword, joke column, etc.), half of the articles written by employees, half by American Corporate Communication, with all pertinent information supplied to ACC via e-mail, with a single hard copy submitted to your company for approval prior to publication, and then finalized on a CD or via e-mail for your printing and distribution............................... $500
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Video Scriptwriting
The words that accompany a video presentation, whether for marketing (see TV/Cable/Radio Commercial Scriptwriting above), educational, or even entertainment purposes, have to be chosen carefully. Sometimes they are needed to clarify and explain what is being shown, and sometimes they merely complement and enhance what is being shown. Sometimes, words can really get in the way of the video. Maybe I can help.
Video scriptwriting requires quite a bit more than just words. It also has to include direction as to location of a shoot, the actions of the actors or the graphics used, specifications as to the set, props, clothing, perhaps, and, of course, whether the words to be used will be spoken or will appear on the screen in some other fashion. Directions as to music, other sound, and even sound effects, if needed, must also be included.
Rough drafts have to be prepared after discussion with you as to what you would like to depict with your video presentation. What is its purpose? Who is the intended audience? What key points do you really intend to emphasize? What are your minor points going to be, and in what order would you like them presented? Clearly, a video of five minutes must be considerably tighter, and cover much more ground per minute, than a video of 60 minutes.
FEES:
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Nonetheless, again by way of a ballpark figure that you may find helpful as a starting point, for a basic video script with background music, a dialogue by two or three actors, and with minimal props, set, and location,........................................ $100/minute of video
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Corporate History Documentaries
Businesses don’t grow out of thin air. They grow from the seeds of a dream, and are nurtured by the grit of creative, independent-thinking, relentlessly hard-working visionaries who just will not give up. The story of the building of a business by talented, unique people like that is a story worth telling. It’s a story worth preserving, and retelling over and over for future generations to enjoy, to learn from, and to be inspired by.
These stories can be preserved on paper, as a pamphlet or even as a beautifully-bound volume, with well-chosen words walking hand-in-hand over the pages with the significant photos that have been taken at the various stops on the journey to the present. In this way, we’ll never lose the memory of those men and women who have spearheaded the company’s growth, who have paved the way for all of us, or who continue today to move our business into an ever brighter future. Preserving a sense of a business’s roots can go a long way toward instilling the pride of the founders into every employee who may come after them to further their work.
FEE:
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If all facts, dates, and other background research is supplied, and I am then left to turn it into interesting, readable prose, a ballpark figure would be............... $100/page
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