Copywriter in Edinburgh

Where's a Tardis when you need one?

In an ideal world, all my freelance clients would be within easy walking distance. In the real world, the Internet allows service providers like me to work for clients around the world. Although picking up new business is tricky without being able to meet, I've been able to keep some established clients after returning to Scotland from Canada.

One of my regular commissions is to write the monthly ad for Best Buy Canada's mobile phone division, Best Buy Mobile, as well as taking on a variety of other projects, including web promotions, customer emails, etc, when their in-house team is stretched (which is often the case). I also write web and other corporate copy, as well as monthly customer newsletters, for Serebra Campus and Serebra Connect - two business strands of another long-distance Canadian client, Serebra Learning Corporation.

As I've established good relationships with both companies' in-house marketing and creative teams over the last year or so, they continue to contract this out long-distance and, while meeting for lunch is tricky, the 8-hour time difference can actually work in their favour. My client can email me something at 4pm Pacific Time and I'll pick it up first thing in the morning here. Workload-willing, I have a whole day to work on the project, before emailing a draft back to them for first thing in the morning their time, giving the illusion that I have slaved away all night on it! How's that for service? 

It's worked perfectly on at least a couple of occasions when something urgent has cropped up at the end of the day, or they need some new headlines for a promotion for a meeting first thing in the morning.

If you would like me to slave away all night on a promotion or brochure for your company (or at least give the illusion of having done so), with or without an 8-hour time difference, please get in touch.

New client notice: Veratta

Proof that distance is no barrier in the age of the Internet, I have completed a short, urgent project for a new client back in Vancouver. Veratta design agency contacted me through the "Vancouver arm" of my freelance business - Tincan Communications - to work on copy for a series of brochures for their client, the Plaza 500 Hotel in Vancouver. They weren't put off by the 8-hour time distance and, although in an ideal world it would have been good to have a face-to-face meeting, the project went through without a hitch.

Guide to Vancouver published

Last year I was commissioned to write the introductory section to Vancouver: The Complete Resident's Guide. The book was recently published by Explorer Publishing and is exactly what it says on the tin - a complete guide for new residents, as well as visitors, to Canada's youngest metropolis. If you want, you can get it here.

Elephant & Bagels (and free Wi-Fi, too)

Moving back to Edinburgh after five and a half years in Canada has not been without its challenges. Forcing myself not to return to my old habit of eating bacon rolls with brown sauce nearly every morning is one. (Well, it's bacon! With brown sauce!). Starting again as a freelancer in a "new" place is another. An early task involved finding a suitable "office", i.e. a cafe that will let me sit in it for hours at a time. One of the many good things about Vancouver is its plentiful supply of coffee shops open all hours for so-called laptop nomads. In fact, Vancouver is possibly the most coffee-obsessed city on the planet (not only a Starbucks on almost every corner, but also sometimes another one directly opposite!) and certainly the only place where I've witnessed line-ups of kids ordering large coffee-flavoured beverages before school (I pity the teachers).

So I've been delighted to discover that everywhere in Edinburgh seems to have Wi-Fi now - even the pubs. Whether or not this means that the traditional "old man at the end of the bar reading the Evening News", who seemingly comes free with every pub in Edinburgh, will swap his print paper for a laptop showing the online version remains to be seen. I hope not, as it's handy being able to swipe his paper when he leaves. And crisp crumbs play havoc with keyboards.

After much wandering around town, including one typically windy Edinburgh day that allowed me to reacquaint myself with the experience so accurately depicted by the Fringe performer opposite, I settled on the Elephant & Bagels. It comes complete with friendly staff, perfectly good coffee, 50p refills, little nooks with desks and desk lamps, fast and free Wi-Fi, and plenty of snacks.