Greatest Freelance Writing Tips in the World...Ever

Linda Jones is an inspiring journalist/PR/blogger/all-round busy person based in the West Midlands. She runs several blogs about freelance writing and one about twins (she also has twin daughters! Makes you feel bad about complaining you're too busy doesn't it). Now she is also releasing a book called 'The Greatest Freelance Writing Tips in the World. Yes, she's also modest.

The foreword is by Jan Murray of JournoBiz, a great networking website for journalists, PRs, and anyone interested in writing. Linda's book is on general release from September 30 and a supporting blog at http://www.freelancewritingtips.com/ is also packed with ‘no-nonsense’ advice on the business of freelance journalism. The book costs £5.50 instead of £6.99 if ordered direct from the publishers, to include postage and packing. It's bound to be both humorous and practical and I'm looking forward to reading it.

Melding and blogging

I went along to the launch of a new ideas development project which aims to 'meld the skills of Northern journalist and interactive designers' to develop content for innovative new media platforms last night. It was at the Moet bar at Selfridges so you can tell designers are involved, a distinctly un-hack like venue!

The launch was somewhat shrouded in mystery and not everything became clear at the launch but it's definitely an interesting concept. The idea is for journos, film makers and developers to get together and suggest a project to develop during a week-long 'Meld Lab' at UCLAN's Sandbox. At the end of the week the teams pitch their ideas to commissioning editors from Sky TV, Johnson Press and Haymarket. There is a second launch in Leeds on the 15th although there were only a couple of places left the other day. Email info@meldonline.org if you're interested.

After that I nipped over to the Manchester Blog Awards at Matt & Phred's. Only caught the end but congrats to Mancubist who won the Best Art and Culture Blog Award. The event was part of the Manchester Literature Festival, which is on until the 14th.

The other side of the fence...

I was interviewed on the radio yesterday! I had arranged for one of my clients Steve Phillip, who runs a company called Empowering Women at Work, to appear on BBC Radio York. Steve was due to talk about what it is like to be a man who predominantly coaches women, ways women can become more assertive in the workplace etc. We'd run through a mock interview (even though he is a bit of a natural to be honest!) and everything was set. Then the producer asked him if any of the women he coached would be prepared to be interviewed as well.

He phoned a few people but it was quite short notice and most of them were in work or needed to ask permission from their companies first. With such a short timescale, Steve came up with a plan. Would I mind doing it? Steve has been giving me some business coaching for a few months and I think he's fantastic, even if I am a bit biased as his publicist. I thought the producer might be retiscent for this reason but she said it was fine as long as we were open about the relationship. So it turned out I had no excuse...

Actually it was fine, even though I've got a bit of a cold. After coaching Steve for the interview I realised that I needed to do some quick preparation myself. I listened to the show - luckily you could listen live online - and made some notes about the work I've done with Steve and why I enjoy working with him. We had prepared for some 'nasty' questions just in case but the interviewee was lovely. Steve did extremely well and I think it was good experience for me to be on the receiving end of the interview process for a change.