Advice given by an agent when writing a book for a flat fee.

A guideline on writing for Good Taste Magazine

Find out what writers can do about it.

By: Samantha Perry

The next PR or marketing person who asks me if they can approve/proof-read a story before it goes to print is going to get the kind of reaction from me that makes a nuclear explosion look calm, controlled and harmless. Thereafter I will take a dictionary, and hit them repeatedly over the head with it, until they beg me to let them look up editorial integrity, and press freedom.

You want to write, you’ve got a great idea for a story, you’ve made a few notes – but your life is just too busy to find the time to get behind your computer.

Media Monitoring has produced a booklet on reporting children.

The last time you wrote a document, didn't it make you mad when - after checks and double-checks - someone pointed out the error you should've spotted before you printed 50 of the bleeding thing? Welcome to the world of what I call ‘Neuro Autocorrect', where your brain fixes your mistakes so you don't see them. Here's how it happens, why it happens, but more important, what you can do about it.

How do you ensure that you never look stupid in your haste to get messages out? Regardless of your personal beliefs about the world, humanity, religion or politics, the bottom line of all business communication is that God is in the details. In other words, if you're operating inside the corporate arena and you're writing stuff (no matter how short, informal or irregular) that other people read, perfect accuracy is part of your job.

During a recession, like the one South Africa (and, in fairness, everyone else) is looking at right now, scared businesses tend to cut back on marketing. “After all,” they say, “most clients are becoming more cautious about spending, so let's conserve our resources, wait out the downturn and spend when the economy picks up.” Not true, I'm afraid.

Newcomers to Safrea often ask on the members-only Safrea Google group for tips on where to find good resources for editing style and grammar rules. We thought it would be worth posting one of the answers here.

Sonar free writer submission tracking software keeps short stories and freelance articles organised and submitted.

Note: Safrea hasn't tested this software so can't provide a recommendation - but it looks useful.

A discussion on the Safrea members-only Google group revealed that many journalists struggle with interviewees who want to make unreasonable changes to articles before they go to print. There is a fine line between accepting factual changes and being persuaded to rewrite an article into an advertorial by a forceful interviewee.

Georgina Guedes (Safrea member) responded to the emails by providing guidelines for a fact-checking policy and the rationale behind the various points.

UK COURT HANDS DOWN LANDMARK RULING ON INTERNET PUBLICATIONS

The English courts have recently held that a newspaper will be liable for defamation if it continues to make a defamatory story available via its website after the person defamed in the story has been cleared of wrongdoing.

Read more in Webber Wentzel February 2010 News (PDF, 246kb)