Writing for client publications by Jonathan Downie

There are various ways of getting your message as a translator out there and showing potential clients what you do. One of those ways is free advertising by means of writing content, articles, for a publication that is read by the clients you wish to attract and work for. But how do you go about that?

Jonathan Downie, interpreter and expert in this field, guided us through the steps of defining our perfect client, finding publications that clients read, and then writing the perfect pitch. Jonathan first set us to work interviewing each other to find out what our USPs were, without using key words such as ‘text’ and ‘translator’. The more specific you are about what you have to offer, the better you are able to also convince an editor to include your article in their magazine.

After finding a number of suitable magazines (and enjoying a healthy lunch), it was time to start writing our pitch letter. And it’s harder than you think! What is your hook? What is the problem you want to highlight in your article and how can we as translators offer a solution? And all that has to be as short as possible…

Thanks to Jonathan’s tips, I now not only have started working on a few pitches for magazines, but I am also much better at pitching what I do to potential clients in a real-life networking environment. So: a win-win for me!

Written by: Ammerins Moss