Where have all the Copywriters gone?

Why is it so hard to find a ‘real’ Copywriter these days? I see more journalists, novelists, tech writers, content writers, and academics adding "Copywriter" to their resumes, without really understanding the difference.

Believe me, I know it’s not rocket science. But there is a definite art to using words in a way that not only grabs a person’s attention, but will also compel that person to take an action – to buy a car, take a vacation, change vodkas, or even to buy a collectible set of presidential dinner plates.

Tags: copywriter, creative

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Permalink Reply by Brian Schwartz on September 1, 2007 at 7:38pm

Denny Hatch and Hershell Gordon Lewis.

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Permalink Reply by Jim Turner on September 1, 2007 at 10:03pm

Some of the best training I've seen is that offereby the American Writers and Artist Inc. ... that's where I got my training. It's a series of correspondence lessons combined with CD/DVD-based instructions. The course contains a ton of excercises and practical projects to work on.

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Permalink Reply by Andre Vatke on October 11, 2007 at 4:42pm

Self-taught for sure - out of necessity if nothing else.

I've gotten a lot from Joe Sugarman, Bob Bly, Dan Kennedy even Maria Veloso.

But to be honest I've learned the most about copywriting by talking with customers, years of testing data and reading others peoples copy. Learned a lot from Susannah Hutcheson whom I had on retainer for a few years back in the 90's.

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Permalink Reply by Brian Schwartz on September 1, 2007 at 7:40pm

San Francisco is a tough market as well. The VC money is flowing again and the startups are hungry for good creative talent.

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Permalink Reply by Jim Turner on September 1, 2007 at 10:05pm

The reason why those few are pulling down $100K+ is because the good ones are few and far between.

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Permalink Reply by Steve McNamara on September 2, 2007 at 1:56pm

I'm tooting my own horn here, but there is what I believe to be an excellent direct response training module on AdCracker CD, which you can see here:

http://www.adcracker.com/proskills/index.htm

Or here: http://www.adcracker.com/index.htm

A more objective review can be found here:
http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewCompositeReview.htm?id=226532

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Permalink Reply by Bill Frink on September 2, 2007 at 5:34pm

I don't know the answer but I'm looking for radio and television copywriters to contract and collaborate with some of my current projects/challenges.

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Permalink Reply by Eric Weaver on September 20, 2007 at 11:30am

It ain't just copywriting, folks. There's not any design training to speak of anymore within agencies, either. At least, not that I've seen. I paid to ship my "kids" to conferences but that was all I could afford to do.

Same thing: the good designers are in high demand and are booked solid. And that number has shrunken drastically because design, like copywriting, has become devalued. Everyone's a designer, right? So rather than flipping Photoshop burgers, many designers I know have gotten into UI and other areas that aren't dumbed down into meaninglessness.

And so the overall quality lessens and the devaluation perpetuates.

I think this is a creative-wide problem.

All I can do is just educate my clients over and over and over and over and over - "ya get whatcha pay for".