Three Tips When Hiring a Professional Writer

I’ve been a professional writer for 29 years now—actually, more than 29 years—and have worked both as an employee and as an independent consultant.

Whether you’re hiring an employee to write for you, or contracting with a content marketing expert to create content for you, I have some views on the things that your firm can do to ensure that your writer does great things for you. There are many things your firm can do, but three critical things are:

1. Set expectations up front.
2. Ask if your professional writer can do what you need.
3. Communicate clear and realistic deadlines.

Set expectations up front

Most employer job descriptions are nothingburgers. They have to be vetted and standardized to fit the needs of the entire company. And because they’re so onerous to produce, they aren’t updated all that often.

And when you get to the work instructions, they often are too generic. “Write about our facial recognition solution,” in and of itself, could yield a bunch of different outputs, most of which you won’t like.

So when you approach your potential employee or contractor, provide details that go beyond the written word.

What is the measure of success (or failure) for this position or contract?

Why is your firm doing what you are doing?

What do you REALLY need your employee/contractor to do?

Ask if your professional writer can do what you need

Note that I didn’t say “ask if your professional writer is experienced in doing what you need.” Sometimes professional writers are perfectly capable of doing things they have never done before.

• Before I started writing software user manuals for Logic eXtension Resources, I had never written a software user manual.
• Before I contracted with Printrak, I had never written a proposal before.
• Before I became a product manager at Printrak (and Motorola), I had never written a marketing requirements document.
• Before I handled U.S. social media for MorphoTrak, I had never tweeted or written other social media content professionally.
• Before I wrote a dozen case studies for a confidential Bredemarket client, I had never written a single one.
• Before I managed the creation of over 80 battlecards for Incode Technologies, my battlecard experience was limited.

So why did these companies trust me to work on these tasks?

Because they determined that experience I did have was transferable to the tasks at hand.

For example, I got the job at Logic eXtension Resources because the owner knew that I had graduated from Reed College, which had an undergraduate thesis requirement. The owner figured that if I could write at length about the efficiency and equity of the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act of 1965, I could write at length about the operation of the multiCALC software program.

Now there’s always a risk when trying a writer on something new. But frankly, there’s always a risk when trying a writer on something old. Maybe my battlecard experience won’t help you if you need battlecards for Russian nuclear submarine manufacturers. (NIST does not compile comparative performance information for Russian nuclear submarines.)

But whatever you do, you need to ensure that the work you need aligns with the professional writer’s potential capabilities.

Communicate clear and realistic deadlines

Usually, some piece of work is due by a certain date.

Note that I didn’t say that work is always due by a certain date. In some cases, the work is needed “whenever,” which may mean next year.

Sometimes firms say that a piece of work is needed “ASAP.” Frankly, this isn’t a due date. If something is needed ASAP, am I supposed to stop all other work and all other bodily functions including eating and sleeping until it is done?

Now I understand that dates may slip as priorities change, and that in most cases the work that I am performing is not the most important work that the firm needs to complete. Plus, things change.

• Perhaps Project X is very critical one week, but during the next week external factors mean that Project Y has become more critical. Hey, that happens—as long as the priorities aren’t constantly changing on a weekly basis.
• Or maybe Project Y is due, but something that is necessary for Project Y isn’t ready yet so the due date for Project Y has to change out of necessity.

So when you communicate a completion date for a project:

1. Make sure it’s a date, not “ASAP” or “whenever.”
2. Communicate any necessary dependencies, such as “we need this by Friday the 28th, but that assumes that we receive the material from the third party by Friday the 21st.”
3. Update as situations change.