Literary Copywriter Spotlight: An Interview with Paige Lyman

Screen Shot 2020-08-17 at 3.02.30 PM.png — Paige Lyman

Literary Copywriter Spotlight 8/17/20

Welcome back to the L.C. Copywriter Spotlight where I feature professional writers and copywriters with literary pursuits. This week I interviewed Paige Lyman, a freelance writer and content creator with a background in journalism and creative writing.

Paige’s work can be found in places such as The New York Times, The Mary Sue, Women Write About Comics, and more! In 2020, Paige expanded her love of storytelling and reporting to cover topics such as pop culture, local stories, and farther reaching stories. Let’s hear from Paige!

L.C. Tell me about your writing journey. When did you first realize that a.) you are a writer, and b.) you want to make a living off of your writing?

P.L. So this might be a little cliché, but I knew I was a writer as a kid! I started writing short stories for school and I was writing a weekly newspaper for my family (a whole readership of my parents and older brother) that I called “The Paige Post”. I was also a huge reader and the older I got, the more I knew I wanted to be a writer essentially for the rest of my life. I majored in English in university with a minor in creative writing since that was the closest thing I could get at the time to a degree in writing. And from there I had some different jobs that were writing adjacent, like social media management, but making the move to writing full time was always the ultimate goal.

L.C. Please describe your copywriting career. How did you get started? Who are your ideal clients.? Do you freelance or work for an agency?, etc.

P.L. Copywriting for me started with social media content. I landed a freelance gig during my last couple months of university managing the social accounts for a restaurant. I handled all of their social posts, including written content. Since then I’ve worked as a full-time copywriter for a while, doing product descriptions, and more social media content! I’m a full-time freelance writer now though and I do a lot of blog writing, landing pages, and general web content! Some ideal clients for the future are artists and other online creators. I’ve been a huge follower of artists online for years and I’d love to work with creators on their websites, bios, and general word-related content.

L.C. I love supporting copywriters who are also hard at work on a creative, personal project. This could be a novel, memoir, poetry collection etc. Tell me more about what you’re working on and what you hope to gain from the experience (book deal, more publications, career change, personal growth, etc.). Feel free to share how you balance work, life, and writing. It’s okay, if you’re struggling with this. It’s all part of the process!

P.L. Personal projects are a thing I love. I’m currently working on my first novel that’s been in the drafting process for about two years. It’s very much a passion project that I hope to see one day published! I also write short fiction that I’d love to publish in an anthology one day. Apart from that, I write my own pop-culture centered newsletter and a blog that’s a mix of personal thoughts and general thoughts on writing/travel. The newsletter has been an interesting process to kind of learn as I go. I’ve been figuring out the layout and publishing schedule for it and that’s been different from the blog writing I’m usually doing ! Balancing work and life has become a bit easier since I went freelance full time! I’m working from home now, so I have a lot more control over my time. I do struggle sometimes at stopping for the day. I think this can be common with freelancers especially since we do work at home and our computer is just right there! But I’m getting better at sticking to my goal of wrapping up work before 5pm. And being able to take a day slower if I need to is great as well! This balance of work, life, and writing is definitely a changing thing for me and it’s a work in progress I think.

L.C. Writers are needed but often undermined/unappreciated. Especially those of us with literary goals in mind! If applicable, could you speak to how you’ve faced/overcome challenges in your career? It’s okay if these challenges are ongoing (they often are). Feel free to share any words of wisdom you may have from mentors, literary heroes, etc .

P.L. I think one of the biggest challenges I’ve been dealing with right now has generally been finding clients! A lot of the time you might not hear back from people, agencies, or creators you reach out to and that can definitely suck. It’s an ongoing process as well since I’m generally always on the lookout for new clients. I think as a freelance copywriter, or anyone who freelances, it’s a constant process . Another challenge that’s come with being a freelancer, at any point in my career, has been pricing. You’re always wondering whether you’re underpricing your services or if you should be charging by the hour, by the project, etc. I’ve found talking with other freelancers to be extremely helpful when it comes to this! A challenge, more on the literary side, was making the decision to stop applying to literary magazines and other publications. I’ve had some fiction work published over the past few years, but I realized that I’d like to hold onto my fiction for right now. Since it is something that I’m very much doing as my passion project, I want to hold onto my fiction until I can compile it all in the way that I’d like to see it published! I have no idea when that will happen, but it gives me the chance to consider different options.

L.C. Say someone much younger than you says, “I want to be a writer, but I’m afraid I won’t succeed.” What would you tell them?

Just give it a shot! This can be just writing short stories for yourself and friends, starting a blog, writing scripts for your own Youtube channel, or trying your hand at freelancing. Whatever kind of writing you want to do, there’s going to be a space and a way for you to try it out. I think no matter the kind of writing you want to do, you have to determine what success means to you. Is success in starting a freelance career where you can create an income? Is it in telling stories that are meaningful to you? Is it in writing for stress relief? Success in writing is going to be different for everyone, so figuring out what that success is for you is important!