Wow, that's easy! Or is it?

We went on holiday to Turkmenistan, a country with a dictator, whose face is plastered everywhere, with monumental buildings and a reasonably good vibe. We had stopped for lunch at a wayside restaurant when I received a call from Armenia. I don't know anyone Armenian... The caller was a British guy, owner of a financial funds transfer firm who wanted to create an online version so foreign workers could transfer money using their phone. Kinneret Yifrah had recommended me to their design firm and could I start working as soon as I got home? Could I? Of course, I could.

That started a great working relationship between myself and NAFCA, the branding and design agency, and I did a voice and tone analysis, created the microcopy and wrote web content. I had a great time and the work was spread out over a few months.

Sometime after that (and microcopy for another business under my belt), a company creating software for product managers contacted me, could I come to visit them. I naïvly went along and only when there realized that I was one of many and I had to prove myself. I was shocked because until then I was the only contender and no questions were asked. Needless to say, I was totally unprepared - I had no portfolio, no ready-to-hand recommendations, etc. - and didn't get the job. I was mortified. Kinneret told me that this was the norm and that I had been living a charmed life until then.

So I created my professional website (jacquilicht.com) using Wix. I had a ball and it's really easy. I also created a basic portfolio. In addition, the microcopy community in Israel was putting up a resource web page and Kinneret listed me there (you needed a website so mine was ready just as the page went live - a happy coincidence). 

Now, whenever I'm asked for a portfolio, I customize my basic version according to their needs and present that. Nowadays, if I don't get a job it's usually because of the price.

Talking about pricing. Apparently, the hourly rate that I'd worked out in 2010 was too low for the microcopy market here in Israel. I was told to up it considerably and only go lower if more than 50 hours of work was involved. Over time, I've settled on two hourly rates, one for large corporations and the other for startups. This works for most customers. I refuse to lower the rate any further because then I believe that my work will be taken for granted.

How I changed focus

I hadn't realized how long it was since I last wrote a post! One of my sons is setting himself up as a consultant and I linked him to one of my earliest posts where I worked out how much to charge per hour. A lot has happened (good stuff) since 2014, so where to start? 

In the summer of 2015, I saw a post on LinkedIn from a friend of mine asking if anyone out there did English microcopy. I looked up "microcopy" and realized that I had been doing it for years. As a product manager, I always defined the interface and what to write where. For more about microcopy see What is microcopy?.

This company had heard about microcopy from Kinneret Yifrach but she doesn't work in English, thus the post. We met up, she told me more about today's microcopy and how first we would define the voice and tone of the brand. This was something totally new and fascinating. We decided to work together for this project.

I learned so much, especially in defining the brand personality and how to use that when creating microcopy. Today's writing is much more conversational and liberating. I went on to do the microcopy for two more projects for this company. Kinneret also entrusted me with translating her book, Microcopy - the Complete Guide, into English.

I'm no translator and told her so, but she was so disappointed by the results from real translators that she asked me to try one chapter. Which I did. Kinneret has her own personality and way of expressing herself, which by now I knew really well, and I attempted to keep that in the translation. She loved it and so did other people she showed it to, so I ended up translating the whole book. I got paid for this and don't receive anything for each sale, but still, it remains the ultimate guide to microcopy and I strongly recommend it.

I haven't gone into the translating area, only sometimes when a client needs me to translate web content for use on a site I'm corroborating on. What I have delved into, with some success, is microcopy. I define the voice and tone of brands, I create the microcopy for products and occasionally write content for websites. I still do technical writing, but it is a smaller portion of my workload. 

One last thing. What's the difference between microcopy and UX writing you ask? I don't know if this is the official differentiation, but for me, microcopy is writing when you have defined the brand's voice and tone, whereas UX writing is more generic. It still sounds good, follows all the rules, but without a defined personality. 

I'll write more posts about how I progressed after this first job, and what brought me to create my own website.