By Michael Tunney at The Freelancer by Contently
With online journalism in a constant state of flux, it’s hard for freelancers to find credible resources that explain how to write well online. Sure there’s the Yahoo! Style Guide for any technical questions, and BuzzFeed just published their Editorial Standards and Ethics Guide, but these guides don’t address that all-important issue of how professional writers can improve their skills while writing copy specifically for the unique needs of digital readers.
Kate Kiefer Lee and Nicole Fenton set out to do just that with their guidebook Nicely Said: Writing For The Web With Style and Purpose. In their day jobs, Kate Kiefer Lee runs content and communications at MailChimp and TinyLetter, while co-author Nicole Fenton is a content strategist who has worked for Facebook and Apple, where she served as communications lead and helped launch the original iPhone and iPad.
Together they decided to write the book they wish they had when they were starting their careers creating web content. The book focuses on helping writers understand what counts as clear and useful copy for the web, all the while providing valuable resources on every topic imaginable: from style guides and research methods to taking feedback from editors and getting “unstuck.”
Micheal Tunney from The Freelancer by Contently sat down for a conversation with Kiefer Lee and Fenton, who shared some of their wisdom for freelancer journalists looking to take their digital writing to the next level.