I’m going to a prizegiving evening at Stanfords bookshop in Covent Garden tonight (Wednesday 21 July 2010), where journalist Matthew Parris will announce the winner. Absolutely certain it won’t be me (the other four finalists’ entries are breathtaking), but it feels great to have got this far.

Will tell you all about the evening soon!

UPDATE ON 22/07/10: Gulp … I won! Can’t believe it. Thank you to Debbie from Bradt for the picture below, which shows (from left to right) Catriona Rainsford (the winner of the ‘unpublished’ category); Hilary Bradt; me (Marie Kreft) and Matthew Parris.

I’ve won a five-star holiday to Malta and Gozo, and a commission with the Independent on Sunday. It really hasn’t sunk in yet! The other finalists - Lucy Clark, Elizabeth Gowing, Michelle Wu and Catriona - wrote such beautiful pieces, and any one of them would have been a deserving winner.

Thought these three in particular might be useful for my lovely clients!

* ‘The changing face of networking: how is social media and online networking changing business, entrepreneurship, hiring and innovation?’
- Kevin Eyres, LinkedIn

* ‘Digital marketing is growing up’
- Jimmy Schougaard, Ogilvy and Peter Visholm, Agilic

* ‘Harnessing social media to extend your brand: how online communities, user generated content, customer engagement and customer loyalty build the brand’
- Angus Struthers, Trip Advisor.

(Thank you to the team at The Other Design Agency in Derby, who let me decamp to their office for a week and plague them with my obsessive attention to apostrophes!)

The inaugural awards ceremony took place on Thursday 15 July 2010 at Indig02 (The 02, London) and was hosted by the lovely Charlie Jordan and Tre Azam, who breathed life and sparkle into the script we’d drafted for them. Literary stars of the evening included Sir Terry Pratchett (pictured below, delivering his acceptance speech for the Published Writer of the Year award), while sponsors included The Reading Agency, Arts Council England and Faber Music.

This was all amazing. BWA was set up last year on a shoestring budget with the aim of shaking up the publishing industry (which can feel very inaccessible to outsiders), encouraging and inspiring people who might not normally have considered penning a story, poem or song. While there were many hurdles along the way (not least the 21,000 entries to read), the team did an amazing job in pulling together the glittering evening … and I’m sure I wasn’t the only one with tears in my eyes when overall winner Catherine Cooper heard that BWA had published her book (The Golden Acorn) in time for UK distribution this week!

I had a great time at the ceremony - and enjoyed the lovely company on my table, which included short story finalist Steven Tromans, Witchfinder author William Hussey and the team from the children’s division of Oxford University Press.

Now I’m happy to have got my BWA 2011 work well underway!

You can read more about the evening here.  

[Image of Sir Terry Pratchett included with permission from Brit Writers.]

Do you trust other companies’ use of testimonials and do they influence your buying decision?

I’m running a little survey. The results will - I hope - help me offer you tips on making customer endorsements work harder for your business. I’ll also publish advice soon on ensuring your use of testimonials complies with the new Code of Advertising Practice.

The survey only takes about three minutes: go on, do it now!

Thank you for your help.

Marie

Here are five quick reminders why a regularly maintained blog is good for your business:

01) Blogs allow you to showcase lots of relevant and useful content, not only demonstrating your industry expertise and enhancing your credibility, but allowing your organisation to creep up the search-engine listings too.

02) Blogs are great for building online relationships. People can respond to your posts instantly, sharing knowledge, asking questions or offering feedback.

03) Blogs let you respond to topical things quickly. If your business, product or industry takes a blow from some bad press or a dissatisfied customer, you can use your blog to set the record straight, offer an explanation and show you are listening.

04) Your blog can have a global audience! You can tweet all day on Twitter or faff around on Facebook … but people will only see your efforts if they’re ‘following’ you or hooked in to your network. Blogs open you out to a world of readers who can stumble across you when they make relevant search queries.

05) Blogs are free to set up and use (if you know how) and are often easier to update and maintain than websites. If you integrate a blog into your main website, it’s a great way to continually refresh your content (which search engines love!).

So what’s the downside, I hear you ask? You already know: time! Researching, writing and uploading interesting articles is very draining on your day - and you need to concentrate on running your business, looking after clients and keeping your knowledge fresh.

But supposing you could hire someone to ghost-write your blog for you? Now there’s a good idea! 

Good As Gold is happy to …

• write blog entries for you on a daily, weekly, fortnightly, monthly or even quarterly basis
• create a ‘tone of voice’ that is consistent with your business and brand, or adopt the tone of your existing communications
• either source and craft news stories on your behalf or write blog entries from notes you give us (however skimpy!)
• source images if necessary, either from stock photography or by commissioning unique work
• help you set up your first blog, if you need us to, and integrate it into your website.  

The cost depends on how complex your subject is, and how much research is involved in writing your articles. But our blogging services aren’t expensive and - best of all - there is no minimum order. So if you wanted to test us out with just one tiny blog entry, that’s no problem.

It goes without saying that each entry will be written from scratch and entirely unique to your business.

Pour some sunlight on your blog and see what grows! Email Good As Gold today at hello@goodasgoldws.co.uk and let us know what you’re thinking …

You can download the new CAP as a PDF here. It is clear and easy to read, and contains important information on marketing, including:

• When ‘puffery’ (obvious exaggeration) is acceptable

• Where you stand on price information, including when you can or can’t describe a product as ‘free’



• Guidelines on making comparisons between your company or product (or price!) and a competitor’s. A Blackpool taxi company got into trouble recently for distributing leaflets that unfairly claimed its competitor was slow and did not value price, quality or service!

• The need to back up your testimonials or endorsements. Hint: “you must hold documentary evidence that a testimonial or endorsement used in a marketing communication is genuine, unless it is obviously fictitious, and hold contact details for the person who, or organisation that, gives it”



• Guidance on minimising the risk of your communications causing harm or serious widespread offence



• Making sure that advertising aimed at under-16s is safe, suitable and ethical. This section of the Code has undergone perhaps the greatest number of changes, aiming for enhanced protection for children

• Protecting people’s privacy (including, interestingly, members of the Royal Family)

• The rules on special offers, competitions and promotions



• Guidelines on direct marketing, to complement the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000 



• The need for compliance with data protection legislation.(Are you keeping your contacts’ details safe and giving them the chance to opt out of your communications?)



• When you can and can’t make claims about a product being green or environmentally friendly

• Details about promoting medicines, medical devices, treatments, health-related products and beauty products. A water purifier ad was banned this month for making unsubstantiated claims that the product was “alkalizing, aided respiration and produced youthful looking skin”

• Guidelines and rules on marketing communications for weight control and slimming aids; financial products (please note that these can go down as well as up); food; gambling products and lotteries; alcoholic drinks; and motoring-related products.

You may also be interested in reading the Broadcast Code of Advertising Practice (BCAP), which governs TV and radio advertising. 

If ever you’re unsure as to whether your marketing communications might fall foul of the Code, give CAP’s Copy Advice team a ring on 020 7492 2100. I’ve spoken to them twice recently on behalf of clients: once to check that a cleaning firm was OK to say its environmentally friendly products were ‘healthier’ than others (we had to tread carefully with this) and once to find out where we stood on making links between hypnotherapy and smoking cessation (again, we didn’t want to mislead with false or overstated claims).

Both times I found the Copy Advice team to be helpful and knowledgeable.

I’ll also be attending training on the new Code in the near future, to make sure I can always give you the best and most up-to-date advice. So if you need sparkling, lively, Code-compliant copy, call Good As Gold on 0121 236 7066.

This year, the Bradt / Independent on Sunday travel-writing competition has a ‘People’s Choice’ element. If you have five minutes, I’d be so happy if you could read and rate my entry. Thank you!

See how I got on last year …

You can download the winning bid from the finditinsandwell website.

While I’m delighted to have put their achievements into words that managed to win over the judges, true credit must go to the team at finditinsandwell - my colleagues and clients Steve Massey, Maria Kyriacou and Nathan Boyce. Well done, guys!

Read about finditinsandwell’s 2009 APSE award.

Please note that Good As Gold only writes award bids for projects and clients we know inside out; that’s the only way we can feel confident of your success. If you’re not yet a Good As Gold client but you’re in a hurry to go for your next gong, have a look at www.awardsintelligence.co.uk.

The free email service keeps you up to date with dozens of national and international award schemes - and Awards Intelligence even offers a ‘no win, no fee’ service for compiling bids for awards in which they believe you have a high chance of success.

And I can always help you next year - give me a call on 0121 236 7066.

Calling all fledgling writers! There are just a few more weeks to go until the Brit Writers’ Awards Unpublished 2010 deadline on Friday 26 February.

Have you written a brilliant short story, novel, poem or song that deserves to be shared with the world? The inaugural Brit Writers’ Awards offers £10,000 and a valuable literary platform to the best undiscovered writer in the UK. It aims to nurture a love for creative writing in people across the length and breadth of the UK, opening the door to what is often perceived as our ‘inaccessible’ publishing industry.

Good As Gold has been working with the Brit Writers team for the past nine months, helping them to create - among other things - resources for teachers and new writers. Here’s a sneak preview: a downloadable help sheet called Getting started: ideas and inspiration (PDF opens in a new window). 

For lots more resources and information about the Brit Writers’ Awards, visit www.britwriters.co.uk.

once there was is the working title of a project set up by members of BWG to showcase talented Birmingham and Black Country writers.

We’re currently appealing for new short stories, of between 3,000 and 5,000 words, to be submitted for entry into once there was. We will consider stories of any theme from any genre, excluding children’s fiction and erotica.

Talent, originality and inspired writing are more important than your previous publishing history.

The project is being self-funded by the BWG and once there was organisers. We are offering publication and a valuable platform for successful entrants.

The closing date for submissions is 1 September 2010 – and authors should be from Birmingham or the Black Country (or at least have a connection with the area).

Writers interested in submitting a story should visit www.oncetherewas.wordpress.com and read the guidelines carefully. Ideas, tips and writing-related articles will also appear there in the coming months …