Behind the scenes of monthly magazine editing and publishing as editor of The Ballina Wave — a Northern Rivers copywriting and editing studio's view.

Twenty years of commissioning writers, distilled. The bylines change and the rates change, but the things that make a freelancer worth coming back to never have — and most of them aren't about the writing at all.

There's a tone of voice businesses around here keep reaching for: friendly without being cute, considered without being precious. Some get it. Most don't. Here's the difference between sounding like you belong here and sounding like a Sydney transplant.

There's a particular kind of website I see often around the Northern Rivers: the business is excellent, and then there's the website. The copy is always the last thing on the list. It shouldn't be — it's the only part that does any actual selling.