Random Fact #2
Copywriting is a very old profession. Historically, copywriters have tended to be known as scribes and have been employed in a wide range of contexts. Scribes have kept records and accounts in palaces and temples, written correspondence for the great and good (well, the great, anyway), and made the copies of great literature that ensured its survival.
All these were in permanent employment, but even freelance copywriting goes back at least to Pharoanic Egypt. Writing was easy enough in Egypt. Unlike many of the other civilisations at the time, where the text had to be laboriously pressed into soft clay which was then baked, the Egyptians wrote with ink onto papyrus, the forerunner of paper.
Most Egyptians, though, wouldn’t have been able to read well or write at all, but all was not lost. If you went down to a market, you’d find not only sellers of food and clothing, but also scribes who would write your letter-some of which have survived. The Egyptians had freelance copywriters
Nick Blatchley
Copywriter and author, known as the Word Wizard, based in Hertfordshire. I’ve been writing since the age of four and writing for businesses since 2014: websites, blogs, books and social media, all in my clients’ own voices.
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