Freelance

—Writing, reporting, and editing breaking news, enterprise stories, and features as needed for media organizations   
—Interviewing sources including politicians, company officials, professors, and experts  
—Taking photographs, video, and developing graphics for online use as requested    
—Podcast production and editing, video production and editing, and photography and photo editing 
—Providing content strategy, content creation, marketing, social media strategy, SEO strategy, brand messaging, paid and organic messaging, and internal and external communications for clients
—Designing, developing, and refining AI prompts and creating and teaching AI best practices
—Extensive work with Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives including the content strategy and copywriting for Meta's new Business Equity (DEI) page
—Created the SEO guidelines and best practices at Audible 
—Worked with a team to do SEO keyword research and optimize product pages for 500 books at Audible 
—Created the strategy, content, and then the analysis and analytics reports for paid and organic media at multiple companies and for several clients

Freelance Writer/Editor/Senior Marketing Specialist/Marketing Manager

AANP

Marketing Content Specialist

Avaaz Media

Deputy Editor for Avaaz Media and www.thebrowngeeks.com 

Audible, Inc.

-Create, write, and edit monthly copy for new Audible.com audiobooks. 
-Apply feedback and creative objectives of product managers, marketing managers, producers, talent, and digital designers to create new enhanced Audible.com web pages for desktop and mobile versions.
- Deliverables include product description pages, social media content, search engine optimized web content, audio snippets, and landing pages.

Editorial Associate

The Citizen (newspaper)

-Produced two weekly newspapers which covered eight towns in New Jersey. 
-Wrote an upwards of 10 stories a week.
-Took photos for most stories. 
-Assigned and edited stories for freelancers. 
-Laid both papers out on a weekly basis.

Editor

Nationwide Industrial Supply

-Overseeing all SEO work including keyword research, analysis, and writing for the ecommerce business which sells more than 500,000 products 
-Writing and editing all business communications including letters, catalog inserts, and informative articles to be sent or emailed to customers, businesses and officials or to be displayed on the company's site
-Planning and organizing Nationwide's first trade show, including designing and ordering signs and other decorative aspects of the event; speaking to politicians, business owners and other perspective business contacts during the event; and responding to all contacts made at the show following the event 
-Freelancing for several other companies. Writing education and local news stories and columns for patch.com and editing for companies such as NJ-based copywriting firm, Literatrue

Marketing and Communications Manager

Gannett Company Inc

-Produced between 7 and 15 stories per week including many enterprise stories, a weekly column, and personally developed an entire features back-to-school tab 
-Shot and edited photos, blogged live from events, and produced frequent updates to the Web and other content for online use
-Covered 3 large school districts, including K-12, secondary education, private and public colleges and universities, and national, state and local issues
-Stories and feeds were featured in USA Today

Education Reporter

North Jersey Media Group

-Helped create and develop multiple sections, including teen and young adult pages, two weekly columns, and helped run a teen editorial board 
-Covered up to four municipalities at a time writing between 7 and 10 stories per week 
-Attended city council meetings, school board meetings, community events, taking notes and/or transcribing events and interviews
-Conducted extensive research online and using public documents

Staff Writer

-Input and edited calendars, letters to the editor and rewrote and expanded on press releases  
-Wrote two weekly columns and stories for multiple departments 
-Helped create and develop multiple sections including a teen and young adults page, two weekly columns, a volunteer help wanted page and helped run a teen editorial board 
-Filled in for the office manager in her absence by troubleshooting problems for the editor, scheduling for the editorial assistant department, and various other duties including ordering office supplies, filing human resources paperwork and running payroll

Editorial Assistant

•	20+ years of publishing and marketing experience: research, writing, editing, publishing, content strategy, content creation, marketing, social media messaging, brand messaging, paid  and organic media messaging,  internal and external communications, and SEO.
•	Experience managing freelance writers and copy, assigning articles, designing layouts, and orchestrating marketing campaigns.  
•	Beats have included education, politics, tech, business, youth trends, crime and up to eight municipalities at a time.
•      Extensive experience working on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives. I was responsible for the content strategy and the copywriting for Meta's new Business Equity (DEI) page.
•      Experience with podcast production and editing, video production and editing and photography, and photo editing.
•      I was responsible for creating the SEO guidelines and best practices used at Audible. Additionally, I was part of a team that did keyword research and rewrote product descriptions to be SEO optimized for 500 books.
•      I am skilled in prompt engineering. I know how to design, develop, and refine AI text prompts, how to optimize prompt performance, and how to improve the AI prompt generation process for various applications. I can also create, communicate, and teach best practices for using AI.

I got news this month that stopped me in my tracks: I’ve been nominated for a Pushcart Prize for one of my poems.

I’m still letting those words settle.

Writing has always been the thing I reach for when nothing else makes sense—since I was a kid scribbling lines in the margins of everything. I never imagined any of it would travel far beyond my own hands. So to have a piece recognized in this way… it’s overwhelming in the best, strangest, most grounding way.

I’m grateful to the publisher who believed in this poem, to the writers who kept me moving without ever knowing they were doing it, and to the people in my life who tell me to keep going, even on the days when the words feel heavy or jagged or late.

Mostly, I’m just honored. Truly.

Thank you for reading my work, for holding space for it, and for holding space for me. It means more than I can express.

#PushcartPrize #PoetryCommunity #AmWriting #Gratitude #WritingLife

Heather Kays

Marketing Manager & Literary Manager ✨💖 | Author of Myths in the Feed (sold out 6x) | Crying Heart Press Best-Selling Author | 2x Pushcart Nominee | I make strategy feel like storytelling — and vice versa.

Putting this out there and hoping for the best.

I have half a dozen chapbooks that need homes. I’ve worked really hard on them, painstakingly revised them, and I’m genuinely proud of the work. A few places I thought were solid submission options aren’t happening anymore or fell through for reasons that have nothing to do with the poems themselves. That’s how it goes sometimes.

So—help me out.

If you know small presses, indie publishers, or lit folks who might be a good fit, I’d love recommendations or connections. Or if you’re someone who likes raw, messy, honest work and you’re a small press—hi.

Looking to place:
• 𝐶𝑜𝑛𝑓𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑀𝑒𝑛
• 𝑇𝑢𝑒𝑠𝑑𝑎𝑦’𝑠 𝑅𝑒𝑐𝑘𝑜𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔
• 𝑆𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑆𝑒𝑙𝑓 𝐷𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛
• 𝐺𝑜𝑑’𝑠 𝐴𝑢𝑡𝑜𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑡
• 𝐿𝑎𝑠𝑡 𝑁𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡
• 𝐴𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐹𝑖𝑟𝑒

These deserve readers. I’m ready to get them there.

Feel free to comment, DM, or share. I appreciate you all. ❤️

#poetry #chapbooks #amwriting #smallpress #indiepublishing #literarycommunity #poetlife

A second Pushcart nomination in my first year of even attempting to get my poetry published.

This has been quite a year. 

Your girl is in shock. 

I’m so deeply grateful to John at The Rye Whiskey Review! 

Onward and upward, poetry friends. 🥂 

#Poetry #WritingCommunity #PushcartPrize #Gratitude #WritersLife #PublishedPoet #CreativeJourney #AmWriting #PoetryLovers

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