Hi Cazz, great to have you. Please tell us a little bit about your background as a journalist.

I started writing as a teenage fanzine writer in the 1990s but I made the switch to music journalism in 2005 when I did a work placement at Record Collector magazine and started freelancing for them.

At the same time, I was writing about music and books (and occasionally film) for UK feminist website The F-Word. I later became music editor at The F-Word and I now write about music for Louder Than War and public transport for CityMetric.

Name: Cazz Blase
Authory page: authory.com/CazzBlase
Number of articles: 275
Number of publications: 9

You have been using Authory for a few weeks now. What did you look for initially?

With her Authory page, Cazz doesn’t only make her work look great, but ensures that she’ll always have a backup, regardless of what happens to the original.
With her Authory page, Cazz doesn’t only make her work look great but ensures that she’ll always have a backup, regardless of what happens to the original.

I’d read good things about Authory in the wake of The Pool closing in early 2019. It happened quite suddenly and a lot of journalists lost money, on top of that, all the work they’d written for the site was lost when the site was taken down.

I’d never written for them, but it made me think because 100% of the work I currently do is written for online publications. I would occasionally wake up in a cold sweat, thinking ‘What would happen to all my work if those websites were taken down?’. Authory was recommended in an article I read around that time, which you can find here.

In early 2019, I didn’t feel quite ready to set up a professional portfolio or website, and I kept putting it off. But 2020 has been swallowed up by the Covid pandemic, and that meant that all my work dried up and I suddenly had a lot of time on my hands to think.

I decided it was time to get my journalism and writing admin in order, which included ensuring that my articles were safely backed up and stored, and ensuring that I had an online journalism portfolio, which a lot of organizations now expect you to have.

A lot of journalists lost all the work they’d written for the site was lost when The Pool was taken down. I decided it was time to get my journalism and writing admin in order.

And how has Authory worked for you?

My expectations have been more than fulfilled I’d say. And I have barely begun to scratch the surface of what Authory can do for me.

I like that my portfolio looks professional and that the site has a nice clean design. I also find Authory very friendly and accessible to use, with excellent customer service and help. I was very impressed today when I looked at the social media shares stats, I’ve not had access to that kind of detailed information before.

My expectations have been more than fulfilled I’d say. And I have barely begun to scratch the surface of what Authory can do for me.

Because I haven’t written much (aside from on my own blog) since lockdown started (I live in Greater Manchester in the UK, which went back into lockdown at the end of July) I haven’t started to advertise myself on Authory much yet. I’m intending to do a big push on letting people know I’m on it once I’ve got some more commissions and pieces start to go up on sites, which should happen soonish. That seems like a good moment to nudge people to sign up as a subscriber to my Authory.


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In terms of topics, you specialize in public transport, women, and music. Has the Collections feature in your Authory account helped you in accommodating these different focus areas?

It has, yes. I think I went a bit overboard with my labeling/tagging though and that some of the subcategories might be a bit niche. I might tweak them at a later date. For now, though, I’m very happy with the collections feature. It helps me to separate out very different areas of journalism!

Collections enable Cazz to curate her work and “separate out very different areas of journalism.”
Collections enable Cazz to curate her work and “separate out very different areas of journalism.”

What would you say to your journalist colleagues about Authory?

Try it. You get a 2-week free trial, it’s friendly, accessible, and easy to use. Authory also looks really good and it saves you time and headaches when it comes to keeping track of your work, having it all in one place, and knowing you can get PDFs of your work should any of the sites you write for, be taken down at short notice, which is looking to be an increasingly common situation these days.

Try it! Authory is friendly, accessible and easy to use.

Cazz Blase

Thanks, Cazz!

Cazz and thousands of other writers and journalists are using Authory to take control of their content and their audience. Join Cazz for free at authory.com