ANDY HOLT
WRITER / EDITOR / CREATOR
LOS ANGELES
Copywriting
Guitar Center. Be Heard. Print, Holiday 2019.
This sample is a selection of pages I wrote for Guitar Center’s Be Heard, published in 2019, including brand pages, profiles and interviews. All quotes come from interviews I conducted myself. Extended versions of the artist profiles also appear on the Guitar Center website:
Guitar Center. Music Unites Us. Print, Winter 2021.
This sample is a selection of brand pages I wrote for Guitar Center’s Music Unites Us, published in 2021. All quotes come from interviews I conducted myself.
Email campaigns
Guitar Center. Welcome email series.
This sample is a series of emails I wrote for Guitar Center. Customers receive these emails over the course of several weeks after joining the mailing list.
Note: I have also written, designed and sent dozens of emails for Mackie, using both MailChimp and Klaviyo, but these emails are difficult to sample in a PDF format.
Landing pages
Guitar Center. Dream Big. Landing page.
This sample is one of many landing pages I wrote for the Guitar Center website.
Mackie. GO Places. Landing page.
This sample is a landing page I wrote for the Mackie website, covering their battery-powered products.
Product pages
I wrote the copy for these product pages, among many others. I also wrote the copy that appears on their respective Amazon pages, and the copy that was sent to dealers like Guitar Center and Sweetwater.
Blogs
I wrote these blog articles for professional audio brands—among many, many others.
How to Choose the Best Audio Interface (Guitar Center)
The Best MIDI Controllers of 2024 (Guitar Center)
The Best Snare Drums of 2024 (Guitar Center)
How to Choose the Best Electronic Drum Kit (Guitar Center)
9 Reasons You Should Use a Podcast Mixer (Mackie)
Which Mackie Mic Is The Best Podcast Microphone For You? (Mackie)
Mackie Mixer Rundown: ProFX Series Mixers (Mackie)
The Vera Project Reopens Iconic DIY Venue Black Lodge With Help From Mackie (Mackie)
Composer Jeff Rona Built a Surprisingly Compact Dolby ATMOS Studio With Mackie (Mackie)
10 Ways Mackie Set a New Industry Standard With SRM V-Class Loudspeakers (Mackie)
How Mackie SRM V-Class PA Speakers Take Studio Sound to the Stage (Mackie)
Things to Do in Sydney: Artist Atlas feat. Salarymen and Casa Rosa (Mackie)
SRM V-Class: Making Speakers More Intelligent With Advanced Impulse DSP (Mackie)
Things to Do in Barcelona: Artist Atlas feat. Teana (Mackie)
11 Things You Can Connect to CR Studio Monitors (Mackie)
Things to Do in Seattle: Artist Atlas feat. Tinsley (Mackie)
Press releases
I wrote these press releases for a slate of new Mackie products released in early 2024, including a combined press release for all five.
Satire
The Hard Times
I have contributed many, many articles to the satire publication The Hard Times, including several articles in The Hard Times: The First 40 Years. You can find all my articles for The Hard Times on my author page.
Hard Drive
After years as a contributor to The Hard Times, I became an editor at the sister publication Hard Drive, which focuses on video games and nerd culture.
I worked with a core group of four editors to grow Hard Drive to rival the size of The Hard Times, building an audience and voice for the site. I also wrote many articles myself. My author page for Hard Drive is here.
Ace Watkins
As part of the Hard Drive editorial team, I co-created the satirical gamer presidential candidate Ace Watkins. The campaign began as a Twitter account, but grew to include a podcast and even some live events.
Here’s some press coverage of the Ace Watkins campaign:
Creative Writing
Fiction
I completed an MFA in fiction writing from University of California, Riverside. My short stories have appeared in various publications, both print and online. I’ve linked a scan of “Where the Bees Are Going” from One Story as a sample, along with an interview with me, published on their website.
“Book Drop Mysteries” — Three to Four Ounces, 2011.
“Hope Mine” — Hair Trigger, 2013.
“A Big Red Jumble of Lines” — Chicago Quarterly Review, 2013.
“Thrill House” — Chicago Literati, 2014.
“Where the Bees Are Going” — One Story, 2016. See interview.
Screenwriting
“Dry America” — Television pilot script. Attracted professional representation and meetings at Marvel, Amazon, Smokehouse Pictures, and 26 Keys. Also placed in the second round of the Austin Film Festival.
Video
I shot and edited this series of videos for AEA Ribbon Microphones, showing off their factory and manufacturing processes.