You Boys Like Mexico!

Name the movie and I’ll give you props. (Have a feeling most won’t be able to nail it.) But the line stands true this week as I prepare to head down to Guadalajara, Mexico for the Society of American Travel Writers annual conference. I’ll be speaking again this year on multimedia and will also be launching my new company Plus Ten Media. It’s going to prove to be quite the trip I’m sure, but like all things, I’ve come to realize I won’t now it’s full power for many years to come.

Advice on Starting Out as a Freelance Writer

I get about seven to ten emails a week from writers looking for advice on how to start out a freelancing career. Most of the letters are well thought out, show they have read my work, and display a passion for writing beyond just a byline. My goal is to answer everyone with at least a short response within 48 hours, and if their letter requires a more detailed response within two weeks.

After writing a few hundred people back I thought it would be good to put some of the advice in a blog post. As I always tell the folks who email me, take my words of advice as just another person’s opinions. I can’t stand on my soapbox and tell you they will work every time, but I can tell you it’s what has worked for me and it possibly might just work for you.

* Read: I can’t stress this enough. Read every day. Make sure to read multiple mediums — books, newspapers, magazines, online, blogs, etc. — and take notes on things you like and things you don’t. When reading also make sure to look at how the medium displays the text and how an online article reads differently from say a New Yorker feature. When pitching publications it is imperative to understand how they chose to communicate with their readers. This might sound obvious at first, but editors complain all the time about the lack of freelancers who take the time to really understand the publication they are pitching. One tip is to look at the publications media guide for advertisers and look at their readership demographics. If you are pitching say Woman’s Adventure, it would be good to incorporate in your pitch the article supports the fact women make up 80% of all travel decisions for families. This not only displays that you know the publication, but it proves to the editor that the article you are pitching will enhance their readers’ lives in some way.

* Pick up the phone and ask questions. The first thing I did when I wanted to be a travel writer was email just about every writer and editor who wrote for my favorite publications. I would send them a note asking for advice, thoughts on how to break into the industry, and any contacts they could introduce me to. The feedback was overwhelming. One writer, Kate Siber out of Durango, Colorado, recently passed my name along to an editor who previously didn’t return my emails. I hadn’t talked with Kate for nearly a year and was glad I took the time to approach her the right way. There is a catch however, and it comes with taking the time to research the writer/editor and knowing what to ask without wasting their time. Make sure to know how they can provide value to you and what questions to ask in order to get the information you need. Simply saying, “Hi so and so, I’m a new writer looking to get into magazines and was wondering if you had any advice?” Will make you look like an idiot. For some great advice on how to contact a senior-level writer check out this post by Todd Defren who owns one of the most forward-thinking PR firms.

* Write down a list of goals and post them on your bathroom mirror. The list should include goals that could take years and goals that could be met in a week. Getting into the New York Times is hard, and though it can happen fast for some, it’s the little steps that lead to a big byline. Make sure to map out your path and reward yourself when you reach important milestones. In the freelance world there is no performance interviews with bosses, just yourself.

* Listen to what industry leaders are saying, but don’t let it make you become negative. I subscribe to Media Bistro’s daily morning newsletter and each day I start off with a sobering dose of reality: magazines are getting shut down, newspapers are disappearing, senior editors are jobless, the Internet is going to ruin us all. The news is discouraging and constantly makes any freelance writer question their decision to write. But it is also empowering. It shows that an industry so familiar with itself just a few years ago is broken and confused. There is unlimited opportunity right now for freelance writers; it just might not come with a huge paycheck or standard byline. So before reading all the negative news remind yourself: first there was word of mouth, then paper, then the printing press, then radio, then TV, and now the Internet and you know what? People are still writing and telling stories.

* Take a business class and understand what ROI, clickthrough, CPM, and unique visitor mean. Pitching an editor now requires some business understanding of how the industry works, and by setting yourself up to understand the back end of writing, you will be more successful in determining where to allocate your time. This does not mean you have to take advertising classes and cross over to the “dark side,” as editors may say, but it is important to understand what a publisher is thinking when deciding how much money to spend on an average issue or website.

Finally the most important thing you can do is write. Write every day. Write when you don’t want to. Write about things you like and things you hate. And when you’re done writing remember to listen. Because once you write everyday you will need something to write about and listening is an art too many people have forgot. And listening is truly the key to success in any business.

Good luck and remember we are all in this together. Yes freelancing is competitive and tough to get these days, but that does not mean taking the time to help one another is wasting your time or taking opportunity away. It is building relationships, advancing the industry, and ultimately will pay off tenfold.

John Grisham on Writing

When I told my ninth grade teacher I wanted to be a writer she advised me to write what I knew about and to write every day. She even gave me a journal and asked me to fill it up by the end of the school year. I started out strong, but soon found myself skipping a few days here and there, and before I knew it, I was going an entire month without penning one wordd. At the end of the year she asked to see my journal and I was embarrassed. I had failed miserably.

Now 13 years later I’m still struggling to follow her advice. I try to write every day, but sometimes I get busy and push my writing aside. If you are a budding writer or a seasoned author take a second and check out this clip from John Grisham on writing. The advice is priceless, even if you have heard it a thousand times.

- Thanks to APhotoEditor

Ghostwriting and the Loss of Innocence

I remember during my first week as a PR professional I learned one of our clients CEO’s never wrote his own quotes. Instead an account manager crafted a quote to fit the press release or statement and had him refine it. Sometimes the quotes would get refined ten or twelve times. I was confused. “It’s just the way the industry works,” the manager told me. I still didn’t get it.

And then something happened: I lost my innocence. In hindsight I should have lost it years before then, but for some reason I never did. Lately there has been some debate about ghostwriting and what happens when it enters professional journals. Just today the New York Times ran a front-page story on pharmaceutical companies paying ghostwriters to push therapy. The writing appeared in scientific papers and was published between 1998 and 2005. The incidence is disturbing, but I feel should not produce an outrage. Why? Because it happens all the time and as society we just look the other way.

Two years ago while conducting a press briefing for an upcoming book, the author told me she was ghostwriting the piece for an industry expert. I asked her how the process worked and she said she researched and wrote the book while he scanned it and signed it off. In the end he got all the credit while she went on to ghostwrite the next piece. She of course was fine with this I should point out.

I would be a fool to say ghostwriting is bad. In fact, I know several writers who make their living writing for other people. I’ve even done it once or twice myself when it comes to corporate copy or website filler. But I still have a hard time with it. Our names are supposed to signify what we did, not someone else, so I have to question now when I read something or hear something: is this person really saying this or did it come from some hidden shadow typing away?

- New York Times Medical Papers by Ghostwriters Pushed Therapy