| Back to Home > Bulletin Board > Media Issues > Topic: travel writing on spec for dailies |
Topic: travel writing on spec for dailies
| Author | Message |
| writesonwater | Posted – 5/31/2007 12:24:02 PM | show profile Aaagh! I have a daily I do a lot of work for, but their travel department has been jaded by the availability of wire copy, and seems wired to only take travel stories on spec, after the fact. Has anyone else encountered this? I am not used to writing on spec (except for commentary.) I don't want to waste my time. Any tips on this?? |
| Sam Waynewright | Posted – 7/15/2007 4:34:52 PM | show profile travel writing on Spec I'm afraid that virtually all newspapers can get away with that. So to do so will depend on you. Are you going to this place anyway? for holiday. And the second question is, when the editor says that they will look at it on spec, ask them first if they are seriously interested in the idea, and not just saying yes, as a mere whim. Because if that's the case, that he or she is wasting your time. Thirdly, ask yourself, if this paper decides not to buy the piece, are the other newspapers or mags that might take the piece if the first editor declines? If you are a good writer and the destination is spicy, offbeat or at least not written to death, then it might be worth taking a chance, to do the piece on spec, and then as a back up, you can try to place the story elsewhere. But if you do decide to do a piece on spec, that editor owes you a decision, one way or another, pretty promptly, within a week either way. That way, as least you can pitch the piece to a second editor. Contrary to some editors, this is not nuclear physics, folks. Sam |
| candylilacs | Posted – 7/15/2007 11:18:47 PM | show profile I have written on spec and it worked out but once it didn't and I felt like a dork. And I hate it when they throw wire up in your face! It's not like it's always good. I wrote a commercial real estate story that AP turned into a travel piece! Huh?!? Anyway, most of the travel I did for dailies there was no kill fee, so you were kind of stuck. It sucks, but *most* newspapers editors aren't weaselly enough to totally screw you over if you did a half-decent job. Anyway, worst-case scenario, he says "No," you know he's a weasel and you sell it somewhere else. Best-case, he buys it. So, it's not a lose-lose, more of a work-work. ------ http://www.mswritesguide.blogspot.com |
| writesonwater | Posted – 7/15/2007 11:48:40 PM | show profile Yeah, I think I've concluded I have too much legitimate work (including assigned travel pieces) to do to fool with this for now. |
| reporterwriter | Posted – 7/16/2007 10:59:52 AM | show profile It is not the availability of wire stories that caused this. It is the fact that everybody and her mother, trying to write off a trip, pelts travel editors with the worst possible "what I did on my summer vacation" stories -- tons of them, more than 100 a week at the bigger papers. Imagine how broke the sections would be if they accepted queries, sent contracts and paid kill fees for this dreck! Wire stories provide a blessed alternative to wading through this junkyard. So, as far as freelance goes, the tradition for at least 40 years has been writing on spec (with rare exceptions), allowing the editor to see the quality of the writing and reporting before committing. |
