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How to Become a Celebrity Interviewer

Course is closed.

WHEN
Tuesday, May 24, 7-10 p.m.

WHERE
mb classrooms
494 Broadway, 3rd Floor
(between Spring and Broome)
New York, NY

WHO
Ideal for any writer who would like to improve their interview skills and/or break into celebrity interviewing

PRICE
$65 ($50 for )
more info

Course Details

Flying to LA for lunch with Matthew McConnaughey. Hanging out at video shoots with P Diddy and Lenny Kravitz. Talking favorite sexual positions with porn star Jenna Jameson. It?s a tough job, but somebody?s got to do it ? and why shouldn?t it be you? From the Post to the Voice to Vanity Fair, celebrity interviews are in huge demand and so, of course, are celebrity interviewers. But it?s an industry within the industry that?s notoriously difficult to break into.

Where do you start? How do you get JLo?s publicist to grant you an interview unless you?ve already clinched an assignment with a major magazine? And how do you secure that magazine assignment unless you can promise your editor that you have the JLo interview in the bag?

This three-hour seminar will teach you how to secure and sell interviews with A-list celebrities and submit copy that is fresh, revealing and colorful. You?ll learn how to make yourself irresistible to both assigning editors and celebrities? publicists (or at the very least how to get the publicists to return your calls!).

In this seminar, you?ll also learn:
  • How to ask the questions the publicist has made you imply that you won?t ask ? without your celebrity interviewee walking out of the interview or attacking you
  • How to coax a monosyllabic celebrity into revealing something interesting
  • How to write the basic types of celebrity interviews: Q&As, profiles, as-told-to pieces, etc .
  • Who to pitch first ? the celebrity?s publicist or an assigning editor
  • How spin a 30-minute interview into a riveting feature interview
  • How to spin a 30-minute interview into a 60-minute interview
  • Which questions to start the interview with
  • The questions you must always ask
  • How to re-sell your work around the globe

Instructor Bio

Precious Williams's Courses

No courses available at this time.

Precious Williams
London-born New Yorker Precious Williams has written about Ivy League Hookers for the New York Post, women addicted to one-night stands for Cosmo and life for women inside the Nation of Islam for the London Times. She is also a contributing editor at Elle (UK), for whom she interviews celebrities -- most recently Jenna Jameson and Portia di Rossi. Precious's profiles, personal essays and investigative pieces have been published in dozens of magazines and newspapers, including The Times, New York, Glamour, Marie Claire, The Daily Telegraph and Details. Her essay "Two Dollars A Word", detailing an encounter with a celebrity interviewee, appears in the recent Simon & Schuster anthology, Sex & Sensibility.

View Precious's work samples in her Freelance Marketplace profile.

Precious studied English lit at Oxford and Journalism at the London College of Printing. Her first two books will be published in 2007. Both books -- a memoir and an instructional guide to writing personal essays -- were sold on proposal.

Testimonials


Taking Precious Williams' workshop on Writing about Sex and Relationships was wonderful. She covered everything from first person essays, to service pieces, to interviews. She's intelligent and extremely perceptive and writes from the heart. This completely translates into how she deals with students and in her handling of the course. The class was thought-provoking as well as fun. -- Beth Bernstein, former student

"I signed up for How to Become a Celebrity Interviewer to meet Precious Williams. I have long read and loved her articles in UK Elle, so it was no surprise how much I enjoyed her class. Precious wasn't afraid to let us know some of the mistakes she'd made and learned from in the past, which made her class all the more encouraging. I'm now signed up as a stringer and have some very exciting interviews with singers and actors already lined up! Meeting Precious definitely gave me both the inspiration and the confidence to try out this new world of celebrity interviews." -- Katrina Lawrence, beauty & lifestyle writer

"(Precious Williams) is a perfect role model for novice writers like myself. She is witty, engaging, and lively. She made me want to hear everything she said because she had so much to offer. I really came away with a better understanding of how to write for magazines as a whole and magazines I preferred. She clearly navigated the publishing world for the class each time, and made it sound possible to be a writer. Precious gave every student hope and showed us just how opportunity knocks for everyone. I have already sent out my first pitch letter, and have a second one ready." -- Jackie Matragrano, former student

"Precious Williams is a wonderful mentor. I spent the past two years writing a chick lit novel set in Manhattan, and her classes on Writing About Dating & Relationships and Celebrity Interviewing helped me get back to writing shorter pieces -- and get them published! Her tips helped me land a weekly newspaper column writing profiles of noteworthy people in New England. I've also had success with articles on The New York Times best-selling authors and domestic diva Martha Stewart. The great thing about her classes is that while you're learning, she makes you laugh." -- Noelle Ashley, author & columnist

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