AvantGuild Member of the Week

Age: 34
Location: Morristown, NJ
What are you working on now?
You’ve caught me at a busy time, amazingly enough. I’m in the middle of doing interviews for an article I’m doing for the New Jersey section of The New York Times; I spent a day with a TV personality and accompanied him as he did some volunteer work, cooked lunch, and went to his favorite fish market. Trust me; it’ll be more interesting than it sounds.
I’ve also started doing more interviews for TV Squad, a AOL/Weblogs, Inc. blog that I write for regularly; for instance, I just got off the phone with an actor/writer from a popular network show, and I’m doing another interview tomorrow. Believe me, getting through the gauntlet of PR people just to line up an interview is a full-time job all by itself.
Now I’ve got to find a couple of days to transcribe all those
interviews. Or go shove bamboo shoots under my toenails. Whichever one is less painful.
Oh, and there have been some developments with my full-time job (I work as a systems administrator for a monolithic technology corporation), but I don’t want to say much more so as to not worry my parents. Let’s just say I’ll have a lot more time to transcribe interviews.
What’s the most helpful thing you’ve learned about writing?
I used to be much wordier than I am now. When I first started getting published, a lot of what I was doing was op-eds (for my local paper, the Daily Record) and 300-word FOB pieces, so I learned to economize my language to meet the required word counts. Also, I learned that to be funny in my writing — something I always try to adhere to, unless I’m writing about someone getting fired or something — I need to keep the unnecessary words to a minimum, so the funny parts have more impact. I don’t always succeed; my piles of Shouts & Murmurs and McSweeney’s rejections are a testament to that.
What’s been the worst career advice you’ve ever received?
In 2001, I went to a life coach, pretty much desperate for any insight to how I can make my miserable IT career a little less miserable. However, when I expressed an interest in writing, the conversations turned to that. Hey, the woman was trying to help me achieve my dreams, right? Anyway, at the time I had no publication history to speak of, and she was giving me ideas as to how to get people’s attention, even though she had never published a word, as far as I knew. You know what she told me? The road to becoming a professional writer was to leave product reviews at Amazon! Oh, and I think she also told me to write reviews on Internet bulletin boards! Even though I had never published a word, I just knew that she was WAAAY off the mark. Call it a hunch. I just nodded and said, “uh huh,” and never followed her advice.
But I will say she did get me thinking more about writing, and by 2002, I had my first published piece. So I guess she really *did* do her job, didn’t she?
Tell us something you’ve learned after blogging professionally. What do you know now that you wish you did when you first started at TV Squad?
Well, the only blogging I had done before TV Squad was the test blog I wrote in order to get the job. So when I started, I came out like gangbusters, posting like 5 times a day. But what I found out was that it was extremely difficult to do that many posts in a day. You know where I’m coming from, Claire: I had to write posts that had to be punchy with a sense of humor but also had to clearly convey the idea of the story that it references. Then I had to find an appropriate picture to use (Google Images is my friend) and think of entering the right tags that would allow the post to be found on Google or Technorati. Then, after the post is published, I would go back and obsessively look at the comments and post some myself. And then the next day, I’d have to wake up and start that whole process over again!
It’s very easy to lose track of time if you don’t learn to pace
yourself. I couldn’t keep up the pace I had started with, especially
since I had to devote time to that full-time job. Since TV Squad has a team of writers, I have the freedom to write at the pace I want to
write, even if it means I get paid a little less (I get paid per post).
So now I do 1-3 posts a day, most of which are longer and a little
more in depth. And, like I said, I’ve started to do more interviews,
too. It makes this more fun and less of a grind for me, which is why I began writing in the first place.

Age: 43
Location: Los Angeles
What are you working on now?
Just two days before writing this I met my March 1 due date for sending the publisher my book, “Sex Secrets of an American Geisha: How to Attract, Satisfy, and Keep Your Man,” which will come out on Hunter House’s Fall 2006 list. This sex and relationship book adapts Asian geisha wisdom to help American women to become sexy, feminine American Geishas. Right now I’m working on relaxing and celebrating getting my book done. Now that I’m finally through writing the manuscript, I’m trying to remember how to be sexy and feminine with my husband, Richard.
What’s the most helpful thing you’ve learned about writing?
I started my writing career writing a bi-weekly column for a Korean newspaper in the Southern California area. Writing on deadline with almost no pay for this newspaper helped me to develop as a professional writer. I learned to look for topics to write about, to be open to possible topics of interest to my readers. Even today, about a year after I stopped writing that column, I always find myself evaluating everything I run across in my life: would that be a good topic for my readers?; and what kind of interesting perspective could I take on that topic?
What’s been the worst career advice you’ve ever received?
“Work for 30 years as a classroom teacher, retire at 60 with substantial wealth, then start writing and traveling.” This is terrible advice, basically saying I should give up my passion for financial security. The security of teaching is nice though. After teaching full-time for seven years, I have now found a good balance: I am in my third year of teaching half-time and writing. It’s good for me because I feel that I need the structure that a regular job offers, and I still have the free time to write.
Prior to writing your book, did you have experience covering sex/advice? Do you have tips for anybody hoping to break into that market?
My previous experience in sex-advice writing was in Korean. However, when I submitted the book for publication in Korea, the major publishers indicated it was a “troubling” book, with one publisher saying that only “ten years later it would be possible to publish such a sex book.”
My tips for sex-advice writing:
• Choose an unusual angle.
• Be willing to be outrageous when you write about sex.
• Be willing to personalize it, not just staying an objective observer. Both write it and do it.
• Seek to have a great relationship and sex life yourself.
• Remember, sex is meant to be fun.

Age: 28
Location: Alexandria, Virginia
What are you working on now?
I am continuing to promote my current book, Creative Colleges: A Guide for Student Actors, Artists, Dancers, Musicians, and Writers , over the next couple of months. I’m speaking at bookstores and writing query articles to write magazine articles that are related to my book. For example, my latest article that ties into my book’s message was on preparing students for auditions for college dance programs; it appeared in Dance Teacher magazine in December 2005.
In terms of my writing life, I’m trying to finish up a book proposal on a nonfiction book, which will hopefully lead to a second book. After I polish my sample chapter, I hope to be on my way toward a book contract.
What’s the most helpful thing you’ve learned about writing?
A family friend recognized my interest in writing when I was a child and gave me a copy of Writer’s Market when I was just 12 years old. Reading this book from a very young age taught me many lessons and it’s hard to define what has been the most helpful. In an attempt to be brief, I guess I’d have to say learning that writing takes time-through practice, revision, and dedication-to perfect and it’s not something that can be accomplished overnight. I’ve learned that you have to think of writing as a way of life. It’s something you strive to improve constantly. You have to love words and know how to use them correctly to harness their power and create the most compelling message to an audience no matter the genre. Also, learning that rejection is part of the writing life and diligence is one of your most important assets as a writer, has been a valuable lesson as well.
What’s been the worst career advice you’ve ever received?
I’m not sure I can say I’ve ever received any “worst” career advice. In fact, I think saying I’ve had no career advice is probably closer to the truth. I haven’t had a mentor and no one has really said to me: “you should try this job” or “pursue this writing path” or anything like that. From reading Writer’s Market I learned that the secret to writing success was simple: get published. And so I wrote articles for free at 19 and kept doing it until I had enough clips to get paid for freelance articles and start working as an editor during the day. I hope someday I can give people younger than me career advice-I can’t say it’s something I ever had.
What advice would you have for somebody hoping to get into writing about higher education?
I think having both a passion for learning and good knowledge of how academic institutions are both similar and different from other sorts of entities is useful in preparing to write about higher education. People who love school at all levels are those who can bring life to stories about developments in higher education more so than people who didn’t really like school that much. Personally, I’ve taught college English courses, which I think helps me get into the minds of students, which helps me in writing stories. Working for an alumni magazine is also useful; it gives a writer a sense of how institutions work and what’s important to the administration, faculty, students, parents, and the local community. Reading the Chronicle of Higher Education and learning about the issues that numerous academic associations care about can also give a person who wants to write about higher education a good sense about what kind of stories they can pitch to magazines and newspapers that would be most likely to get an assignment.
To learn more about Elaina or Creative Colleges: A Guide for Student Actors, Artists, Dancers, Musicians, and Writers, visit either her site or her book’s site.

Age: 31

Location: Brooklyn, NY
What are you working on now?
I’ve been busy doing publicity for my book, “The Engaged Groom” (Harper Collins, 1/1/06, ), which is a wedding guidebook for guys. All the while I’ve been writing and producing a show for The History Channel with Atlas Media Corp. I’m also working on ideas for my next book which will most likely have me stepping away from wedding territory.
<bWhat's the most helpful thing you've learned about writing?
I used to read a lot of books about craft and finding inspiration until I realized I was spending more time reading books about writing than I spent writing. You don’t lose weight by reading books about exercise. Writing more is the key to better writing.
What’s been the worst career advice you’ve ever received?
I was frequently told I had to have a goal, some sort of path I could follow. But following that kind of advice can be a death sentence for anyone with a desire to work in a creative field. Still, when I graduated college I wound up working in PR and never felt like it was the right field for me. Finally the need to get my creative juices flowing was too great, so I took a screenwriting class. I became friends with a woman in the class, who later invited me to join the staff at the then-new game show, “Who Wants to be a Millionaire.” Taking the job meant leaving a career I had been in for two years for an untested TV program, and the producers were only willing to commit to a five-week contract. But five weeks turned into four years, during which I wrote every day. Sure, I was only writing trivia questions and short jokes, but it was a heck of a lot closer to what I knew I wanted to do than working in PR ever was. Every step I’ve taken since then has lead me to where I am now and it never would have happened if I hadn’t left the safety of a steady career for what could have been a five-week lark. I was glad I took a risk and got off the path, since following one is a good way to get stuck in a rut.
Do you have advice for men on breaking into the wedding beat? Is it relatively easy for guys to get published in that genre since it’s so female-dominated?
Some wedding magazines accept pitches from guys with pleasure, as the perspective we can give their readers goes beyond standard features like “Invitation Fonts for Spring” or “25 Different Shades of White.” An actively involved groom is still something of a novelty, so any story told well will probably get some attention. It seems obvious, but being engaged helps a guy’s chances. I only started to write about weddings because I was in the middle of planning mine and thought it would be a good outlet for my thoughts and opinions. But apart from the occasional first-person essay, I doubt that many male freelancers are pitching articles about bridesmaids dresses or bouquets.
As for the publishing world, it really depends. When she first started shopping my book proposal around, my agent cautioned me that bookshelves were already crowded with wedding books and that mine might be a tough sell. There are so many different types of wedding books – how to have a fairy tale wedding, planning a vegan wedding, advice for parents, hints for bridesmaids, etc. – that breaking through, even with something unique, can be difficult. Still, my agent was very enthusiastic about my idea and found the right editor for it, a guy about my age who had recently been married. I think getting a book published, whether it’s about weddings or not, is as much about timing and luck as it is about a good idea and good writing. I happened to hit on a trend that’s in a way just an offshoot of a larger cultural shift: guys are more interested in looking good, eating well, and impressing other people than ever before. And a wedding is really just a perfect storm of all those concerns.

Location: Brooklyn, NY
What are you working on now? Medical writing for a variety of clients, from advertising to med tech companies to consumer health literacy projects for non-profits.
I’ve moved my blogs, and I’m in the process of revamping my Websites. It’s all part of my push to advance my career as market strategist for both the handheld devices/smartphones and pharmaceutical industry, which resulted when I produced a Webcast for PalmOne featuring the use of their Treo for e-prescribing.
From this starting point, I began to receive inquiries from bankers and lawyers who wanted to know more about the Treo as well as other mobile devices that might make their work lives easier. I continue to work with pharm/pr agencies such as Foote Cone & Belding, Euro RSCG and Sudler & Hennessey as a medical liaison. I’m working with a small upstart medical education company MDea, and working with them to position them in their vertical market.
I get a lot of people who are interested in the phonecam photography I do with the Treo 650, and I also work with Nikon digital cameras. Way back way, I completed a program in commercial photograpy and then
studied graphic arts. This certainly helps me with the creative side of these companies.
This year, I expect to work more in the blogosphere, as I feel this is rapidly taking over traditional print outlets–even the medical journals are publising online. It’s a faster and more reflexive medium, but still requires scientific accuracy and careful editorial decisions–just made at a more rapid rate.
What’s been the worst career advice you’ve ever received? This is going a while back, but the advice was from another doctor who was involved with the use of computers in medicine who felt that the Internet would never be a recognized source of medical information for the clinician or the consumer.
I guess we all know that this is not true, especially when compared to mainstream media which doesn’t allow the breadth and depth of medical research you can do on the Web.

I normally don’t know the AvantGuild members of the week from Adam, but I wanted to give a special shout-out to today’s. She is the editor-in-chief at Absolute Write, which is a great site that has helped me out very very much as a blogger and a writer.
Age: 30
Location: Long Island, NY
What are you working on now?
Two co-authored books and one ghostwritten book. The co-authored books are a Christian memoir and a book about bullying, and the ghostwritten book is… ack! I hate not being allowed to tell.
I’m also working on publicity for my two most recent books. The Street-Smart Writer is a book about how to avoid sharks and scams in the publishing world, and Hattie, Get a Haircut! is a whimsical picture book.
What’s the most helpful thing you’ve learned about writing?
You make your own opportunities. I spent the first five years of my career sending out letters and clips and resumes to anyone I thought might possibly hire writers at any time– magazine editors, greeting card companies, book packagers, e-zine editors, etc. I looked for needs I could fill. When I got an assignment, I pretended I was being paid a million bucks (even if was peanuts at first), and put in a ton of work every time. I met all my deadlines and went above and beyond consistently. So now I’ve spent the last few years reaping the rewards of all that pavement-pounding. If you prove yourself to be reliable and a hard worker, editors will keep you really busy!
What’s been the worst career advice you’ve ever received?
I remember early in my career when I had some concerns about the marketability of an idea I was considering writing, and a writer chastized me, saying, “Write for writing’s sake.” She was telling me that I was, in essence, a traitor to the craft if I cared about making money with my writing.
There’s the same sort of snobbery on both sides of the argument: There are those who believe that you must be a “starving artist” to be a “real” writer, and there are those who will tell you that you’re a traitor if you work for free– because they believe that teaches editors they don’t need to value writers. You know what? We could debate both sides and every shade in between for days on end, but it all comes down to this: You decide what’s right for you. Everyone else can decide what’s right for them. No one has the right to make anyone feel bad about trying to make a living, trying to follow a dream, or both.
Here is a self-serving question: how do you continue to find topics to cover on Absolute Write that are of help to writers, without running out?
Some months, I’m amazed that there’s still more to say. I mostly get my inspiration from correspondence with other writers. The Absolute Write forums are very active, and they keep me in touch with the “newbie perspective.” We have a wide range of experience levels among the writers there, and I keep getting re-reminded of the challenges at each stage. The newer writers ask questions, and I realize, “Hey, I didn’t know that when I started, either. Maybe I need to write about this…” And the newsletter subscribers are not shy about asking me for advice about their own writing, so I pay attention to the kinds of questions they ask to see if their specific situations bring up broader issues.
I try to mine my own experiences pretty relentlessly. For example, the first time my book was orphaned (the acquiring editor left the publishing house), I was scared of what would happen. It was something that had always been in the back of my mind before, because I know that editors play musical chairs a lot, but I didn’t know how to prepare myself. I figured maybe other writers didn’t know, either, and might be curious what happens. So that became a good excuse for me to write to some authors I admire, and ask if this ever happened to them– and what happened to the books.

Age: Let me answer your question like this: If you want to know how old I am or how much money I make, I will tell you that one number is too high, and the other figure is way too low.

Location:I live in the Ouachita Mountains in a planned community called Hot Springs Village, Arkansas. It is 22,000 acres and I am in the woods so when I look out my floor-to-ceiling office windows, I see trees. Some are 60-foot pines but there are a lot of hardwoods. We get all four seasons so you can imagine that in spring it is dogwood blooming, fall colors in autumn, etc. Location-wise, I am about an hour and ten minutes southwest of Little Rock (le petite Roche).
What are you working on now?
Currently I am teaching my Mediabistro 8-week e-course called Publish That Book: Writing a Nonfiction Book Proposal. In addition to that, I am creating two new websites with Adobe GoLive CS2 (the reason I mention the software, is that the learning curve was a beast). When I tire of that, I move over to the Arkansas Identification News-I am the editor-it is a quarterly and goes out to forensic scientists, law enforcement and corrections officers who all belong to the professional organization International Association for Identification (I am a trained forensic artist and hold a degree in criminal justice.) Then, I somehow got hornswoggled into being chairperson for Murder in Spa City, the first Mystery Writers of America Southwest Chapter and BreakThrough Promotions conference to be held in Arkansas, in Hot Springs, on April 1st.
more after the break

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Age: 79
Location: Dobbins, CA
What are you working on now? Embarking upon a strategy planning conference with Michele Pariza at Creative Concepts, to market my Tao book, Under the Plum Tree, The Tao of Everything, and backlist book titles, Gold Rivers of Northern California, Haiku, Single Woman Homesteader and Secret of the 2 Bar 4 Ranch.
What’s the most helpful thing you’ve learned about freelancing/writing?
Get a proper database system going that allows search for titles, publication, accept, reject, contact, deadline, revenue, notes. I use File Pro and keep a log of Inkwell products which include mss, cartoons, fine art, criticism, freelance etc.
What’s been the worst career advice you’ve ever received?
“Send money.”
more after the break

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Age: 29
Location: Harlem, NYC
What are you working on now?
I am always working on a cocktail but between sips I am continualy pitching to my regualr magazines such as Clear, Flaunt, Genre, Out Traveler as well as to others such as T and GQ. I have been working on short stories about my life in Harlem that I hope to organize and publish in 2006! The blog is my after 5 delight that I indulge in as much as possible.
What’s the most helpful thing you’ve learned about
freelancing/writing?
That being a freelance writer is just like being in PR. My PR background has been a huge help. I am used to pitching magazines/editors, I always follow up and I often know what they are looking for and how to angle it towards them. I also learned alot in the Travel Writing class I took with MB, mostly about editing. It was a great launch pad.
What’s been the worst career advice you’ve ever received?
It may not be advice, but everyone warned me that being a writer is a
very lonely job. I have not found that true at all. My dance card is
always full of people to meet, parties to attend and new places to go. This is how I keep up with what is hot, new and exciting and meet the people I want to interview and editors I want to work for.
You have a beautiful website: based on what you’ve learned putting
yours together, what would you advise other writers on putting
together an attractive yet functional site for themselves?
Many thanks! It was hard work but such fun. The most amazing thing I have learned about my website is how much trouble people have navigating it. My niece can find my articles after 2 clicks but so many editors are either lazy and dont want to try or really cant find my tear sheets and ask me to send hard copies. If I were to do it over I would put all of my tear sheets on the first page of my site. Also, using your name for your website (and email) is much more respected than www.trendywriter.com or something to that effect.

Age: 37 (that’s 162 in writer years)
Location:
I recently moved from Sydney to Vancouver, but I am a New Yorker at heart.

What are you working on now?
My fourth book is due in May, examining the 100 most important albums of the 20th century. My publisher has also contracted me as editorial advisor for their pop culture list, so I am helping them develop some more projects for other writers. Like all freelancers, I’ve got lots of side projects I’m hoping to sell later, including a travel memoir about being an American abroad in these, frankly, embarrassing times; a screenplay about the return of Elvis; and a panel I’m pitching to the EMP conference in April — you know, the usual.
Lest you think my life is all peaches and ferraris, I recently failed an audition to write for the Daily Show and have had yet another pitch rejected by National Geographic. But that is the nature of what we do: alternating between kisses on the cheek and kicks in the groin.

What has been your most difficult project of late and how did you cope with its challenges?
Six years ago Harper’s magazine asked me to write a very painful memoir, and I actually just finished the first draft last week. Since it took me six years, I guess I didn’t “cope” with the challenges very well at all. But doing the tough pieces makes you a better writer, and I learned a great deal about myself in the process. For one, I realized how important the editing process is. Though the piece ended up at 7,000 words, I believe I wrote more than 20,000 total, and just kept carving away until it was solid. I also became much better at “killing my children” — that is, deleting passages that slowed the story down even if they were really well written (I also learned that you can always save those sections for another piece). Lastly I learned that inspiration finds you on her schedule, not yours, so if you want to get the job done, you need to go hunt the bitch down.
What’s the most helpful thing you’ve learned about freelancing?
I’ve got all kinds of lists of rules for myself (though I treat them like guidelines, because I don’t like being told what to do, even by me). For freelancing, here’s a patented selection, in ascending order of importance:
5. Be a writer first. Do not think of it as something you do on the side, or you will always just be doing it on the side. When I returned to college after six years in the Marines, I had full-time school, a part-time job, two internships, and almost no time left to write, but I always thought of myself as a writer first.
4. Never let a contact slip away. Everyone in the business needs to maintain personal networks, so as long as you are courteous and professional (and not creepy), you should not feel guilty about keeping in touch with colleagues you meet at places like the MB parties. I’ve had a friend at the New York Times for six years, and though we’ve never been able to hook up for a story, I still email her at least once a year to check in, and she appreciates it.
3. Be good to your colleagues. I’ve built great personal relationships with many of my contacts, and they will go out of their way for me because they know I am worth it, and I do the same for them. Most of my work now comes from editors I consider friends, and I’ve recently had the opportunity to help out a writer who helped me out ten years ago. Build a network of writers and editors you trust, and never let them down.
2. Do the work for your editors. Really study the publication you’re writing for and anticipate the editor’s needs so you turn in a piece that’s not just well-written, but right for the publication. For one of my recent pieces, I used the library archives to research the previous decade of issues for this particular magazine, picking out the features that were similar to mine, and figuring out what elements worked well for this magazine. I will often spend twice as much time researching an article as I do writing it.
1. Put your ass in the chair. If you aren’t constantly writing, even when you have no idea what you’re going to do with it, none of the rest matters.
What’s been the worst career advice you’ve ever received?
Get a job. (I’m working on it, mom!)
[Wait until laughter dies] But seriously, folks. The worst advice I’ve gotten is to limit my interests so i am more marketable as a writer. I have many interests and expertise, and while this has made it hard for me to find an agent, I am ready to handle just about any opportunity that comes my way. (Plus, my work never gets boring).
Have you found an agent in Vancouver? How did you look for one?
I’ve only moved here recently, so the agents I’m talking to are all in or near New York. I’m lucky to have several agents interested in my work, but none of them likes that I have so many interests. I’ve done really well without an agent so far, but if I want to take that next step I need a good agent who appreciates the diversity of my experiences and interests.