Archives: September 2005

Here’s what mediabistro readers are discussing on the bulletin boards today:
MBToolBox contributor Tom Shess still wants to know about whether he should schedule an appointment with the book doctor.
What do you know about media insurance for freelancers?
Is is ‘weird’ when an editor asks you to alter facts in a story, like, say, the space-time continuum? Yes.

I’m a science nerd who likes to write! Where can I get some tips on places who want my work?
What’s the Rodale international editorial internship like?

What’s the average editor’s workload like? How much time to get you get to spend in the fashion closet?
How much experience makes an experienced agent? And how bad is it to get a new one? (One caveat is that you don’t get as many testimonials from other clients.)

Create a social media strategy, launch your campaign, and track the results in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. The online event and workshop will feature speakers including The Onion's Baratunde Thurston (left), Facebook's Morin Oluwole, and bitly's Tim Devane. Register now.

Mom always saved your clips and so should you. It’s sad to see them turn yellow and seem ancient even though they’re only a few years old. Don’t sweat, my pet! Lifehacker links to a method to preserve your newsprint samples.

While you toil away, your publishers get together and enjoy jokes from Jon Stewart. FishBowlNY covers the Magazine Publishers of America Magazine panel “Laughing Matters: Magazines Celebrate Humor.”

Some people need a fancy office, others write on index cards they keep in the back pocket of their perfectly-worn jeans. But if you’re looking for tips on how to make the best writing space you can, Chris Stewart at Worldwide Freelance Writer has some. (Although you should ask yourself, are you spiffing up your writing space because you need it, or because you’re procrastinating?)

Let’s face it: writers are not as likely to be tremendously physically fat as, say, rock climbing instructors. Katherine O. Huether over at Absolute Write has some ideas for keeping yourself in shape (or at least, keeping some sort of shape) despite your hours in front of the computer.
In addition to her ideas, I recommend buying a pedometer. 10,000 steps equals 3.5-5 miles, so if strap one one and see that you’ve already racked up 4,000 steps by midafternoon just by walking around, you’ll have more impetus to step outside and get a little walk on.

You’ve posted your mini-bios at the MB Freelance Marketplace in hopes of snagging a great freelance – or full-time – gig. But, are you completely satisfied with your listing? Do you think you’ve described your accomplishments, specialties and skills in the best possible light? Let’s check in with our expert, Jane Ashen Turkewitz, the premiere resume writer for MediaBistro, in our weekly segment where a real Marketplace profile, just like yours, is critiqued to give its owner insight on how to make it even more effective. As a former media recruiter, Jane has reviewed thousands of resumes and has successfully placed candidates at Time Inc., Hearst, Hachette, Primedia and other major media companies. Turkewitz has written hundreds of resumes for writers, editors, publishers, sales executives, marketers, graphic designers, business managers, technology executives, public relations professionals and others.
Today’s critique belongs to the lovely Andrea Thompson, whose profile begins:
A freelance and staff writer for Marie Claire, USA Today and Women’s Wear Daily, among other publications, the human interest piece is my first love. I’ve written articles on celebrities like Danny Glover, on young women suffering from diseases that typically afflict older people, on the disappearance and murder of a U.S. tourist in Spain, as well as fashion and entertainment stories. I’ve also been a television reporter and writer for CBS affiliate, WFOR-TV in Miami as well as producer and writer for Fox Television. I love the interview; delving into the lives of others and putting their words and experiences into stories that can help and/or entertain others. It is my passion (among other things). It’s no wonder I minored in psychology at Smith College.
Jane says,
Andrea, this critique is going to be short. Overall, I think you did a terrific job on your profile. I have a few suggestions. In your overview, you mention that you “love” to do human interest pieces and that you “love” the interview. It’s not that I don’t think enthusiasm is important. It is. But, I think you can make an even greater impact when you say that you are proven at doing the things that you “love.” My only other suggestion? You mention all these wonderful media outlets in your profile, yet you only show one clip and I have no idea where it ran. The title should say “Starving for her Art” – The New York Times, or wherever it ran. Attach more clips and make it clear where these clips have run before the reader has to open the document, not to mention, within the document itself.
If you’d like your profile critiqued by Jane (and really, if you took the time to create one you should have the best one possible), drop a line to the Marketplace people.

Why is the Chicago White Sox logo on this post? Because this post is about helpful things, and the Sox helped me justify getting out of bed this morning. Woo!
Anyway, let me stop abusing my exalted post as blog editor. Here are some links for you:
Need a lawyer? Publishlawyer credits itself as “The Legal Resource for Publishing Professionals.”

Free Lexis/Nexis tools for you (according to SreeTips, so if it’s not as free as it seems, take it up with him.)
Want some good free science fiction? (via MetaFilter)
For those of you for whom fonts matter (freelancers! do not use fancy fonts when sending cover letters!), Typetester.
I am not creative enough to come up with a snappy introduction to Creativity Techniques.

Q: I’d like to write an article about weight loss, but I’m not a medical professional and I’m not sure how to make it unique. Do you have any ideas?
A: I confess that I made up the question above to fit some good advice that I received from freelancer Carla Passino when seeking advice on how writers can turn their weight issues into sellable article:

I don’t write these kind of stories but not too long ago I gave an
idea to a
health editor on the topic (and was nicely paid for it): it was
called “the
fat scar” and basically looked at how women who had once been
overweight
continue to have self-confidence and self-perception issues even
long after
having lost weight — because in the back of their mind, they
still “see”
themselves as fat. Coming up with the spin was relatively easy –
I know a
lot of women who have this kind of issues — so I suppose my
suggestion to
other writers would be to try and keep their eyes open and the
stories will
present themselves under the guises of their mothers, sisters,
neighbors.
And, while it is rude, listening to other people’s conversations at
restaurants and cafes also helps (once overheard a friend’s little
girl, who
is 6 years old, tell her mother at a restaurant that she’d rather
not have
potatoes with her steak because she didn’t want to get fat –
weight issues
at that age, go figure!) . But seriously putting together two
*big* topics
– such as weight issues and psychological scars from childhood –
often
results in a very sellable story.

I think it’s good advice no matter what. If you have a real question though about freelancing, writing, pitching, rocking and rolling and whatnot, drop me a line.

“The granddaddy of entertainment newspapers has hatched a fledgling lifestyle section aimed squarely at the rich and influential. While Daily Variety is read by almost everyone interested in the business of Hollywood, the V Life Weekend model reader is a top-level executive (either a man or a woman) pulling in $400,000 a year,” writes Chrys Wu. Enjoy working on fluffier pieces, and pitch to the “Nurture,” “Collect” and “Taste” departments (amongst the other FOB spots). Stay away from restaurant reviews and profiles. Keep your pitch short and sweet.
Meanwhile, on the other coast, the How to Pitch for Yankee has been updated!

I received the following email to my personal inbox just a few minutes ago:

was wondering if you accept or reject these various art forms: short-short
stories, storellas, literary pre’cis, “tonepoems”, literary blends, literary
pasticci and literary collages via E-mail? Some of my latest works are: “A Ten Pound
Large Man”, “Docta Freud’s House Calls”, “Kamikaze Shooterdowner” , “Falling
Way Out of Olivia”, “A Man from the California Settlement”, “Kafka’s Tomb”,
“Mind Wipe”, “So Long You All”,”Drinking in Whispers”, “Olivia’s Words”, “A
Poor Man’s Havaaaad”, “Tina of the Troy”, “Tom’s Outer Space
Journeys”,”Where the Facawee”, “Sleeping with Fishes”, “Sports Wars between
the Jinx Gods and Greek Gods – Especially English Rounders”, “A Hundred-eyed
Dog”, “Hyphenated All Americans”, “Once a Time Ago on Old Arthur Avenue”,
“Oedipus of the Knowing”, “What the World Needs Now Is a Cure – Forget about
“Love” – Where Did It Go?”, “Singing Wombs”, “Tommy TomTom”, “Byrom of the
Flame”, “Farting Anxieties”,”The Pseudo War Between Brazil and
Canada”, “Why We Hate the French Like Ourselves”, “Look Whose Nose Is up a
Shrub’s Ass” and “The Whistling Man’s long Dark Journey into Night -
even on the Great Lakes!”, “Hyphenated Americans Like”, “If I Say
It First and You Second – I Win – Ginky said!” “One Finger Pointing Three
Coming Back at One” “Tips from Nick Machiavelli”, “Green Ship Coming In?”,
“When Autumn Leaves” and “Born in the Eyes of Memory”, “Under the Marmalade
Trees” ….
Most of these works were done using 800 words or less. I also have
collections of short stories: “A Dying Living”,”The Last American-African”,
“An Old Born Baby”, “When the Fan Hit the”, “The Village Idiot Comes Home to
Oedipus”, “Wake Up Before Going to Sleep!”, “Thirty After Noon”, “Once
Catholicism Meant Liberal”, “Just a Mean Mean Hearted People”, “No More
Baggage to Carry”, “When The Bronx Was a Home Becoming Brooklyn” and “When
the Boy Gave Birth to the Man” …. My works have been published in many
places such as Greece, Scotland, Canada, Australia, USA, Romania, Ireland,
England, India, Singapore ….
Thank you for your time and kind attention and please accept my apologies if
I have bothered you before. Often I receive E-mail addresses from friends
and since I have lost most of my files, I can not recall if I sent you this
query before. Again I am sorry for this ….
I know you must put much effort and time in your endeavor – without much
thanks. I thank you. <FIRST NAME LAST INITIAL ….

At first, I thought that this was spam, until I googled the name in question and saw that this has been spread about the Internet. Problem #1. Don’t send an obviously cut-and-pasted pitch letter to anyone, even if you’re only pitching to a website that doesn’t pay for content. I mean, make at least an effort to personalize the email.
#2. There is no salutation in the letter. Capitalization is spotty. There’s no real signoff. I woulddn’t know the author’s last name unless it was in the email address. Again, no matter who you’re pitching to, act like you can at least write a letter.
#3. The laundry list of story titles. So? I can come up with a list of fake titles of stories that I have allegedly written, too. How do I know where these have been published? How do I know if they are even real? And ps, do you really think it’s professional to include a story titled “Look Whose Nose Is up a
Shrub’s Ass.”?
#4. What kind of stories are these? Humor? Fantasy? Sci-Fi? It would be good to know.
#5. What’s a storella? What’s a “tone poem”?
#6. Being published in Singapore does not (necessarily) a good writer make.
#7. And don’t tell the person you’re writing to that you can’t remember if you’re contacted them, and that you ‘receive email addresses from friends’. Obviously, you don’t know anything about my publication and don’t really care, so why should we care about you?
#8. Acquaint yourself with the paragraph.
#9. Bonus tip: if you are going to write a sloppy, cut-and-paste pitch, you had better make sure it’s not Google-a-ble.
If you are the person who wrote the pitch and you’re reading this, I apologize if this seems cruel but I think this input will be more helpful than putting any of your work on my site.