A few years ago I saw today's interviewee speak at the Chicago Magazine Writers Conference and I still remember how great it was to hear from somebody for whom freelancing was a real job--and who treated it as such. It's a job she likes, yes, but it's not a mystical magical wordsmithing. It can be a pain in the butt but it's a better pain in the butt than any other gig. She has been a freelance magazine and newspaper writer for the past 20 years. Currently, she writes frequently for Time and Woman's Day, where she is a contributing editor. Her work has appeared in Marie Claire, This Old House, Parade, Ladies Home Journal and Delta SKY, among others. A former writing teacher at the University of Colorado and the University of Denver, Stich also teaches writers' seminars all over the country.

You will be moderating a panel for ASJA's annual conference on Ethics and Etiquette this year. What do you think is the biggest lapse in etiquette that most freelancers suffer from?
I think the biggest lapse in etiquette come from freelancers who forget that, in sales, you don;t piss off the customer.(You either give them what they want or you say politely, "I'm sorry, I can;t do what you want.") We writers tend to think that we are selling something so precious, so valuable that the rules of good business don't apply.(And rudeness is NEVER a good rule of business.) Are there customers who are a pain in the ass? You bet. But you don;t have to work for them. That notion seems to be missing from a lot of freelancers business sense. Instead, many writers get combative or attitudinal, thinking, "I'll show you who's boss." Editors talk amongst themselves. Rudeness will be remembered long after the incident takes place--no matter how justified you felt at the moment.

What advice do you have for first-time writing teachers?
The best advice I can give is to have realistic expectations. It'd be wonderful if we could teach all the elements of good writing and have our students get it. But teachers often forget that teaching writing is not just craft. A student may be able to writing a sentence that is both perfect grammatically and perfectly boring because it lacks "sizzle." Learning to write well is a process--a long process for most people. I always tried to have one or two major writing goals for each class, ones that I thought would really help them improve, even if they had other weaknesses. Try to teach everything and expect great results all in the course of a 10-16 week class and you'll be disappointed for sure.

You also moderated a panel on "secrets of power pitchers." How long would you say most of your standard article pitches are (assuming it's not an editor you work with frequently) and how long do you spend working on them?
I can work up to a week on a pitch for an editor I'm not familiar with (I'm working on the "dazzle" factor so hopefully I never have to work that hard on a query again for that editor) and the query may, in fact, have all almost the info I need for the article. For a high paying market like Parade, this is almost always necessary;howver before I go to all that work, I will ask the editor if she is interested in a pitch about XYZ.In other words, I don't put all that work into it if there's little interest. And if it doesn't work at my first choice of markets, it's bound to work somewhere else. I try to keep my queries to one page, if possible.

What does a contributing editor do?
I suppose it's different at different magazines but in my experience at two magazines, I was on the masthead, I was guaranteed a certain number of stories per year and I was paid more than I had gotten when I was not a contributing editor.

As an essay writer, do you think it's more important for writers to tailor their essays to fit where they're pitching, or to write the essay as they want it and then try to find the perfect home?
I think you write the essay the way it comes out of you guided only by the vaguest hint of where you'd like to see it published. So, for example, if your essay is perfect for a woman's magazine, but could also, with minor modifications, be good for Reader's Digest or Newsweek too, you consider ways to take the original draft and massage it to fit those markets. Redbook may only run a 500 word essay so you create a version that is close to that word count. Reader's Digest may need the inspirational element placed more prominently. Newsweek, which uses essays that about 900 words, may need it to be a little edgier. In other words, you're delivering the same basic message--in your voice -- but you're allowing different audiences to read it based on the needs of that audience (which an editor will make clear as you discuss the assignment).Of course, someone like Nora Ephron can simply tell a magazine she'd like to write an essay on the wrinkles in her neck and that's that. But most of us have to work with the market place to sell our essays, so I like to get my master draft and then keep massaging it as I send it out to different markets.