Maybe you’ve had it with pantyhose and office politics. Maybe you’re a parent who longs to spend more time at home with your children. Maybe you’re an introvert who can’t imagine a better gig than churning out words alone in your office. Writers become freelancers for different reasons, and there are real benefits to working from home — among them, creating your own schedule, having more control over the growth and direction of your work and being able to literally take your work anywhere (spontaneous Grand Canyon trip, anyone?)

I made my decision to freelance because there are few traditional career opportunities for writers in my Midwestern town. Although I’ve been successful over these four years, there have been setbacks and hurdles that I’m still working to overcome. Here’s how I’ve addressed them.

Irregular income.

The most jarring part of going from a “normal” job to freelancing is the lack of regular income. The best way to combat this is to establish an emergency fund while you’re still working your regular job — three times your monthly living expenses is a solid safety net. You can go with less if you’re only taking care of yourself, you have a partner who brings in steady income or you’re willing to live well below your means for awhile.

Did I have an emergency fund when I started freelancing? Nope, and that is my biggest regret. When I quit my waitressing job on a whim to be a full-time writer, my partner was going to school and working as a bartender. We had also just gotten married and had racked up a significant amount of debt on our expensive San Francisco honeymoon.

Three months into my freelance adventures (I’d earned about a measly $200 in that time), my husband lost his job. We started using a credit card for groceries and gas, the same credit card we’d stupidly used on our honeymoon. It took us three years to pay off the debt we’d accrued in just a few months. If I’d thought it through, I would have saved at least $1,000 before starting my freelance career — or I would’ve put off my wedding.

But an emergency fund and frugal living will only work for so long. When you do start making money, you have to ensure it’s going to keep coming in. In my experience, it helps to view each job as a stepping stone to the next. The more work you do, the more you can phase out the small stuff from your resume and replace it with the bigger stuff. As the quality of your work improves, you will gain confidence and experience to pitch higher-paying markets.

“It helps to view each job as a stepping stone to the next. The more work you do, the more you can phase out the small stuff from your resume and replace it with the bigger stuff.”

But I must warn you, this is not a fast career track toward the American dream. I have worked furiously and made small gains over time, while seeing others my age get promotions, buy houses and new cars, adopt puppies, take vacations and give expensive gifts. I am 27, my family of three lives in a two-bedroom apartment, I’ve never purchased a new car and all of our furniture is second hand or something that came out of a box from Walmart. One day we’ll be able to afford curtains, new clothes and trips to visit extended family, but we’re prepared to wait indefinitely for that. Are you?

Challenges as a new parent.

When I was pregnant, I had every intention of continuing my writing with my baby nestled close to me in a sling. I assumed as she got a little older, she would toddle around on the floor while I went about my work. As it turns out, babies aren’t fans of being left alone on the floor. And my daughter happened to be exceptionally skilled at crying out for me whenever I was just beginning to settle in to a writing project.

I decided to enroll her in daycare when she was 15 months old, and despite the heartache and disapproval of some of my traditional family members, it became the best decision I could have made.

While you may be able to “have it all” and squeeze in your writing time while your child naps, it will take you much longer to stabilize and make serious income if you’re only working a couple hours a day. Here are two major fears that held me back from putting my daughter in daycare (and why I’m so glad I overcame them):

• I can’t afford childcare on a freelance income. And even if I can, I’m only breaking even. This seems like a bit of a catch-22 (so you’re telling me I’m going to lose money and someone else is going to get to see my kid all day?), but the reality is actually very different. The more time you have to work, the more money you make. But you won’t have more time until you find care for your child. Yes, the first few months of full-time freelancing may only allow you to break even with your childcare expenses. But as I mentioned above, each writing job paves the way for the next bigger, better one. My real-life example: When my daughter was at home with me, I was earning about $200 a month. After her first month in daycare, I earned $600 a month — I broke even with the cost of daycare. Five months later, I earned $1,500, $900 more than the cost of childcare and with more writing experience to tuck under my belt for future opportunities.
• Having someone else raise my child is detrimental and selfish. Although you will hear reasonable arguments from both sides about whether a young child needs to be home with a parent for the formative years, there is also this undeniable fact: Even very young children are affected negatively when their parents are unhappy. If being a stay-at-home parent or only working part-time is making you unhappy, your child will know. A few hours a day of joyful, quality time with your child is far more beneficial to her health than a full day with a sad or resentful parent.

Regarding parenting and freelancing, do what’s best for your family. I know a few wonderful women who stay at home with their children full time and write whenever they can, and it fulfills them. We are all different, and what’s most important is that you stay true to you. Just don’t let the fear of change stifle your potential for happiness and success.

“Some of my best months as a freelancer were spent drinking bottomless coffee at my favorite caf_?.”

No benefits package.

The way I feel about health insurance and retirement benefits is the same way I feel about unicorns: they seem so lovely and exotic and wouldn’t it be great to have them, but it’s a luxury I’ve never known. I have a Roth IRA to which I don’t contribute enough, and I have utilized walk-in clinics, community clinics with sliding fees and government health insurance to get me through some of my medical emergencies — but there are better options. Here are a few:

• Health. You may qualify for state aid (Medicaid) if your income falls under your state’s threshold. If you are 65 or older, you may qualify for Medicare. According to USA.gov, in October of 2013 you can visit your state’s Health Insurance Marketplace to find care under the Affordable Care Act. You may also consider joining the Freelancers Union, which offers health, disability and retirement benefits to independent contractors throughout the United States.
• Retirement. If you qualify, consider setting up a Roth IRA. Unlike traditional IRAs, Roth IRAs grow tax free, and when you withdraw from one, you don’t have to pay taxes on it. As of 2013, the most you can contribute each year to a Roth is $5,500 ($6,500 if you’re 50 or older). You must also, as an individual, have an adjusted gross income (AGI) of under $110,000; for a couple filing jointly, your AGI must be under $173,000. If you make more than that, you can’t contribute to a Roth IRA, and furthermore, please contact me @AmandaLaymanLow and let me know who you’re writing for and how you scored that gig.

Going stir crazy.

If you’re still working a traditional job, you may be itching to separate yourself from that one coworker who won’t shut up about baseball or last night’s episode of Mad Men. But believe me, having to keep yourself company for hours on end can be just as exhausting.

If you can, get a laptop. Some of my best months as a freelancer were spent drinking bottomless coffee at my favorite caf_?. There were regulars, like the sweet old man who would say sweet old man things like “working hard, or hardly working?” then go chain smoke outside and slowly scratch his lottery tickets. And the intelligent barista, Alex, with whom I had opposing views on religion, and the sassy barista Ashley who would tease my husband and toss us free snacks every once in awhile.

“My first safeguard against distractibility is to have an inspiring workspace used only for writing.”

The caf_? closed, and I went back to being stir crazy. Since then I’ve utilized the library, which is one of the few places where it’s okay to work and loiter without buying anything. A few months ago, I rallied together a community volleyball team — we were horrible, I think we won one game out of 20, but being around people made a huge difference. Most recently, I’ve taken up rock climbing at an indoor gym, and I’m starting to meet some fascinating people there. In addition, the total mind and body workout that comes from climbing helps offset the stagnancy of sitting quietly at my computer all day (you should see my guns, guys).

Difficulty separating home from work.

One of my favorite books is by Marcia Golub, and for all of its chapters on the distractions of working from home, it’s ironically titled, I’d Rather Be Writing. We often choose to become freelance writers because we’re invigorated by the idea of doing what we love all day long, only to realize that, as Golub puts it:

When there’s no boss hovering over your shoulder, and you can’t get that vision of the overflowing laundry basket out of your head, and you don’t really have any immediate deadlines, it’s difficult to stay on task.

My first safeguard against distractibility is to have an inspiring workspace used only for writing. The corner of our second bedroom is my office — everything from the green banker’s lamp to the stack of reference books to the idea-splattered bulletin board is dedicated to my work alone. If my husband uses my computer at night, he knows to clean up after himself like he’s fleeing a crime scene, fingerprints and all. He knows how important it is for me to have this area be a blank slate each morning.

At the end of each work day, I prepare a to-do list on a 3 X 5 note card for the next day. Here’s today’s list:

• Update invoice spreadsheet
• Work on MediaBistro piece
• Find experts for articles due in two weeks
• Follow up with consulting company on new project/start project

My little list serves as a guide, and while it keeps me focused and divides my day into concrete tasks, it also reassures me on days I’m feeling overwhelmed. Being able to cross off each task as I complete it gives me a sense of progress, and makes a busy day feel less daunting. And sometimes I’ll even have time left over for laundry!

It’s taken me four years to develop my little system, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t still duck away for the occasional afternoon nap or throw in the towel early to watch TV on a bad day. But like any other job, when something isn’t working, you adapt to the drawbacks and work to restore balance the best way you can.

Amanda Layman Low is a freelance writer and artist. Contact her on Twitter @AmandaLaymanLow.

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Whether you’re working on a pitch or an article, sound bites from experts can really ramp up the credibility of your writing. But expert interviews can be intimidating, especially if you’re introverted like me or new to the game. When I did my first phone interview three years ago, I was a hot mess: stuttering over my questions, scrambling to hold my phone up to my ear while taking notes and not letting the conversation run its natural course. Long after the article ran, I was still receiving copious promotional emails from the expert’s pushy PR representative. Here are a few tips to help you handle your interviews with confidence and finesse.

Find and contact the right experts.

In the age of Internet and social media, experts aren’t too hard to find. But when you’re working on a tight deadline, scheduling an interview with a high-profile expert can be tough. Susan Atteberry Smith, longtime freelance writer and professor at Drury University, finds experts primarily through public information officers — who are different from PR agents in that they’re more focused on providing information and less focused on marketing.

Atteberry Smith also recommends contacting organizations directly. For example, she says, “The American Heart Association sometimes will have an expert on the board___ and those nonprofit organizations also [have] public information people who will put you in touch with an expert.”

Personally, I have found reliable resources at Help a Reporter Out (helpareporter.com), a free service that connects writers to experts in various fields. For more on finding experts for your pieces, also check out Mediabistro’s 6 Surefire Ways to Find Sources in the Digital Age.

“The first step to a successful interview is having background knowledge.”

Develop strong questions.

Getting the information you need isn’t just about firing off questions 1, 2 and 3 and hoping for the best. The first step to a successful interview is having background knowledge. Freelance writer Lindsay Cross says, “Look at their websites, social media, published works___ research some counterpoints and other experts who work in the same field. The best way to get over any nerves you might have is to be prepared.”

Another way to obtain information about an expert, if it’s someone well known, is to read archival articles written on the person. Atteberry Smith says a Google search may be enough, but “if you have access to a college or university database, you can also find a lot of different publications and you can search to see whether there are articles about that person. Or you can access the library.”

Rachel Heston-Davis, freelance writer, suggests requesting a PR kit from an expert’s public relations person. However, if you don’t have access to a PR kit, Heston-Davis recommends you “think up some general questions ahead of time and during the interview pay really close attention to what they’re telling you.” She adds, “Honestly, you have to get practice at generating questions on the spot, at noticing something they said that might be of interest, just probing at it.”

Cross says when she develops questions in advance, she considers her readership and the purpose of her article. She asks: “What will they expect to get out of the piece? What kinds of questions or problems might they have that pushed them to read my piece?”

Communicate honestly.

You won’t always converse with people who share the same opinions and tastes as you. Unless you’re assigned an undercover piece, it’s best to be clear about your article and its angle. Cross says, “I once interviewed a parenting expert whose philosophy I had some serious problems with. I asked him very pointed questions, but when I questioned his answers personally, I didn’t communicate it with him. I think I was afraid of coming off as rude and argumentative. Then he was a little surprised at how critical my write-up was. I never misquoted him or took him out of context, but I should have made sure that my piece didn’t blind-side him.”

Don’t be afraid to ask for clarification, either. If your expert uses an unfamiliar term or draws an analogy that doesn’t make sense, ask her to expound. If you don’t understand something your expert says, your readership may not, either — and your job as a writer is often to boil down complicated or abstract ideas into practical information.

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NEXT >> 6 Tips for Landing Repeat Writing Assignments

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Heston-Davis admits she learned this after trial and error. She emphasizes the importance of asking an expert to reiterate because “you will not be able to figure something out from context later.” She adds that having misinformation in your article, or a lack of information, reflects poorly on both you as a writer and your interviewed expert. Getting clarification in an interview “really is better than the [expert] looking at your article and feeling like you didn’t understand what you’re writing about.”

Cross has another point on honest communication, which is to not let your interview become nothing but an expert’s promotional pitch. “Most experts agree to be interviewed because they’re selling something___ Just because they are an ‘expert’ doesn’t mean you have to take every word they say as gospel and it doesn’t mean that you can’t question them. Try to approach the conversation like a thoughtful, inquisitive consumer.”

Choose your media for conversation wisely.

Should you do a phone, email or in-person interview? First, adhere to your editor’s guidelines: Some editors prefer email, while others prefer live or phone interviews for their more spontaneous cadence. The style of interview also depends on the kind of piece you’re writing. If you’re working on a profile of a notable person, it’s best to meet with him face-to-face to get an overall impression of his personality, quirks and mannerisms. But for an information-driven piece, a phone interview should suffice.

Smith says, “an email interview would be the last resort___ conversations have an authenticity to them and a spontaneity that you just can’t get in an email dialogue.” Of course, if a PR person demands you conduct an email interview and that’s the only way you’ll get your information by deadline, sometimes email is necessary — but all the same rules about honesty and communication apply. Respond to the email with follow-up questions if something is unclear.

Use a mix of tech and old-fashioned note taking.

Davis and Smith are both low-tech when it comes to note taking, which works in their favor. In Davis’ experience, she would use an audio recorder in “certain situations, but there were other times, if I was at a community festival, let’s say, and I’m running around getting quotes from lots of different people___ I felt like the recorder and my camera and my notebook were too much to take care of at once. If you’re uncomfortable with the technology, or it’s ultimately getting in the way of your ability to quickly multitask, then at that point it’s almost not worth it.”

Smith uses tape recorders as backup, but has developed her own style of shorthand over the years. “I have discovered that I prefer taking notes by hand___ I pay more attention to what’s being said, I have the nuances a little better than when I’m recording. The other reason is practical, because if you record interviews then you have to transcribe them.”

“The best interviews are great conversations… steer the interview, gently steer it, so you get your questions answered. It’s a delicate balance.”

And a word of caution: Any time you’re trying a new form of technology, test it out first. I avoided disaster by doing this recently. I had downloaded a free conversation recording app for my Android and made a test call to two different people, one local and one out of town. On both, it recorded my voice crystal-clearly, but the person on the other line was nearly inaudible. Because I had a phone interview scheduled later that day, I opted for putting my phone on speakerphone and recording the conversation with my video camera. It wasn’t optimal, but it did the trick.

Transcribe your conversations.

Having a written copy of your recorded expert interviews will serve you in the long run. In fact, some editors require this. You have a few options for transcription. You can do it manually, which may take around four times as long as the duration of the interview (for example, a 20-minute conversation recently took me about an hour and a half to transcribe). If you don’t have the time, try using a free or paid transcription service.

For a free option, try Express Scribe Transcription Software or use the Dragon Dictation app for iPad and iPhone. The downfall of using a free service is that you will often have to go back in and edit words and add punctuation. If you don’t want to worry about this, one of our Mediabistro editors recommends the Rev Voice Recorder app, which accurately and quickly transcribes interviews for $1 a minute. Before you write off the idea of paying for a transcription service, stop and think about how much you’re worth. For example, if it takes you two hours to transcribe a 50-minute interview, and you value your time at $50/hr, you’d be better off paying the $50 to have the interview transcribed than to waste $100 of your time.

It’s all about the conversation.

Smith sums it up well: “The best interviews are great conversations.” You may worry, especially when you’re working on deadline, that you won’t get all the information you need out of an interview. And while it’s important to get the facts, Smith suggests you allow the interview to run a natural course, but “steer the interview, gently steer it, so you get your questions answered. It’s a delicate balance.” This combination of assertion and social grace comes with practice, but in my experience many of the same skills you use in regular communication with friends and coworkers translate into good interviewing skills. Be respectful, be a good listener, have a sense of humor. Do these things, and you will walk away from your interview with both solid information and the sense of joy that comes from having a great conversation.

Amanda Layman Low is a freelance writer and artist. Contact her on Twitter @AmandaLaymanLow.

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NEXT >> 6 Tips for Landing Repeat Writing Assignments

There was no digital photography when Jamie McCarthy started snapping pictures of celebrities in the mid-90s. Just a trusty Nikon N90s camera, rolls of wide film and nightly sessions of cutting it all up.

Then and now, McCarthy has always prided himself on getting along with the celebrities he photographs. He knows many of them socially, never photographs them in bad light and, as a result, has established in them a great deal of trust.

Mediabistro caught up with McCarthy on the heels of one of his busiest times of the year — New York Fashion Week. He was still raving about DKNY’s 25th-anniversary party, where he shot around 1,500 photos and got to work on stage alongside the night’s various musical performers.

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Name: Jamie McCarthy
Position: Senior staff photographer, Getty / WireImage
Resume: Over the span of 17 years, Jamie McCarthy has established himself as a trusted, go-to photographer for a wide range of celebrity-driven events and private shoots. He started in the picture-taking business at age 21, working alongside his uncle Patrick McMullan. After eight years of helping McMullan grow the business, McCarthy moved over to WireImage and then Getty Images.
Birthday: January 30, 1974
Hometown: Brooklyn, New York
Education: Sheepshead Bay High School
Marital status: Single
Mentor: Patrick McMullan
Best career advice received: My uncle, Patrick, once told me,”Be polite and use your charm and personality to make the subjects of your photos feel comfortable, and it will show through in the photos.”
Guilty pleasure: Video games
Last book read: Fierce Conversations: Achieving Success at Work & in Life, One Conversation at a Time, by Susan Scott
Instagram handle: @iamjmccarthy

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How exactly did you arrive at Getty Images?

I came aboard Getty through [its] acquisition of WireImage. Sometimes I shoot for WireImage, sometimes I shoot for Getty. And for certain clients, my images go on both services. But all my photography essentially runs through the Getty brand. And in Hollywood, we currently have a partnership with Variety. I’m one of the main guys who covers red-carpet events and parties for them.

Has the rise of TMZ affected the way you do your job?

Not really. My team of photographers at Getty, we’re kind of like the anti-TMZ. We’re the guys that are pretty much on the inside. So we’re the guys who want to do the nice photos and make them look good, whereas TMZ and those guys I feel like they’re looking more for the dirt on celebrities.

“My clients hire me because they know they can trust me and I’m not going to give up [their] secrets.”

My clients hire me because they know they can trust me and I’m not going to give up secrets about them and I make them look good. I want people who see the photos to say, ‘Wow, she looks beautiful’ or ‘He’s great-looking.’ Also, I only shoot at events where people are expecting photographs to be taken. I’ve never tried to shoot people in their personal lives. That’s not my style.

The TMZ thing is kind of weird. I’ll give you an example. I work a lot with Nicole Polizzi (Snooki). She’s a good friend of mine. We were on the beach during the summer doing some casual photos. There was a paparazzo there; she followed us from the house to the beach and photographed me taking pictures of her. And it ended up on TMZ, and it kind of ruined the exclusive that I had.

What other kinds of assignments have you been doing recently with celebrities?

Last summer, again with Snooki, I did the spread for People magazine when she had her baby. The baby was five days old, making him (Lorenzo) the youngest person to ever be on the cover of the magazine. The reason I got that, again, was the trust issue. You want someone you can trust around the baby, who’s going to be careful.

I also fly around a lot with Jessica Simpson to do photography for her clothing line. As a matter of fact, she just booked me to go to Dallas in November. So I have certain clients and certain magazines who hire me. But I will pretty much shoot anything. I’m well-versed in portrait photography, event photography, concerts, weddings. Depending on what my client needs, I can pretty much do whatever they require.

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NEXT >> So What Do You Do Jawn Murray, Entertainment Reporter?

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You started your career working with your uncle, legendary society and nightlife photographer Patrick McMullan. Can you tell us a bit more about those days?

He’s still out there, and we actually worked together just two nights ago. I didn’t really know what I was going to do at the time. I was just a kid who had a camera, who took pictures for fun, never thinking I could make a career out of it. And I didn’t really know what he did, until one day I was at his apartment and saw him looking through film. So I started interning for him.

I was with him for eight years. I ended up becoming president and helping his company grow. But I wanted to do other things, so I left and started at the bottom again at WireImage. It wasn’t too hard because I had worked with him and had clients. I met a lot of cool people when I was working with him and I brought those relationships with me. Our relationship sort of got strained at certain times because working for family is never easy. But now we work side by side.

“When somebody comes up to you and says, ‘I love those photos you took of me that I saw in People magazine,’ that makes it all worthwhile.”

Can you think of an example of a photo you took, in which the public’s subsequent reaction to it really surprised you?

Here’s a great one. I shoot the Webby Awards every year. It’s mainly an industry event, not a lot of celebrities. There was an older gentleman there who had this big, old-school cell phone. Like one of those big bricks. I thought, ‘This guy looks kind of cool,’ and kind of chatted him up. Turned out he was the guy who invented the cell phone [Martin Cooper].

So I took some photos of him and didn’t really think anything of it. But then recently, it was the 40th anniversary of the invention of the cell phone. And that photo was everywhere, on every tech site and Internet site. It got the kind of play that a Brad Pitt-Angelina Jolie picture usually does. For weeks, I was getting Google Alerts for this photo. Pretty amazing.

Besides your uncle, who were some of the other photographers that influenced you?

I was always a fan of David LaChapelle. And I actually got to meet him and do a portrait of him, which was really cool, at Sundance. I’ve always liked his style. He has this really abstract approach; it’s always very well produced. Lots of colors. And he knows how to work with great subjects — like, for example, Madonna in the middle of a block party kind of scenario. Or Leonardo DiCaprio as a young kid with some wild backdrop. He was always one of those guys who stood out to me because his stuff is so off the wall. I always liked Terry Richardson too. I met him, and he was such a nice, cool guy.

And that ties into one of the best rewards for me from this job. When somebody comes up to you and says, ‘I love those photos you took of me that I saw in People magazine,’ that makes it all worthwhile. And it’s nice when you get to work and have fun at the same time. It’s changed a bit over the years and has become a bit more controlled. But you still get those times [when] celebrities let photographers in that they trust and let their hair down. I’ve literally sat, for example, at a table in Vegas with a celebrity, and put my camera on the table. They know when they want me to take a photo; they’ll ask me.

I’ve had magazine editors tell me they can put up a hundred photos and see which ones are mine because [of] the expressions people give and the sincerity of the smiles. That comes from just being a person and being a good guy and treating everyone with respect.

Richard Horgan is co-editor of FishbowlNY.

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NEXT >> So What Do You Do Jawn Murray, Entertainment Reporter?

Though she had already published two novels (Mama, in 1987 and Disappearing Acts in 1989), it was Terry McMillan’s third book, Waiting to Exhale (published in 1992) that catapulted her to literary stardom. The funky, fly tale of four single, black women looking for love spiraled into a pop-culture phenomenon, spending more than nine months on the New York Times Bestsellers list and spawning a Hollywood blockbuster film that featured a fairly popular singer named Whitney Houston in one of its title roles.

But aside from filling McMillan’s bank account with more money than she knew what to do with (a 1993 interview with Ebony magazine revealed that Pocket Books paid $2.64 million for the paperback rights to Exhale), the runaway success of Waiting to Exhale literally transformed the publishing industry. McMillan proved to publishers, editors and agents — and even some doubtful writers — that African Americans do, in fact, read.

Now, more than 25 years since her debut, the acclaimed novelist widely credited with kick starting the modern African American fiction movement is still writing and serving up her signature sass through characters so real they seem to turn the book’s pages themselves.

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Name: Terry McMillan
Position: Full-time author
Resume: McMillan has published a total of eight novels, including her latest, Who Asked You? [released today]. Several of her books (Waiting to Exhale, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, Disappearing Acts) have been made into films, for which she served as screenwriter and/or executive producer. McMillan also taught fiction writing at the University of Wyoming, Stanford University and The University of Arizona, where she received tenure.
Birthday: October 18, 1951
Hometown: Port Huron, Mich.
Education: Graduated from UC Berkeley in ’77 with a journalism degree. Later dropped out of the Master’s of Fine Arts Program (film) at Columbia University.
Marital status: Single
Media mentors: Joy Reid and Rachel Maddow “because they are both brilliant and know their history and the story behind the story.”
Favorite TV show: Dateline
Guilty pleasure: Hamburgers
Last book read: The Taste of Salt by Martha Southgate
Twitter handle: @MsTerryMcMillan

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You’re known for writing such authentic characters. How do you keep them all straight?
Well, first of all, it’s not as hard as you would think. If you take [people] that you know really well, and you had to capture them on paper — their gesticulations, how they talk, how they think — from what you know about them, you could do it. But before anything, I do a lot to profile my characters so that I know them. I know almost everything about them, in terms of their educational background, how tall they are, what color they are, what they like and don’t like, what their favorite class was in school, what they’re afraid of, what their biggest secret is, if they lie, if they pay their bills on time, what they wish they coulda, woulda, shoulda done, etc., etc.

As you’ve aged, your characters have aged with you. Was it difficult to write from an 8-year-old’s perspective, as you did in Who Asked You?
No. I mean, I’m not around 8-year-olds every day or anything like that, but I remember my son at 8; I remember other people’s kids at 8; I remember his classmates. And I have sisters and relatives and friends, [and] I was around their kids at 8. And not only that, but I know certain things about the language that they have. Some of it is based on their environment, and some 8-year-olds that grow up in the hood are a lot more savvy. They have a lot more information, and they know how to process it, and they imitate what’s around them. So that’s sort of where I came from.

“When I’m writing a book, I don’t feel like I’m writing a book. I am basically dramatizing the lives of people that I have made up.”

Was it intentional to write a cast of multi-generational characters, perhaps to appeal to a wider fan base?
No. I don’t tailor make my books to appeal to a certain audience. Oh my god, no. I tell the story that I want to tell because I am fascinated by and curious about people who behave a certain way, and [I am intrigued] when sometimes they are victims or [are] victimized and they have to figure out how to tackle certain problems that loom very large in their lives. And in this case, I was just real curious about grandmothers who are put in a position where they basically are forced to either abandon their grandchildren or parent them. And the only thing I ended up doing was trying to show how people react to each other’s behavior. I tell the story to answer a question — many questions, sometimes — but the last person I’m thinking about is my audience, my readers. When I’m writing a book, I don’t feel like I’m writing a book. I am basically dramatizing the lives of people that I have made up and believe are real while I’m telling the story. And then, when I’m finished, my respect level for human beings rises, and that’s the whole point because I usually write about people that I don’t have much patience for or understand.

Why do you choose those characters? Is it fun or more challenging to write about them?
I’ll put it this way, as a writer and as a human being, I just want everyone to be happy. I want everybody to thrive; I want everybody to be in love. I want everybody to be healthy, myself included. But it doesn’t work that way. We have hard times; we have valleys and hills. And, you know, a novel is about conflict. A story is about conflict. Plays are about conflict. And something is wrong with the photograph. So if I chose to write about a smooth picture, it’s boring. Why write about something if it’s not broken? So I write to get over stuff. I write about things that I’m tired of seeing. And it’s painting a dramatic picture of our behavior — not everybody’s behavior, just the folks that I have chosen to zero in on. And that’s pretty much it. And the idea is to put them in a challenging position where they have to at least take a baby step in trying to address some of what they’re going through. And it doesn’t have to resolve it. [They] just realize that they’re not doing something right, and that maybe if [they] try to do this, or put forth a little more energy, [their] life might improve. That’s it. That’s how I try to live.

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NEXT >> So What Do You Do, Sara Shepard, Author of Pretty Little Liars?

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So you’ve never felt pressure to try to duplicate the Waiting to Exhale phenomenon?
No. You can’t repeat yourself. And I had no way of knowing… I remember my editor said, “Terry, this is going to be your breakthrough book.” I said, “My what?” “Your breakthrough book.” And I said, “What do you mean?” “It’s going to be a bestseller.” And I was like, ‘What is she supposed to be, telepathic?’ And then it was a bestseller, and I was like, well, it was a fluke. And then it was on the bestsellers list for 37 weeks. I couldn’t even believe it. I still don’t believe it. I still don’t believe the references that are made to that book and that movie, and how many folks still watch it. I can’t believe when it comes on television.

Who Asked You? is such a great read, and you’ve been getting positive reviews. Do you feel any differently about this one than you have about some of your other books?
Well, I’m proud of it. I won’t lie. I feel as if I grew as a writer in this book because telling this story in the manner that I told it, I hadn’t done it before. And it was challenging. Not just in terms of writing in 15 different characters’ points of view, but [also with] the structure of the book. And the story dictated the structure. I didn’t just sit down and arbitrarily decide that, oh, I’m gonna be clever and tell the story from 15 characters’ points of view. That is not how it happened. I had to figure it out, how I was going to tell this story, because I knew I wanted Betty Jean (she’s the protagonist), but I knew, also, that there were going to be other people in this book — her sisters, in particular. But I didn’t know until I started that all these other people in her life were going to have an impact on it. So I wanted to be able to show how they saw what she was doing, and in order to do that, I had to make sure — because I wanted write in first person — that Betty Jean was in every chapter. And that was a challenge [to do] and still move the story forward. Let me tell you, it was not easy.

“[Writing is] not a career to me. It’s what I do. And to me there’s a difference.”

You’ve had such a long and successful career, what advice do you have for a new writer who wants to break into the industry and have the kind of longevity that you’ve had?
Well, I think first and foremost, they don’t need to think of it that way. I think that’s a big mistake. Do you think when I wrote my first book, Mama, in 1987, that I was thinking, Oh, I want to have a long writing career? No. This is not a job. It’s not that. [Writing is] not a career to me. It’s what I do. And to me there’s a difference, you know? But I would suggest that young writers take the craft very seriously [and] not worry about fame. But read. Everything. And I do mean everything. Take some writing classes. And they’ll know if this is what they really are compelled to do. But it shouldn’t be an ambition. “I want to be a famous writer;” “I want to be a bestselling author.” Those are the wrong reasons for doing this. And if those are your motives, chances are it won’t happen.

Andrea Williams is a freelance writer based in Nashville. Contact her at williamsandread@yahoo.com.

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NEXT >> So What Do You Do, Sara Shepard, Author of Pretty Little Liars?

When news broke that the Chicago Sun-Times had laid off its entire staff of photographers last May, journalists around the country were in disbelief. Now, instead of just scrutinizing sentence structure and verb choice, the possibility that journalists would also have to generate images to accompany their stories was very real.

In today’s Internet era, multimedia reigns supreme, so it’s no longer enough to be a master of the pen. And even if taking photos and video isn’t currently part of your job description, learning to wield a camera like a pro will only raise your stock and give you versatility — plus, hopefully a bit of job security.

Photo Tips

Tip #1 ___ Buy a Real Camera

Sure, your iPhone was perfect for snapping pics at your BFF’s birthday soiree, but for on-the-job tasks? Not so much. “If you’re just interviewing people and you’re taking pictures, almost any newer model camera is going to take a remarkably better picture than you’re going to get on any smartphone,” says Matt Sweetwood, president of Unique Photo in Fairfield, N.J. — the state’s largest camera store. He recommends that journalists spend at least $200 to get the most benefit from the device.

“The biggest factor is when you’re in lower light,” explains Sweetwood. “The camera that you buy has a larger sensor in it than you find in a smartphone, and therefore it’s going to take a better quality picture when you’re outside ideal lighting conditions. The second reason is that your cell phone has too many tasks on it. You’re on the phone, you’re sending an email and then you need to take a picture. While they can do that as a convenience, you don’t really want to do that if it’s part of your job function.”

Tip #2 ___ Learn the Rule of Thirds

In photography, the rule of thirds is a basic composition rule that helps frame the subject in a way that’s most aesthetically pleasing. “If you think of a tic-tac-toe board and where the lines intersect, we call those the power points,” says Peggy Farren, a veteran photojournalist, event photographer and photography instructor. “So if you’re taking pictures of people, their eyes need to be on that top line. If you’re taking pictures of landscapes or cityscapes, your horizon needs to be either on the top or the bottom line.”

“learning to wield a camera like a pro will only raise your stock and give you versatility — plus, hopefully a bit of job security.”

Tip #3 ___ Take a Lot of Pictures

Breaking out of your comfort zone and venturing into photography is sure to rattle some nerves, especially if you’re on deadline and expected to turn in some high-quality images. Taking more than enough shots gives you a margin to take some really crappy photos and still get the perfect one to complement your story. “The nice thing about digital is that you can always throw the pictures you don’t like away,” says Farren. “So take lots of pictures, come back and sort through them — especially if you’re feeling insecure about your photography skills.”

Video Tips

Tip #1 ___ Pay Attention to Lighting

“Lighting is everything,” says Charlie Castleman, in-house videographer for esd & associates, a full-service marketing and PR firm based in San Antonio, Texas. As a general rule, if you’re having trouble seeing the subject’s face while you’re shooting, the viewer definitely won’t be able to, either. That said, lighting isn’t as difficult as it seems and, says Castleman, “You don’t have to be an expert cinematographer that spends three hours [on] lighting.”

When filming outdoors, be aware of the position of the sun. “You would never take a picture of your family with the sun behind them, and you wouldn’t take your camera right into the sun,” explains Castleman. “You would position the sun behind you, and the sun would naturally light your subjects.” He also suggests shooting in late afternoon or early morning to avoid the harsh light of high noon. When indoors, stay away from fluorescent and overhead lighting, and opt instead for lamps with bulbs that cast a softer, orange-colored glow or LEDs. And in low light, bounce cards (essentially just large, white poster board) can be used to direct light to where you need it.

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NEXT >> The Real Reason You’re Not Getting Retweeted

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Tip #2 ___ Keep Movement to a Minimum

Remember the shaky, guerilla-style footage from The Blair Witch Project? That style of filming was perfect for inducing fear in viewers of the low-budget horror flick, but to say that it has no place in traditional media is an understatement. “It can be very uncomfortable for people to watch, especially if you’re trying to tell a story of some sort, or if you’re doing a corporate or news-oriented video,” says Castleman.

To be safe, use a tripod to keep the camera steady, and also avoid zooms, pans and other unnecessary filming techniques. “When you’re in those types of situations when you are very shaky and [there are] lots of zooms, it makes the camera very noticeable,” Castleman adds. “And you shouldn’t have that; you should never know that there’s a camera there. You should be able to watch something and let the story move the narrative forward.”

Tip #3 ___ Get Good Audio

When it comes to recording audio with your video, Castleman says that in-camera microphones are “the worst” because they’re omni-directional, meaning they pick up every sound all around the filming area. For interviews or other situations in which you need to focus audio on an individual, Castleman recommends lavalier microphones — those small mics that clip to the lapel. “That’s really the best,” says Castleman. “[Lavalier mics] can really isolate the sound, and you don’t have a lot of the background noise occurring.”

After years of experience, however, Castleman actually relies on both internal and external microphones during all of his shoots. “I’ve [used] lapel mics when there was interference,” explains Castleman. “[So] if something happens to one of my tracks of audio, I always have something to fall back on.”

“Taking more than enough shots gives you a margin to take some really crappy photos and still get the perfect one to complement your story.”

And one more audio tip: When you’re recording indoors, stay away from electronics and air vents. “There [are] hums and buzzes that we may not hear, but the mics and cameras pick all that stuff up,” Castleman says.

Certainly, adding photography and videography responsibilities to a journalist’s already full plate can be a bit overwhelming. There are complicated devices to get familiar with and shooting techniques that may take years to master. Sweetwood actually recommends that journos take a class to get comfortable behind the camera, and it’s true that a good dose of training never hurt anyone — just ask the managing editor of the Chicago Sun-Times, who offered up mandatory iPhone photography training just days after the paper’s massive layoffs.

The move was blasted by just about every other media outlet, but there may be a valuable — and encouraging — takeaway: You can work with what you’ve got. The media landscape is constantly evolving, making it nearly impossible to stay abreast of all of the new rules. And while some writers may never have a reason to add “photojournalist” to their LinkedIn profiles, brushing up on basic skills proves that you’re easily adaptable and always willing to learn new things. Those are qualities that are attractive to any employer, regardless of economic climate.

And just in case you do find yourself on assignment with only a smartphone in hand, go ahead and review these iPhone photo tips, courtesy of National Geographic. You’re welcome.

Andrea Williams is a freelance writer based in Nashville. Contact her at williamsandread@yahoo.com.

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NEXT >> The Real Reason You’re Not Getting Retweeted

It’s hard to remember the pre-social media era when folks called each other on the phone to give “status updates” and all the tweeting was done by actual birds. Certainly, there are some advantages to an uber-connected world, namely the fact that our ability to make personal connections is no longer confined to a single zip code. Just ask Paul Smith, who traveled from England to New Zealand via Twitter, relying on his new “friends” to put him up for the night, feed him a meal and give him a ride to his next destination.

Trusting people you know only online — and strictly by some cleverly devised handle (Smith goes by Twitchhiker) — may seem like an express route to the back of a milk carton, but Smith lived to tell the tale and parlay his tech savvy into a new career. We caught up with the author of Twitchhiker: How One Man Travelled the World by Twitter to find out why he did it and what’s next.

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Traveling the world via Twitter comes off a bit novelty on the surface. What was the most challenging aspect of proving that you’re not just a gimmick and that this wasn’t something you just woke up one morning and decided to do?
The thing was, it was something I woke up one day and decided to do. Coming at it from a marketing perspective, I had the idea in a supermarket one day and I quickly realized that, if I attempted to do this as myself, that I’d have potentially less credibility, that I wouldn’t be taken as seriously, that people wouldn’t talk about it as such. So, I guess the brand I created to do it was based more on a gimmick, in that coming up with the name “Twitchhiker” was very deliberate. It needed something which sounded a little cliché. It sounded a little odd, but actually said what it was I was trying to do. So, it was quite deliberate, because I realized it needed something catchy in order for people to talk about it and for me to grow the proposition and for people to come on board with it.

“If we don’t actually believe in ourselves and our ideas once in a while, then what’s the point of anything?”

So, you knew in advance that you wanted to take this trip but, at the same time, did you always have plans of monetizing and profiting from it?
No, not at all. I honestly didn’t do that. At the time, I was a writer but I didn’t have any intentions of writing a book. The book deal didn’t appear until six months later after I finished. By taking the trip, I lost about $3,000 in lost work and in phone bills. So the point of it wasn’t longevity, and it wasn’t to have some sort of legacy to it. It was more to just explore that spontaneity of having an idea and technology enabling it to happen instantly. So, within an hour of thinking of it, I had the domain name and the Twitter account, and 48 hours later I’d launched a website and I’d started pushing the message out, and people were already reacting to it. So, it was more an exercise in how technology enables ideas, rather than anything that I looked to feather my nest with.

So considering how much you lost before you got the book deal, did you feel as though the trip was worth it? Did you think it was an experiment well done?
I don’t know how well done it was; I could have probably done it better. But, yeah, absolutely. Of course, it was worth it. We all spend our days having whimsical ideas and never trying them because we have mortgages, and we have jobs, and we only have so much vacation and we have responsibilities. But I’ve got all of those things as well, and had them all then four years ago. But if we don’t actually believe in ourselves and our ideas once in a while, then what’s the point of anything, if we don’t actually just try things out that are different and unusual?

So, how did you land the book deal?
The book deal came about because of Twitter. The story was original, and I did it as the first person to try something like that using Twitter (although it’s been attempted since), and the story sort of disseminated around the world. I had a Twitter search running on Tweetdeck to tell me when people talk about Twitchhiker, and every couple of weeks it would appear in another newspaper and there would be a couple hundred tweets about it that would appear. And eventually it caught the attention of an editor at a publisher in the UK. He just got in touch by Twitter and said, “Do you want to talk about a book?” So Twitter sourced the book deal. Twitter ended up sourcing the cover; we found the artist who provided the cover for that book and my next book through Twitter, as well. So everything comes back to Twitter in the end.

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NEXT >> Hey, How’d You Become Twitter’s Manager of Journalism and News, Mark Luckie?

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We’ve heard of the Craigslist killer and other people who have been taken advantage of via social media. As you traveled the world, how did you vet each “friend” to ensure your own safety?
Um, I didn’t entirely. There was a rule on the trip that if more than one person offered me help, I got to choose who I picked. But if I only got one, I had to take it. The thing with Twitter is, actually, if it’s an active account and people post on there on a regular basis, and they don’t just retweet all the time, but they actually post some opinions and thoughts, you get to profile them pretty easy. You can normally see what people get mad about and sad about. You get an understanding of their life and their domestic situation. So that was quite reassuring because, for everyone who would offer, I would go back through their timeline for a couple months and see what sort of person I was about to get involved in.

But there was times when I didn’t do that. There was this guy in New Zealand who was very, very keen to put me in the back of his white van, and he used caps lock quite a lot, and he was very shouty at me. And there was another guy in New York who put a bounty on my head for $500 to see me killed. So they were kind of interesting. But, ultimately they didn’t impact on the trip. And everyone I met was brilliant and giving, and I guess it’s that kind of project and event that attracts that sort of person. But other people tried to derail it; other people tried to get me into trouble, but they were very much the minority.

“That’s my job now: helping people out.”

So what’s next for you, and what do you ultimately want to be known for in your career?
I started actually, last night, looking up trips to Campbell Island to try to finish that bit off. This next year, it’ll be five years since I did the trip. So I’ve been thinking about a trip back to New Zealand. What’s next? I think more travel writing; I still do a lot of that. Also, my day job now is running an early-stage startup accelerator for digital teams. So, I look after teams from all over the world and bring them to Newcastle [England] and find them funding and help them with their ideas. What do I want to be remembered for? I don’t know. Just [being] the guy who helped people. That’s my job now: helping people out… I don’t know; I’ve no idea. No one’s ever asked that question. Just not being a dick. That’s a good one.

Paul Smith’s tips for using social media to launch your brand:
1. Just do it. “There’s only so much planning you can do. Until you take the first step and experiment and try it and play and then seek the feedback that comes from that, then you’ll never know. Just go out there and just get on with it.

2. Know your medium. “Twitter is a conversation. If you don’t engage people, then you’re just shouting into a vacuum. So if you have something to say, make sure it’s relevant or engaging or interesting.”

3. Be authentic. “People aren’t looking for heroes. If you have frailties, there’s nothing wrong with sharing them, and you become a lot more believable as a person.”

Andrea Williams is a freelance writer based in Nashville. Contact her at williamsandread@yahoo.com.

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NEXT >> Hey, How’d You Become Twitter’s Manager of Journalism and News, Mark Luckie?

Just as we were speaking with Pat O’Brien for this very interview, the broadcast legend alerted his Fox Sports Radio publicist who was on the call that he was about to break some news. The man whose career has taken him from the heights of TV, radio and film told us he is planning a personal podcast all about drug and alcohol recovery issues. Although there’s no official start date, it’s a topic O’Brien is all too familiar with.

In 2005, The Insider anchor made front-page headlines when kinky voicemails he left for a woman were leaked to the Internet. He blamed the incident on his own drunken stupor, and a series of mea culpas and stint in rehab followed. In addition to the podcast, O’Brien also plans to address lessons from his recovery in a memoir, due in 2014.

“The scandal was the luckiest thing that ever happened to me, because I would have been dead,” he said. “Honestly, I almost feel like I went to the wizard of Oz. The alcoholism grabbed me, and my house blew away and my friends and all that… Then they had this jungle of trees trying to kill me in poppy fields and kind of looking for the wizard of Oz when all along all I had to do was click my heels and go home. I think alcoholics don’t realize that there is help. There is a way to click your heels and get back to a better, normal life.”

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Name: Pat O’Brien
Position: Co-host, FOX Sports Primetime featuring Pat O’Brien with Steve Hartman
Resume: Worked for CBS covering sports from 1981 to 1997 and also hosted its primetime variety show How’d You Do That?. Rose to greater prominence as anchor for Access Hollywood and The Insider and appeared in numerous movies and TV shows, like BASEketball, Murphy Brown, The Simpsons and Everybody Loves Raymond. Hosted various shows for major networks, including the 2000, 2002 and 2004 Olympics. Author of Talkin’ Sports: A BS-er’s Guide and a memoir, due in 2014. Also appears in the Funny or Die short O’Brien & Brian, which chronicles his adventures with his new manager.
Birthdate: February 14, 1948
Hometown: Sioux Falls, S.D.
Education: B.A. in political science from University of South Dakota and advanced study in economics from Johns Hopkins. Currently enrolled at UCLA for addiction studies.
Marital status: Divorced
Media idol: David Brinkley and Anderson Cooper
Favorite TV shows: Mad Men, Breaking Bad and The Newsroom
Guilty pleasure: Two and a Half Men
Last book read: We Have Only This Life to Live: The Selected Essays of Jean-Paul Sartre, 1939–1975
Twitter Handle: @POBPATOBRIEN

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If a reporter gets caught up in some sort of public scandal, what would your advice be about the best way to handle it and take responsibility?
I say this all the time: the best way to handle if you did something is to admit it. Cover-ups always worsen the crime. And we’re talking about low-level scandals here, obviously, not murder or anything. I always say the three A’s: admit, apologize, advance.

“I think alcoholics don’t realize that there is help.”

In other words, if you did something wrong, own up to it like I did. Be a man about it. I really didn’t need to apologize to anyone but my family, but I did. And it worked out in a really great way. I took a couple of years off, got myself together. I’ve never felt better; my career is completely on track. I never really lost much career-wise and I’m still here. I talk to a lot of people in trouble — politicians, celebrities — they will call me and ask what to do. And that’s what I tell them. Get in front of the first camera you can find and admit it if you did it. And apologize to somebody and move on.

You’re coming up on three years with Fox Sports Radio. What are, so far, a couple of your favorite moments from the show and why?
What I love about this job is that I can go back and get all those people that I interviewed during those great years with CBS Sports. They all come on the show now and we reminisce… I had a personal relationship with each and every one. One of the things I hear from Fox Sports Radio listeners is, “We love your stories and we love you talking to your friends.” So the best part of it, for me, has been that out of all these years that I did the Olympics and the NBA and the NCAA and the U.S. Open and all that television work, I can come back and make a radio show pretty entertaining. And I do drop a lot of names, and I do it for a reason: I was there. People say I’m a name dropper. I say, “Look would you rather read about this or hear the real story about this guy?” It’s not name dropping when you were there. I was there; people were not.

Adult Swim announced recently its new show Hot Package, a spoof of entertainment news magazine shows, will air in the fall. You’re a co-star on the show. What can people expect?
It’s an interesting idea. It’s a 15-minute show that’s going to run about 10 times, and it’s a take-off on the entertainment shows. And it’s almost juvenile to the point of being ridiculous. But it’s funny, and the fact that I’m there doing it is fun. I’m a big hero on Adult Swim, because I was the swearing reporter on Robot Chicken. I get to say f*ck and things like that. But Hot Package should be really entertaining for folks. On this program, I am — as Jimmy Kimmel once called me — the Walter Cronkite of crap. And in my book, I spell out what these entertainment shows did to pop culture — they ruined it.

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NEXT >> So What Do You Do, Jay Mohr, Comedian and Fox Sports Radio Host?

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Can you tell us a little bit more about that part of your book?
Yeah. I was part of the invention of these entertainment shows. They went from being entertainment shows to freak shows. The problem is people will watch what you give them. And so these shows decided to instead of just talking about George Clooney and Brad Pitt and people like that, they end up finding the biggest freaks in the circus and portray them as news.

And then, the other thing I write about is we used — and I was a willing participant; I made a lot of money doing it — every celebrity event for something else. In other words, I’ll make a scenario up. For example, Paris Jackson attempted suicide. The shows will find an event somewhere (a premiere, an opening, a cancer event), and they will pretend like they’re covering the event, but all they want to do is get reaction to Paris Jackson attempting suicide. So they’ll grab — I’m making this up — Michael Douglas on the red carpet, and they’ll ask him how’s the Liberace thing going and then, “Would you respond to Paris Jackson?” And when they show it, it’s “Celebrities Come to Us to Respond About Paris Jackson!” It’s madness; it’s insanity, and I had to shower and drink a bottle of wine after each one of these. But I was, again, a willing participant.

What drove this change in entertainment news show coverage when you were there?
Not sure. But like, for example, I interviewed Larry Hagman about his career, and when it airs all it is about is alcoholism. And when you get George Carlin and talk about his brilliant life, when it airs all it is about is cocaine. I got Brian Wilson to sit down to talk about making Beach Boys music, but all they aired was that part about him going somewhat insane.

“I was part of the invention of these entertainment shows. They went from being entertainment shows to freak shows.”

You know, people love to look at things about people saying these things happened to them. And that’s what spiked the ratings. These shows are dying; they’re kind of running out of topics: anorexia, suicide, plastic surgery…whether someone weighed 70 pounds or 1,000 pounds. They’ve exhausted all that stuff and have to come up with something new, but do they cover Hollywood? No. Twice a year, Emmys and Oscars. And even then they’ll say, “By the way, three months ago, Paris Jackson attempted suicide. Have you ever thought about suicide?” Then they go and lead the show with, “Angelina Jolie Considers Suicide!”

But please put this in: I’m not bitter about it. My problems were not those shows. My problems were my problems — I’m an alcoholic. I can walk out of here today and drop out of the planet I’m on. My problem is I had a disease of the brain, and I’m not blaming it on these shows. I was blessed to make millions of dollars, and I did it the right way and the best way. But my problem was all me, not them.

For those Mediabistro readers who are currently studying broadcast or sports journalism, what’s your career advice to them, as someone who blazed the TV trail?
When I grew up and took the career path that I’ve had, there really were, like, only five people: Bob Costas, Matt Lauer, you can make your own list. Now there are hundreds. I envy the kids that come up today, because there are so many outlets now and blog opportunities. People used to laugh at blogs, but now they’re quite good; they create media television opportunities.

And when I speak to students, I tell them, “Look, I know there’s no jobs out there, but, if you look, there are.” You have to get in the door someplace and the Internet is the best way. I also say to kids, “No matter where you studied — Yale, NYU — just get your foot in the door somewhere. Work for free; show up every day; do your work.” Because what happens in this industry is they’ll eat you alive if you’re not good. The bottom line is if you’re good you’ll advance; if you’re not, go on to something else. It’s as simple as that.

Richard Horgan is co-editor of FishbowlNY.

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NEXT >> So What Do You Do, Jay Mohr, Comedian and Fox Sports Radio Host?

In the past year, alumni of MTV’s reality shows have made headlines for everything but their starring TV roles. 16 & Pregnant and Teen Mom star Amber Portwood has been locked down in an Indiana prison since June 2012, serving a five-year sentence stemming from a parole violation, her co-star Farrah Abraham is currently enjoying her new status as a certified porn star, and Jenelle Evans of Teen Mom 2 was arrested in April for heroin possession and assaulting her husband. Meanwhile, the network was left with the difficult decision to cancel its promising Jersey Shore replacement, Buckwild, when star Shain Gandee was killed in a car accident.

It’s uncomfortable but familiar territory for MTV development exec Lauren Dolgen. The fact that the Teen Mom girls have become regular tabloid fodder is an unfortunate byproduct of Dolgen’s calculated risk to get folks talking about the staggering rates of teenage pregnancy, she says, and it’s that aversion to the status quo that she believes makes for great TV — and successful executives. Here, the newly promoted Dolgen discusses the behind-the-scenes drama, the components of a great TV pitch and what really happened to all the music on MTV.

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Name: Lauren Dolgen
Position: Head of West Coast reality and EVP of series development for MTV
Resume: Began in 1997 at VH1 as a production associate. Went to MTV production in 1998 and became a development coordinator in 1999. Quickly moved up the ranks to manager of development, director and VP, and was promoted to her current position in May.
Birthdate: March 10
Hometown: Los Angeles
Education: BA from Pitzer College
Marital status: Single
Media idol: Her father, Jonathan Dolgen. “They don’t make them much tougher, smarter or more sweet and loyal than him.”
Favorite TV show: “I am a true TV junkie. I like it scripted; I like it unscripted; I like it all. I consider it unfair to all the shows I love to pick just one.”
Guilty pleasure: Trashy autobiographies and the ID Channel
Last book read: Tina Fey’s Bossy Pants

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The TV business is notoriously difficult to break into, especially at a popular brand like MTV. What can someone who is mid-career do to get a foot in the door? Is it even possible to get a job on the programming side without interning?
I think there’s so many different ways to break into the development side. I do actually think internships are such a great way; MTV has such an amazing internship program. I actually was an MTV intern, like, a gazillion years ago, but it really sparked my interest in television, really sparked my interest in MTV in general. And just because MTV’s such a young company, I think there’s so many great opportunities for people in college who are getting the intern experience. I also think that production assistant work and getting in on the production side is a really great experience, and I think that it has helped me, as well, in my career. Especially on the development side, knowing production a bit really does help, because when you are asking your producers for things, you recognize what you’re really asking for and will help strategize to get those things and accomplish them.

“I think people hear [about] 16 & Pregnant or Teen Mom and get one idea, and then if you watch the show you realize that it is nothing like what you expected.”

Critics have accused two of your most successful shows, 16 & Pregnant and Teen Mom, of “glamorizing” teen pregnancy. How do you respond to the backlash?
My response to that is, I don’t think we glamorize it at all in the show. I think people hear [about] 16 & Pregnant or Teen Mom and get one idea, and then if you watch the show you realize that it is nothing like what you expected. It is a very true, very real portrayal of what these girls are going through and how challenging it is to be a teen mom. And I think if you watch the show you realize there’s nothing glamorous about being a teen parent. And the truth is that when I do see the girls in the tabloids or [hear] people asking about the glamorization, I really do say, “At least people are having the discussion now.” I mean, they were not talking about teen pregnancy at all when we first created the show. So, I say bring on the criticism, because we are actually dealing with it in a very real way, and at least it’s being talked about and discussed now.

So what was your initial mission for the show? Was it just about creating that dialogue?
Well, I had read an article that had this statistic that was sort of like getting punched in the gut a little bit. It was [that] 750,000 girls get pregnant every year in the United States, and I was like, oh, my gosh! That’s our audience. That’s happening to them; it’s happening to their friends; it’s happening to girls in their school and we need to address this issue. And, when we started developing the show, our public affairs department got us in partnership with the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, who are the experts on the issue, and they were really able to educate us as producers and storytellers on the issue to make sure that we really tell the story in a responsible way and that we send the storytelling path in education. We have a lot of contraception guides that we do; we have a lot of extra stuff on It’sYourSexLife.com and on the MTV website that is a resource for our audience to gain education.

One of the downsides of reality TV is that the stars become famous and less of the everyman/woman figure that initially got them casted. How does that affect your job as a producer?
You know, I feel for some of the girls and the kind of attention that they get. A lot of these girls did not get into this — I would say most of them did not get into this — to be TV stars. And we certainly don’t use the word “star” or “celebrity” when dealing with them. When we first did 16 & Pregnant, these girls thought they were going to be a part of a one-off special that focused on their experience during a very fragile and very serious time in their lives. And a lot of them got involved in this to actually help educate other girls. So, I do feel for some of them that are portrayed in a negative light, and I think it’s always hard for someone to put themselves out there on television [and] to accept the criticisms and all that comes with having the attention on them.

You must get more than your fair share of pitches. If you had to break down a good TV show pitch into two or three ingredients, what would they be?
I think something fresh, something that people haven’t really seen before, something that’s still relatable, that a variety of people can connect to. I think, if you look at 16 & Pregnant, not everyone can relate to being a pregnant teen; however, they can relate to being in high school, trying to graduate, dating, parents… But then throw a baby in the mix, and it amplifies the stakes a lot. So, I think that relatability is always really important to us. But I think really vibrant, energetic personalities are always very key, and then I think you have to take risks. So 16 & Pregnant is the example I keep bringing up, but, you know, that was a really big risk for us. I mean, we knew what our intent was on the show, and, while we knew that we were going to add the level of education and be responsible about our storytelling, it was edgy subject matter. And, that’s what I love about MTV: we are willing to take the risks. And sometimes you win and sometimes you lose on that, but if you don’t take the risks, you don’t really have the wins.

What is the worst pitch you ever received?
I can tell you a funny story that won’t name names or anything, and it really had nothing to do with a pitch. It was a show about a boy band, and they came in and performed for us. That happens a lot at MTV — people perform and it’s always really exciting to see the variety of talent that comes through our doors — but, in this case, it was actually very funny. They played the track, and they were lip syncing to the track and dancing. So they were trying to prove to me that they were really good singers, but they weren’t actually singing in the room.

“That’s what I love about MTV: we are willing to take the risks.”

Speaking of music, it’s been said that the music in MTV is all but gone. So how much is music still a priority for the network and for your development team, specifically?
Music is 100 percent a part of our DNA. I mean, it’s how we started and it’s always part of the development of every show. We’re always thinking about the sound of every show. [If] you think about a Jersey Shore, that had a really specific type of soundtrack, a specific kind of story and character that it was telling. The music was a character, and that story really helped amplify the storytelling of the show and the feel. So, I think that the music is always going to be important to MTV. Our music department has come up with this idea where they have guest music supervisors, like celebrities [and] artists, that help music supervise different shows for us. And we’re always trying to come up with ways to really keep music very present. But it is our DNA. It’s who we are.

If you had to credit one thing for your success, what, or who, would it be?
I don’t know if this sounds weird, but I credit MTV. I have totally grown up at MTV. I’ve learned so much, and I’ve been part of the company for 16 years, and I’ve just grown up as a person and as an executive there. I’ve had a lot of amazing bosses who have helped support me and taught me and that I’ve just learned so much from. And the brand is so important. To me, the brand and the kind of company it is, the people that work there and the types of shows that we’re allowed to do, and the risks that we’re allowed to take is why I think I’m successful at all.

NEXT >> So What Do You Do, Tracey Edmonds, Award-Winning TV and Film Producer?

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Andrea Williams is a freelance writer based in Nashville. Contact her at williamsandread@yahoo.com.

For the countless number of books published each year, there are only a few that become true breakout successes, selling millions upon millions of copies, hijacking the bestsellers lists and becoming permanently etched in American pop culture.

And, while great storytelling is at least partly responsible for their success, there is also an expansive team behind the scenes, working diligently to ensure that every plot twist is meticulously crafted, that the cover is so well-designed that readers drop $25 for the hardcover without blinking, and that those same characters will hopefully transcend the pages and end up on the big screen.

The publishing industry’s digital revolution has been well documented, but the big and indie houses still need a few good men (and women) with undeniable skills to help shape and sell the next crop of bestsellers. Think you’ve got what it takes? Follow these four steps to get your foot in book publishing’s door.

The great thing about the publishing industry is that there are positions in every field imaginable, from PR to graphic design, providing opportunities for every individual and personality. Yet, for folks who aren’t sure of their interests, or which roles best match their skill sets, the road to unemployment is paved with too many options.

“The first bit of advice is know what the possibilities are and consider your skills, background and characteristics with those options, so that you pursue something that’ll actually be satisfying to you,” advised Malaika Adero, vice president and senior editor of Atria Books, a Simon & Schuster imprint. “Many people don’t understand what really happens in book publishing.”

Adero recommends continuing education courses, like ones offered at NYU and Yale, that give students a peek into the publishing industry before they take the leap.

It’s also important to research the work of each publishing house, says Mary Ann Zissimos, senior publicist of HarperCollins Children’s Books. “Look on the company’s website, see what kinds of books they do publish or the kind of authors that they publish, and really know the list that they’re trying to cultivate,” she said. “You really have to be aware of what’s happening, from the regular fiction [and] non-fiction lists, to what kind of new media is out there and who are the people behind this new media. It’s really learning how each publisher differs from another.”

Build your network
The adage that it’s not what you know, but who you know is as true in book publishing as any other industry. “In life, it always helps to know someone, and part of the point of taking some courses to learn about the publishing industry and the jobs and trends is also to meet people who can advise you and become mentors,” explained Adero. “It’s not just an academic exercise.”

But be forewarned: An “in” with a senior executive, or anyone for that matter, will likely not translate into a direct job offer.

“I think networking is important insomuch as you’ll get an idea as to whether or not you want to be in this industry, more so than somebody being able to necessarily recommend a job to you,” said Zissimos. “It’s a little bit different than other industries where you could meet somebody [and] say, ‘Hey, come in for a job.’ [In publishing], they’re going to want to know that the person has been vetted in some way through a human resources department.”

Technology has made it easier for indie publishers and small presses to produce and distribute their works, and social media has leveled the marketing playing field. However, these smaller firms are typically running low on manpower to facilitate all of those functions. While they may not have the budgets to hire full-time staff, publishers would be more than willing to hire contractors, said Betsy Lampe, president of the independent Rainbow Books, noting that editorial help is in particularly high demand.

Don’t rule out the little guys
Sure, the Big Six publishers (Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin Group, Random House and Simon & Schuster) get most of the notoriety and, incidentally, most of the applications from wannabe publishing professionals, but they’re certainly not the only book employers in town.

“Most of the authors don’t necessarily have a background in writing,” said Lampe. “And while their story may well be delightful and delicious, their grammar and their ability to edit themselves is not. I see this question all the time: ‘Where can I find an editor who really knows what they’re talking about?'”

Another benefit to contracted labor is that freelancers can work with multiple publishers and focus on projects of personal interest. “You would have the freedom of working on the titles that you chose, instead of being dictated to,” Lampe added. “If you went to work with a major press, you might get stuck in charge of a line of books that you really weren’t crazy about or thrilled to market.”

Flex your [tech] muscles
“If you’re coming in new to the [publishing] industry and coming in with skills in the new technology, that certainly gives you an advantage and an opportunity to bring innovation to the field,” said Adero.

And the same is true at small presses, where Lampe says tech overload, including Web design and social media management, is overwhelming lean staffs. “A lot of us are to the point where if we have to learn one more thing we’re going to explode,” said Lampe. “Like a self-help author who is a psychologist, they know their area really well, but they don’t know anything about social media, they don’t how to build a website, they don’t know how to blog. So, people who are looking for work could really fill that niche nicely.”

It is equally crucial that potential applicants carefully manage their online profiles, because no amount of digital acumen can fix a negative image.

“It’s important to note that most human resources departments are looking at candidates in ways that they never did before,” said Zissimos. “They’re going to Google you; they’re going to Facebook check you and see what pops up. They’re going to go on your Twitter. They’re going to go on your LinkedIn. They’re going to really investigate who you are before you even walk into the door, because if you’ve got pictures that are not appropriate or if you speak in such a way online, that is going to be your clear indication as to whether or not the person is suitable to even bring in for an informational interview.”

Andrea Williams is a freelance writer based in Nashville. Contact her at williamsandread@yahoo.com.

Even when the brand is one as well-established, on-point and cheeky as Entertainment Weekly, the challenge for a managing editor is to keep it feeling fresh.

Two of the ways Jess Cagle is accomplishing that mission this summer are the just launched Sirius XM Entertainment Weekly radio channel and the six-episode Sundance Channel reality series The Writers’ Room, debuting in July. Each episode will examine the intricacies of putting together a specific scripted TV series, such as Dexter and American Horror Story.

For Cagle, a Time Inc. veteran who helped launch Entertainment Weekly in 1990 and returned in 2009 as managing editor, it’s all part of one of the best jobs in the magazine business.

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Name: Jess Cagle
Position: Managing editor, Entertainment Weekly
Resume: Started at Time Inc. in 1987 as a reporter for People and worked on the launch of Entertainment Weekly just a few years later. Served as Time‘s West Coast senior editor from 2000 to 2002 and People‘s executive editor from 2002 to 2009 before returning to EW in 2009. Has also been a regular contributor to CBS News and co-host of ABC’s red carpet pre-show Oscars coverage.
Birthdate: August 8
Hometown: Abilene, Texas
Education: B.A. in journalism and Russian from Baylor University (1987)
Marital status: Single
Media idol: Adam Moss
Favorite TV show: Veep “at the moment”
Guilty pleasure: “Anything with Eli Roth’s name in the credits”
Last book read: The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer
Twitter Handle: @JessCagleEW

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How does print and Web compare these days for Entertainment Weekly?
The website generally gets 7 to 8 million unique visitors a month. Within that, of course, there are tons and tons of different spikes, things like Return of the Jedi exclusive photos or our coverage of the New York upfronts. The print magazine is still the spine of our brand. Obviously, print advertising is a challenge, but there’s not a lot of overlap between our print audience and our digital audience. The print audience has held really steady the last few years. It’s about 1.7 million. They haven’t left for the digital space; our audience has just grown because of digital. The magazine’s audience is something like 11 million, and the overall audience is around 18 million. Both of these audiences are about 60-40 female-to male.

What is the mood like these days at EW given Time Warner’s plans to spin off Time Inc.? Are people concerned that the print magazine will be going away?
No; no one here is concerned that the print magazine is going away.

“The print magazine is still the spine of our brand.”

Are you doing anything on the advertising side that compares to, say, BuzzFeed’s promotion of “sponsored” content?
No, not at all. There are a certain set of rules set forth by ASME that delineate the line between advertising and editorial, and we’re constantly looking at those. Obviously, advertisers want more and more and more integration. You do find those times, even in print now, where the advertising is intrusive or it’s hard to distinguish what is what. Look, we want to make advertisers happy, but we don’t want to confuse the reader at all. So how do you accomplish the advertiser’s needs and wants? I don’t think it’s impossible at all. Even on the iPad side, we haven’t blurred the line at all. Most of our work with ads is still actually being done in print.

The reader comments on EW.com are generally very intelligent. How have you cultivated that part of the website?
The website, which is separately managed by Bill Gannon, has really taught us that Entertainment Weekly is a brand with this tremendously engaged audience. We’re currently looking at how we can engage that audience more. I think there’s an exponential potential there in the reader comments for growth. They believe that they can cover a topic better than we can cover it, which is a fantastic position to be in, because they’re really interested in engaging and arguing. We’re looking very closely at video and audience engagement. Those are two really tremendous areas for growth on EW.com.

NEXT >> So What Do You Do, James Heidenry, Editor-in-Chief of Star?

One of the big reasons actually that we struck up the partnership with SIRIUS was to get video. We’re going to have cameras in the radio studio, and we will put some of that on the website when there is compelling video, like an interview with somebody interesting in studio.

Has the way you deal with publicists for print cover stories changed much in recent years, or is it still pretty much the same?
EW is in a unique position, because we’re not trying to get celebrity baby photos. We’re the only magazine that will do a first look on Steven Soderbergh’s movie about Liberace, or Arrested Development on Netflix. Those things, we still fight to get. But we are kind of the place, so I’d have to say that we turn down more covers than we can use.

EW doesn’t use freelancers much, but what is your advice to anyone seeking to pitch a story to the magazine, or website?
We’ll use freelancers to cover events and things like that, but what I would say to any freelancer is that everybody today has an opinion, and we don’t need your opinion. All we need is news. So come with a great bit of access to something that we can’t get ourselves. For that, I’ll write a check, immediately.

“What I would say to any freelancer is that everybody today has an opinion, and we don’t need your opinion.”

What about the trend of social TV? How does that factor in to your general coverage plans?
One thing EW.com has taught us is that there is tremendous engagement around television. Not only is that audience more engaged than ever because they’re able to communicate with each other as it happens, [but] TV is also just really, really good right now between Mad Men, Breaking Bad and all these other terrifically written shows.

So I will very often look at the social media surrounding of a particular show and make the decision based on that. Two covers that I can think of: Game of Thrones, which we’ve done several covers on — also, when you do a cover like that, it has tremendous life; beyond the newsstand, that cover is discussed in the social media realm — another example is the cover we did on Vampire Diaries more than a year ago. We thought there is so much social media going on around the show, and it went crazy. [Vampire Diaries star] Ian Somerhalder tweeted it out to his legion of followers, and that actually translated into print sales. With social media, you basically often get so much free press. We did a Doctor Who cover that was so successful that we just did another Doctor Who cover a few weeks ago.

EDITOR’S NOTE: After this interview was published, Jess Cagle emailed us this clarification of the magazine’s stance on sponsored content:
We’re launching a big initiative around native advertising and sponsored content on EW.com and on mobile; we want to create that kind of advertising in clever and organic ways consistent with the EW voice and do it without confusing our audience. We’re looking at ways to accomplish that on our site, on mobile and in print. I’m sure we’ll eventually find interesting ways to do it on the tablet, as well.

NEXT >> So What Do You Do, James Heidenry, Editor-in-Chief of Star?

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Richard Horgan is co-editor of FishbowlLA.