Chances are you don’t have the luxury that writers at the award-winning satirical news network The Onion have, which is the freedom to write your headlines before you write the story.

Instead, you probably labor over your story first, and then plunk out whatever title you think fits it best. (If you’re really lucky, you simply turn over the piece to an editor who will do the heavy hed lifting for you. Thank God for freelancing, right?) But in case you were too busy stacking old copies of your college newspaper to notice, headlines are pretty important on the Web. In fact, they’re probably more important than the lede and story itself.

But how exactly do you craft a good headline for the new media age? Should everything be written countdown style as “6 Ways to Do XYZ,” be shamelessly SEO focused like “Justin Beiber, Lady Gaga, and Kim Kardashian Naked Photos,” or go straight for the jugular like this one? Well, yes and no. There are some no-fail strategies for crafting headlines that will wow and inform your audience, ensuring they click, read and come back for more.

Keep it SEF: Search Engine Friendly

While Google, Facebook and Twitter are tops for serving up news and information, that doesn’t mean you should load up your story with unnecessary keywords just to get eyeballs. What you should do, however, is think about those terms readers might use to find a story like yours.

Michelle Licudine, digital audience editor at The Palm Beach Post, says, “That’s a tough one for writers to follow because they take pride in crafting headlines — a clever one and a strong one — for display in print. Google favors a different kind of clever: one that demonstrates an appreciation of what people are looking for.”

Freelance writer and mediabistro.com instructor Jenna Rose Robbins agrees. “Headlines have more SEO value per word than the rest of the article,” she says.

For example, if your piece focuses on top bed and breakfast spots in Philadelphia, are readers more likely to type in “B&B Philly” or “East Coast inns”? If it’s a slideshow of celebrity couples, more people may be searching for “celebrity pictures” versus “celebrity photos.” So, the best way to narrow down your choices is to use free tools like the Google AdWords Keyword Tool or Yahoo’s Buzz Index. Doing so can be the difference between your story landing on the coveted first page of search results or the death sentence of page five.

“Google favors a different kind of clever: one that demonstrates an appreciation of what people are looking for.”

Leave a little to the imagination

Don’t give away your story in the headline like you would in print; omit important pieces to make your readers want to click for more information. For example, Robbins says, “If the headline says, ‘Lindsay Lohan to Star in an ’80s Movie Remake,’ you’re still wondering what movie. You want to have those keywords in a headline, but you still want to leave a question.”

Shirea L. Carroll, Web editor for the celebrity and lifestyle pub Juicy adds, “When writing, especially for a celeb-driven website, your headline should be slightly confusing, meaning it should give enough to make you want to read because you’re not completely understanding.” Such was the case when she titled a picture of rapper Jay-Z entitled, “Jay-Z Moving His Package, No FedEx.”

“Readers are curious, like, ‘what exactly are they talking about?'” she says. “[As a reader] I’m already enticed, but I’m not quite understanding what they mean, so it’s a headline that people would be compelled to read more.”

Take advantage of unlimited space

A short, simply-the-facts headline often won’t work online, says J.J. Gould, deputy editor of TheAtlantic.com. “In print, first, space is more of an issue, so you need to be relatively brief. Second, you already have more of your reader’s attention in print than you do in digital, so your headline has to do more work in digital. For that reason, you often have to use more words in order to be clearer about what you__?re saying and what it means.”

Carroll agrees. “A couple of years ago, simple and concise was the way to go, but for many [publications], even when it comes to SEO value and Google value, headlines are tending to be a little bit longer,” she says.

Giving the story away in the hed is acceptable sometimes if the stories are photo-driven and filled with click-throughs and captions. “The lede sometimes now has become the headline, [and then] you give a couple of details in the body,” says Carroll.

“Today’s journalists need to learn SEO techniques as much as, if not more, than their predecessors who worked the print industry needed to learn AP.”

Give the people what they want

Would your readers cringe if they read the word “nipple” in your title? Juicy‘s readers didn’t. In fact, when “Kelly Rowland’s Nipples Make an Appearance” was posted to the dotcom after the pop singer suffered a wardrobe malfunction during a performance, it became one of the most popular stories for that week, Carroll says. When you know the type of audience you have, it’s perfectly okay to let it all hang out (or not) in headlines. “For Juicy, using the word nipple in a headline isn’t offensive at all. It was more of a call-to-action to actually read the story,” she explains.

As another example, Complex.com, which caters to the 20-something male (median age is 29), recently ran this story: “From Dimes to Deuces: 10 Women Who Used To Be Hot.” Not only is the promise of pretty women enough to get young guys riled up, but the editors also know the lingo their readers are likely to use when searching. (A “dime” is slang for a “10,” an attractive female.) You wouldn’t use the same headline for a middle-aged women’s magazine, like Woman’s Day.

It’s okay to deviate from AP style

In a post for Online Journalism Review, blogger Robert Niles advised students to abandon journalism’s Holy Grail and focus solely on SEO. He writes, “Today’s (and tomorrow’s) journalists need to learn search engine optimization techniques as much as, if not more, than their predecessors who worked the print industry needed to learn AP.”

Licudine suggests using a mix of the two writing styles to be effective in reaching new readers via search engines without turning off your old audience. “In essence, there needs to be a balance. You don’t want to deviate from consistency that has earned you credibility and trust with your readership.”

The traditional rules in headline writing can be bent now, rather than completely abandoned. Spell out city names, instead of using abbreviations like PB for Palm Beach and use full names rather than only last names as you would in AP style. “What we’ve found is whereas you’re used to editing for space constraints in print, you don’t always have those on the Web. You can flex a little bit,” Licudine says.

Practice makes perfect

Every week, writers at The Onion gather in a room for hours to brainstorm story headlines. Only 16 are needed for each issue, but about 600 ideas get drafted and thrown out. Take a page from their book and practice writing headlines for stories constantly, even if they won’t be published, to get the hang of it.

If you have access to your publication’s analytics, use those numbers as an indicator for what works and what doesn’t or consult with your editor. Carroll says, “As an editor, we’re able to see more times than not what people are responding to by page views and what stories are popular. That’s what is going to guide each site. You’re going to let that be the mold until another story does better. It’s constantly changing.”

As the Web continues to grow and search algorithms are refined, the necessity for succinct summaries and titillating story titles are only going to become more important. So, whether you view headline writing as fun or just a necessary evil, better perfect those skills now if you want to keep the assignments (and page views) flowing.

“Stop being a writer for a second, and just be a person,” advises Licudine. “Be clever in a new way that can get people’s attention because ultimately, you worked hard on the story, and you want people to see it.”

NEXT >> How To Get a Job in Social Media

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Alisha Tillery is a freelance writer living and working in Memphis. She maintains a personal blog, Because I Said So.

As an author, you know how gratifying writing books can be. Writing book proposals? Not so much.

But if you want a readership wider than just your parents and spouse however, you’re going to have to learn how to craft a viable, compelling book proposal that lands you an agent or publisher. Here’s how to get started:

1. Assemble the basics.

The essential components of a book proposal are an overview, marketing plan, competitive book analysis, and author bio and platform. You will also need to include a table of contents, chapter summaries and a writing sample. It should generally follow an intuitive order and structure, with the overview going first, the marketing details in the middle, and the writing sample last.

“If you’ve got the ingredients — a really fresh idea or a fresh spin on an old idea, good writing, and a platform and a promotion plan — if a proposal has those things, it doesn’t make any difference what order they are in. Editors can skip around, and will and do,” said Michael Larsen with Larsen-Pomada Literary Agents.

Depending on the genre of your book you will want to emphasize different sections, but, as a general rule, authors should only approach agents or editors when both the material, as well as the platform and marketing plan are as strong as they can possibly be. Ultimately, however, it’s about the strength of your idea or content. “No amount of marketing is going to sell a bad book,” said Larsen, who is also the author of How to Write a Book Proposal.

2. Make your introduction a page turner.

Think of the query letter as your critical first impression. “The clich_? is if they can’t write a letter they couldn’t write a book,” said Larsen. The query letter has to encapsulate the essence of your book and has to make them want to see more. “One of the fundamental things that writers have to do today is to make information scalable, everything from a tweet to a book, from a one-line pitch to a one-hour radio interview. Katherine Sands, a New York agent, once said, ‘The writing you do about your writing is as important as the writing itself,'” said Larsen.

Book proposal editor Lisa Tener says authors should also consider including a brief (less than one page) executive summary that draws in a prospective agent or editor with the proposal’s major highlights. “Every book proposal is different, so do you have to have it? No, but I think it really helps your cause, because they can look at it in a glance and say ‘Oh my gosh, this author has something here,’ or ‘This isn’t for me.’ Any time you are saving them time and getting them hooked early on is going to be a benefit,” she explained.

“Think of the query letter as your critical first impression.”

3. Flesh out your platform.

Today, agents and publishers are putting more emphasis on the author’s platform: your following both online and offline. This is a natural development given an increasingly competitive traditional publishing marketplace with dwindling resources, the growth of e-publishing, and the fact that authors have always had to bear the responsibility for a fair portion of their book’s marketing. Your platform — and hopefully you have one — can be highlighted in either the author bio section, marketing section or as a stand-alone section.

Social media is a key part of an author’s platform, and there is no excuse for would-be authors today to not take advantage of free platform-building tools like Facebook or Twitter. Not having that kind of audience engagement or online visibility is a “big red flag” for agents and editors, Tener said.

“Are there books that get agents and even publishers [when] the author is barely on social media? Yes, but I think we are seeing more and more, sort of, ‘Well, why aren’t you on social media?'” she said. “So, you really have to have some very compelling evidence that you already have this huge following through other channels to really overcome that.”

If you don’t have a platform or even a simple website that you can highlight in your proposal, you will need to invest in one before a publisher decides to invest in you. “And you don’t want to skimp either, because nowadays I think there is a certain expectation that websites have a certain degree of professionalism. So, if it looks like that black background with the white writing that you can barely read, or it’s just very busy and you can’t even figure out what’s going on on the page, that’s going to work against you,” Tener said.

4. Prove your book will sell.

Having that aforementioned platform (a strong social media following, a well-trafficked website, a popular blog) is one way to show agents and editors that you can deliver an audience. “No one’s taking risks like that nowadays. They want a sure thing,” Tener said.

The digital revolution, said Larsen, is now forcing authors to prove themselves even before they get to the book proposal stage. “Books used to be the beginning of the information stream. Someone would write a book, you would get it published, and whatever would happen with it would happen with it. That no longer works. Writers today should make books the end of the information stream,” he said.

Think of your proposal as confirmation that a market exists for your book and you are the best person to write it. Authors can do that by test-marketing their content or concept, said Larsen. That can be done through the platform-building process: podcasting, blogging, social media outreach, crowdsourcing feedback, or even self-publishing first.

“If you don’t have a platform, you will need to invest in one before a publisher decides to invest in you.”

Providing evidence that your book will be in demand also applies when it comes to actual sales opportunities. “It used to be you could say you’ve got this interest in book sales, like doing some training and selling books to companies and they’ll order books in bulk. Nowadays, it doesn’t mean very much. If you can establish that you speak at those companies regularly it means a little something, but if you had a letter of intent from that company, that would mean a lot more,” said Tener.

5. Ready your rebuttals.

Agents and editors have less patience with a book proposal than they do with a finished book, said literary agent and former “big six” editor Jody Rein, so you need grab their attention quickly and sustain it throughout the proposal. “I always say to my clients they have got to head off all objections at the pass,” Rein said.

“So, they have to put themselves in the seat of the acquiring editor, and say, ‘Okay, what objection could this person possibly have against acquiring my book?’ For example, if you know you are writing into a very crowded field, then you would want to say very early in your proposal, ‘I’m writing in a very crowded field, and this is why my book will stand out,'” she said.

6. Make it e-readable.

You should also think about how the agent or editor will read your proposal, especially in this digital age. “The one bit of advice that I would have for writers is that when they craft their proposals, they read them on an e-reader and in print before they submit them.” The proposal has to work in all formats, she said, because agents and editors, just like everyday readers, interact with the material differently.

Rein also advises against embedding too many links into your proposal. “What my goal always is is to keep the editor’s head in the proposal. You don’t want anything that’s going to pull them out of the experience and have them put it down and forget about it,” she said.

7. Ask permission to query.

This final tip may seem obvious, but it’s an important one that shouldn’t be overlooked. Before wasting a lot of time (and possibly postage) sending your proposal, try to establish a relationship with an editor or agent first. This can be done by meeting them in person at a conference, for example, or by way of introduction through a colleague. Then, ask if he or she accepts queries. Unfortunately, many agents are so inundated with submissions that they no longer accept queries from people they don__?t know.

Once you get the okay, says Tener, “Then mark your envelope ‘requested materials enclosed’ in the lower left corner. This is important, or it will end up in the slush pile even though they did say they wanted to see it.”

Whether your proposal lands you a publishing deal or not, Rein says the work you do on it is never a wasted effort. “If your book is picked up by a publisher, they use the proposal a lot in the publishing process,” she said. Alternately, if you choose to self-publish, you are well ahead of the game, because you already have your marketing plan mapped out. And, she added, “It also helps you figure out if you really want to write the book. It’s a great way to save yourself a lot of angst.”

NEXT >> What Every Author Should Know Before Publishing an eBook

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Jennifer Pullinger is a writer and editor in Richmond, Va. Visit her at www.jenniferlpullinger.com or on Twitter @JLPullinger.

Authors don’t need traditional book publishers anymore. Or do they? Almost daily, we see headlines proclaiming the demise of ‘dead tree’ books. “At some point the e-book will become the publishing market’s primary engine,” was one such headline from a recent feature in The Guardian.

One of the advantages of self-publishing an eBook, says New York Times best-selling romance novelist Barbara Freethy, is the potentially larger piece of the profit or royalty an author gets compared to what they earn with a traditional publisher. “You can also put your books up more frequently, so when you finish a book and it’s ready to go, you might not have to wait a year and a half. You can control your price and you can also have flexibility. You can change the cover if it__?s not working, that type of thing,” she said.

Think you’re ready to take the leap? Beware. With more creative control and the potential for more money comes more work and responsibility. Here’s why:

You’ll now handle marketing, sales, cover design…

Many writers are creatives and dreamers, but they’re not always the best businesspeople. If you opt to publish your eBook on your own, forgoing the editorial and design expertise as well as marketing, distribution and sales support that traditional publishers offer, then you should be prepared to outsource or do all of this work yourself. That includes managing the bottom line and return on investment.

Since 2011, Freethy, who has been published by Pocket Books, NAL, and HarperCollins, has sold 1.6 million eBooks, primarily by securing the rights to all of her backlist titles after they went out of print and then re-releasing them as eBooks. Authors who publish their own eBooks should expect to work harder and wear a lot of hats, “because you are basically running an entire publishing company,” she explained. “Everything that the publisher was doing for you as an author, you are now doing for yourself as a self-publisher.”

“There is a ton of work behind it, and the author has to really become a business owner and a marketing expert. And you are your own art department. You have to hire out your own editors, hire out various parts that would be given to you if you were working with a traditional publisher,” she said. If you prefer to focus on the writing and the writing only, then self-publishing may not be for you.

“Everything that the publisher was doing for you as an author, you are now doing for yourself as a self-publisher.”

You need a platform before you publish.

Do yourself a favor: Build your platform ahead of time, well before you release your eBook. This applies whether you are publishing on your own, through a digital publisher, or through a traditional publisher, who will also publish the print version of your title. Your platform is the means by which you reach your audience. That could be a Facebook or Twitter fan base in the thousands, a frequently updated blog with compelling content and lots of commenters who hang on your every word, or a strong, vetted email list of supporters. This way, you don’t have to rely as heavily on, for example, a good review from the Washington Post, a feature in O magazine, or a spot on Good Morning America to make or break your work.

If you don’t have a platform, then you will need to make connections to someone who can be a “big mouth” for your work. Sarah Mae, author of How to Market and Sell Your e-Book said, “I watched a TED Talk the other day about YouTube and how videos go viral, and really what happens is it’s not the video. It’s about an influencer, or they call tastemaker, who happens to mention it and then all of a sudden, bam! It goes crazy.”

“For example,” she continued, “the ‘Double Rainbow’ video that went viral, they were stagnant on YouTube for months and months, and then one person who happened to have influence or a platform tweeted it, or Facebooked it, or blogged it, and all of a sudden then it goes everywhere. So, if you don’t have the platform, you are going to need a strong ally or know some people who do have platforms who go to bat for you or just happen to like it.”

Social media is for making connections, not selling your book.

The skills to build your marketing platform aren’t hard to come by, said Catherine Ryan Howard, author of Self-Printed: The Sane Person’s Guide to Self-Publishing. “I don’t think you need to have any innate knowledge; I certainly didn’t. I started off from scratch and learned as I went along,” Howard said.

She did, however, suggest that eBook authors take a nuanced, measured approach to how they use social media to spread the word and build relationships with potential readers. Remember, social media is supposed to be a two-way exchange, not just for loudly broadcasting what you are selling. “Authors who worry too much about marketing come off like insurance salesmen who’ve just knocked at your door during dinner, and no one buys their book,” she said.

No matter what route you go, authors are used to doing much of the heavy lifting themselves when it comes to marketing. “We’ve all had encouragement to put up Facebook pages, and to Twitter, and to develop interactive websites, and to build a mailing list, and so these skills every author is learning, whether they are self-published or are traditionally published,” said Freethy. “Very few publishers do this for them unless you are Steven King or somebody at the very, very top. Every author is doing a lot of the marketing themselves,” she says.

“If you don’t have a platform, then you will need to make connections to someone who can be a ‘big mouth’ for your work.”

Success could hinge on your relationships with distributors.

Direct access to electronic retailers is one of the bonuses of the self-publishing eBook market, said Freethy. “In the beginning, you had to work mainly with aggregators like Smashwords, which still a lot of people do. But each of the big retailers has either opened up a self-publishing portal or they are about to.”

The Amazon Kindle Store, Apple iBookstore, Barnes & Noble Nook Store, Diesel eBook Store, and numerous other e-retailers are out there, while places like Smashwords and Createspace help do the distribution for you. “My philosophy has been to go direct to every retailer, because then you can develop a personal relationship and then you have really quick control. You can change your price in an hour if you want to,” said Freethy. “That kind of flexibility you don’t have when you are working through a publisher. They can do that, but you have to convince them to do that and that’s not always easy.”

Profits and bestseller status are still hard to come by.

Howard advises authors who are considering publishing their own eBooks to not abandon the traditional publishing marketplace just yet. “The majority of books by far are still purchased in brick and mortar bookstores, and it’s near impossible for a self-publisher to get on the shelves in any kind of meaningful way there,” she cautioned. “Personally, I am using self-publishing as a foundation, to prove myself as a writer and a marketer, in the hopes of one day securing a traditional publishing deal.”

“The publishing industry are the experts as far as book production goes, and although I think it’s easy to get carried away in the current climate what with all the sensationalist headlines,” said Howard, “but you have a much better chance of actually selling copies with a publisher behind you.”

And don’t expect success to happen overnight. Self-published eBook authors face the same crowded marketplace as traditionally published authors. “I think that it’s a mistake for authors to think that they can just write one book, put it up, and it could be a bestseller,” said Freethy. “That could happen, but just like in traditional publishing, that’s rare. Writers have to develop a career. They have to write more than one book. When readers like one book, they want the next book. So, sometimes I hear people get discouraged, ‘Oh, I put my book up and nothing happened.’ You have to keep writing and you have to keep developing your career.”

NEXT >> Making an eBook, Part 2: Marketing

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Jennifer Pullinger is a writer and editor in Richmond. Visit her at www.jenniferlpullinger.com or on Twitter @JLPullinger.

She is credited with bringing erotica from the back of the bookstore and into the mainstream with the explosive success of The Sex Chronicles: Shattering the Myth. Was it the detail of the love scenes, the sexually liberated female characters, or just the juicy plots that did it? The millions of readers who catapulted her titles onto the New York Times bestsellers list a whopping 26 times and made Zane’s Sex Chronicles No. 1 on Cinemax would probably say all of the above.

Yet, despite her philanthropic efforts and work in bringing other authors into the limelight through her imprint with Atria/Simon & Schuster, Zane is not without her critics. She’s been attacked for everything from her large number of young fans and her support of the LGBT community to, of course, her explicit content.

“I’m not swinging from chandeliers all day or going to sex parties all night,” she told us. “The majority of my day is spent helping women with their situations, saving people’s lives.”

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Name: Zane
Position: Author, publisher, screenwriter and TV producer
Resume: Began her career as a regional sales executive and part-time divinity school research assistant. Started writing short stories at night and publishing them online. Landed a book deal with Simon & Schuster and wrote 26 bestsellers, including Addicted, Skyscraper, Total Eclipse of the Heart, and The Hot Box. Started her Strebor publishing house in June of 1999 and landed an imprint deal with Atria/Simon & Schuster in September 2003. Currently adapting her bestseller, Addicted, into a film for Lionsgate.
Birthday: September 18th
Hometown: Washington, D.C.
Education: Was the first jointly-enrolled high school student at Spelman College before transferring to Howard University to double major in chemical engineering and English
Marital status: Divorced
Favorite TV show: I Love Lucy
Guilty pleasure: Taking “trips to nowhere” with her children on the spur of the moment
Last book read: Man Swappers by Cairo
Twitter handle: @PlanetZane

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Why write about erotica?
I didn’t aspire to be an erotica writer. People honestly think that all I write is sex books and that is the least of which I do. Before I started writing novels, I had never read erotica in my entire life. I was bored one night and I started writing a story and sharing it on an Aol chat line. Those friends shared it with a few others and, in three weeks, I got over 8,000 hits on my site. Then, there was a rumor that I had a book out and three publishers offered me deals, but I turned them all down. Honestly, the majority of my books have a much deeper premise to them. It just so happens that I do not tone down sex. I write my sex scenes the way I write everything else — just me being wild enough to be honest.

What do you say to those who don’t consider it real literature, just literary pornography?
That’s their opinion. I never set out to please everyone. I understand my purpose. Any book that I’ve ever written, I can clearly tell someone what the book is about. It has a clearly defined plot. As a publisher, a lot of people have the misconception that I publish only erotica when, in reality, I only have two erotica writers. We publish everything from literary fiction and mystery to nonfiction as well as gay and lesbian fiction. I’m not swinging from chandeliers all day or going to sex parties all night. The majority of my day is spent helping women with their situations, saving people’s lives. My life’s work is empowering women and, yes, that includes sexually.

“A lot of authors believe that all they have to do is write a book — that’s foolishness.”

Why did you decide to become a publisher in addition to being an author?
Even when all I had was a website, people were sending me their stories to put on my site. So, in a sense, I’ve been a publisher from the beginning. Within the first year of my first publishing deal, I had signed seven contracts with Simon & Schuster for 15 books, so I think it was a natural progression. What made me go ahead as a full-fledged publisher was that I received so many emails from women around the world from India to Korea who were embracing my novels, who said the novels helped them realize that there was nothing wrong with them or with sexual desires, that they shouldn’t be ashamed. To me, publishing serves a much deeper purpose in my life: It’s the opportunity for me to give voices to people who may or may not ever have that chance.

How have eBooks affected your business?
For mid-list authors, it’s actually not a bad situation. eBooks are far from taking over, though; that’s a huge misconception. Financially, it is not really hurting mid-list authors whether the book is sold as an eBook or a traditional book. The ones that are really being affected are authors like me, or Patricia Cornwell or James Patterson who have hardcover books. If Patricia normally sells her hardcover at $32.95 and the reader can buy it at $9.99, that’s a significant difference. But it is what it is. Personally, I don’t read eBooks. I prefer a hard copy.

One thing some authors do not seem to understand, whether it’s traditional or eBooks, is that the publisher is the one who takes all of the financial risks. As a publisher, my job is to offer authors distribution and to get their books out there. Publishers do a lot of stuff that authors will never understand and definitely would never be able to do on their own. I have to admit that we will go to the extreme of watching our authors interact at BEA [Book Expo of America] and analyze them. We ask ourselves would anybody buy a book from them based on the way they act? Nobody should have a sense of entitlement just because they wrote a book. At the end of the day, publishing is still a business.

What advice do you have for authors who complain about a lack of publicity? If they are doing so much of the publicity and marketing work themselves, should they receive a higher royalty rate?
No, they should not receive a higher royalty rate. I hear complaints about publicity all the time across the board. As an author, I believe that I should be the one publicizing myself. A lot of authors believe that all they have to do is write a book — that’s foolishness. I still promote myself all the time. The key to becoming a successful author now virally is to let people get to know them as people. That’s why I have such a large readership: My books are the things I talk least about when I’m social networking.

Since 1997, I have been answering emails and giving advice. The reason people email me is they feel that I honestly care, and I really do. You don’t have to do in-person meet and greets. Remember, I didn’t have my first book signing until I had sold millions of books, because nobody knew who Zane was, not even my mom or dad. I did it all in secret while working my day job. A writer that’s going to have a lifelong career has to promote themselves, because if you promote yourself your readers won’t care what books you come out with. They’re buying the brand.

“eBooks are far from taking over — that’s a huge misconception.”

You deal with serious adult matters, yet there are young girls who sometimes pick up your books. How does having young readers affect your work, if at all?
First of all, it’s their mothers and fathers that are bringing them to the book signings. They’re just happy to get their kids reading. Remember, I’m a mother as well, so I’m very aware of what young people are exposed to. I don’t think it affects my work because, as young as these kids are, they know most of this stuff already. My readers are also getting exposed to different topics like homelessness, low self-esteem, and empowerment. It’s about having your heart broken and deciding if you are never going to try again or that you’re going to have to trust again.

The funny thing is, one of the very first book signings I did was put on by a group of preachers’ wives where I spoke to a group of church women about black female sexuality. At another church event followed by a book signing, the women were slipping copies of Purple Panties, my lesbian series, under the other books they bought. It was the biggest seller all day.

What are your thoughts on bookstores shelving books in the African-American section instead of alongside other fiction works?
They sell better. That’s been documented. There’s no question about that. When someone goes into a bookstore and they’re looking for African-American books, they’re going to look for the African-American section. If they dig mystery books, they’re going to look at the mystery section. I’ve done my research and seen the figures; I’ve met with the owners and heads of bookstore chains. I used to sit in a Borders bookstore, bring my manuscript submissions with me to read, and for hours on the weekends I’d watch how people selected books, what caught their attention, what made some people look at books more, and what they actually took to the register.

You and I are working on expanding your empire to include a radio show as well as another television series. Why did you want to enter those markets and what can fans expect?
To me, those are the things that I’m passionate about. For television, I love being able to create it, and it’s one of the things that I’ve always enjoyed the most. Radio is something very natural to me. I’m able to take what I already do every single day, as far as dealing with women and their issues, and transform that to another medium. The thing is, I would not do anything that I don’t feel comfortable with or, more importantly, that I don’t feel passionate about. When publishers first started approaching me and told me they’d like me to change my writing style and tone down the sexuality in the books, I turned them down, no matter how much money they were offering.

What’s your No. 1 tip for aspiring sex and relationship writers?
Character development is important across the board, whether it’s TV, movies, books or whatever medium. A lot of people say they can write a hot sex scene and they say, “Oh, that’s erotic,” and it’s not. People write romance scenes and sex scenes and no one cares. Why should they? Pornography is simply two people walking into a room and going at each other. Erotica is when you know who the people are, what they mean to each other. You see the whole vision. You want people to know these characters, hold them dear and be vested in the character. To me, there is nothing more important.

NEXT >> So What Do You Do Jamie Raab, Publisher of Grand Central Publishing?

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Jeff Rivera is the author of Forever My Lady (Grand Central) and a GalleyCat contributor.

After replacing Bonnie Fuller at Us Weekly and doubling the pub’s circulation, Janice Min left the top spot of editor-in-chief in 2010 thinking she would never return to magazines. But when Richard Beckman, CEO of Prometheus Global Media, offered her the opportunity to revitalize the lagging, 80-year-old Hollywood Reporter, she couldn’t turn it down.

“It was kind of this dream scenario,” Min told us. “Usually a CEO tells you to fire half of the staff and cut, cut, cut, cut. But this was a chance to basically remake something entirely, not with unlimited financial largess, but with an adequate financial sum to do it. That is sort of a dream come true, and when I looked at The Hollywood Reporter in its past incarnation, it was so clear that you could turn it into something major. You could turn it into something completely different.”

And she’s done exactly that, turning the daily trade newspaper into a glossy weekly and building a new website that attracts 10 million unique users, trumping its competitors. (The pub also just inked a deal to make its content available to AP subscribers.) We asked the publishing vet to explain how she did it and why you should never walk into a job interview saying you want to be editor-in-chief.

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Name: Janice Min
Position: Editorial director of The Hollywood Reporter
Resume: Started as a newspaper reporter for Gannet in Westchester County, N.Y. Became staff writer and, later, senior editor for People. Left in 1998 for the assistant managing editor spot at Life. Named assistant managing editor of specials for InStyle, where she launched InStyle Weddings and InStyle Makeover. Joined Us Weekly as executive editor in 2002 and named editor-in-chief 14 months later. Moved to California to lead The Hollywood Reporter in 2010.
Birthday: August 13
Hometown: Born in Atlanta, but grew up in Littleton, Colo.
Education: Undergrad and master’s degrees from Columbia University
Marital status: Married
Media Idol: “Last night, I was gushing to my husband about how much I love Frank Rich because I think he is so smart”
Favorite TV show: Tie between Mad Men and Breaking Bad
Guilty pleasure: Eating peanut butter on chocolate bars
Last book read: Either The Help, or Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
Twitter handle: “I have a Twitter account and I have never used it. I don’t even know the password to get on, but it’s @janicebmin.”

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The Hollywood Reporter is an entertainment industry staple. Were you afraid of changing the format and possibly alienating long-time readers?
No. People had respect for the brand, but not respect for what it was. There was nothing to lose. You couldn’t lose by blowing the whole thing up. In that way, the opportunity wasn’t incredibly daunting. One of the phrases that one of the owners or execs around here used was “You can’t fall from the floor.” There was only an upside, really. People here were pretty happy to openly disparage The Hollywood Reporter in its previous incarnation. It was almost sport out here. It was great to change the narrative of what The Hollywood Reporter is.

Has working outside of the New York publishing industry been a big transition? What’s been the biggest challenge?
It’s weird. New York is so media-centric, and everywhere you go you run into someone you know who works here or there, and it’s all sort of interconnected and incestuous. In New York, people, in their own sick way, also sort of find people in the media fascinating. I can guarantee no one out here is fascinated by people in the media, because you have the figures in Hollywood. There is no media hangout in L.A. It is a very small community. I have to say I miss being around other people in the media. Obviously I have the staff here, but that has definitely been a transition. We increased staff by 35-45 percent, but hiring out here is hard. There is not a bench out here at all. You struggle to find enough working journalists out here to staff your publication and to even interview. We’ve been very lucky. We’ve had a lot of people from New York move out, but we’ve also found the most talented journalists in L.A.

“People here were pretty happy to openly disparage THR in its previous incarnation.”

What are you looking for when you hire people?
Initiative. I’ve interviewed people who’ve wanted to interview but haven’t read the publication. It’s probably more common out here than it would be in New York. In L.A., if you interview with someone and they seem possibly promising, you ask them to do some sort of memo of ideas, some sort of critique, and they miss their deadline or they never turn it in. Things like that always come as a surprise. I always look for initiative. Hopefully, you can recognize some sort of special intelligence that brings something to the conversation, people who can look at a story in a different way. I always like to know someone is pretty well read and well versed in the topics and has some sort of intellectual curiosity.

One of the complaints people have in media is everyone is chasing the same story and they cover it the same way. Can you, as an individual, bring something different to the table? That’s especially important to this audience out here. It is a very tight-knit community. Can you inform them about things that you don’t already know? Can you make it fun? Are you a clever writer? There is enough ordinary. What can you do to elevate something out of ordinary?

Do you think that leading a magazine is an instinctual thing?
Yes. I think instinct plays a big part in being at the top of the masthead. But I also think it’s having a lot of respect for your audience and knowing that they want smart stories. You could look at Us Weekly and say, “Oh my God. That’s one of the biggest consumer magazines with lots of silly pictures of celebrities doing silly things.” But how do you make it smart? How do you make it feel clever or vaguely subversive or that you are kind of in on the joke with them.

There were all sorts of subtle things about Us Weekly that communicated that to the audience. It kind of didn’t matter if the people who didn’t read Us Weekly thought you can get celebrity stuff anywhere. It’s only the people who read it that you cared about. I think the
same thing applies to any publication. I love reading New York magazine, because I’ve fallen completely into the trap and think “That is written for me.” But of course it wasn’t written for you. It was written for lots of people, but there is enough in there that you really enjoy and that you feel like you aren’t getting elsewhere.

What are your tips for moving up the masthead?
I remember when I would interview people, even for an editorial assistant job, and you would ask them, “What do you want to do?” And when they say “I want to be an editor-in-chief one day,” it’s such a turn off. Immediately in your mind you’re like, “Ok this is someone who feels entitled who is not going to want to work very hard.” People who are so obvious at wanting the glory usually don’t want to put in the work for it. Can you be the intern who is so useful the thought of you leaving the office at the end of the summer would be devastating? Are you the person who volunteers to stay late and finish the project when no one else will take it on? A lot of it is making yourself indispensable to somebody or the organization. Honestly, it has nothing to do with titles or where you are.

“There is enough ordinary. What can you do to elevate something out of ordinary?”

Everyone should try to find ways to be distinctive and valuable in an office and without being annoying. I’ve seen a little bit of angst of people in their twenties being generally dissatisfied with something, and you can’t get them to articulate what they are dissatisfied with. I’m very sympathetic to that, but as an employer you kind of want to shake them up and say, “Keep your workplace angst out if it. Make yourself invaluable. Seize opportunities.” Someone is always looking for a problem to be solved, so be the person to solve the problem.

Jann Wenner offered you the EIC position at Us Weekly when Bonnie Fuller resigned abruptly. What do you consider when deciding which companies to work for?
Can I actually succeed doing it? Even when Bonnie Fuller left Us Weekly and Jan Wenner offered me the job to take over for her, there were a few days when I thought there was no way that I would do that and put myself on the firing line. Then, it just came down to “Well, I know I could do it. I know I can do it, because I’ve kind of been doing it any way.” There were things I wasn’t psyched about, like the attention and going from anonymity to semi-anonymity. You have to consider all of those things.

What are your goals for The Hollywood Reporter?
We need to make it bigger. It’s a must-read out in L.A. I would like for people to read it in other parts of the country. I would like for us to infiltrate New York and San Francisco and other sophisticated cities where I feel like the content would do well. I feel like that’s probably going to be accomplished best through our digital presence. And our website is huge already. A year from now I would love for it to be double the size it is right now. I would love for it to truly be synonymous with entertainment. I would say that’s the probably the next goal.

NEXT >> So What Do You Do, Debra Lee, Chairwoman and CEO of BET?

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Aria Hughes is a freelance writer living in New York City.

Photo Credit: Greg Gorman

With 400 million copies sold worldwide, 27 New York Times bestsellers, and nine movies and mini-series based on her work, Jackie Collins has become the public’s go-to gal for a glimpse into the world of the A-list elite.

“If you have never been to Hollywood and you’re going to write this expose on Hollywood, then it’s going to be a flop because you cannot fool the public — they know. They know that when I write the book, I’m not standing outside my mansion with my nose pressed against the glass trying to get in. I’ve already seen this, done that,” Collins told us.

And the renowned author has no plans of slowing down anytime soon. Collins told us exclusively that she will be self-publishing the U.S. eBook of her previous title, The Bitch, on April 17, and there’s also a young adult title and cookbook in honor of her most infamous character in the works. Lucky girl.

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Name: Jackie Collins
Position: Author
Resume: Tinkered with acting in her early 20s but always considered herself an “out-of-work writer.” Continued to write as a wife and mother but never finished anything until her first novel, The World is Full of Married Men, was published in 1968. That title landed her on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, and was later banned in Australia due to its racy content. Penned 26 more New York Times bestsellers, which sold over 400 million copies and spawned nine movies and mini-series.
Birthday: October 4, 1937
Hometown: London
Education: Expelled from high school at the age of 15
Marital status: Widowed
Media Idol: “Craig Ferguson, because he is a true entertainer and makes me laugh”
Favorite TV show: Shameless and Dexter
Guilty pleasure: Chocolate and TiVo
Last book read: Ali in Wonderland by Ali Wentworth
Twitter handle: @JackieJCollins

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How do you differentiate your take on sex and romance from others in the genre?
That’s a very interesting question because we all love romance, but we don’t like romance. You know what I mean by that? We find romance, but we don’t like a romance book — it’s so sloppy and stupid. But we love happy endings. So, I try to make sure my characters are strong, sexy and very erotic. I don’t write lewd sex like men do. Sometimes men write like gynecologists, and you’re thinking, “That’s not sexy.”

You’ve got to just get the feeling of what the character would do in bed and then let your readers’ imaginations take over, so the reader actually thinks they’re reading more than they are. But I don’t plan sex. I don’t assume my character is going to have sex today. They just happen like they happen in life or like they should happen. Everybody loves the sex scenes in Goddess of Vengeance because it’s incredibly romantic, and yet it works.

What’s something that you’d never write about because it’s a little too wild, even for you?
Now, I would never write about cruelty to children, because I just think that encourages pedophiles. I really do think it gets their rocks off.

“I realized at the very beginning that I had to take control of what the publisher was doing as far as book covers were concerned.”

Why did you think it was important for you to be involved in the business side of your career, rather than delegating those tasks to an agent or manager?
I realized at the very beginning that I had to take control of what the publisher was doing as far as book covers were concerned: the size, the print, the paper. So, I started to get on their case about what they were going to do for me because most writers don’t know this. They publish a book, and they can’t find it in the bookstore. And they go, “Oh, it’s on the back shelf? Can’t you get it on the front table?” They don’t realize that their publisher hasn’t paid for the front table.

So, there’s a lot to learn, and I’ve learned it over the years, and I’m still learning. There are still things that I don’t know that I find out with each book. What are they doing for the list? What promotions are they buying? Those are the questions I’d ask. It’s all about the money, as far as the publishers are concerned, and usually publishers aren’t that generous. So, even I have to fight for what I want. If I want a full-page ad in People magazine, I have to get it in my contract otherwise they’re not going to give it to me. They would say it costs too much. So, what I have now is a lot of social media ads. And I think there should be one print ad because people still read magazines.

From the beginning, you’ve been in the spotlight. How do you think that has helped or expanded your brand?
I think it does help if you’ve got a face that can actually go on television and try and be a celebrity. I mean, I’m not that fond of doing it, but I’ve been doing it for so many years that I can do it at the drop of a hat. It’s lucky for me, because not a lot of writers can get their books on television and talk about them. I realized that I’m very lucky to have that kind of brand. My name is kind of a brand now. In fact, I am eventually going to have things like desk sets, a Lucky [Santangelo] cookbook and other things.

If you were an author starting out in the business today, what would you do differently?
I was extremely lucky because my first book was accepted. And I keep on reading about these really famous writers who went through so many rejections, and I don’t know if I could have kept going if I had a lot of rejections.

I don’t think I would change anything. If I were starting over, maybe I would have done it sooner because everybody told me I couldn’t do it. I was thrown out of school. They said, “You can’t. You’ve got to go to college. You’ve got to do this. You’ve got to do that.” And I said, “No, I’m following my dream. This is what I want to do.” And I came out on top in composition in school and bottom in everything else. So, along the way, I’ve learned to spell. Thank you, computer. I’d have to tell anyone starting out: Follow your dream. Girls can do anything and so can boys. Put your mind to it; follow your dream.

What are your thoughts on eBooks and how they will affect your readership and bottom line?
You’ve always got to be thinking ahead of the game, because the book industry is going the way of the CD industry. Nobody buys CDs anymore. They get music on iTunes. For example, with Goddess of Vengeance, I think I sold an equal amount of hard covers and eBooks. And in England, they just bought out all my books on eBooks and Lethal Seduction was immediately No. 2 on the bestseller’s list. It’s a book that’s 10-years-old; I was quite impressed with that. That said, I personally love physical books. I love the feel of the book.

“They said, ‘You can’t. You’ve got to go to college.’ And I said, ‘No, I’m following my dream.'”

I’ve re-written The Bitch, and I’m publishing that myself as an eBook in a few weeks. It’ll sell for about $2.99, and it’s a nice thing to do for my readers. They can read a book that they hadn’t read before, and perhaps I’ll get new readers. I just looked at it the other day, and I thought it’s not a really long book, but it was a really fun book. And so I decided to re-write it. I decided to publish it myself just to be innovative and also to give something back to the fans. I’ve got a fabulous cover for it and a letter to the readers that will go before it.

It’s a fun experiment. It might sell two copies. It might sell 200,000. Who knows? If it ends up doing very well, I will continue to self-publish books probably because I’ve got a series of short stories that have never been published. And I’ve always said to my publisher, “I’d like to do a book of short stories.” And he goes, “Oh, short stories don’t sell.” And dealing with publishers, it might be fun just to deal with myself. I always say, “If you have faith in something, do it yourself.”

Many of your novels have a ripped-from-the-headlines feel to them. What kind of research do you do to keep them fresh, but familiar?
I’m a little on the cutting edge as far as knowing what’s happening. I don’t mean to sound immodest. What I mean is that I keep my ears to the ground, for instance, if there’s a new singer coming out like Norah Jones, a few years ago. I had written about her long before everybody knew who she was, and with actors it’s the same thing. I’ve got a good eye for talent. When I made [the mini-series based on] Lucky Chances, a four-year-old Elisabeth Moss from Mad Men and a 19-year-old Sandra Bullock were in it. [Editor’s note: When the show aired in 1990, Moss was 8-years-old and Bullock was 26.] As far as writers, I’m thinking of getting an imprint somewhere and encouraging young writers. A friend of mine wrote a brilliant book, and she’s had the most fabulous rejection letters I’ve ever seen. And I’m saying to myself, “What the hell is going on? This book is fabulous, and they’re rejecting it.”

As a mature woman who has been in the business for years, what do you do to bring in young readers who may not be as familiar with your earlier work?
Well, it’s interesting. I don’t have to bring them in. They’re there. What happens is, they take their mom’s book and they read them under the covers. I have a huge fan base of like 15-year-olds, and they write to me all the time. And they say, “I know I’m a bit young, but I took my mom’s book and I’ve never read a book before.” I do have a huge, young audience. I am going to do a YA book about Lucky when she was 16. I think it’ll be fun because she’s a bit like me when I was that age: wild and out of control. So, I thought that would be fun. Instead of writing my memoir, which I will do eventually, I will write Lucky’s wild years. It’s my first YA book.

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

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Jeff Rivera is the author of Forever My Lady (Grand Central) and a GalleyCat contributor.

Photo Credit: Willy Somma

Kate Bolick’s thought-provoking feature in The Atlantic on the social and economic forces shaping the contemporary romantic landscape was the talk of the town last November when the issue hit newsstands. (Bolick is only the third female author in the magazine’s history to appear on the cover.)

Entitled “All the Single Ladies,” the behemoth nine-page, 12,000-plus-word article explored how the decades-long ascent of women, dovetailing with the descent of men, was causing people to marry later and in fewer numbers. Readers flooded TheAtlantic.com with feedback, liked it over 50,000 times on Facebook, and basically buzzed about it so much that Today show came calling.

Not long after the story’s publication, news broke that Drop Dead Diva producer Josh Berman had plans to turn it into a TV show. Bolick also recently sold a book to Crown/Random House that is an outgrowth of the piece. But her seemingly overnight success is truly the culmination of years of hard work, a path that the Veranda culture editor and Domino alum says began with “spinning her wheels.”

You’re a contributing editor at The Atlantic. Did you pitch “All the Single Ladies”?
The editors asked me to look into what the worsening prospects for men could mean to the future of dating and marriage — that was the assignment. Then they said, “Write about it in the first person, draw on your own observations and experiences to give context to the story, and report.” It’s certainly a fear that men’s prospects are worsening — they’ve been really hit by the recession — but that doesn’t account for why I personally am unmarried at this age. A lot of [the recession] is taking place in manufacturing and labor [with] men that I don’t meet, generally speaking, in my day-to-day New York City life. It was when I hit on the current research around singles — that there are more single people now than ever before — that I found an access point into the story.

How much time, planning and research went into the story?
There were about six to seven weeks of research, reporting and traveling and doing all of that, and then a week-and-a-half writing the first draft. I started reading, calling around and talking to psychiatrists, sociologists and historians to get a sense of the larger conversation around marriage in contemporary America. My editors didn’t put any limits on my exploring, and that’s why the piece is as long as it is. Originally, the assignment was six to eight thousand words and it ended up being close to 13,000 words.

“If a woman is writing about being unmarried, the first thing the reader thinks is, ‘How much of this has to do with what she looks like?'”

Working with my editor, Scott Stossel, was an incredible experience because of the long conversations that I had with him about the research and where my thoughts were going. He’s an incredible question-asker and listener. I think of him as one of these rare editors who really knows how to delve into the process and delve into the mind of the writer.

The article generated a lot of buzz and feedback from readers. What was the most interesting or surprising comment you got?
Across the board, [responses have been] very personal. That’s been fascinating, being suddenly given access to such a wide range of people across the world and their innermost thoughts. One of my favorite responses was from a man in his sixties with a 35-year-old daughter, saying that she’s lovely, intelligent, she’s the apple of his eye, and she is not married and has no intention of getting married — a point of concern for him and his wife. But, after reading the article, they don’t feel concerned anymore. Then he went on to say, ‘If you had written this article when you were in your sixties, I wouldn’t say what I’m about to say’. And when I read that sentence I thought, “Oh no, it’s going to be another condescending note,” but he went on to say, “I detected some note of concern in your writing and I just wanted you to know that, I think you’re going to be fine. You’re going to continue to lead a very full, interesting life.” It was very sweet that he had just come in to this new way of thinking towards his daughter and was then applying it to me.

It’s unusual that, when most writers are not pictured alongside their work at all, you appeared on the cover of a magazine that doesn’t often have people on its covers. How did the editors or art directors approach you about that?
It wasn’t the original plan at all. The Atlantic had hired the graphic design firm Pentagram for new art direction and [when I found out that they were] thinking of including some photographs of me in the article, I thought, “That seems so funny and weird.” I hadn’t finished writing the piece yet when my editor called to say, “Now, they’re thinking about putting you on the cover.” That blew my mind. At the time because I was still writing, it just felt like another item I had to check off my list: show up at photo shoot.

My understanding on the reason they wanted to illustrate the piece with me is because it was in my voice, drawn on my experiences, [and the photos] further personalized the material. I had mixed feelings about it. I love The Atlantic, but I had been feeling critical of how it has handled so-called “female topics.” It seemed that they were always assigning “male topics” to men and “female topics” to women, like family, marriage and so forth. When they asked me to do this assignment I thought, “Oh great, I’m becoming part of the problem.” The cover seemed a cynical move to a degree. Would they have done this if the article had been written by a man? How much of this was having to prove something? If a woman is writing about being unmarried, the first thing the reader thinks is, “How much of this has to do with what she looks like?” I did have that critique of [my being on the cover], even though it was of myself.

“Any freelance writer needs three pillars. One is where your heart is, and the other two pillars support that main one.”

Is that when you started thinking of the story as something more than a feature? Why did you think it would be good for TV and that Drop Dead Diva‘s Josh Berman would be the right person to produce it?
Once I knew I would be on the cover, I knew that could generate more interest or it could’ve been a flop. Usually, a magazine comes out, people talk about it for a couple of weeks and then it disappears. I didn’t have a sense at all [of how the story could be adapted for television], and when I sent the piece to Josh Berman, the week the issue came out, it was just to get his take. It wasn’t to say, “Here, can you turn this into a television show?”

I had seen Drop Dead Diva and was surprised by the way he delved into women’s issues and comedy. I really liked it; I thought it was smart, contemporary and original. I sent the article to him saying, “What do you think? How could this be received in Hollywood? Would there ever be interest in something like this for television?” That was a whole conversation I didn’t know anything about. Part of my approaching him was that he seemed like someone who, best case scenario, would know how to work with the material in an intelligent way and could give me some perspective based on what his response would be. Berman is a really smart, really energetic, really nice guy. I like how hard working he is and how much vision he has about his own career and the things he tries to do with television. It turned out that he loved the article and wanted to option it with Sony, which was incredibly lucky.

Once the idea is sold, how involved will you be in the day-to-day writing or producing?
I will have co-producer and creative consult credit. As far as I understand it, that means I will have input into, if I want to, conversations around the story line. I won’t actually be writing the show but I can have creative input, which sounds great to me. I’ve never written for television. I’ve never wanted to write for television, but now that this is happening I think it’s a great way to learn about writing for television, and I’m really excited about possibly going in that direction and exploring that world. I’m really glad about the role I have. It’s Josh’s show, he’s driving the ship, and he’ll be writing the show. That’s the way I want it, but I love that I get to have some input as well. I feel so fortunate.

Kate’s tips for successful freelancing:
1. Keep your day job, sort of. “With freelancing, even if you’re getting tons of work, you still don’t know what day the paychecks are going to arrive, you’re beholden to your editors and other people, and you’re alone for so much time. I love the freedom and the range of freelancing, but I’ve certainly been at my happiest when I’ve had some kind of editing gig going on in the meantime.”

2. Carve out a niche. “I really like writing about ideas, but it’s harder to get those assignments. It means writing a lot of lower-paying book reviews and essays, so I’ve carved out this sideline as a design writer so I can write for glossy magazines and get paid glossy rates. That’s made it possible for me to pursue the other kind of writing that I feel most invested in.”

3. Support your career with three pillars. “A novelist friend of mine, Gary Sernovitz, gave me some advice years ago: Any freelance writer needs three pillars. One pillar is where your heart is, the topics that you want to write about but don’t necessarily expect to get much money for, and the other two pillars support that main one. Find two other pillars you know you can pursue authentically.”

Building a pergola from scratch while cameras follow your every hammer and nail? For Kayleen McCabe, that’s reality TV.

McCabe never aspired to be a celebrity or to be on camera at all, for that matter. Always skilled at handiwork, she had worked as an occasional gun-for-hire handywoman for almost a decade when she caught wind in 2009 of Stud Finder, DIY Network’s search for a new series host. Even after becoming the lone female among five finalists, she figured an appearance on NBC’s Today (in which she showed Hoda Kotb and Piers Morgan how to screw into hardwood without a pilot hole) would probably mark the height of her proverbial 15 minutes – she was wrong.

With her DIY series, Rescue Renovation, headed into its fifth season, the former contractor spoke with us about lessons learned so far and why she owes everything to… a table.

How does a contractor land a hosting gig on DIY Network?
In 2006, I had just come home to Denver after a few years in Philadelphia, where I’d worked on some industrial films, a local dating show, and home design shows mainly as a production assistant and associate producer. I was getting on my feet again, not sure exactly how I’d make a living, when a friend of mine told me about a co-worker looking for help flipping a house. He ended up hiring me as, essentially, the foreman just based on the fact that he knew I was handy. That led to word-of-mouth gigs helping with additions and renovations for a few other friends of friends.

A momentum really started to build, with both the amount of work coming my way and my own enthusiasm. I had lent a hand on renovation projects before more informally, but this time I realized I was waking up earlier and earlier each day and was just legitimately excited to get to work. So, I started taking steps toward getting my contractors’ license.

It was around this time that I heard about Stud Finder. The winner of the show would receive their own home renovation show on the network. On a complete lark, I shot a submission video. In it, I planed rough-cut lumber, which is when you take off a dimension at a time and make it smooth, and turned it into a table. Another friend edited my video into something coherent and I sent it in. I still have the finished table in my bedroom. It’s crazy to think that table landed me a TV series!

“The fact that DIY isn’t the highest-profile lifestyle network bought me the window for a learning curve.”

Did the fact that there are relatively few female contractors ever deter you from pursuing contracting as a career? Why or why not?
Not at all. My grandfather was ridiculously handy. He built a working pipe organ that ran on a vacuum cleaner’s suction, and a train that we kids could ride around yard. He let me play with the tools in his garage and, at least from my standpoint, taught me the same things he would have taught a grandson. There was no air of, “You’re a girl, so you don’t need to know this stuff.”

My dad always tells a story of coming to pick me up at my grandparents’ house when I was five or six, walking into the garage, and seeing me behind a band saw. His impulse to get me away from it was replaced with the thought of, “Well, my dad raised five handy kids, and we all have our fingers!”

What training or qualifications do you have? How relevant were they to your success on Stud Finder?
At the point that I applied to Stud Finder, I didn’t have any formal training beyond what I’d grown up doing, what I’d picked up on a few construction sites I’d visited, and what I’d learned through helping people with projects. Honestly, I think my success on Stud Finder had as much to do with my understanding of production as it did with my basic know-how. I’d only worked on a few TV projects, but it was enough to give me an idea of what it takes to create television.

On that note, we met when you were in Philadelphia working in production. Which skills from those gigs proved helpful in your transition to on-camera work?
I knew going into Stud Finder that a show host needs to be able to talk in 30-second bytes. I knew there’d be a lot of “hurry up and wait” moments on set. I knew I’d have to be consistently energetic whenever it was time to roll, whether I was feeling energetic or not. So, it wasn’t so much skills picked up from my production work that helped me, because I’d never appeared on camera, as much as the ability to anticipate what was coming my way. I didn’t have any delusions of sitting pretty in a director’s chair. I knew that shows generally operate with much smaller budgets than viewers realize. On my first day of Stud Finder, I packed my lunch, because I wasn’t even sure we’d have Craft Services! I was so excited when we did; that’s how far I’d gone in removing any delusions of grandeur.

DIY Network isn’t as well known as other lifestyle networks like HGTV. How has that affected what you can do on your show?
Looking back on the early episodes of Rescue Renovation, I can tell I’m not relaxed. I’m awkward! I really don’t know if I would have made it on a larger network. The fact that DIY isn’t the highest-profile lifestyle network bought me the window for a learning curve.

“Honestly, I think my success on Stud Finder had as much to do with my understanding of production as it did with my basic know-how.”

What do you think would surprise aspiring television hosts about the realities of hosting a series?
That it takes an army to do it and that it’s anything but a one-man show. We have a crew of 20 or so people, not including the camera and audio crew, and everything from logistics to permits to design takes a ton of manpower and preparation. I feel guilty all the time over the fact that I get to be the face of something that requires so much sweat equity and time and energy from other people. I would give them big hugs every day, but I think it’s against the PDA rules, so I just bake for them instead.

Even knowing what I knew, though, I went home at night and cried after each shoot day during the first few episodes. Putting myself out there, learning to articulate the process while working – it was incredibly draining. Things began to click for me around the fifth episode. I knew I was over the hurdle because I wasn’t as tired at night. And wasn’t crying!

What’s next for you professionally?
I want to do so much. I would love to be sponsored by a tool company, because I legitimately love tools and tool culture. I want to branch out into branding. I want to teach people. I want kids who loved Bob the Builder as toddlers to grow up and pick up the trades. Between school and after-school activities and sports, so few young people learn welding and carpentry, and that depresses me. There’s such talent and artistry behind these skills that have been stigmatized as blue collar. It’s becoming a lost art.

Kayleen McCabe’s tips for breaking into lifestyle television:
1. Be yourself. I know it’s clichéd and sounds super lame, but it really is true. Being on-camera is draining enough when you are being yourself; I can’t imagine trying to maintain energy and consistency being something other than me.

2. Adopt a “mail room to CEO mindset.” With few exceptions, people who’ve achieved their professional goals have worked grunt work in the past. Do whatever it takes to get yourself into the fold, and if you’re eyeing up a career as talent, don’t expect to become talent without first dabbling in other aspects of production.

3. Research production companies. Familiarizing yourself with networks is important, but most networks farm out their shows to production companies. Many unscripted series originate at the production company level, so that’s as good a place to start making connections as the networks themselves.

4. Don’t get too settled down. Live like a college student for as long as possible. It will free up your money and will give you autonomy for when the right offer comes down the pike.

You’re out on your own. You’re making a living as a freelance writer. You work hard to get assignments and even harder to deliver them. The last thing you want to worry about is a lawsuit. But the recent libel complaint filed against freelancer Susan Paterno, who wrote about infighting at the Santa Barbara News-Press in the December/January issue of the American Journalism Review, served as a grim reminder: The pen might be mightier than the sword, but it’s no automatic shield against a costly lawsuit.

No one keeps track of the total number of lawsuits brought against the media every year, but it is at least in the hundreds — in a 2005 study, the Media Law Resource Center (MLRC) reviewed 242 libel complaints, a sample of the total amount filed that year. The number of cases that actually go to trial is small — only 14 last year, according to another MLRC study. But just fighting to get a suit dismissed can be time-consuming, expensive, and emotionally wrenching. We spoke with media lawyers, journalism professors, and investigative reporters to find out what you need to know about avoiding libel and defamation suits.*

Understand the terms

Libel and defamation are defined as publishing something untrue that could damage the reputation of a specifically identified individual or entity, especially if the statements could hurt them financially. The specific requirements vary from state to state, but generally, if you’re writing about a public figure, the plaintiff has to prove willful malice on the part of the writer. If you’re writing about a private person, they generally only have to prove negligence, usually meaning you didn’t follow good journalistic practices. Take the time to get familiar with the libel laws in your state. “It’s so important for anyone who’s publishing to understand libel law,” says MLRC executive director Sandra Baron, adding that remaining ignorant is “like getting behind the wheel of a car without knowing the rules of the road.”

Resources that define what constitutes libel and defamation include the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press’ First Amendment Handbook, the AP Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law, and the Student Press Association’s PHIF (Publication, Identification, Harm, and Fault) Checklist.

Closely examine contracts before signing

A contract you sign with a publication will typically reference “warranties” (things you promise, such as that the story you deliver will be free of libel) and “indemnities” (promises that you will pay certain costs resulting from a suit). Make sure that when signing any contract, you only warrant and indemnify things under your control. For example, don’t promise that the story will be accurate at publication time if you don’t have control over the editing process (a rare occurrence for freelance writers). If your responsibilities under the contract seem too broad, push back, says Erik Sherman, a freelance journalist and former head of the Contracts Committee of the American Society of Journalists and Authors. “I’ve seen too many writers just sign contracts and hope that everything would work out.”

Ensure the facts back up your theories

“Many writers come into a piece with a theory about what they’re going to find in the course of their research,” says Baron. “It’s perfectly reasonable. Scientists do the same thing.” However, scientists don’t have to worry about defamation suits, so for writers, certain precautions are worth taking. When you’re done reporting, check to ensure that your research produced the necessary evidence to support your theory. If it didn’t, let the theory go. Avoid the temptation to dance around holes in your evidence through writing that suggests a certain conclusion without explicitly stating it. Mere implications can be deemed as libelous as direct assertions. For example, let’s say someone has told you a high school teacher is having a sexual relationship with a student. You can confirm that the teacher attended several student gatherings on weekends and left one at 10pm with the student. But the teacher and the student deny the relationship, and the school says it is not investigating the teacher. Be careful about writing the story in such a way as to insinuate a relationship is taking place, based on the facts you have. The teacher’s reputation is at stake, and they could potentially win a libel suit against you.

You may think of yourself as a writer, but in the eyes of the law, you’re a business, and this means you’ve got to toe the line like one.

Document your findings

Gather the documentation you need to prove a potentially damaging claim made in your story. It’s not enough just to attribute an allegation to a quote made by another person or publication. For example, if you want to write that a particular person has been charged with a certain crime, don’t rely just on quotes from officials. Get the police report or court documents. “One thing reporters don’t do enough of now is digging through the records to prove their case,” says Alyssa Katz, who teaches journalism at New York University and has written for Mother Jones, New York, and The Nation. “They’re always looking for shortcuts.”

Give both sides time to respond, before you finish your piece

It’s not enough to ask your subject for an interview, and then forget about them once they respond with, “No comment.” Once you’ve crafted your piece, you should send them any allegations you plan to publish, and give them ample time to respond. Don’t call them two to three hours before your deadline. If the material is sensitive enough, give them at least a few days, or even better, a week or more. You want your timeframe to communicate that you’re not trying to pull a “gotcha” on your subject but that you’re legitimately trying to get their side of the story. Los Angeles journalist Ross Johnson did just that when he wrote a subsequent story about the Santa Barbara News-Press lawsuit for LA Weekly. Johnson knew he was wading into dangerous territory, as the plaintiff in the case had a litigious history. So he made sure to contact her team early on in his reporting and send them every point he planned to publish. “You run into problems when you come to the other side too late in the game and they feel like they’re being blindsided,” Johnson says. Shortly after doing that piece, Johnson hung up his freelancer’s hat and joined an L.A. firm that does crisis communications for celebrity and corporate clients. What he sees from the other side of table confirms what he learned on the beat: “[Clients] go bonkers when they feel they haven’t had a chance to get their say in,” he says.

Closely review every word

If you think only investigative reporters have to worry about libel, think again. Of the complaints reviewed in the MLRC report (which, it fully concedes, was an unscientific sample), less than a tenth of the cases involved investigative stories. Almost half, however, involved routine newsgathering. You can easily invite a suit through a minor — but preventable — error, like misreporting the exact charge against a criminal defendant. You should carefully review every story you write. If it contains anything you wouldn’t want said about you, double- and triple-check that you got it right. As a starting point, consider using the cheat sheet prepared by Jean Maneke, of the Legal Hotline Counselor for the Missouri Press Association, who regularly reviews stories for Missouri publications.

Don’t get tripped up by wordplay

Because of the complexities and nuances of language, words and sentences can mean different things to different people. To ensure that a double meaning in what you wrote doesn’t open you up to risk, examine whether any unintentional — and damaging — meanings could be inferred from your choice of words, or even from the way you’ve strung them together. “The mispositioning of a word makes all the difference in the world,” says Maneke. For example, if you’re doing a story about an author who based the idea for her book on another book published 10 years ago, think twice before asserting that the author “stole” the concept. You might simply have been trying to make the point that there’s no such thing as a new idea, but your readers could infer that the author committed copyright infringement.

Review the final version prior to publication

An editor’s wordsmithing, a creative headline, or a colorful caption are all prime areas within your work where unintentional libel can crop up. “A lot of times, through no malicious intent, people will tweak something here and there, and edit in a mistake,” says Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. To make sure you’re not the unwitting victim of someone else’s slippery phrasing, request to see a final version of your story before it gets published in print or online. If you find any wording in your piece that conveys a meaning you didn’t intend, request changes and offer alternate ways of articulating the problematic phrase.

Put accuracy above speed

Online, some writers play fast and loose, while others toss in attitude like so much seasoning. Whether online or in print, however, color is fine, but inaccuracy is not. “Particularly these days, [for some online writers,] speed often is more important than factual accuracy,” says Dalglish. “You need to take a deep breath and be careful.” Don’t put aside basic journalistic practices just to get your story up first. Writing online is increasingly being held legally accountable. Eleven of the complaints reviewed by the 2005 MLRC survey involved Internet defendants, a small number, but a 50 percent increase over the number of Internet defendants in MLRC’s 2001 survey. The one exception seems to be regarding comments made by visitors to your site. So far, site publishers are not being held responsible for comments they themselves did not make. Stay on top of developments though, as this area of the law is still evolving. Check out the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Bloggers’ FAQ on online defamation law for pointers.

Create and observe your own standard practices

You may think of yourself as a writer, but in the eyes of the law, you’re a business, and this means you’ve got to toe the line like one. It’s vital for freelancers to follow standard practices for things like storing notes and organizing the information used within stories. If you wind up in court, the more you present yourself as a professional who applies the same policies to all clients and projects, the more credible you will appear. “It’s always good, if you’re concerned about it, to keep a good paper trail,” says Jan Constantine, general counsel of The Authors Guild. “But you should be consistent. It’ll be tough to explain away inconsistent policies.” As to how long you should hang on to notes or tape recordings, the statute of limitations on filing libel suits varies from state to state, but is usually a few years or less.

Don’t depend on others’ libel insurance

Think you’re covered just because the publication you’re writing for has libel insurance? If they get sued and lose, they could turn around and sue you to recover their losses (remember the indemnities clause in the contract you signed?). Also, it’s not safe to assume that your homeowners’ insurance will cover you. Although some policies have general provisions covering libel, they can specifically exclude suits incurred in the course of business activities, which includes freelance writing, if you’re getting paid for it.

Independent writers often don’t carry their own libel insurance, as it can be prohibitively expensive, running into the thousands of dollars per year. The National Federation of Press Women (which is open to men as well as women) has a more affordable policy for its members: $51.50 to join the organization, $395 a year for the policy. The $300,000 limit per claim ($500,000 total) would probably be enough to fend off a nuisance suit, says Peter Mantius, an independent financial reporter. While on staff at The Atlanta Constitution, Mantius and his newspaper were sued twice — once by someone trying to block publication of a confidential document, and once by a government official alleging defamation (both cases were dismissed). The per-claim limit in the NFPW policy would probably be enough to pay for lawyers to get a frivolous case dismissed, while the reporter’s work to get the story right would be “self-insurance” against the larger damages that are sometimes awarded when libel does occur, Mantius says. (In 2006, the median damage awarded in cases that went to trial was $1.1 million, according to the MLRC report.)

The key to avoiding libel suits is to be prudent but not paranoid, according to Sallie Randolph, a writer, attorney, and one of the authors of Author Law A to Z. “The risks are quite small, if you do your job right,” says Sherman. “Don’t go around saying things you can’t prove. Understand what it takes to prove your point versus just to claim your point.” Or, as Constantine puts it: “Do the best you can do to make sure you have an accurate story. That’s the best insurance you can get.”

*Since we’re talking law, we must make clear: This article does not constitute legal advice, but provides tips to get you started. Libel and defamation are big topics, so take the time to educate yourself in depth. If you have concerns stemming from anything you’re working on, consult a lawyer.

E.B. Boyd is a freelance writer based in San Francisco.

“Really?”

This is usually the reaction I get when people find out that I write fiction. By their surprise, you would have thought I told them I play the lute or am studying taxidermy.

We like to think that those who work in book publishing wind up there due to their great love for literature. That is partially true. My good friend Marcy Flamholtz who worked in operations and sales for Penguin and Disney said it best when asked how she came to work in the world of books: “If you’re an editor, you aspire to be in publishing. But if you’re in finance, operations or contracts you just… wind up there. It’s like Hoboken.”

For the past 11 years I’ve worked in the contracts department negotiating and drafting author agreements, first for a decade at Penguin, and most recently at Hyperion. My contracts career began in 1996 after I completed film school at Penn State. It didn’t take long to find out that there weren’t many skills that transferred from shooting on a Bolex to drafting a warranty and indemnity clause (other than the fact that a tiny adjustment to either once you’ve finished wrecks the entire thing). I loved writing screenplays, but I needed a job. Since I didn’t know anyone in the film or television industry at that point, I decided to try my luck with books.

Contracts is a department most see (rightly so) as void of creativity. People seem to think contracts workers spend their spare time writing out flow-through clauses and signing Christmas cards with, “Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in the foregoing.” While we do share a laugh when we try to report our days off as force majeure, there are plenty of creative types who work in this area of publishing. According to my experience, this is because:

1) You don’t take your work home with you. Contracts are confidential so when you leave work, you can mentally leave it, too.

2) You can read for pleasure. There are only a few departments in which you don’t have to read your own company‘s books for some aspect of your job, and contracts happens to be one of them.

3) You don’t have to put your creative energy into others’ creative endeavors. You get the creativity stimulation of being around writers and books without having to actively take part in the creative process. This means the creative energy within you is truly your own.

Happily for me, contracts is a department that allows to you the freedom of mind to write. Working there has revealed plenty of other useful things about book publishing:

There’s a market for the unlikeliest books

It wasn’t until I drafted a contract for a mystical quilting chocolate cat mystery that I thought, “I should write a book.” It occurred to me then that if there’s a market for books on cats that quilt while solving crime, there must be room out in the world for my story. When writers set their sights on completing a book, they often focus narrowly on what will sell. An advantage of handling so many agreements has been seeing an overview of what the editors across various imprints are buying by way of book projects. Working at Penguin, showed me there was room in the book market for absolutely everything. While sometimes it seems the industry only wants memoirs and other times you can’t give one away, following trends can be a gamble.

If you’re going to spend a year with characters, write what you know and love most, and don’t fixate on the market. Put your manuscript-in-progress on the coffee table to hold a plant, use it to balance out a leg of your couch or use it to stand on when you need an extra two inches to reach the light bulb, but don’t stick it in a drawer and forget about it. Styles come and go, editors leave, and market tastes change. There’s a hustle factor in getting your book published, but there’s also a patience factor. Give your book project time, rather than giving it up. With time and attention, your book’ll get better and better, which means a market — and an agent/publisher team that’ll take you to the contracts stage — will find you.

Get a book agent to eyeball your contract before signing

Even if you’re entering into a book deal sans representation, you want someone versed in publishing-related contracts examining documents that dictate when and how you get paid for your book, as well as which rights you’ll hold upon its publication. Don’t resort to the guy who handled your Nana’s estate planning. Would you ask a veterinarian handle your open-heart surgery? Same principle

Mo’ advance money, mo’ problems

Working in contracts means you see advances in all shapes and sizes, and bigger isn’t necessarily better. Here’s an example to illustrate: Say you throw a party: You invite someone who shows up and brings $40 worth of beer. They are fun to hang out with and everyone who talks to that person has a good time. You will invite them back. Another guest comes empty-handed, is bossy and eats at least $200 worth of guacamole. Unless they’ve going to have George Clooney in tow, chances are you won’t seek them out for the next one.

In much the same way, if you wind up with a large advance for a book and your book doesn’t earn it back, when you’re angling to write a second title, your publisher’s interest may have left the building. However, if you start off more modestly and do your part as an author who cooperates and helps stimulate sales, a publisher is likelier to give you a shot at writing that next book. While few of us would turn down a big advance if we were lucky enough to get one, if you’re aiming to be a writer with a lengthy publishing career, starting small isn’t such a bad thing.

Don’t expect publishers to treat the book like your baby

Every book on human behavior states pretty much the same thing: People avoid rejection at all costs. This applies even more to a human being who’s spent a year of their life writing a 350-page story about a three-legged dog winning a regional spelling bee. So even if your story is a thinly veiled allegory on how you could never really make your Dad proud, when you come down to it, no one in the book business cares. Ultimately, they’re looking at your story as a bankable widget, and the sooner you embrace that fact the better you will feel when the “no’s” start coming. And they will come.

Whether it’s finding the right agent, getting a book deal, liking your edits, liking your publication date or having someone like me tell your agent that you can’t have cover approval, inevitably someone involved in the publishing process will shoot something down that’s important to you. Often, it’ll even be for your own good. But either way, you must realize publishing is a collective endeavor. As solitary as the writing process can be, an author doesn’t get a book deal solely because they are a swell person or they finally wrote their way into forgiving their father. Publishers look for a good return on the cost they are willing to make with their time and money. Their “no’s” will undoubtedly feel personal. They’re not. If you take them as such, you’ll compromise your will to write, which is part of what got you the point of penning your own book.

The thing is, publishers need writers. They need them to write about dogs that win spelling bees and chocolate cats who hunt down killers. They need them to work out crap with their parents, so they wind up writing about it. But if you let the “no’s” beat you down then none of your readers will get to share in your stories, solve any mysteries alongside your feline protagonist or enjoy any of those hard-won family victories with you. That’s why you wrote your book in the first place.

I wrote screenplays at 22 because I thought you had to be at least 40 to write a book. After closing over 1,000 contracts, I now know writing a book isn’t some Herculean feat that only scholars and tortured introverts can reach. It’s for all of us who believed in ourselves long enough to see a good story through and found a few key people in publishing to believe in them along the way. No real mystery. Sorry, cat.

Jean Marie Pierson will publish her debut novel with Dorchester in March 2008.