FUCK EDITORS

Whoa. Was it a negative review?

The guy was a really poor editor.

I am very, very lucky in that 1) 95 per cent of the time, my first draft is what runs and 2) I'm rarely at odds with editors because of anything I write, or changes they want me to make. But British magazines are a bit more free-rein than American ones as a whole and it would be interesting to have to deal with one of those Vogue by jury rewrites.

(BTW if Matos shows up to collect his props my friend C rang tonight and says yes you do know her you were hanging a bit at Mpls lifter puller shows and sends props as well)

(apologies in advance, but...)

You mean this guy?

http://www.henderson-management.co.uk/img3.jpg

Speaking of local music...there just isn't enough coverage of fringe local bands in weeklies. One of the reasons I love City Pages, btw!

I'm still not against approaching pubs out of town. We want to write, right? Pardon my corniness there...If you're in town, pitch more stories relating to your area.

Actually more than editors, fuck you, specifically to whoever the marketing clown who commissions me work is, I cancelled a night out last week to go and collect a fucking shite indie cd which I then listened to for some reason feeling miserable all the while, I then reviewed it and took a good 2 hours trying to not just pan it outright with ott invective, and then this week it's not been used in the fucking rag at all. And every time I propose a story, I think she thinks I am making up the artist or perhaps she's so used to dealing with the knobs that write for the mag that she thinks I'm just desperate to get joe man of the people soulful delights name in print. Yeah obviously there's no press interest in the Rapture or Dizzee Rascal. Of course not, I fucking saw Dizzee down the pub last night playing folk covers.

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH.

Christ.

I mean I swear she knows nothing, I'm not kidding, nothing! It's like trying to pitch a story about techno to my fucking grandma.

I get to work under a guy who does it purely for the ego. "It's just a hobby," he says whenever I ask him to please be a little more professional or whatever. He actually tells publicists that I'm going to review something or interview someone before even telling me. And then he tells me I have a bad attitude if I say that I can't interview somebody on five minutes notice for the fifth time this month.

I AM NOT MONTEL WILLIAMS!I AM NOT MONTEL WILLIAMS!I AM NOT MONTEL WILLIAMS!I AM NOT MONTEL WILLIAMS!I AM NOT MONTEL WILLIAMS!I AM NOT MONTEL WILLIAMS!I AM NOT MONTEL WILLIAMS!I AM NOT MONTEL WILLIAMS!

This is prob. why so much of the writing in free weeklies is pretty bad though... I mean, everyone but *us* needs editors, right?

1. Giving more than you promise
When an editor asks for two samples, give her three. If she trusts you with an assignment, don’t wait for the final deadline, but send it in a day in advance. If she’s asked you to provide notes, make sure you give her everything she needs so that she doesn’t have to ask for anything more. If you make an editor’s job easier, she’ll love you for it. And she’ll be willing to trust you again with more assignments.

2. Constantly coming up with fresh slants
There may not be too many new topics (unless you’re writing about technology; then you just can’t complain), but there can always be new slants. An editor likes writers who can reduce her brainwork, and make her look good in front of her superiors by coming up consistently with great ideas.

3. Having all the answers
It’s important to know about your subject. That’s why so many well-paid writers advise you to specialize. So, if an editor calls you to discuss your query, and poses follow-up questions, you better have the answers. Because an editor’s never going to trust you with an assignment unless she’s sure you know what you’re doing. And not having answers to her questions is a sure-shot sign that you don’t.

4. Coming up with clever titles, and great sidebars
The most important thing I’ve learnt so far is to visualize your article. See how it appears on the page. Granted, it’s usually not going to come out like you’d imagined it, but for a minute forget that you’re a writer, and think like a designer. See the beautiful fonts and the shaded box on the side? That’s how the editor sees your article. Now it’s your job to bring that visual to life with your words.

5. Understanding the core audience of the magazine
If you’re writing for a magazine for home PC users, your editor’s not going to appreciate ideas on network security, however wonderful they may be. Similarly, when writing for a small business owner, you’d want to treat that person as a little smarter, even if he might have the same knowledge base as that of a home user. His computing decisions are more important. That’s why you should always be familiar with the reader’s knowledge level. That’ll help you make the distinction between good ideas, and great ones.

As for this: "When an editor asks for two samples, give her three," I can't speak for editors at large, but don't do that for me. I've got enough to read without an extra sample. The extra one means you either couldn't make up your mind or you don't have any two that alone will sell your writing.

Most of that advice makes pretty good sense, actually. (And I say that as somebody who, early on, used to get pissed when Spin editors changed commas to semicolons. Though later, they did stupider stuff.)

Of course, maybe that's why I'm not a brilliant pitch-maker... :)

Publications I write for:

Baltimore City Paper
Orlando Weekly
Grooves Magazine
Signal-to-Noise Magazine
Miami New Times
Pitch Weekly
Creative Loafing Atlanta
Staticmultimedia

I don’t think there’s any harm in non-local writers writing for alt-weeklies as long as they’re good; it’s important to cover ye olde local scene though. I remember back when the Baltimore City Paper didn’t do anywhere near as much of this as they do now – the volume of venom from local hipster musicians was incredible.

All the more reason NOT to do too much local coverage. (I mean, right, my job is to provide publicity for local hipster musicians.)

Eep. I'm learning something here.

I never give too specific of pitch guidelines either, so I'm not sure why it bugged me by the suggestion that you should give more samples than requested. I think I just don't like it that someone else assumes they know what I need. Although this thread is pointing out that maybe they do!