ITWPA INSIDER
April 22, 2011
Edited by Kyle Wagner
“Editing is the same thing as quarreling with writers — same thing
exactly.” — Harold Wallace Ross (founder of The New Yorker)
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*** WORKING WITH EDITORS: How to pitch successfully…
*** QUICK TIP: Interesting new travel item…
*** YOUR PASSWORD: How to get into the ITWPA members-only website…
*** MEDIA TRIP: Visit Mexico’s Riviera Maya…
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WORKING WITH EDITORS
Working with an editor for the first time can be a bit like going on a
blind date. There’s the fear of the unknown, the strong potential for
misunderstandings and the desire to make a good initial impression –
not to mention the very real possibility that the editor could turn
out to be crazy.
Expectations on both sides often run high, and in this case, because
the participants haven’t always met face-to-face and often wind up
conducting much of the editing and follow-up process via email, the
back-and-forth can be a frustrating and challenging experience.
The good news is that unlike a blind date, if everyone gets through
the encounter — instead of a kiss, you get paid!
Freelancer and Los Angeles resident Michael Figueiredo attended last
year’s workshop in Santa Monica, and afterward he made all the right
moves for getting a story published.
First, he wrote an article that followed some of the tips we talked
about in the seminars — namely, write about what you know, including
your own hometown, and try out the “numbers” format, listing a number
of items for travelers, such as “Ten Cheap Family-Friendly
Restaurants” or, in Figueiredo’s case, “Eight Fun and Free (or Nearly
Free) Things to Do in L.A.”
Second, he requested the guidelines, and he followed them in pitching
the story to me.
Third, his piece was well written and nicely followed the format.
And, finally, he got lucky. I was writing the main story on my own
trip to Santa Monica, and I needed a sidebar that would fit in well
with the lede. His fit the bill, and so I accepted his pitch.
After we got through our first time working together, I chatted with
him via email about the process, and here are our thoughts on making
it work.
***Be patient. We both agreed this was one of the most important
things. After Figueiredo first pitched his story, not long after the
August workshop, I told him I probably wouldn’t be able to run it
until later in the year. That turned into the spring. And then the
date changed a few more times. The reason? The Santa Monica story was
“evergreen,” meaning that it didn’t have a time element that made its
run date imperative, while other trips and stories kept coming up that
did. I asked him if it was hard to wait so long. “I suppose it was a
little difficult to be patient, but at the Santa Monica workshop, we
were told that editors often plan their books months in advance, so it
wasn’t too surprising,” Figueiredo said.
***Be prepared to go through revisions. For the most part, this was a
strong story with dynamic adjectives and good transitions. The lede
needed to be tightened up a bit, and I tweaked it here and there,
cleaning up language that was sometimes a bit too conversational and
deleting extraneous words. For instance, before turning in a story, do
a quick search for the word “very.” As Mark Twain always said,
“Substitute ‘damn’ every time you’re inclined to write ‘very;’ your
editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.” I
sent the lede to Figueiredo for his approval before we went to press.
***Be ready with photos, and make sure they’re all marked. Figueiredo
sent over the photos via email, and while I knew which ones were
which, my photo editors didn’t. That meant I had to go through and
mark them all. It helps to send what’s called a “contact sheet,” a set
of low-resolution photos together with pertinent caption info, so that
editors can choose which ones they would like to have sent in high-res
and all of the information is available to write captions (called
“cutlines” in the newspaper business). Figueiredo says he has worked
both ways with editors; when they request photos via email, he sends
them that way, but he also stores a sampling at mygalleryplace.com so
editors can peruse them.
***Don’t be afraid to discuss the contracts. Each publication has its
own set of forms, and often its own lawyers dictating how they should
be worded. I asked Figueiredo what he thought of ours. “The contracts
seemed pretty standard to me,” he said. “There were no surprises,
except maybe that The Denver Post only retains rights for three days.”
He added, “Which is actually a good thing for writers.” It’s true, we
give the rights back to writers after three days because we know
freelancers can only make money if they can resell the story, and it’s
kind of our way of offering a trade-off for requesting first rights.
***If at first you don’t succeed… pitch, pitch again. Figueiredo
wanted to leave freelancers with this last bit of advice. “Keep
sending queries to editors, because your story will be a good fit for
someone, just maybe not the first person you submit it to,” he says.
[ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Kyle Wagner moonlights here as editor of the ITWPA
Insider. But during the day, she wields her pen as the Travel Editor
at The Denver Post newspaper. And before that, she worked for 13 years
as a restaurant critic.]
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