SiteRenegade Writer Q&A: Pat Curry Tells Us About Trades
You may have noticed from our cool new links above or that nifty green starburst that the Renegade Writer site is now offering courses in various topics from experienced, successful freelancers and former editors. One of those courses is on making money by writing for trade magazines. I actually write for several trades myself, including Pizza Today, The Federal Credit Union, Target Marketing, and Multi-Channel Merchant — and I love it. Big pay, small hassles, and even smaller competition.
I asked our instructor, Pat Curry, some questions about the benefits of writing for trades, the most common mistakes writers make, and how you can get started. Pat is a freelance trade writer and senior editor at BUILDER, the official magazine of the National Association of Home Builders.
Q. What is a trade magazine, and how many would you estimate are out there?
A. A trade magazine is a business publication, geared to either a specific industry, such as auto retailing, or a specific job, such as personnel directors. Then there are subsets of those groups, such as import auto retailing, or African-American personnel directors. In highly technical terms, there are approximately a bajillion trade magazines. Seriously, it’s difficult to get a specific number of trade magazines because there are just so many of them and they’re not usually subject to circulation audits, but it’s safe to say that there is a trade magazine for every conceivable job. I’m still waiting to see a magazine come out for female biker accountants, but it wouldn’t surprise me at all.
Q. How did you break into trade magazines, and what has your experience been like?
A. I broke into trade magazines the same way I’ve broken into virtually every other market I’ve worked in - networking. The details are a little fuzzy at this point, but I seem to recall I had interviewed an insurance expert who also was an author, writing exclusively about that topic. He liked what I’d written about him and suggested I contact a particular editor at Industry Week, a trade magazine for the manufacturing industry. He was kind enough to say I could use his name as a reference. It was my first-ever $1-a-word assignment. I remember walking around the house saying, “The. $1, please.” My experience has been much like it has been in other freelance markets — some great, some okay, some aggravating.
Q. Are trade magazines good markets for freelance writers? Why?
A. Oh my, yes, let me count the ways.
1) MUCH less competition. We’ve all heard how the consumer editors are swamped with hundreds of pitches a week and your sparkling idea gets shunted off to some brainless intern. That’s far less likely to happen at trade magazines. Trade editors actually want to hear from you.
2) Steady work. Most trade pubs have very small staffs. They love their lancers and when they find one who understands what trades are about, they tend to reward them with steady gigs. I made contributing editor at one magazine after just two articles.
3) No editing by committee. Everyone I’ve talked to who writes for the big consumer pubs has told me what a pain it is to turn in a story and have it morph into something completely different as it worked its way up the editorial chain. I’ve never had this happen at a trade. True story: I pitched USA Weekend a piece on clogging as a quirky kind of lifestyle piece. The editor said yes. He comes back to me and says they talked it over and decided what they wanted was for me to find the best clogger in American and the best foot doctor and have them talk about how to take care of your feet. Huh?
Q. What do trade magazines typically pay?
A. Like the consumer pubs, it’s all over the place. There are trades that don’t pay anything and plenty that pay $1 a word or more.
Q. What’s your top tip for people looking to break into trade magazines?
A. Read the freaking magazine before you pitch. Hmmm, does that sound a bit snarky? It’s a huge issue, though, and definitely separates the pros from the wanna-bes in the eyes of an editor. I had a PR person, who had worked with me before, recently pitch me a story on a flea market in Naples, Fla. I stopped her and asked if she knew what we covered. She said, “Construction.” Wrong. We cover home-building. (Hello? We’re the official magazine of the National Association of Home Builders.) Because I’m senior editor for sales and marketing at BUILDER, I get pitches on every conceivable sales and marketing topic (clear bra straps, Sexy Beast clothes for dogs and the Girls Gone Wild video series come to mind). You say you can’t find a copy of the magazine because they’re not sold on the newsstand? That’s one of the topics I’ll cover in my class. You can certainly start online, though. Most trade magazines have Web sites, or will have their articles archived through such services as FindArticles or HighBeam.
Q. What’s the most common mistake writers make when targeting trades?
A. The most common mistake writers make when targeting trades is writing stories from the consumer’s perspective. Trade magazines are about business. Everything has to come from that perspective. A trade magazine isn’t going to run a story on how to decorate your home on the cheap. But it might run a story on five products you can stock in your store that would appeal to homeowners who want to decorate on the cheap. Or how to get customers to upgrade from cheap to not-so-cheap. Or great displays in your store that will showcase decorating on the cheap. Or how to help your customers define their decorating priorities. Get the idea?
4 Responses to “Renegade Writer Q&A: Pat Curry Tells Us About Trades”
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Joanne
Said this on September 6th, 2007 at 12:59pm:Very helpful info! Thanks!
One question I have about breaking into trades concerns how much background experience one needs in the targeted industry. I hear opposite views - that you must have extensively worked in the industry before in order to write about it, or that if you can prove you’re a capable writer, you can write about any industry.
Personally, I feel that a writer should have some kind of background and not be going into it totally blind…what’s your take?
Pat Curry
Said this on September 6th, 2007 at 1:46pm:Good question, Joanne, and one that comes up frequently. If you have a background in a field, it’s a definite plus that you should milk for all it’s worth. You’ll have a leg up on the competition, for sure. (BTW, any kind of experience is helpful. When I staretd writing for residential construction magazines, I drew on my experience as Habitat for Humanity volunteer.)
That said, don’t let a lack of experience in a field stop you from pitching a trade magazine. I have written for car dealers, printers, Hispanic contractors, military retailers, deck installers, lumber yard owners, manufacturers, guys who dig trenches with these big machines that I don’t even know the names of … and I have never worked in any of those fields.
What is required is this: an understanding that these are business publications, not consumer pubs, and a genuine interest and curiosity about the industry and the topic. If you can’t get excited about how to upsell bathroom fixtures, then don’t go there.
The thing that really helped me when I started writing about business was drawing on my own experience as a small business owner, and that’s what you are as a freelance writer! I could get really interested in writing a story on the kinds of insurance a small business owner needed, or ways to save money on your business taxes, or how to win back lost customers, or cheap ways to market your business because they were important to me as a business owner.
Hope that helps!
piper
Said this on September 7th, 2007 at 10:56am:Thanks for sharing so much helpful information, Pat! And the laughs, too - “The. $1., please” cracked me up, perhaps because I have yet to clear that particular hurdle!
I’ve been prepping to query some trades (coincidentally, on timber/lumber/specialty building topics) and your article will save me from making my first big mistake…I now realize that I was doing *exactly* what you describe: thinking like a consumer. THANK YOU!!!
alicia
Said this on September 9th, 2007 at 3:48pm:What a great interview! I familiarized myself with trade magazines (not how to write for them, but what they were, haha) in the beginning of my freelancing career, but these answers filled many gaps.