SiteIt’s never easy
Tonight an e-mail from a particularly successful magazine writer popped in my inbox. A couple minutes later another e-mail followed. Both of tonight’s e-mails were requests for sources for two articles the writer was working on, one for a magazine that many freelancers would consider the Holy Grail of publications. She does this a lot and I don’t mind the e-mails; once or twice, I think I’ve sent people her way. One of the requests sounded familiar, then I remembered: she’d posted the same request on a writers’ board we both frequent. Needless to say, as a renegade writer, I admire relentlessness!
It got me to thinking: this job is never easy, is it? You can be at the top of the game, as this writer is, but you still have to rustle up sources, work the connections, find the elusive source who’s willing to show her warts to a national audience, and juggle this with a million other tasks the job demands, one of which is actually writing. I don’t know, somehow her e-mail comforted me as I sit here tonight, figuring out what to tackle next on my to-do list. Maybe go to bed?
My thinky-thought for the week …. [db]
11 Responses to “It’s never easy”
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Dustin
Said this on April 2nd, 2008 at 12:18am:I don’t know if it’s never easy; the thing for me is it’s never done. You come up with an idea, you research it, outline it, write it up, revise it, edit it, submit it or query it or send it to agents, get it accepted for publication, edit it again, index it, and finally see it published (and if it’s a book, then you start the real work of promoting it). (Or if you’re doing client work, you promote yourself, make proposals, write quotes, etc.) And then, you start again — new idea, new research, new sources, new queries, find new clients, and so on. I mean, it’s challenging and rewarding, most of the time — but it’s hard to know when to stop, when you can say “ok, that’s enough”. Because there’s always a list of leads, 100 pages of Writer’s Market you haven’t looked at yet, another round of freelance jobs newsletters, another 20 websites you could leave insightful comments on to promote your website, another networking site you can build a profile on, another project to bid on… And every one of those things is a good idea to do — you never know what’s going to pay off big.
But it’s good.
cal
Said this on April 2nd, 2008 at 7:41am:From the first few lines, I thought the post was about how you go about deciding how often open your Rolodex to another writer.
But you’re right, this job is not easy. It requires the participation a cast of thousands (or sometimes at least it feels that way), most of them take part out of kindness, not because they really *have* to (there are always other experts, flacks etc).
It is kind of comforting to know it’s not just me scrambling!
Star
Said this on April 2nd, 2008 at 12:22pm:Yeah–often I see requests on lists for help, but often, too, they are irritating, such as: “I got a job to write five direct mail sales letters–how do you write those?” Besides profnet.com,
I heard about helpareporter.com, but have not used it.
HisGirlFriday
Said this on April 3rd, 2008 at 4:13pm:Hm. Like Cal, I also thought this was going to be about whether you should provide another reporter with *your* sources.
If Big Name Writer is killing themselves because they’ve got to find that source for the story about DMV workers who collect unicorns and sends out the feelers - I think that’s OK and we should all help each other as much as we can. If they’re emailing you to tap your personal source list Rolodex, maybe not so much.
By the way - I need to interview an African American or Hispanic family (anywhere in the US) who is struggling with their own health problems and financial troubles while caring for an elderly relative. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
Kristen Kirk
Said this on April 3rd, 2008 at 5:07pm:Thanks, Diana, for reminding me to keep working hard — and thanks, Star, for making my day so much easier. I had never heard of helpareporter.com. I used it this morning and have 5 GOOD sources for a story already.
HisGirlFriday
Said this on April 7th, 2008 at 11:43am:Double thanks on helpareporter, Star - posted there on my source problem and got TWO excellent responses ….
Star
Said this on April 7th, 2008 at 1:09pm:Really? I guess I better practice what I post! Thanks for telling us that.
CopywriterChick
Said this on April 8th, 2008 at 5:37am:If I may add a few of my own thoughts…
HisGirlFriday is pretty much dead-on center. Let’s take this one step further though.
It may seem like you’re opening up your “sources” to others, but the trick is to know exactly who you’re dealing with. Developing those relationships — keeping the level of integrity intact — gathering like-minded individuals into your circle — is really the key to success.
Apparently Diana felt this was a person who she wouldn’t mind opening up her rolodex to occasionally. The request from the magazine writer was due to her “working her connections”. This is much different than throwing the proverbial spaghetti at the wall and seeing if any of it sticks.
My point is, it does irritate me to get a phone call or an email from someone with a blatant request to “get something” without first having worked to nurture the working relationship.
There are ways to develop and maintain these relationships in a relatively quick manner, but a blind email just ain’t gonna work!
Long story short = consistently develop new mutually-beneficial relationships as well as maintain the ones already established. It’ll serve you well for years to come.
Thanks for allowing me to vent!
Jen Miller
Said this on April 8th, 2008 at 2:28pm:I get these emails, too, and I have no problem passing along sources. I’ll send these emails out every once and a while — usually when I need non-experts — and I’ve found that a lot of people like being included on the list, either because they can recommend someone or think it’s interesting to see what I’m working on.
HisGirlFriday
Said this on April 9th, 2008 at 12:12pm:Copywriter Chick: Exactly! I can’t tell you how many times when I was on staff at a daily paper I’d break some big story and TV news people would call and say; “Hi I’m Bob Handsome from WXYZ and I’m doing a story about that lawsuit you covered,” (at this point, I’m supposed to be impressed … ) “So, can you fax me a copy of the suit, and give me the phone number for the plaintiff?”
I was always like … uh .. no. You’ve got to be kidding me. One time it was a Big Name TV person’s assistant and I said, “Tell Big Name to do their own f’ing job.”
Of course … this isn’t what the OP was about but ….
CopywriterChick
Said this on April 12th, 2008 at 5:30am:LOL Love your spunk, Friday!