The Renegade Writer Blog

I’m fascinated by the queries I read on Peter Shankman’s Help a Reporter Out list. I subscribe because as an author, I’m always looking for ways to promote my books, but I admit, I’m also curious how other writers look for experts and sources.
So here are two to compare and contrast. I’ve changed details, but [...]

If you’ve been reading the mainstream media, you’re probably unaware that there’s a story brewing with former presidential candidate John Edwards. In a nutshell, a couple weeks ago, the National Enquirer (yes, that National Enquirer) claims its reporters and photographers caught Edwards in LA emerging from the hotel room of his mistress and their “love [...]

Denise asks, “I’m starting to comb press releases from my local university to find story ideas.  Is it ok to use the quotes from the release in your query to magazine editors?  Isn’t that why the PR guys are sending out this information?  I would of course do my own interview after landing an assignment.”
Denise, [...]

“I dread days where I have interviews scheduled.” “I’d rather give myself a root canal than call an editor.” “I’m so much better on paper than I am on the phone.” I’ve heard this, and variations thereof, from dozens of freelancers, many of whom are extremely successful professionals with hundreds of clips to their names.
I [...]

Katrina asks, “Recently, an interviewee requested an interview be conducted via instant messenger. Ultimately, we conducted a phone interview, but I was left wondering: How would quotes from an instant messenger interview be attributed? Can they be enclosed in quotation marks or should they be paraphrased? For that matter, what about email interviews? The only [...]

Last week I was sitting in a doctor’s waiting room, waiting for my name to be called. After an interminable wait (I was feverish and in a lot of pain), the door opened and the nurse called, “Diane?” Not me. I turned back to my copy of People. No one else in the waiting room [...]

When I get an article assignment, I typically call potential sources, ask if they’d be available for interviews between X and Y dates, have a back-and-forth via e-mail about good dates and times, and then call at the appointed time.
Lately my husband Eric has been taking on rush assignments — articles with deadlines of a [...]