Comments on: Need to Interview Writers for Article http://www.therenegadewriter.com/2009/03/04/need-to-interview-writers-for-article/ Living and loving the freelance life—on your own terms. Fri, 10 Feb 2012 18:46:01 +0000 hourly 1 By: Emily http://www.therenegadewriter.com/2009/03/04/need-to-interview-writers-for-article/comment-page-1/#comment-139711 Emily Sun, 15 Mar 2009 23:12:36 +0000 http://therenegadewriter.com/?p=1035#comment-139711 I don't mean to sound rude but these are meant to be sticky situations? Really? Um... most writers I know regularly refuse requests for copy approval i.e. to see articles before they go to press. I'm sure everyone has had their name or a source's name spelt wrong before (get over it), and I'm sure we've all had to drop sources before now (you tell them sorry, it got edited out). And I can't think of one publication that actively encourages sources to review articles - surely that's against everything journalism is supposed to be about. Maybe it's different in America (I am rather disturbed by the comment above about editors letting sources rewrite you). If so, I think that's a shame because you're turning it into an advert without labelling it as such. Articles are meant to serve the people reading them not the people they are about. In fact most of the publications I write for forbid writers from showing articles to sources. The most you can do is read their own quotes back to them. Surely an actual sticky situation is a source cancelling or not being available when you need to speak to them right before a deadline, or someone you're interviewing for a real life piece changing their mind about doing the story or being made an offer by another writer/publication or you doubting whether the story is actually true after all, or not being able to find something or someone the editor has asked for in the brief, or realising the story they want isn't possible and you need to change the angle, or a story with legal problems of some kind? If the things in your list were the worst things any of us had to deal with it would be a very easy job. I don’t mean to sound rude but these are meant to be sticky situations? Really? Um… most writers I know regularly refuse requests for copy approval i.e. to see articles before they go to press. I’m sure everyone has had their name or a source’s name spelt wrong before (get over it), and I’m sure we’ve all had to drop sources before now (you tell them sorry, it got edited out).

And I can’t think of one publication that actively encourages sources to review articles – surely that’s against everything journalism is supposed to be about. Maybe it’s different in America (I am rather disturbed by the comment above about editors letting sources rewrite you). If so, I think that’s a shame because you’re turning it into an advert without labelling it as such. Articles are meant to serve the people reading them not the people they are about. In fact most of the publications I write for forbid writers from showing articles to sources. The most you can do is read their own quotes back to them.

Surely an actual sticky situation is a source cancelling or not being available when you need to speak to them right before a deadline, or someone you’re interviewing for a real life piece changing their mind about doing the story or being made an offer by another writer/publication or you doubting whether the story is actually true after all, or not being able to find something or someone the editor has asked for in the brief, or realising the story they want isn’t possible and you need to change the angle, or a story with legal problems of some kind?

If the things in your list were the worst things any of us had to deal with it would be a very easy job.

]]> By: Star http://www.therenegadewriter.com/2009/03/04/need-to-interview-writers-for-article/comment-page-1/#comment-138919 Star Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:08:29 +0000 http://therenegadewriter.com/?p=1035#comment-138919 You forgot editors that let sources rewrite you... Sure, I will talk to you. jkellaw@aol.com By the way, I have started a blog on how to cope with this mess. http://hopeycopey.blogspot.com. Riss me, diss me...anything... You forgot editors that let sources rewrite you… Sure, I will talk to you. jkellaw@aol.com

By the way, I have started a blog on how to cope with this mess. http://hopeycopey.blogspot.com.
Riss me, diss me…anything…

]]> By: Karin Welss http://www.therenegadewriter.com/2009/03/04/need-to-interview-writers-for-article/comment-page-1/#comment-138872 Karin Welss Thu, 05 Mar 2009 00:46:40 +0000 http://therenegadewriter.com/?p=1035#comment-138872 >You get a copy of the magazine you wrote for — and see your name is missing or misspelled. I'm a novelist, but I do write non-fiction articles (usually travel or "how-to write fiction" topics), and so I've had my share of weird experiences with magazine editors. In the oddest and most memorable case of "what the heck was the editor thinking?" my co-author and I wrote a short article on collaboration. When the article finally appeared, the magazine not only misspelled both of our names (granted, both my first and last names have an unusual spelling, but my co-author has a nice "normal" American name) but the biographical blurb accompanying the article was made up out of whole cloth and listed us, bizarrely enough, as a "mother-daughter writing team." Which we both found hilarious, because we are not in the least related, and we're not *that* far apart in age! regards, Karin Welss (writing with Marian Gibbons as award-winning historical novelist Michaela August) >You get a copy of the magazine you wrote for — and see your name is missing or misspelled.

I’m a novelist, but I do write non-fiction articles (usually travel or “how-to write fiction” topics), and so I’ve had my share of weird experiences with magazine editors.

In the oddest and most memorable case of “what the heck was the editor thinking?” my co-author and I wrote a short article on collaboration. When the article finally appeared, the magazine not only misspelled both of our names (granted, both my first and last names have an unusual spelling, but my co-author has a nice “normal” American name) but the biographical blurb accompanying the article was made up out of whole cloth and listed us, bizarrely enough, as a “mother-daughter writing team.” Which we both found hilarious, because we are not in the least related, and we’re not *that* far apart in age!

regards,
Karin Welss
(writing with Marian Gibbons as award-winning historical novelist Michaela August)

]]>