The Editor: Editor of a magazine for sports enthusiasts.

The Peeve: Writers who half-ass interviews.

What’s your biggest grammar/style peeve and why?

Disregarding basic conventions—not knowing how to use commas, etc. I don’t care what side of the serial comma debate you stand on, I’d just like you to know there is one. Style: I get stuff written in a sort of pompous, grandiose style that I guess I’m supposed to take more seriously than a basic, matter of fact approach. I much prefer basic and matter of fact.

Can you share a writer horror story?

A writer had trouble getting sources and didn’t bother informing me until after the deadline passed. Then she just said she couldn’t write the piece, bye. I could have solved the problem if she had let me know earlier that she was having difficulties getting people to interview for the piece, but once the deadline had passed, it was a little late. I will never work with that writer again. Another writer would be asked to interview three or four people for a piece but then never really put what they said in the article (he used his own opinion/experiences—fine, but we weren’t asking him to be the expert, we were asking him to interview the experts). From talking to him, I had the vague sense that he would call people up, explain who he was, ask one question and then hang up. In other words, no clue what basic reporting means. How did this guy get to be a writer? Same as above: not someone I will work with again.

What’s your biggest contract negotiation peeve and why?

Writers expecting me to read their minds. If the deadline won’t work, ask if it can be changed. If you think you’re entitled to more money for this article as compared to previous ones, tell me why. If you don’t like any clause in the contract, don’t just stew about it, tell me. I can fix almost any concern that a writer has but I have to know about it first. Don’t just decide I’m being unfair and resent me for it. I try hard to look out for my writers, but I’m not going to be the one to suggest a raise in pay. I have a budget to consider. If the writer brings it up, I’ll do the best I can to make the numbers work.

The other thing that drives me nuts: people who have to spend several days thinking before they accept/decline an assignment. We work on a tight schedule. I need to go on to the next writer if the first one doesn’t want the assignment. How hard is this? Do you have time to do the piece by the deadline? Yes/No. Are you interested in doing the piece? Yes/No. Is the pay offered acceptable? Yes/No. This is not rocket science. This is not a book deal negotiation. It’s probably eight hundred words with three sources supplied due in three weeks. It’s just not that hard to say yes or no.

I would never hire a writer who…

…acted unprofessionally. Polite, persistent—that’s fine. Demanding and stalkerish, your e-mails go directly to the junk folder.

There are so many ways to display a lack of professionalism; which one ticks you off the most?

Writers who act like they’re doing me a favor by writing for the magazine. I appreciate good writers and try to use the same good writers over and over. But we’re doing a business transaction: I offer money, the writer supplies writing. I’m not grateful when the writer holds up his end of the deal. That’s just a basic expectation. I am grateful when the writer goes above and beyond, but then those writers don’t expect me to be grateful, they’re just happy to be of help.

What’s the one worst thing a magazine writer can do—something that’s totally unforgivable in your book?

I’ve had writers get facts wrong, I’ve had writers forget to give me source information for fact-checking, I’ve had writers submit copy with multiple misspellings—but none of these things make me unwilling to work with the writer again if the writer is willing to fix the problem, apologizes for it, and tries to do better next time. What is unforgivable is not doing the bare basics—as in the writer who wouldn’t even do basic reporting for a piece—and then expecting to get another assignment. I don’t think so.

What’s your biggest query peeve and why?

I don’t get many queries but the biggest problem is that people haven’t read the magazine and have no idea what we cover or how we cover it. You can’t possibly know what we’re looking for unless you’ve seen the magazine. You’ll impress me a lot more if you send an introductory letter with clips, asking to see sample copies so you can hone your query appropriately. I’ve given plenty of features to people who’ve never written for me before just on the basis of how they handled getting to know the magazine.

How do you react when a writer commits one of your peeves?

If it’s something fixable—a source omission, an uninteresting lede—I ask the writer to fix it and see how they respond. If it’s something that has to do with one’s whole attitude and professionalism (i.e., can’t be bothered to interview the sources) then you’ll never get another assignment from me.

Just to add some balance: Can you share a dream writer story?

I have a writer who provides story ideas when asked; doesn’t beat me up if story ideas aren’t accepted by the editor-in-chief; accepts/declines (though hasn’t declined yet) an assignment in a reasonable period of time; notifies me of any assignment concerns/contract questions at the time of the assignment; alerts me to potential problems long before they bring production to a screeching halt; hunts down her own sources when needed but understands the necessity of using provided sources as well; reliably (i.e. by deadline) turns in well-written material that uses a friendly style that suits the magazine; never needs editing; her stories get raves from the EIC and make me look like a genius; is persistent about following up with everyone (me, the sources) without being a stalker; always presents a friendly and professional attitude even when I know a situation is probably making her nuts.

If you could tell writers just one thing they should NOT do, what would it be?

Assume that I can change the numbers in the budget just for them. If you’re getting 35 cents a word, you might be able to talk me into 45 cents a word if I value your writing, but there’s just no way we’re going to go from 35 cents a word to $2 a word. The budget just isn’t there, and it’s never going to be there, and I can’t change that. If the conditions of the assignment and the pay are acceptable, fine; if not, you can negotiate but you need to be realistic.

Is there anything else you’d like to tell aspiring and professional writers?

Always look at the assignment in full before deciding based on pay. I have writers who earn less per word writing for me than for national consumer magazines but they actually earn more on an hourly basis because there are far fewer hassles writing for us than for other magazines.

If my 800 word assignment for $400 takes five hours to do (sources are provided, no endless rewriting or committee editing to deal with), that beats Cosmo‘s 400 word assignment at $2 a word that takes ten hours to do plus requires three rewrites and re-interviewing four sources twice. And don’t forget that you can outgrow a magazine and leave it behind without creating hard feelings.

Writer is to editor as…

…pen is to paper. I’ve got nothing if I don’t have good writers.

Originally, I was charging $140 per hour and $75 per half-hour for phone mentoring. But as a wellness coach, I offer a package of three 45-minute sessions, which is the way many coaches structure their pricing. To keep my writer mentoring consistent with my wellness coaching, I’ve decided to offer a package of three 45-minute phone mentoring calls for $300 per month.

I believe that offering a package of three calls will let me better help my clients and give them ongoing motivation and accountability.

Interested? Here’s what a few clients have said about my writer mentoring:

“The phone mentoring session was amazing! Linda answered all of my questions, and she gave me a lot of great advice on how to work more efficiently. She really helped me to get unstuck. Just a few days later, I landed an assignment with Spry magazine. I was thrilled. I would recommend the phone mentoring session to any newbie freelance writer.”
—Gail Short

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“In just a half hour session, Linda distilled years of information in a way that was instantly accessible. I started getting paying assignments in just ten days after following through on just one of many suggestions! Although I am a seasoned writer and have had my name in print, getting insider tips from someone in the know is invaluable.”
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If you need help with the basics of freelancing, idea generation and honing, motivation, accountability, overcoming fear, and more, consider using my mentoring services. You can get more info on my mentoring page, and e-mail me if you have any questions or would like to get started.

Thanks, and I look forward to helping you reach your freelance dreams! [lf]

* Take an e-course at your own pace.

* Ask your freelancing questions live at a Den Meeting or Webinar — Carol generally offers a teleclass or webinar once a week for Den members only on topics ranging from using LinkedIn to boost your business to how to generate salable article ideas.

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Carol thought of everything.

The cost is $25 each month for access to information and networking that can help you get started as a freelance writer or increase your freelance income.

Full disclosure: I’m an affiliate, so if you sign up for the Den using the links here, I receive a commission. I’ve never sold anything as an affiliate before except Amazon.com books (and what blogger doesn’t do that?), so I’m pretty excited. I’ve been approached by sellers of various products relating to freelance writing, but I never took them on as an affiliate because, well, I wasn’t impressed and didn’t think the products would be of value to my readers. I’m thrilled to say that Carol’s the real deal.

I look forward to seeing you in the Den!

~Linda

Want to learn how to write a killer query letter? My past students have landed assignments in magazines ranging from Wines & Vines to Spirituality & Health. Join the ranks of these motivated, happy freelancers by checking out the Write for Magazines e-course page and signing up for the next session.

Also, don’t forget that I have a new e-book that will help you become a more effective and successful writer: Get Unstuck! For Freelancers: A 6-Week Course to Boost Your Motivation, Organization, and Productivity—So You Can Do More Work in Less Time, Make More Money, and Enjoy the Freelance Lifestyle. I turned my $200 e-course into a $9.95 e-book so everyone can afford the goodness! Check out the e-book and order it here. Once I get your order, I’ll e-mail you the e-book.

I look forward to helping you kick butt this year! [lf]

If you’d like to buy a copy of this 64-page e-book, please order it from the e-book page. When I get your payment, I’ll send you the e-book via e-mail. I’m not using an automated shopping cart right now, as I want to make sure I’ll be selling enough copies to make it worth the expense! So please bear with my old-fashioned delivery system for now.

Working Your Work

When you’re working on several projects at once, as most of us writers do, the result can be a typhoon of information. On any given day, you may create interview sound files, receive contracts, gather research for your novel, receive rejections (or acceptances!) on queries you sent six months ago, follow up on queries and proposals, send e-mails to editors and agents…okay, I’ll stop there because I’m going a little crazy just thinking about it.

Luckily, if you have systems in place that work for you, you can streamline how you handle and store these bits of information. Let’s get started!

An Overview

Curious about how setting up systems can help a project flow from acceptance to payment? Let’s say I get a new article assignment. Here’s how I organize it. (And keep in mind that this is what works for me. You may find that software like Evernote or some other system works better for you.) I:

1. Enter the assignment due date into my iCal calendar and mark it blue (to separate it from interviews, which are red).

2. Enter the name of the assignment, the magazine name, the amount due, and the due date for payment into my Excel income spreadsheet. This spreadsheet tells me how much I have coming in, how much I’ve already been paid, and what’s overdue.

3. Create a folder on my hard drive called NameofMagazine-NameofArticle, and move it to my “Articles in Progress” folder.

4. Create a Word file called NameofMagazine-NameOfArticle-NOTES and store it in the project folder I just created on my hard drive. This is where I’ll put the assignment specs (word count, instructions from the editor), enter in contact info of potential sources, and dump any bits of research I come across online.

5. Create a Label with the name of the magazine an article in Gmail so I have a place to store e-mails related to the article.

6. Start finding sources and trying to set interviews right away. This is the one part of the process you can’t control, so it pays to start early in case you have trouble nailing people down for interviews. Whenever I call or e-mail a potential source, I enter the information into the NOTES file I created. I go over the file every day so I know who I need to follow up with.

7. Enter interviews into my iCal calendar. I include the name of the interviewee, the name of the magazine, and the source’s phone number so I don’t have to look it up come interview time.

8. When I do an interview, name the sound file NameofSource-Interview-Date and save it to the article project folder. I then send the file to my transcriptionist. When I get back the transcription, I name it NameofSource-Transcription-Date and save it to the same folder.

9. Write the article! There’s much more on this in the lesson on researching and writing faster. I name the article NameofMagazine-NameofArticle-Formichelli and save it to the project folder.

10. Send the article (attached and in the body of the e-mail) and immediately send an invoice. (I say immediately because otherwise I forget.) I give the invoice a number and name it Number-NameofMagazine.

11. Enter the invoice number into the Excel spreadsheet with the rest of the assignment information for easier tracking if I have to follow up on an overdue payment.

12. Move the article project folder from the Articles in Progress folder to a folder titled Articles Completed. That way, when I open up the Articles in Progress folder I’m looking only at current projects and am not distracted by old assignments.

13. Wait for payment. Every once in a while, I go through the Excel spreadsheet to see which invoices I need to follow up on. When the payment comes, I enter it into the spreadsheet by moving the amount from the Owed column to the Paid column.

14. Party!

By now this routine is so ingrained that it’s second nature. I don’t have to think about what to do next—I already know what to do. I’d use a similar system if I were writing a book.

And I repeat that this system is what works for me. Another writer I know swears by the much more streamlined Evernote (or OneNote) software. I tried it and just couldn’t get into it, but you may find that this (or another system) works better for you. The point is just to have a system.

My querying system is a bit less organized, but still workable: I save queries to a folder on my hard drive called (duh) Queries, and also create a Word document to drop in notes, contact info for potential sources, etc. I handle query interviews the same way as I do for an article assignment, which I discussed above. When I e-mail a query to an editor, I title the e-mail something like Query from Writer: Name of Article: Linda Formichelli and save it to an e-mail folder called Follow-Up. I may also enter the follow-up date into my iCal calendar.

Now on to the nitty-gritty of how you can create systems that work for your needs.

Ideas

As a writer, a major part of your job is generating ideas. But how often have you come up with a great idea in the car or in the shower, had no place to write it down, and then forgotten about it?

I always have a notebook and pen next to the bed to jot down my fabulous ideas, and I also carry a small notebook and pen in my bag. My Renegade Writer co-author, Diana, keeps a voice recorder in her car so she can simply record her brainstorms and listen to them later. As for the shower, try using kids’ tub crayons to scribble your ideas on the wall. If you have glass doors on your shower or tub, you can use dry erase markers on a part of the door that doesn’t get wet.

When you’re out and about, don’t forget that your PDA will let you take notes, and your phone may, too (my iPhone has an app that came with it called Notes).

Oh, and when I’m actually in the office and come up with a super idea? I have a Word file on my computer desktop called Ideas.doc that I can just open whenever I need to record a flash of inspiration.

Wherever you come up with your ideas, you need to consolidate them so you can actually use them. Your wonderful brainstorms do no good if they’re scattered in your shower, in your car, on your PDA, and in various notebooks. This is where the Ideas.doc file comes in handy—you can transfer all your ideas there, and whenever you’re ready to write a query or a proposal, you can go over the file and pick the best ideas.

Queries and Proposals

As I mentioned above, after I e-mail a query to an editor, I save it to an e-mail folder called Follow-Up. I save the Word document to a folder on my hard drive called Queries. (If I were a little more organized with my queries, I would divide up this folder up into subfolders sorted by magazine.) I may then enter the follow-up date into my iCal calendar if it’s something I really want to be on top of; normally, I simply go through the Follow-Up folder every few weeks and, well, follow up on old queries.

You can track queries and responses by creating an Excel spreadsheet, developing a template in a contact management software program, or even using ye olde hard copy form. What’s important is that you’re able to track where you sent each query, the date you sent it to each magazine, the response you received, and any follow-ups.

Whatever method you choose, be sure to enter the info as soon as you send a query so you won’t forget.

Research

You need a consistent way to store your research so you know how to find it when you need it. Whenever you start a query or proposal, create a Word file where you can drop in bits of information, URLs, and so on when you find them. (Or, if you prefer, do it in OneNote or Evernote.)

Follow-Ups

Then there are the follow-ups. Whether you send a query to an editor or a proposal to an agent or publisher, you may want to schedule follow-ups so they don’t fall by the wayside. One magazine writer I interviewed for another project told me that 90 percent of her acceptances come after following up!

But maybe you want more of a nudge than a plain-Jane calendar entry can offer. In that case, you can set your calendar to sound an alarm when it’s follow-up time. If your calendar doesn’t have that option, try signing up for Google Calendar (www.google.com/calendar), which lets you schedule a pop-up or an e-mail before any event you create. You can also try something completely different: MemoToMe.com (www.memotome.com), a free reminder service that’s meant to let you know that Mom’s birthday is coming up, but that you can also use to get reminders of anything you want in your e-mail or on your mobile phone. I’ve been using this service for birthday reminders for several years and it’s never failed me.

Keep in mind that you don’t have to schedule your follow-ups for two weeks (or whatever) to the day. To stay organized and in the flow, it may work better for you to batch all your follow ups on one day of the week.

Articles and Books

Most of the techniques I use to organize articles are outlined in An Overview above. It’s pretty detailed, so I won’t rehash it here. The important thing is to tweak the system so it works for you.

If you’re more of a paper person, you can create a form in Word that you print out and fill in with every article. The form should include space for the assignment specs, and then blanks for entering information on your sources: their contact info, the dates you contacted them, and the interview dates and times.

Interviews

The day or so before an interview, I create a Word document with the source’s contact information and the interview questions. When I do the interview, I double-check the spelling of the source’s name and ask for any information I’m missing, such as the source’s mailing address.

Again, details on how I organize interviews are in An Overview above. To recap, I enter interviews into my calendar along with the phone number so I don’t have to dig it up. I give all sound files standardized names and e-mail them to my transcriptionist, and store the sound files and transcriptions in the article project folder. (The same process applies if you transcribe your own interviews.)

Sources

One client of mine told me that she wanted to send thank you notes to the sources of a particular article, but it took her twenty minutes just to pull together their contact information. Doesn’t really put one in a thankful mood, does it?

There are a couple of ways you can organize your source info. One is to use contact management software such as Filemaker or ACT. When you create the layout for your sources file, you can include fields or checkboxes to indicate the sources’ specialties, so when you’re looking for, say, a podiatrist for an article or an archery expert for your novel, you can search on those parameters and all the appropriate experts will pop up.

You can also opt for an old-school Rolodex, which is something I’ve done in the past. Instead of categorizing your sources by name, sort them by expertise.

Finally, an editor at a national general interest magazine once complained to me that most writers don’t include source info with their articles. Always collect your sources’ contact info (including mailing address) wherever you store your article notes, and if any of the information is incomplete, ask for it during the interview. You can include the source list at the end of the article under the header SOURCES, or create a separate file to send along with your article. This is convenient not only for the editor, but also for you if you’re the type of writer who lets sources know when an article in on the stands or online (which I do). [lf]