Submission Tips for Freelancers Pt 1: Networking

Over at BrazenCareerist.com in my newly found group, Magazine Professionals, we’re having some awesome conversations about submitting story ideas to magazines. So I’m going to start writing some posts specifically about freelancers trying to get into magazines.

Sometimes it’s just about who you know. I hate even typing that statement. I’m not a networker at all. The thought of forced networking gives me chills… it’s almost like a mob-like job interview. It’s just not my scene. But I naturally built a network, just from working, old friends, and doing a good job. So whenever I’ve written stories or have photos, I’ve never had much of an issue. Yeah, it helps that I design magazines, but I’m thinking about you, too. Ask an editor to lunch, a staff photographer or fellow writer. Add them to your facebook or twitter. And then keep the conversation going!

Check in with your network frequently. Feel free to openly discuss ideas you have for stories and things you’ve written or photographed lately. When we have editorial meetings, these are the the things that will pop out at us. Think about it. We’re professionals, working all day, and not always in touch with the real world. Your communication can sometimes be the connection to topical, interesting things going on.

Don’t overwhelm your network. When you’re ready to submit, don’t go overboard. Don’t submit ten stories and hope they pick one. Submit one or two that you’re really passionate about that you already have some great info to back up the idea to show this is going to be a great story. What’s that saying – something about menu overload, when restaurants have too many options and you get so overwhelmed you can’t figure out what you’re going to eat. In this case, you’re the chef and you’re going to convince the diner to have the special before they even see the menu.

A quick note: I work for local/regional magazines. Every market is different. Some of what I say won’t work if you’re in NYC and it’s Vogue or Oprah you’re trying to get in at, meaning you may not be able to call up an editor and ask them out to lunch. I won’t get into some of this, but if you haven’t thought about submitting to smaller magazines, change your attitude and go for it. A lot of these are where the true spirit of magazines and journalism live nowadays – not the big guys.

Losing your voice

When I used to teach mag pub, I’d always harp on “voice” being the integral part of what makes a mag a mag. Voice, if you don’t know, refers to the personality and attitude of the magazine. Magazines are essentially composites of writers, designers, artists and advertisers with a shared voice. A quick example would be, my long time favorite, Sassy magazine. It wasn’t just Jane Pratt who made Sassy’s voice so clear and full of attitude – it was everyone at that staff. Each person played a part into giving that magazine it’s personality.

So here’s the thing – I think one of the reasons many mags are disappearing is the lack of a voice. For a decade now, the market has been fed hundreds, maybe thousands, of publications new and old whose voices slid away in favor of being luxury publications. How does that interfere with the voice? Well, the average reader, despite these magazine’s surveys go, are – well – average. They lost touch with their reader’s voices. Just like the staff that makes the magazine, the readers are reciprocal to voices they find attractive. To bring it back to the main point here, it is time, just like in the early 90’s, for independents to come back out in full force and rise above the fluff that everyone is mourning at the newsstands.

This all relates back to blogs, though. I have a hard time keeping up with my own blog for a few reasons: How do I know anyone is listening or cares, Where can I find like minds without sounding like I’m spamming, and I don’t keep up with a lot of blogs because it can be a hassle. So how do these things interconnect? I think this is what magazines do well. It brings a network of people with similar voices together for easy consumption. That’s what we want, right? Having to go out, dig through hundreds of places to find things we enjoy can be more of a task than most people are willing to take.

I think somehow networked blogging or the such should play a bigger role. In some hopes, I wish it in the form of magazines to stay alive. The newly introduce iPad could be a resolve if done well by companies and Apple also letting independent publishers to sell through their new iBook store. But again, this is all new and will take time before we know if it will stick. If not, I’d invest my money into a company who could bring that voice into a network of high quality blogs.

How to write a blog post

I’m not telling you how to, I’m asking you how.

I’ve tried starting a blog, say, umm…. fifteen times at least?

I think my problem comes from the fact that I’m extremely tangential. You can’t have a conversation with me and have it end with the answer of the question you asked lots of times. But when I write, I’m scared to say stuff like that because I don’t want people thinking I have, uhh, personality traits?

But I’m going to suck it up, be myself, and start this blog again. Joseph Campbell has a good quote from one of his lectures, something to the tune of: “When people have a different persona at work, at home, with their friends, at some point they begin to fall apart. That’s what they call a schizophrenic crack up.”