triangleareafreelancers.org Blog

Does Professionalism Still Matter?

The death of print journalism has been predicted for some time now, as more and more people get their news from the Internet and fewer read newspapers and other paper journals. While that trend is not in doubt, some go further and predict that in the future, traditional journalists will be replaced with amateur “citizen journalists” reporting from cyberspace, ready at a moment’s notice to weigh in on the day’s issues.One of the surprises of the computer revolution was the democratization of information dissemination; anyone with a blog can now be a reporter just like Seymour Hersh or Anna Quindlen, but without the pesky distractions of dues-paying or J-school. While blogs serve a valuable purpose in giving readers alternatives to traditional information sources, bloggers can no more shortcut their way into journalism than a hospital orderly perform brain surgery – at least not yet.

Consider the following recent blog entry from SlashDot:

Seems like the Storm botnet that was behind the last two waves of attacks is also responsible for this new kind of social-engineering based attacks, using spam to try and convince users of the necessity of using Tor for there communications.

Spell-check won’t catch those mistakes, and a freelance writer would receive a stunningly rapid rejection after submitting an article query with that kind of error. On the web, it’s met with a communal shrug, if it’s noticed at all. Of course, “legacy” news outlets aren’t immune from glitches, as demonstrated in this AP snippet from CNN Online:

The provocative characterization came just days after bin Laden attracted international attention with the release of a video in which he ridicules President Bush about the Iraq war and reminds the world that he not been captured.

The difference: The latter seems to be a dropped word (most likely a technical error), while the former is a rookie mistake that an editor would pounce on like a Swift Boater on John Kerry.

What’s happening with online writing seems to mirror the revolution in digital photography, which suddenly made it possible for anyone to share their photos online. Sites such as Flickr and Snapfish sprang up to host them, and some became portals for photographers to offer their work to stock photo companies, greatly increasing traffic on those sites.

But just as submitting some pictures to a photo agency doesn’t make you a professional photographer, blogging doesn’t make you a journalist. That comes from just one source: experience. And as any freelance writer can tell you, that doesn’t happen at broadband speed. That said, blogging is a great place to begin writing, as long as the writer is willing to learn the craft. If not, as Truman Capote once said, “It’s not writing, it’s typing.”

Nascent bloggers would do well to check out the sites of established professional writers; they’re great places to get free training in sentence structure, punctuation and all the other tools a writer must master in order to be worthy of the moniker. Even old-fashioned books made of (gasp) paper can be useful.

Because professionalism does still matter, and it will – at least I hope it will – for the foreseeable future. And now that I’ve answered that question, it occurs to me that I’m writing for free.

So, I’m outta here…

- Mark

Sexy good time. Not.

I read an interesting book while traveling to and from San Diego last week. In it, I learned that an editor to whom I had sold many articles many years ago was, during our stint together, an alcoholic and drug user, had contracted a bizarre STD from a strange girl with whom he had slept and, perhaps most disturbing of all…I’m sorry, I can’t continue. This bit of knowledge was so disgusting that I physically wince just thinking about it.

Perhaps not surprisingly, this editor worked for Hustler. His name is Allen MacDonnell and his book is a memoir of his time with the magazine titled Prisoner of X, published by Feral House.

Despite the horrifying nature of some of MacDonnell’s personal revelations, Prisoner of X is a fascinating read. It delves deep into the underbelly of Larry Flynt’s porn empire and reveals Flynt to be a publisher with a passion for crazy conspiracy theories who spent untold amounts of money on himself but held the pursestrings tight when it came to his employees. There’s a lot more I could reveal here, but this is a family blog so I won’t go into that kind of detail.

If you’ve ever wondered what goes into publishing a magazine like Hustler — don’t deny it — Prisoner of X pulls back the curtain to reveal all. MacDonnell is a truly gifted writer and the book moves quickly. Truthfully, I couldn’t put it down.

I’ve made no secret of the fact that I have written for Hustler. That gig allowed me to write about some really interesting things, and I was paid very well for my efforts. But now, knowing what really goes on behind the scenes, I’m not sure I could return to that trough.

Suddenly, I find the water tainted.

– Don

What I’ve learned

Just a few observations from several years in the trenches…

*Done is better than perfect.

*Most editors are kind, decent people.

*That said, a surprising number of editors deserve a smack in the head.

*No matter how much you get for an article, a small part of you will always believe you deserve more. It’s right.

*It’s smart business to continually expand your market base.

*Avoid the obvious. Freelance success comes from looking at the world from a decidedly different perspective.

*Perseverance also plays an important role in whether you succeed or not. Don’t give up, no matter how frustrated you may feel.

*Read as much as you can, and read as many different voices as you can.

*Sometimes you just have to say no.

More later…

–Don

In praise of ERB

I discovered Edgar Rice Burroughs when I was in middle school — the golden age of awe and wonder. I ordered Tarzan of the Apes from a scholastic book club, devoured it and went hunting for more.

ERB is best known for his ape man, but he published dozens of novels in a wide variety of genres, including adventure, science fiction and westerns. The Tarzan novels, of which there were many, have always been my favorites, though I also enjoyed his Pellucidar novels, which take place in a strange, wondrous world far beneath the earth.

ERB has often been criticized as a pulp hack, but that’s an unfair assessment. He was, first and foremost, a gifted adventure writer who deftly crafted memorable characters and effortlessly transported his readers to amazing lands. His writing is rapidly paced with nary an unnecessary word. In other words, it’s fiction without pretense.

ERB was not an adventurer. He was a mild-mannered man who traveled little before publishing his first Tarzan novel in 1912. He had never been to Africa, and relied on pure imagination to bring the Dark Continent to life for his millions of readers.

There’s an adage in writing — write what you know. We’re lucky ERB wasn’t listening.

– Don

A new understanding

Are you mad at the downward spiral of what passes for news and public discourse these days? Ever wonder just what the heck happened? George Saunders addresses this issue in an article titled “The Braindead Megaphone” in the current issue of GQ Magazine (with Barack Obama on the cover). It’s one of the most well-thought out analyses of why news today says absolutely nothing that I have ever read. Please buy the magazine and read it — you’ll never watch the news (or television) the same way again.

The article is an excerpt from Saunders’ upcoming book, The Braindead Megaphone: Essays by George Saunders (Riverhead Books).

– Don

No rest for the weary

Today is Labor Day, and yet I’m working.

Such is the life of a freelance writer. Over the years I’ve worked most major holidays, including Christmas; many, many weekends; and long into the night.

Why? Because deadlines wait for no man (or woman). So you do what you have to do to get the job done, no matter how much you’d rather be doing something else.

That doesn’t mean, of course, that I’m working 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. It just means that, occasionally, work has to take priority over other things in life.

It’s a matter of balance. And knowing when to say screw it, I’m taking the day off.

Unfortunately, today just isn’t one of those days.

– Don

It’s not the end of the world

I love what I do for a living, but I’m the first to admit that freelancing can be stressful and anxiety-ridden. No matter how well you plan a project, there’s always something that can muck up the works: a lack of appropriate sources, an important source who won’t get back to you, life’s constant, niggling problems that eat away at your writing time. And through it all, the clock continues to tick away, every passing second bringing you that much closer to your deadline.

Last week I found myself in such a situation. An editor wanted revisions on a feature that required input from a source in Canada, a source with whom I had communicated only by email and for whom I did not have a telephone number. My editor gave me a week to get the extra info and revise the manuscript.

Oh, and she was going on vacation that week, so she wouldn’t be accessible.

(Cue Mission Impossible theme song)

I immediately contacted my source and waited for him to respond to my questions. Every morning I logged on to my computer in the desperate hope that the info I needed would be waiting for me. Nada.
Days passed. So, with my deadline fast approaching, I sent one last follow-up note to my source and…he responded! ‘I’ll get the info to you by the weekend,’ he promised, and he did.

This story has a happy ending, but what would I have done had my source NOT gotten back to me? I had a contingency plan — I would rewrite the article using info from news and journal reports and hope for the best. There was nothing else I could do.

Things like this happen. It’s the nature of the beast. What you have to remember is: it’s not the end of the world.

A lot can go wrong with an assignment. Most of the time it’s not your fault, and editors understand that. Do what you can to make things right, but even if the assignment falls apart at the last moment: it’s not the end of the world.

I suggest you make that your mantra. It’ll save you a lot of anxiety and heartache.

Trust me, I know.
– Don