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Ben's
Mail Bag: |
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The other day, I got a letter, through Asian Connections, asking for some advice. I told the writer I wouldn't answer him. Instead, I'd write an open letter to all the people who've written over the years, or who've asked similar questions wherever I've given talks about journalism or the music industry. Now, I'll be able to direct all future inquisitors to this letter. I'm such a lazy guy. Here's the letter I got: Mr. Fong-Torres, My name is Jonathan Sanders, I am a journalism major at Indiana University in Bloomington. I have been a long-time reader of almost everything on music that I could get my hands on, and music is my life. My goal is to be able to spend my life being a music journalist. I've read a lot of your early works with Rolling Stone, and I respect your opinions as a writer and a music fan. I'm still in my junior year, but I'm looking to start freelancing before graduation, in hopes of jumpstarting my career. So far, I've written for the Indiana Daily Student for a year, and I've been a staff writer at the independent music site Gods of Music where I'm the first person to become a site editor in less than six months. Anyway, to make a long story short, I felt I should write to you and see what you thought might be a good path to take if I want to be a freelance journalist in the music world. Is there any good way to get my writing out there for editors to see it? I appreciate any comments you can send me, as someone who has done so much in the world of music journalism, I felt you'd be a good writer to contact for advice. Sincerely, Jonathan Sanders * * * Dear Jonathan, Here's what I've told others who share your goals: The best advice I can give to young people who want to be writers is to read, to read widely (and not just about music and entertainment), to absorb reporting and writing styles, to be able to identify favorite writers without copying them, and to be able to learn story structure from them. Read not only books, magazines, newspapers, and online publications, but good, short-form writing as well, whether they're gossip items or advertisements. I learned the importance of hooking readers with sharp lead paragraphs from clever ads; they also helped me when it came time to write headlines in newspapers and magazines I edited. If you're writing for whoever will have you, you're doing the right thing. It doesn't matter whether it's a school paper or a bowling alley newsletter. If you're accumulating experience, feedback, and clippings, you're on the right track. Years ago, I would've cautioned against sliding over into writing public relations material-press releases, biographies, ads. Now, with the entertainment industry so perforated, with so many people jumping between and among media, working both sides of the journalism/PR fence -- I'm thinking it may be useless to advise avoiding the PR side. Early in your career, you can pick up useful experience writing from the artist's and record label's perspective. You can learn the tricks they employ to get attention from the press. You'll also learn that working on publicity pays better than interviewing artists for the media. Decide which side you want to be on -- and stay there. Speaking of pay: I wouldn't advise anyone to set, as her or his goal, freelancing. You are asking for low-rent trouble. It's a tough existence, scraping by on assignments from here and there, fighting to get paid, dealing with rejection. It's like choosing to be an actor or a musician. Prepare to maintain some other kind of employment while you bang out your articles in off-hours. Get reference books on publishers and editors and write to everyone. Come up with sharp, unique story ideas, and understand that celebrity profiles are being done by everyone else already; that many magazines rely on staff writers and a few favorite independent contractors; that most magazines haven't upped their writers' rates in decades, and that some of the most prestigious publications believe they're doing you a favor by letting your writing onto their pages. One fledgling freelancer I know is pitching a 1,500-word profile of a well-known comedian around the country. Three papers have bitten. Total play: $200. Once you're established, it's another story. Now you're talking a buck or two a word. The trick is to get established before you can no longer afford postage. Get a job at a paper, magazine or site. Get on the masthead, whether it's as an intern or an editor. Write like crazy. Attend media and music conferences and network whenever possible. Keep track of the editors you do work with as a freelancer; many do go on to bigger magazines, and you may be able to go along. And enjoy yourself. Whatever you're writing, think of why you got into it in the first place. Put some of that feeling, that passion, that fun, that interest in illuminating a subject, of enlightening a reader, into your work, so that it never becomes just work. Whenever I talk about my career, I say how lucky I've been, to have gone to a liberal college like San Francisco State, to be in a position to get into Rolling Stone early on, and to go from there to just about wherever I wanted. But I know it wasn't just luck. There was a lot of work-work that hasn't stopped yet-and of grabbing and taking advantage of opportunities. So here's wishing you luck. And a lot of work. Cheers, Ben Fong-Torres Previous Ben's Mail Bag: |
| For more insights by Ben, visit his official website at www.benfongtorres.com |
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