Forthcoming E-Book Revealed

In coming weeks, I'll release my first ever e-book.  It will cover a subject which seems to have been weirdly overlooked in the e-book world: interviewing people journalistically.

The title, as you can see from its cover on the the left, will be How To Interview Doctor Who, Ozzy Osbourne And Everyone Else.

This book is based on 23 years of journalistic experience.  Within its electronic pages, I'll be giving nuts-and-bolts, detailed advice on the craft of interviewing - from preparation, to conducting the chat, to writing the finished article - while delivering it all in a hopefully entertaining and conversational fashion.  I'll also lift the lid on the reality of interviewing people and the nasty surprises and awkward situations you're likely to face along the way, right down to what to do when your recording device has failed to tape the conversation.

Sections of the book will include:

• Five Qualities That Make For A Good Interviewer
• Seven Ways To Set Your Interviewee At Ease
• The Eight Types Of Interviewee
• Fandom Vs Professionalism
• Can An Interviewee Ever Become Your Friend?
• Underhand Tactics & Grey Areas
• Becoming A Fly On The Wall
• The Dreaded Roundtable Interview
• Alcohol
• Transcription: A Necessary Evil
• How Verbatim Do You Need To Be With Those Quotes?
• The Structure Of An Interview Article

As we speak, I'm putting the finishing touches to the book.  If you're an aspiring journalist, or are just interested in the topic of how a journo goes about interviewing people, then I want it to answer every question you could possibly have.

To that end, I'd like you to suggest things you'd like the book to cover.  The above list only represents a segment of the 26,000-word book, but if you have anything in mind which you'd really like answered, then please let me know in the Comments below or by e-mailing me at journozone AT gmail DOT com.  Hopefully, such comments will help me deliver a book about interviewing people which leaves no stone unturned.

This very afternoon, I'm launching a Facebook page for the book.  Please feel free to register your interest and support by hitting Like!

UPDATE August 13: the book will be available to buy on various Amazon sites from Monday, August 15.

Interview: SFX's Reviews Editor Quizzed

One of my goals for the How To Be A Journalist site is to demystify stuff.  The kind of things which you might not get told elsewhere - or which even get mentioned elsewhere.  So much of the business of being a journalist - the real nitty-gritty - is all about things which you can only figure out for yourself.  Or you can read about it here, from time to time, if you add this blogroll to your RSS feed or follow us on Twitter.

You may have wondered how to go about approaching magazines - or even what some of these 'section editors' actually do.  I touched on the former subject in my earlier post How To Write For Magazines, but it'd also be nice to hear it from a horse's mouth, no?  For instance, an actual section editor on an actual magazine?  

Top UK mag SFX's Reviews Editor, Ian Berriman, kindly agreed to an interview about what his role entails, how he prefers people to approach him, what he expects from his writers and things which turn him off.  Make no mistake: Ian really is a very nice man, but in this interview he gives it to you straight.  I'm sure you wouldn't want it any other way.  After all, you need to know this stuff.  Even if you don't fancy writing for SFX, or even that kind of magazine, the majority of principles and pet hates discussed here will be relevant right across the publishing spectrum.

Ian started his career as a daytime TV researcher before freelancing for SFX for a few years.  He then joined the staff in March 2002.  Here goes...

Hello Sir!  Tell us about your role on SFX magazine - what exactly does it involve?

Ian Berriman: "Hello Sir! I’m responsible for all the reviews - films, DVDs, books, comics, audio CDs, toys and so on - that appear in the magazine. This involves researching what products are being released, chasing up review materials - check discs, advances, publicity images - from PR people, assigning reviews to freelancers and fellow SFX team members, and flatplanning the section.  In case you didn't know, the 'reviews flatplan' breaks down the contents of each page for the designers. Once the reviews come in I check them and ask for clarifications and/or make minor rewrites where necessary. Finally, once they’ve been subedited to fit the available space, I proofread each page."

How often do you take on new writers and do you ever actively search for them?

"In the last year I’ve probably added a couple of new names to my freelance pool. The very notion of 'actively searching' seems downright bizarre when we receive so many requests for work: the nearest I’ve come to that is discovering that a writer whose work I’ve always admired was following SFX on Twitter and asking him if he’d like to work for us. What’s more likely to happen is that someone I trust – another journalist, usually – will recommend someone to me.

    "Actively searching out new writers would take time, and time is a very rare commodity in our business. Even finding the time to deal with the on-spec submissions that come in can be tricky. I make it a matter of policy to reply to everyone (even if only with a standard form of words), and I try my level best to read all the samples that are submitted, but sometimes those emails get 'put aside to look at when it’s less frantic' and end up sitting there for a month or more. To be blunt: when it’s a choice between going home to snatch some time with my fiancé, or sitting in the office for another half hour to read through a pile of spec submissions, fiancé usually wins."

How many submissions do you receive from potential new writers, each month?

"It ebbs and flows, but I’d guess that it averages out at four or five a week. My calculator tells me that’s between 16 and 20 a month."

What are the most common mistakes that potential new writers make when contacting you? 

"I’m afraid the main one is terribly obvious, but it bears repeating: if you can’t master the basics of English grammar, or spell, I will not employ you. Chances are no-one else will either, because professional journalists are invariably grammar Nazis. That may seem harsh, but it’s a fact. If you clearly haven’t even taken the time to run a basic spell-check on your email - which takes a few seconds - I won’t even send you a standard form reply back. Frankly, I consider it discourteous.  

    "Accidentally starting your email with the words 'Dear Total Film…' isn’t necessarily a capital offence - although I will take perverse pleasure in pointing it out to you - so long as what follows convinces me that you have read our magazine and understand its ethos.  It’s always blindingly obvious when you’ve sent the same generic wording to 20 different magazines. Keep it brief - I probably won’t read beyond the second paragraph - and don’t send me your CV unless there’s something mindblowingly impressive on there. Send samples - maybe three of your best pieces - as Word documents or PDFs that are simple to print out. Don't send a link to a website and make me plough through it looking for relevant examples of your work. 

    "Finally, make sure these samples are relevant. A bunch of gig reviews doesn't tell me anything about your knowledge of/ability to write about SF & fantasy films/books/comics - and, worse, implies that you're not really that interested in them."

What's the one thing that potential new writers do, perhaps unintentionally, that really put you off them?

"I’m amenable to an informal, chatty tone, but don’t go overboard and try and be too pally. When someone’s initial email is along the lines of, 'Hi Ian! I see that you like crisps and support Hull City! Well I love crisps too, and I spent an afternoon in Hull once in November 2006!', it ever-so-slightly creeps me out. I’m looking for writers, not private investigators, so approach an initial email as you would a first face-to-face conversation. And whatever you do, don’t try any kind of 'poor-me' routine: 'I’ve always dreamed of doing this, no-one will give me a chance, boo hoo hoo…'. Future Publishing replaced my heart with a lump of gleaming black obsidian many years ago, so emotional blackmail doesn’t cut any ice with me."  

When you do hire writers, is it then a case of entrusting them with progressively bigger tasks, depending on how well they do?

"Very much so. Initially, I am liable to toss some direct-to-video crud your way and see how you get on. If you continue to impress me over the course of several months - and without complaining - I will start to give you more work, longer reviews, and more stimulating assignments. Nobody starts off reviewing Hollywood blockbusters: it may take years to work up to that level, if you ever reach it. There are two key things to remember if you are a budding freelancer. Firstly, freelancers tend to be there for the dirty jobs: staff always get first dibs and SFX has a very large team. Secondly, even if you are a very talented writer, I have 15 or 20 other talented writers on my books who’ve been working for me for years, and have families to feed. Taking on a new writer means taking one of them out into the backyard and nail-gunning them in the head, so it’s not something I do lightly."

Once writers are reviewing for you, what are the biggest pitfalls in writing reviews for SFX?

"Not hitting the deadline: I have to hand over completed pages to our designers every day to avoid a backlog building up, so people who consistently deliver copy late will not be doing so for very long. Also, not getting the format right and including all the information specified in the commission.  It might seem like a piddling triviality, but if your review is missing the BBFC certificate or page count, that creates more work for me, and after you’ve looked up the twentieth missing detail of the month it really starts to grate. Finally, any section editor will have their own personal bugbears - phrases or formulations that are the linguistic equivalent of nails down a blackboard. Work out what they are, either by asking me direct, or working out why I keep rewriting your reviews, and then never use them again. For example, I can’t abide passive sentence constructions, and generally loathe reviews written in the first person."

How do you go about stamping those pitfalls out, if you'll forgive the nonsensical metaphor?

"Every time I commission a review, the freelancer receives a formal commission document, in the form of a PDF. This explains precisely how the submitted review should be formatted and also includes some do’s and don’ts: for example, reviewers of fantasy novels are banned from cracking gags about the size and weight of the book – experience tells me that without that rule they’d crop up in about 30 reviews every year. This document also includes a list of forbidden clichés. People who ignore this and submit copy that includes phrases like “it does what it says on the tin” are liable to feel my wrath."

What do you do if a reviewer's opinion of something really flies in the face of the general 'party line' at the mag?

"I was about to say “absolutely nothing”, but then I remembered that once, years ago, I changed a DVD review from one star to two stars, because I personally considered the film worthy of four stars. The writer concerned was some chap called Jason Arnopp – I wonder whatever happened to him? I believe that was the first and last occasion I ever did that. Occasionally I will sense a mismatch between the overall tone of the review and the star rating and email the writer to query it, but SFX has never had an official party line, so if you write a two-star review of a film that I thought was great, I’ll respect your judgement and print it unchanged. Very often those reviews are the ones that stimulate the most interest and debate amongst our readers."

Hope this was useful, folks.  Incidentally, the film which Ian is talking about in that last paragraph is George Romero's Martin (1977).  I love most of Romero's work, but that film bores me senseless.  Many people like it a lot, though, so it was perfectly reasonable of Lord Berriman to change the rating.

                                                                  * * *

My horror novella Beast In The Basement is a dark, twisted tale of obsession, revenge, censorship, blame culture and parental responsibility.  In a big house in the countryside, an increasingly unstable author toils over a new hotly-anticipated novel which will close the best-selling trilogy of Jade Nexus books.  A violent incident tips him into a downward spiral with horrific consequences.  Read it before someone spoilers you!  Beast is available for Kindle (which can be read on most devices) at Amazon UK, Amazon US and more.  More details here.

My Amazon-acclaimed non-fiction ebook How To Interview Doctor Who, Ozzy Osbourne And Everyone Else is out now on Amazon UK, Amazon US and Amazon Germany, among others.  You can also buy it direct from me, in a Triple Pack of all three major file-types (PDF, ePub, Kindle), via PayPal.  Full details here, you splendid individual.

Eight Ways To Survive As A Freelance Journo

I've been self-employed for the best part of 23 years, having spent only three as a staffer on Kerrang! magazine.  This week, I was a guest along with journo-novelist Danny Leigh at the July In Development drinks in London, chatting informally about juggling the transition from journalism to fiction work.  Besides discussing that topic, though, I reminded myself of a few principles which seem to hold true, when it comes to keeping work consistently coming through the door as a long-term freelancer.  So here they are:

1) Work For More Than One Title
Fairly obvious, this one.  Don't put all your eggs in one basket.  Today's magazine and newspaper world is so volatile, that it would be unwise to merely write for one.  Slowly build up a network of publications to which you contribute. That way, if one sadly collapses or decides your contributions are no longer needed, you won't feel the impact quite so keenly.  When I was working full-time as a journalist, I would be writing for five or six titles at any one time.

2) Be Utterly Dependable
This touches on what I was saying in my earlier post How To Write For Magazines.  It's all very well to build up that network of publications, but you need to maintain it.  Do this by building trust and by never failing to deliver.  Some journalists can get away with continually missing deadlines, but they're in a real minority and almost certainly possess images of their editors shrieking while molesting swans.  The importance of delivering on time, time after time, cannot be overstressed.  Editors understandably want the least bother possible, and chasing you up for copy ranks high on their list of pet peeves.  You should also observe word counts religiously, as it's not the editor's job to perform cuts.  Needless to say, you also need to write well.  That helps.

3) Have A Regular Thing
Financially-speaking, the best thing about freelance writing is that there is, theoretically, no upper ceiling on what you can earn in any given month.  The worst thing?  The lower limit is zero.  Sometimes work just doesn't come in and yet your landlord strangely still insists on receiving rent.  Once upon a time, publications could afford to splash out on retainers for their favourite writers, guaranteeing them a certain amount of work each month.  I gather this is now less common.  So more than ever, you need a Regular Thing - and preferably more than one.  This can be a column, a regular feature or some section of the publication which you specialise in and/or handle.  Study each publication and pitch a Regular Thing to them.  Then stand exultant on your plinth of guaranteed work.

4) Be Pro-Active
As much as we all love the romance of waiting for the phone to ring - or these days, for the inbox to ping - with an offer of work, the reality is that you can't afford to sit around waiting for that to happen.  Try to maintain a balance between work which people come to you for and work which you pitch to publications.  Suggest articles, interviews and/or enthuse about things you'd love to review.  Don't be too ludicrously persistent with this: no-one wants to receive more than a few pitches a week.

5) Be Nice
It really helps if you're a personable character who gets along well with the people who can give you work.  Try and meet commissioning editors wherever possible - even socialise with them if possible.  While I think the expression "It's not what you know, it's who you know" is over-cynical and all too often cited by folks who can't seem to 'break in', there's no denying that editors are more inclined to commission people they like.  It's not about schmoozing and craftiness: it's just about being nice and easy to work with.  How hard can that be, eh?  You'd be surprised.

6) Don't Mess Up
Quite a broad topic, this, as the most casual of glances at the unfurling media scandals will attest.  Obviously, don't hack phones.  That's a given, right?  But on a less sensationalist level, try to avoid things which will get your publications into trouble.  Do your best not to damage ongoing relationships with interviewees, for instance.  Make sure you're well-versed in your country's libel laws - and if in doubt, leave it out.  No single quote on Earth is worth a libel case against your publication.

7) Manage Tax
Hire an accountant and make sure you're not over-paying.  Familiarise yourself with the things you can claim against tax, including 'capital gain' items such as that digital recorder, for which you can continue to claim over a period of time, albeit at a reduced rate.  Ensure that you're registered with the correct tax code for each company.

8) Establish A Niche
Obviously, being a freelancer means embracing as much variety and flexibility as possible.  You want to get as much work as possible, which can sometimes mean taking on work which doesn't exactly blow your skirts up.  That's all fine.  But for each publication, it will help if you're the 'go-to person' for something or other.  Maybe you love a certain type of film, or music, or book - and more importantly are something of an authority on it.  When editors have their meetings to decide what gets covered, you want them to immediately think of your name when it comes to certain things.  So establish that authority and you're more likely to receive regular work.

All good common-sense stuff, then.  If you're a freelance journalist, feel free to post your own thoughts on maintaining longevity and work-flow in the Comments section below!

Read about Jason Arnopp's new e-book, How To Interview Doctor Who, Ozzy  Osbourne And Everyone Else, here.

Twitter Feed Established!

Yes, this site now has a dedicated Twitter feed at @JournoZone, right here.

It will handily update you about new blogs/pages on this site (apart from this one, otherwise a never-ending loop would be formed which could destroy all of time itself) and also present/RT job opportunities in the heady world of journalism.

Follow!  Follow!  And thank you for doing so.

How To Write For Magazines

Lately, a few people have dropped me a line, asking how they go about approaching magazines for journalistic work. This year, I will celebrate (or, alternatively, be depressed by realising I've done) 23 years of freelance journalism, so may be able to shed a bit of light over what can seem like an intimidating, impenetrable fortress, but is actually fairly simple. So here's a potted guide which, clearly, shouldn't be taken as gospel. Like anything else, your success at securing journo commissions will be partly influenced by luck, the changing moods of office-bound, bleary-eyed staffers and possibly the moon. So here goes...

KNOW YOUR ENEMY

The first thing to do, when preparing to approach a mag, is know its style from top to bottom. Both in terms of tonal style/attitude and its literal formatting, right down to whether it prints album titles in inverted commas. Detail counts.

WHO TO TARGET?

Next, single out the appropriate Section Editor from looking at the mag's masthead (you know, that column with all the staff names on). I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s best to approach the Section Editor rather than The Editor, for a very good reason. If you approach the Editor and they like your work, and pass you on to the Section Editor, then there’s a chance that the Section Editor will feel bypassed and resent being handed a new writer (I once had the editor of a UK film mag happily telling me to contact the Reviews Ed, which I did, only to never hear back). But if you go to the SE first, they’ll be happy to scamper over to the Editor with their new discovery. Politics and ego are rife in this area, just like anywhere else. People always want to put their own stamp on things, or indeed freelancers. Incidentally, yes, it does help if you know the Section Ed on some level before approaching them. So check and see if they're on Facebook. If they're not stalker-phobic and accept you as a friend, then buy some fish for their fishtank. Hey, can't hurt. Just don't ask them for work via Facebook. Business, pleasure and all that.

TARGET LOCKED

So. Write the Section Editor a brief and to-the-point e-mail, or a letter (don't phone them, or you'll invariably be greeted like an annoying ear-wasp - in this cyber-age most people hate phone calls from strangers) casually asking if they are looking for new writers - perhaps in a certain field which you specialise in. If an Editor has a gap of knowledge on their team, you can bet they’ll want to plug it. If they're open to new contributors, they may ask for exactly what kinda sample material they want to see. If they're more vague, just send them some sample work - not too much - in the exact same style as the mag, in every way. 

GIVE 'EM WHAT THEY WANT

Here’s the absolutely vital, yet fiendishly simple, bit. Editors, whether Reviews, Features or anything else, want two things more than anything else:

(1) Work they'll have to do the minimum of editing on. If your stuff arrives good-to-go, they'll love that. You may even get a Christmas card.

(2) Work that's delivered when it's supposed to be. Miss deadlines, and you can guarantee the Section Ed won't miss you.

These things add up to an easy life for the harassed Section Editor. So consistently deliver them, and you’ll see the re-commissions roll in…

Read about Jason Arnopp's new e-book, How To Interview Doctor Who, Ozzy  Osbourne And Everyone Else, here.