Magazine Archives - Outdoor Writers Association of America

Pitch perfect: how to sell more stories

OWAA Developer — Fri, 01 Jun 2018 22:14:52 +0000

BY JOSEPH ALBANESE
John Gierach is likely the only person who can send just about anything in and have it published. I’m fairly certain he could scribble “Fish on!” on a cocktail napkin and it would receive top billing in whatever publication he sent it to. And why not? The man could make the phone book interesting — and people know it. But his byline likely didn’t carry the same weight until he was established. That means even he had to pitch at some point.
Pitching to editors is many writers’ least favorite part of freelancing, but it’s a necessary part of the job.
Editors want to hear from you. They need quality content. But theirs is a busy job with a variety of duties and an often overflowing inbox. If you give them enough information to make a decision quickly you will receive more positive responses.
The quality of the content you present is one of the most important parts of the puzzle, but it is not the only one. There’s a long list of what can make a pitch more attractive to editors, from when it’s received to how it’s crafted. But good pitching starts long before you hit send, or even draft your proposal.
In this issue of OU I’ll offer some insights into preparing to pitch. In the August/September issue I’ll tackle drafting and sending the query.
While not a comprehensive guide, these are insights I’ve gained after making a lot of mistakes and could help you avoid similar blunders, and sell more stories in the process.
KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
If I learned anything from my limited time in retail sales, it’s that you need to be less concerned with what you find appealing and more with the interests of your customers. If you’re a freelancer, your customer is not just the editor, but the publication’s audience. The two likely have similar tastes, but in the end, the editor is looking for material the publication’s established readership will find interesting. If you are a long-time reader of the magazine you are likely the target demographic, or you understand who is. Otherwise, sit down with back issues of the publication and thoroughly read them, noting tone, style and topics.
CHECK THE CALENDAR
Many of the larger publications have a media kit hidden somewhere in the recesses of their website. This is usually designed to attract advertisers, but oftentimes the editorial layout for the following year is included. This is your Rosetta Stone. Knowing that October is elk month, you can send in all those rigging tips you have learned over the decades loading pack mules. May is the top water bonanza? Turn in your favorite popper tying instructions.
READ THE DIRECTIONS
Sometimes you will be fortunate enough to find a set of instructions for submissions on the publication’s website. Follow them. This is the roadmap to getting published in that magazine. This will tell you if the editor would rather have a completed piece or just a query. If there’s a style guide, study it. The easier you make the editor’s job, the more likely they are to hire you. Pay close attention to the requirements for each section of the publication; unless you are Gierach they will be unlikely to deviate from that formula.
RESEARCH
You won’t need to fully report the piece, but you do need enough research to show an editor why it’s newsy and why their readers will be interested. A simple social media search can provide data to indicate the popularity of the subject you can cite as “a recent Facebook search showed that hunters in the Midwest were actively discussing the rut at this time last year.” Statistics and facts also help. “The summer was the hottest on record, with surveys by the Bureau of Land Management indicating less standing water in the arid Southwest than any other time in the last 15 years. This fall, if you find water you’ll find the pronghorn.”
NETWORKING
Social networks can be powerful tools to help market your work and find more. Carefully timed posts can draw attention to your recent stories, build interest around your body of work and increase your credibility. Building a network of publishers and editors allows you to share your articles and lets people review them at their leisure. This will highlight your areas of expertise.
In addition to helping promote your work, you can often find and reach out to the decision makers at a publication directly. LinkedIn is tailor-made for this approach, creating a who’s who right at your fingertips, often with email addresses.
Facebook can also be a good way to score some work. Trophy photos that are not appropriate for a professional networking site may pique an editor’s interest into your secrets for pulling greenheads when no one else can seem to buy a duck. And that outsized brown may just make an ideal cover for the “All About Trout” edition coming out next spring.
It’s also a great way to find publications that might be perfect for your pitch, which I’ll talk about drafting in the next issue.
—
Joseph Albanese’s tenure in natural resources has taken him from the shadow of the Empire State Building to the Alaskan bush, with experiences as varied as the terrain. He now works as an outdoor communicator, creating text and video for publications including Field & Stream, Outdoor Life and The FlyFish Journal.

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Paddling for a profit: How to turn one trip into multiple stories

OWAA Developer — Mon, 02 Apr 2018 04:27:42 +0000

BY KRIS MILLGATE
It’s that time of year. If you haven’t already committed to attending OWAA’s annual conference, you are probably weighing the pros and expenses. But if you plan it right, OWAA’s annual conference can be a money-making opportunity you don’t want to miss.
Last year’s conference in Duluth, Minnesota, led me to multiple stories on the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, making the trip not just valuable, but also profitable.
Here’s how I turned conference expenses into income-generating stories.
ONE: HOW THE STORY REACHED MY RADAR.
I attend my first SHOT Show in January 2017. Katie McKalip, Backcountry Hunters and Anglers communications director, invites me to a conservation dinner while at the world’s largest gun and ammunition trade show. The food is fabulous, as is the discussion on the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and what’s at stake if the Minnesota watershed is mined.
TWO: I’M INTRIGUED BY THE STORY, BUT I’M SO FAR AWAY.
It’s March and I’m looking at almost $2,000 in expenses for OWAA 2017 conference in Duluth, Minnesota. I’m upside down on value before I arrive in June. Conferences must justify themselves in opportunity (work) or I don’t get to go.
Duluth is closer to Boundary Waters than my hometown of Idaho Falls, Idaho. If I’m going all that way, I might as well go a bit farther and touch, portage, paddle and fish the Boundary Waters. I report more strongly when I know the resource firsthand anyway.
THREE: NONE OF THE CONFERENCE TRIPS SUIT MY STORY NEEDS.
By April I can tell I’m going to have to grab this bull by the horns and create my own post-conference trip. Duluth conference trip coordinator Gene Shaw helps me connect with Boundary Waters outfitter Steve Piragis of Piragis Northwoods Company. He’s fighting the mine. So is his fly-fishing buddy, Reid Carron, who offers to come along so I can pick up a fly-fishing story in addition to the mining story.
Piragis knows the outlets I work with, including Field & Stream, so he knows I have legitimate assignment potential. He offers one day in his canoe at no charge as a media trip with lodging in his guest house the night before.
I also line up Lukas Leaf of Sportsmen for the Boundary Waters. We met at that SHOT dinner in January. He’s in Duluth for the OWAA conference too. I interview him before I head to the Boundary Waters. I also pick up the other side of the story, the pro-mine side, during a conference panel discussion. A lot of heated statements erupt during panels. Don’t skip them.
FOUR: HOW TO GET FROM CONFERENCE TO MY STORY.
I don’t have a car in Duluth. I need one for the two-hour drive north and back to Duluth for my flight home. I mentored fellow OWAA member Emily Stone at the OWAA 2016 conference in Billings, Montana.
Emily’s a Midwesterner. Turns out, she’s going to conference in Duluth and she lives close enough to drive. Guided canoe trip in the Boundary Waters covered as media with additional expenses covered by me, her mentor? She’s in. My transportation is taken care of as long as I keep her gas tank, and her belly, full. I also happily answer any questions she has about the freelance life and the work I do.
FIVE: MAKING GOOD ON MY PROFITABLE CONFERENCE COMMITMENT WITH A STORY.
I don’t take advantage of my media status and I don’t expect handouts, not even from polite Midwesterners like Steve and Emily.
If I say I’m on assignment, I really am. Free media trips are great, but trips don’t pay my conference expenses or my mortgage. Stories do.
I turn multiple stories for print and video media outlets as soon I return from Minnesota. Gene knew I would. Steve and Reid knew I would. Emily knew I would. They kept their end of the deal. I keep mine. I write stories on fly-fishing for Sporting Classics and on mining, the original reason Boundary Waters sparked my interest, for Field & Stream.
SIX: HOW MY STORY KEEPS ON GIVING.
I wrote and sold three stories from my trip, but that is just the beginning.
I now have a personal connection with a natural resource that keeps surfacing in the news as the mining issue progresses. I’m ready to cover updates. I have established sources a convenient call away. I also have extra photos and video so I can offer new visuals every time I update the story.
As for Emily, she found a new angle for her weekly column during our trip. She also made two new friends. She lives much closer to Steve and Reid than I do and sees them more often than I do. And her book “Natural Connections” sells in Ely, Minnesota, our canoe trip launch city where she pitched a bookstore manager.
Moral of the story; Go to conference, request a mentee or be a mentor and put your own elbow grease into covering conference expenses by creating an assignment-worthy trip.
—
OWAA member Kris Millgate is an outdoor journalist based in Idaho. See more of her work at www.tightlinemedia.com.

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Get graphic in your storytelling

OWAA Developer — Sun, 01 Apr 2018 19:06:22 +0000

BY TOM WATSON
When an assigned word count limits the amount of information you can present in an article, most of us rely upon photos, the picture’s-worth-athousand-words, space-saving solution for presenting visual details that describing might consume too many column inches.
But sometimes not even a photo can do it. An image might not be available, practical, or really show what a reader needs to see understand the story.
Illustrations can come to the rescue.
You don’t have to have the talents of Michelangelo to create illustrations, nor do you necessarily need to buy additional graphics software.
Not to say that an artful eye doesn’t have its advantages, but even the basic drawing programs that come standard on most computers can be used to create illustrations that clarify, instruct and reveal information that would take hundreds of words of text to describe adequately.
I did an article on making emergency fishing lures out of common materials. I felt I could describe the steps more concisely and space-efficiently by illustrating the process. Using a few key instructive graphics that were created by using photos, clip art and basic geometric shapes from the computer’s drawing options, I offered my readers a visual guide to create a makeshift lure from a ballpoint pen tip cap and a Pepsi can.
Sometimes an illustration presents the information in a more concise and colorful manner. While writing a story on falling through the ice, I couldn’t find an image of a victim and the different rescue gear options defined in the article. My solution was to create the scenario and its components graphically.
Such infographics are often used to rely highlights of information with short bullet points and instructive graphics. Creating your own version to supplement information in a story saves space while enhancing the overall article with helpful visuals beyond — or in lieu of — photos.
I use graphic programs (the style menu in “Pages” on my Mac) in a couple of ways to create the illustrations. I often use a photo as a baseline shape to create an outline image that I can then alter (shape, color, texture) to fit the desired presentation I need. Using such mixed media bases, you can create the desired final image one section or component at a time, and then combine those pieces together for the final working image. Saved as a JPEG file, your illustration can be inserted just as you would a photo or PDF image. It does takes a little practice to learn all the nuances of even a simple “draw” program, and getting the right look is a matter of learning to highlight areas.
Creating publishable illustrations takes practice. I am constantly honing my skills and learning new techniques. I often create cartoons or experiment with shading and textures on different shapes to practice. As you become more comfortable with all aspects of your drawing program, you can start experimenting with combining treatments (colors, gradient fills, layering and effects) to create your own highlights.
You can also use a photo for a background format and enhance it with illustrated graphics overlays on the base image. This is a common technique in articles where graphics are combined with a bird’s-eye photo of the terrain highlighting wildlife habitat or hunting areas and also showing game movement.
It’s important to make sure there are no copyright issues with any images you use. Public domain artwork offers myriad opportunities to provide foundational outlines and shapes. Combining those base images into your own visuals is a creative complement to your writing skills and makes an article all the more informative — and appealing — to the reader.
—
Tom Watson, an active member since 1988, is an award-winning freelance writer and columnist specializing in a variety of outdoor topics, including self-reliance/survival, sea kayaking and camping skills.

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Edit yourself to success

OWAA Developer — Wed, 01 Feb 2017 22:33:17 +0000

BY AMY BULGER
I’ve sweated out late nights in front of the screen, laboring for the perfect words as a deadline approached. I’ve tweaked my own writing until I could throw my hands up in touchdown victory — and then the edits came back. How can writing feel so right when it’s flying from your fingers and look so wrong when the
track changes come back from your editor? The answer may be in how much time you devote to self-editing.
Laying an objective eye on your own copy is one of the most challenging parts of the writing process and, from the side of the editor’s desk, it’s also one of the most apparent. Editing is a subjective business, but one where the basics never change — grammar rules, spelling and fact-checking, to name a few.
I spoke with a handful of colleagues about issues editors frequently encounter and how writers can step back and analyze a story to address many of these problems before ever submitting it. Those extra minutes spent are an investment in cleaner copy, which could pay off with more assignments. The less we have to do with what you send, the more we want to work with you again.
Ten ways to self-editing success:

Lede the way, fearlessly
It seems too few writers spend time crafting quality ledes. A good lede is a requirement. Shorter is usually better, full of strong verbs. Show conflict, irony, sentiment; but don’t confuse ledes with nut grafs. Great ledes make your story human, help readers relate to your subject or pique interest. And they take practice. Myriad websites offer tips on this, but be careful not to get boxed in by formulas. Creativity is key.
Don’t stash your nuts
Nut grafs are too often buried or don’t exist. Don’t make a reader wait 500 words to find it, and don’t forget about it. Once you’re done writing, highlight it. If it doesn’t stand out clearly, that might be a good cue to restructure a sentence or two to make it shine.
Slay the zombies
While it’s not a crime to write in passive voice, these sentences often fly to the top of an editor’s radar to tweak. Grammarly.com retweeted from teacher Rebecca Johnson a memorable way to test whether you’re writing structure is passive: If you can insert “by zombies” after the verb and it still makes sense, it’s passive voice. In these sentences, the subject is being acted upon. In an active-voice sentence, the subject is doing the acting. Active sentences make for stronger, compelling writing.
The zombie test in action:
– The town was attacked (by zombies). Yep, passive sentence.
– Zombies attacked (by zombies) the town. Doesn’t make sense. It’s an active sentence.
Follow the facts
Check your facts and know the position of the publication. Make sure your story doesn’t convey misstatements of an agency’s position or research that’s already been published.
Get off the crutches
Therefore. Overall. Suddenly. Strangely. Additionally. We all have crutches — words or phrases that seem innocuous when used a couple times, but become downright annoying when sabotaged by repetitiveness. A host of online tools can help catch the catch phrases in your copy, including: wordcounter.com or autrocrit.com (invented for fiction writers but, remarkably, it works on journalistic words). There also are macros for Microsoft Word that count repetitive words and phrases right in your Word doc, and (for a fee) ProWritingAid can analyze your Google Docs for redundancies, cliches and more. Leave the overalls for the ranch work.
Nail the style
Know the publication’s style and use it, whether AP, Chicago or something else. And stick to the basics of journalism, like using only last names of subjects on second reference.
Do your quotes runneth over?
Quotes exist to further a storyline, not reiterate (sometimes verbatim) what the writer already stated. Choose quotes carefully. Don’t overuse them to get out of writing your own story. Fabricated quotes can be quite obvious.
Get tense
Pick a tense and stay in it. Switching tenses is a very common issue and easily fixable through self-editing.
Sketch an outline
Many outdoor publications deal with complicated biological and environmental issues. An outline can help a story’s flow and help the writer find a logical organization to the facts.
Put the words down and walk away
Allow for time to not look at a story. Build in time before deadline for this, it’s crucial. Finish writing the piece in advance, print it out and put it away. A couple days before it’s due to the editor, take it out and reread it. Lots of things will jump out at you. Give yourself a day to rework the piece without rushing it out the door. Trust me, your editor will notice.

— Amy Bulger is a freelance writer by night, cloaked as the editor of Wyoming Wildlife during the day. And yes, she did self-edit this article.

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The appeal of magazine apps

OWAA Developer — Wed, 01 Feb 2017 22:02:56 +0000

BY RUSSELL ROE
Our art director at Texas Parks & Wildlife magazine likes to put “Easter eggs” in the app version of our magazine as a way to amuse readers (and, truthfully, himself) with little surprises. One month, a skunk sprayed at the screen when readers turned to the feature story on the animals. Another month, an “ouch” appeared on the screen and was heard through the device’s speakers if readers touched a prickly plant.
These little extras offer readers pleasant surprises as they swipe through the content of our magazine. And they’re something that can’t be accomplished in print. Apps can be expensive and time-consuming to produce, but they can be fun, too, and offer another way to reach readers and present content in new forms.
We launched our app in January 2015 for three reasons:

We wanted to be positioned for a digital future. We don’t think print is going anywhere anytime soon, but the world is increasingly digital and we wanted to be a part of it. We also want our advertisers ready when digital advertising exceeds print advertising. We want to create value not just for our readers, but for our advertisers by giving them new ways to reach their customers.
We wanted a new revenue stream. We figured that by offering a digital magazine, we could reach new readers who weren’t interested in print. We thought we might lose a few print readers who wouldn’t switch to digital, but figured we’d gain more new readers who were out in the digital marketplace already. Those new digital readers would provide us money we weren’t getting otherwise.
We wanted to reach younger readers. Our audience is old and getting older. Our reader surveys tell us that. Younger Americans are reading on their computers and on their phones, and we knew we needed to go where young readers are in order to reach them.

It’s an uncertain time for magazine apps. The rise of tablets gave magazines a lot of hope for expanding audiences, and many new tools have come along to help magazines produce digital editions. But it hasn’t been smooth sailing, and some magazines have already pulled back after dipping a toe in the digital waters.
Apple got rid of Newsstand, where most of the digital magazines lived. That means magazine apps now live on a person’s home screen instead of clumped together with other magazines, a position that may give them more visibility or get them lost amid the clutter.
Despite that uncertainty, it’s important be in the digital marketplace.
Magazines can start small and build a presence as time goes by. Many publications start with creating digital replicas of their content. There’s software out there to convert a print magazine to digital form, and producing such a version doesn’t cost that much. The digital pages look just like the print pages, shrunken down to fit on a tablet. One drawback is that readers looking for digital magazines expect more features than a replica can provide (a replica is especially hard to read on a phone). A replica’s clunkiness can turn readers off, though replicas can be enhanced with videos and hyperlinks. A replica at least gets your publication into the world of digital products, and that’s saying something.
Stepping up from the world of replicas means developing a more fully featured app using Adobe digital publishing products or app producers such as Twixl or Mag-Plus. This will take more time and money but will provide the reader with a more satisfying digital reading experience, with photos and type sized appropriately to suit the device. The costs rise dramatically in terms of staff time and software expenses when stepping up from a replica. But the payoffs can be big.
These apps provide new ways to present content. Videos, slide shows and audio enhancements can be easily integrated with articles, dramatically expanding the storytelling possibilities.
In the first app issue Texas Parks & Wildlife magazine published, we ran a story about wolf snails, which hunt and eat other types of snails. After hours of experimentation, our art director finally created a snail to crawl across the screen, complete with slime trail for the digital version of the story. The result is a little piece of interactivity that adds a bit of levity to the page.
For an article on river songs, we enlisted the help of some Texas singer-songwriters to record videos of a couple of notable Texas river songs mentioned in the story. The videos were placed directly into the app version of the story, providing enhanced content that print readers were not able to get. For the same article, we asked our in-house artist to provide illustrations and cover art. We shot a time-lapse video of him creating his artwork, and the video became a key part of the app experience. The app also linked to a Spotify playlist of dozens of Texas river songs.
Perhaps the best example showing the full use of the app’s capabilities came in an article we did on favorite bird songs. In print, an article on bird songs can do only so much. In the app, it came alive. The print version featured photos of the birds along with a description of the bird song. The app version provided the same, but came with an important extra: a recorded version of the bird song so that readers could hear what the bird sounded like in addition to reading about it. The ability to hear songs of birds, such as the canyon wren and brown thrasher, provided readers a much richer and fuller experience, and that is what we are always striving to achieve.
— Russell Roe is managing editor for Texas Parks & Wildlife magazine. He lives in Austin, Texas.

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Finding the right word

OWAA Developer — Wed, 01 Feb 2017 21:53:08 +0000

BY PAUL BRUUN
A dim but unrelenting chorus chimes in my mind. “Where is that word I want?”
Pressing my chin down on my chest and relaxing helps encourage this vocabulary retrieval process — sometimes.
But rather than waste more time pondering and floundering, it is prudent to move ahead with the piece and return later to playing this game of verbal hide ’n seek.
There is much more to choosing the right word or words than many readers realize.
Careful writers add distinct words as a way of applying extra polish to their content. Good writing is a result of rewriting to improve reader understanding.
A dozen years ago I recognized that I was struggling, not only with correct spelling, but my vocabulary recall was flickering. I was also repeating words within close proximity in a paragraph and often within a sentence.
Enter a Franklin
I told my friend about my issue and she chuckled. “You need a Franklin.”
A Franklin was a small electronic device her junior-high-aged son used to help with spelling and word choice.
“You will love it,” my friend promised.
Dutifully I sought office supply warehouse aid and secured a Franklin Merriam-Webster Dictionary & Thesaurus spelling device for about $25.
Powered by a watch battery, the miniature window-keyboard gadget slipped inconspicuously into in my laptop bag. With minimal hunting and pecking I quickly unraveled words whose spellings either baffle me or elicit mental blocks.
For instance “khaki” is a term that triggers a stubborn determination to attempt “k-a-h(k)-a-k-i.” Using this awkward approach stumps my Mac’s laptop dictionary programs. Enter “kahaki” in my online dictionary and “No entries found” results.
Rather than taking my own above-mentioned advice to move on when a word stumps and return later, such a brief spelling annoyance compels me to rush immediately to Google and sometimes Wikipedia to cure each and every spelling breakdown.
These instantaneous solutions disrupt writing continuity and burn time and data use. A fast Franklin visit avoids all of this.
Despite gobbling batteries, the diminutive Franklin has speedily vanquished my awkward spelling challenges.
Thesaurus digs deeper
I’ve focused on writing for newspapers, along with weekly columns, since the late 1960s. Preparing a quarterly piece for TROUT magazine on classic tackle for some reason prompted recall of classic writing devices.
Admittedly it’s more colorful than pleasant to recollect hellish composing rooms of Linotype machines and hot lead printing, calackity-clacking manual and portable typewriter woes — broken ink ribbons, snapped and jammed keys and messy carbon paper copies.
Electric typewriters added their own litany of physical nightmares. My word production as a speedy typist surpassed others who struggled with early computer keyboard setups and page spacing issues. The instant luxuries of spellchecking, fingertip copy-and-paste editing and superior file saving forced me to stop resisting computer technology.
Such improved copy production hasn’t solved everything. Gratefully, the years have been relatively kind to me, but it’s frustrating to fumble and dig for words and phrases that are faintly visible but beyond reach. Many allude to this situation as being on the “tip of the tongue.” I refer to it as in my “vague brain shadow.”
Years back I bought a “Doubleday Roget’s Thesaurus In Dictionary Form,” but used it sparingly. Seeking help installing a better word never seemed a problem. But now, plucking that shadowy term from my brain is becoming a considerable challenge. A simple fix finds me regularly clicking on the “thesaurus” part of my Mac’s dictionary, a process that adds a delightful array of alternatives to study.
I was embarrassed at first about using a thesaurus as a crutch. That was before I realized how much pleasure came from examining new words, both synonyms and antonyms.
Do I have plans to replace my antiquated 1970s thesaurus with its label of “250,000 Synonyms and Antonyms”?
It’s on my gift list, chiefly after an on-line examination shows “Roget’s 21st Century Thesaurus” promises “500,000 synonyms and antonyms yield over 1 million word choices” as well as “Hundreds of recently coined and common slang terms—plus commonly used foreign terms.”
A million words?
Who can resist such 21st century verbal inundation?
Not I!
With so many choices, I’ll never be stumped again. Or at least I’ll know how to find the right word.
— Paul Bruun became the editor of the weekly Jackson Hole Guide in 1973. In 1978 he founded and edited the Jackson Hole Daily. His weekly outdoors and food columns begun in 1973 continue to regularly appear in the weekly Jackson Hole News&Guide. He also pens “Classics” about vintage fly gear on the last page of Trout Unlimited’s Trout magazine.

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The business of the outdoor essay

OWAA Developer — Sat, 01 Oct 2016 16:26:33 +0000

BY CHRIS MADSON
Once upon a time, the personal essay was a staple of periodical literature, but even in just my lifetime that has changed. These days, many magazines have whittled the essays they run down to an editorial of 300 words opposite the table of contents and a regular column or two. The editorial is always written by a staffer. All too often, it’s not really an essay at all, just an ad for the current issue’s content. The columns may or may not be essays— if they are, they are constrained by the limited space they occupy as well as the views of the publisher.
There are a few big magazines that specialize in running essays. A handful even run an occasional outdoor essay. Several of John McPhee’s books on outdoor subjects began as essays for The New Yorker. I’m flabbergasted to find an outdoor essay now and then in The Atlantic, and a few of the major American newspapers that remain run the odd outdoor essay in their Sunday editions.
With these observations in mind, I’ve come to a couple of conclusions about essays in the big periodical markets.
First, it’s probably pointless to query an essay. It’s a lot like querying humor or poetry — the editor’s decision to buy depends mostly on the execution of the idea, not the quality of the idea in the abstract. All of us who freelance have been cautioned to never submit a manuscript; always query first. Like so many other pieces of good advice, this one has several unspoken caveats, one of which is that you can’t sell an essay with a query.
Second, when the big markets buy an essay, they’re buying the author at least as much as they’re buying the words. In a moment of supernatural clarity, you may have discovered “the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything,” but you’re going to have trouble selling the resulting essay to The New Yorker unless your name is Truman Capote.
The situation in newspapers seems even more extreme. The big dailies keep a few commentators around, a group of the anointed whose names are household words and whose ranks will not be swelled by some unknown from Spotted Horse, Wyoming. Circumstances on the outdoor beat are even more difficult. The outdoor pages are steadily melting into the classified ads as corporate owners insist, all evidence to the contrary, that nobody reads articles on hunting, fishing, hiking or other outdoor sports anymore.
Of course, in this era of multimedia, there are other ways of publishing essays. My sense is that the dialogue of ideas that was a staple of periodicals has migrated into books.
If you are blessed with unusual insight into modern politics or modern psychological disorders — which may amount to much the same thing — you may be well on your way to a paying career as an essayist in book form. If you are unfortunate enough to write essays about the outdoors, your chances are not nearly so good.
If you still have access to a real, live, brick-and-mortar bookstore, take a look at the shelf space reserved to the general topics of the outdoors, nature, hunting, fishing, birding, camping and associated subjects. Compare this square footage with the space allotted to self-help, fantasy and romance novels. The difference is a good indicator of the market potential for a collection of outdoor essays.
There is, of course, one other medium worth considering here, that avalanche of “content”— as a writer, I can barely describe how I loathe that term—out on the Internet. The various sites and services available online have become by far the world’s largest publishers of the essay. All a would-be essayist needs to expose his work to the public is a computer, a link to the web and something to say.
The good news about web publishing is that we can all avoid those frustrating correspondences with editors who, as every writer has concluded, wouldn’t know a fine piece of writing if it came with a certificate from the Nobel Prize committee. The bad news is that it may be even harder to get paid for an online piece than it is for one that appears in print.
In 2011, the company Technorati reported that only 4 percent of bloggers consider revenue from their blogs as their “primary source of income.” It’s worth noting that only a small proportion of bloggers— 18 percent— are trying to make a living with their blogs. However, even in this group of professionals, only 37 percent see their blogs as their “primary source of income.”
In 2013, the folks at Technorati looked more carefully at bloggers they classified as “influencers.” This is an even more restrictive classification than “professional blogger.” Influencers are bloggers who can demonstrate reasonable traffic on their sites and even a certain minimal effect their blogs have on readers and their buying decisions.
According to Technorati, 64 percent of these influencers said they make money. Half of that group reported income of less than $1,000 a year; another 20 percent reported income between $1,000 and $5,000. Only 11 percent reported income of more than $30,000 a year. Most of that revenue comes from ad sales in the form of banners or text ads.
Blogs that post daily content have significantly higher traffic than blogs that post only once a week. Since the optimum length for a blog post is around 1,500 words, the volume of writing required is staggering, even greater than the amount daily news people once churned out. Bloggers, like me, who post once every two or three months, can expect the kind of traffic I see on my site. Sometimes, I may get 60 or 70 readers with a new post.
A growing number of magazines are establishing themselves online and expanding the market for outdoor essays. Since an online publication isn’t limited by space in the way print publications are, there’s one less obstacle for an essay to clear with editors. Unfortunately, that obstacle is replaced with another: the shortened attention span of the typical Internet surfer. As I see it, long-form essays are no more welcome on most electronic sites than they are in print publications.
Many writers consider their blogging and contributions to the social media as advertising for their efforts in other media. That’s at least part of the reason I continue to blog and post on social media. There’s also the hard fact that I can’t find another home for some of the pieces I write. If there’s no market for an essay, I’m probably better off posting it than throwing it in the trash.
I’m doing shorter bits on Facebook these days, micro-essays that I hope fit the reading habits of the typical Facebook visitor. There are sometimes as many as three or four dozen people who at least do me the favor of clicking “Like” on one of these from time to time.
Have these posts helped my “brand?” I have no idea. Have they helped me sell material in more traditional markets? I can’t say. If I were a better businessman, I’d make a greater effort to answer these questions, although I suspect I would find that the measurable return doesn’t justify the effort.
So why, with all these difficulties, does any professional ever bother with outdoor essays?
I imagine most of us who put words to paper have a deep, if insecure, regard for our own views, even if some of those are unmarketable. Sometimes we write first and look for markets later. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of that unsold work is our very best.
Sometimes, an idea is simply struggling to get out. It finds its way up through the mists and unformed apprehensions that pass as thought in the human mind, crystallizing at a moment of its own choosing, often unexpected, nearly always inconvenient, since it is likely to interfere with far more efficient ways of generating income. You may be better at ignoring these ideas than I am. If not, you have very little choice: Write first, sell later.
— Chris Madson is a freelance writer specializing in conservation and hunting subjects. He lives in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

The post The business of the outdoor essay appeared first on Outdoor Writers Association of America.

Ten things I learned at Meet the Editors

OWAA Developer — Sat, 01 Oct 2016 16:13:00 +0000

BY KATY SPENCE
As a newcomer to OWAA’s annual conference and to the freelancing world, I found the Meet the Editors panel, at the July conference was a treasure trove of advice on how to get published, and most importantly paid, for novices like me. It also offered insight for experienced freelancers into specific publication needs and how to adapt as media continues to change.
Here are some of the things I learned.

Nurture relationships with editors. Nearly every editor on the panel emphasized that writers who build a reputation of solid stories get more assignments and more creative freedom in the future. Good relationships are built on respect and ethics.
Market yourself. More magazines are assigning stories than accepting pitches, but you can groom yourself for a particular publication. Study its content and its readership, and immerse yourself in relevant communities. Jenny Rogers, with Nature Conservancy magazine, has writers who attend relevant public meetings months in advance of a potential feature story, which can result in short, but frequent, department update pieces.
Timing is everything. Familiarize yourself with the magazine’s (and the editor’s) schedule and time your queries and pitches accordingly. Ric Burnley, editor of Kayak Angler, sometimes gets great ideas at the wrong times. If you know the production schedule, you can hit the ideal time for ideas. Follow up on pitches to show editors you’re invested, but don’t expect them to have your pitch filed away for easy access. Be courteous and keep that production schedule in mind when you follow up.
Build a better pitch. The most important thing in a pitch is to show you are a good writer, said Will Harmon, an editor at Farcountry Press. Sam Lungren, editor of Backcountry Journal, has used writers who sent compelling pitches on other assignments, even if he didn’t accept their story idea.
Don’t be afraid to call. Many editors are bogged down with email. Matt Soberg, editor of Ruffed Grouse Society magazine, likes to have phone conversations about story ideas with new writers. He said email becomes more appropriate after the initial phone call.
Establish a niche. Editors need writers with a particular skill or photographers in certain areas. Once you build that relationship, chances are that you can get yourself on a list the editor will use whenever they have a specific need.
More content, more often. You know the old adage —“Sell, sell, sell.” It’s hard to make a living freelancing, but the more you write, the better chance you have. Several editors mentioned small sectional or department pieces that pay well and aren’t time consuming. It may take half a dozen department stories to equal the pay of a feature, but it’s still money in the bank. Once you get the hang of them, you can knock out a 200-word piece in an hour or two. At $1.50 a word in some cases, that’s not a bad hourly wage.
Keep up with fads. Editors are hungry for digital content, especially trendy works like social video, which you can see as you browse your Facebook and Twitter pages. Knowing current trends and anticipating future ones will help you stay relevant in the changing world.
Consider alternate media. Outdoor Life’s Facebook audience is bigger than its print audience, said its editor Andrew McKean. The magazine recognizes that and tries to capitalize on it, using “potato chip content,” or broad pieces without a lot of depth on social media. Much like the short department pieces, this is a solid way to guarantee income, build a relationship and reach a large audience with your work.
Books are a different ballgame. Harmon prefers emails to phone calls. Book pitches don’t have to be as timely, and they can be broader and more basic. The book agent is quickly becoming a thing of the past and writers usually pitch him directly. Some things don’t change across media, though — Harmon still gets poorly written pitches that go straight in the garbage.

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Freelancer faux pas

The editors shared a few of their biggest don’ts when it comes to getting work. So don’t …

Misspell words in the subject line of a pitch email, or really misspell words anywhere in a pitch.
Fax. Apparently there are still people who use fax machines for communications. The editors are not among them.
Pitch stories that ran elsewhere without being upfront about their publication history.
Share content on social media before the publication prints it.

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— Katy Spence interned with OWAA in summer 2016. She is a journalism graduate student at the University of Montana. She enjoys new recipes, new places and old souls.

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Crafting the Q & A

OWAA Developer — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 20:00:52 +0000

BY CHRISTINE PETERSON

Most of the time, people don’t speak unscripted as well as you write. You probably don’t speak as well as you write. That’s why most stories are heavy on prose and light on quotes. It allows the writer to skip over tangents, wanderings and broken sentences, while preserving the essence of the interview.
It also allows a writer to include multiple people and perspectives without confusing the reader.
But sometimes people want to hear exactly what a subject has to say in his or her own words. That’s where the question-and-answer format comes in.
The benefits vary. First, Q&As, as they’re often called, are typically easier than writing a narrative with multiple sources. Second, done well, they’re easy to read. And third, they can be more intimate, presenting a portrait of a person in his or her own words.

Before embarking on using the Q&A in your writing and reporting, here are a few questions (and answers) you should consider.

Q: How do I decide if I should tell a story using a Q&A format?

A: If time restraint is the best reason you can think of to write a Q&A, think about it some more. Question and answer stories shouldn’t be done because they can be easy. Their ease should be an ancillary benefit, not a primary reason. The best question and answers are often with people who are well known, or have had an impact on something important — people readers want to hear from directly. They should also, ideally, be with people who are relatively articulate. Before you decide to start one, ask yourself if this is a person you’d like to hear speak.

Q: How do you prepare for the interview?

A: Question-and-answer stories can be deceptive when it comes to time. Sure, you may not have to struggle over the perfect sentence, but you do have to do homework ahead of time. Make sure you’ve researched your subject before the interview. If the subject is a writer, read some of his or her work so you can ask about a piece. If the subject is a scientist, ask about specific parts of his or her research.

Q: What kinds of questions should you ask?

A: Don’t ask yes-or-no questions. This might seem obvious, but it’s easy to fall into the yes-or-no trap. Ask questions that will lead to stories. Instead of asking the bighorn sheep researcher if it’s scary to work on high-elevation exposed mountaintops, ask the scientist to describe what it is like to capture a sheep. Don’t stick to the basic “how did you get into this?” and “could you ever imagine you’d be this successful?” questions. Feel free to ask those — you never know what you might hear — but also ask more in-depth, specific questions. Stray from your script. You want these interviews to be conversational. As the person talks, feel free to respond with other questions you hadn’t planned. Keep the cadence like something you would see on an evening news show. You aren’t the center of the interview, but you are there, and should ask questions and respond as a reader might.

Q: How do I capture everything the subject says?

A: Record the interview. The most cumbersome part of a Q&A is certainly transcribing, but it’s also necessary. Unless you type or write as fast as a person talks, and can guarantee the accuracy of your skills for the length of an entire interview, you need to record it. This allows you to capture exactly what your subject says in the nuanced way he or she speaks. It also protects you should any of the interview be called into question later.

Q: How much of the interview should I include in the story?

A: Most of my Q&As start with basic questions to help the person feel more comfortable. I ask about job history or education. The information typically becomes part of an introduction I write, which slims a person’s biographical information from a list of schools, awards and positions into a couple of tight, clean sentences. From there, cut the least interesting questions and answers. You can also trim portions of their responses by using ellipses. You want to feature the most important and interesting portions of the interview, so don’t plan to simply dump the entire transcript on your reader. If you are growing bored with a long-winded response, chances are your reader will, too.

— Christine Peterson is an award-winning writer and the outdoor editor for the Casper Star-Tribune, Wyoming’s statewide newspaper. While she’s not tracking bears, wolves or elk on assignment, she’s chasing trout and wrangling her yellow Labrador.

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Magazines with a mission: Freelancing for NGO and agency publications

OWAA Developer — Fri, 01 Apr 2016 15:33:05 +0000

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BY MICHAEL FURTMAN
Although every magazine has a mission — for most it is making a profit — there is a segment of the market that puts purpose ahead of profit. Publications by conservation organizations such as Ducks Unlimited, the Izaak Walton League of America and Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation fall into this category, as do magazines that are the voices of state wildlife agencies, like North Dakota Outdoors and the Minnesota Conservation Volunteer.
I have had the pleasure of selling my words and photos to many such clients, and I’ve learned a few things over the years on how to cater to them.
Know the mission.
The most important thing to remember is that these publications serve a much different purpose than trade publications. Even in today’s supposed “print is dead” environs, these magazines are the principal tools used to reach the members or clients they serve. These publishers represent organizations that have mission statements — and you better know what those missions are! They must be reflected in everything you write and each photo you submit for the publication.
To successfully pitch these organizations’ magazines, familiarize yourself with each entity’s philosophy and mission and understand how it differs from others. Even though the Izaak Walton League is a broad-interest environmental organization, their approach on issues is different than many similar groups. You won’t go very far by pitching them a story with an angle suitable for the Sierra Club. Consider also that while both Ducks Unlimited and Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation publish plenty of hunting stories, those pieces are different than those in Field&Stream. You won’t often see product mentions in the conservation magazines’ hunting stories, and you will always find an undercurrent of conservation and resource appreciation. No “whack ‘em and stack ‘em” stuff here.
Know the players.
Whether you’re writing for a state agency magazine, or a non-profit conservation organization, it will serve you well to learn the names of the players within those entities. Who are their board members, big donors or agency heads? What is the organizational structure? Do they have local chapters, fisheries or wildlife offices near you? Getting to know the people involved not only helps to avoid “stepping on toes,” but also provides you with a wealth of knowledgeable contacts for story ideas or photo opportunities, as well as source material for your articles.
Like boxing, politics is a contact sport, and politics plays a larger role with these entities than it does with most of the other markets with which we deal. State agencies answer to state politicians as well as the people they serve. Organizations answer to not only their average members, but to their most active volunteers and officers. Throw a punch in the wrong direction, you can expect one in return.
Know the boundaries.
If you are going to develop a long-term business relationship with these groups, you’ll have to face the fact that you’ll need to watch what you say or write about them, their employees, or officers. Since they reserve the right to purchase material from a variety of sources, you should not be surprised if you step across some boundary, they may choose to no longer buy photos or stories from you.
This is especially true if you’ve been with them long enough to be placed on their magazine masthead.
We as freelancers know that even though we are listed as “field editor” or “contributing photographer” on the masthead, we are not employees of the organizations, but the public doesn’t know that. When they see our name on the masthead, they likely will assume we are employed by the organization. If you tick someone off, not only might they go after you, but also the organization, which isn’t going to make you many friends in the editorial office.
Know yourself.
While it may sound like I’m encouraging freelancers to swallow their pride or hide their opinions, I most certainly am not. Those who know me know that I’m an opinionated SOB, and have never shied away from voicing my beliefs. What I am saying is that you need to be smart. If you must — as I have — take issue with one of these entities while writing in some other venue, a fair and professional approach is your best armor.
Some of these markets pay top-shelf fees for our products, and avoiding them would be a mistake. If you know their mission, know their players, and know the boundaries, you should be able to nurture a long, profitable and enjoyable business relationship.
–Michael Furtman has been a full-time writer and photographer since 1982. He is a contributing editor for Ducks Unlimited Magazine, principal photographer for Puddler magazine and a contributor to many other publications. He lives in Duluth, Minnesota.
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