SERVICE EDITORS=GET MORE WORK=MAKE MORE MONEY
SERVICE EDITORS=GET MORE WORK=MAKE MORE MONEY
By David Geer
When editors consider you a bonified service, they'll use you
more. The more work, the more money. How do you become a service
to editors? With rare exception, contact them only for the
following four reasons. These were the reasons behind contacts
where editors most often felt I was serving them, judging by
their reactions and the continued work.
1) Targeted Queries - Instead of sending tons of queries that
have that seemingly justifiable 60/40 chance of being on target,
take time to give them that 90% guarantee, through careful
research and preparation.
A) Know the publication. It works. You might still hit the
target without reading the publication. Might doesn't pay the
bills and it doesn't serve your editor when might turns into
probably not. B) Research their archives to make sure they
haven't covered the topic.
C) Research the topic to make sure it hasn't been done to death
or at least not done the way you want to do it.
D) Follow the publication's writer guidelines thoroughly.
E) Queries must include all the elements the editor requires
(see guidelines). Where they aren't specific about that, read up
on great queries. My best source of great query writing tips is
from "Magazine Writing That Sells" By Don McKinney (Writers
Digest, 1994).
2) Great Submissions Ahead of Deadline- Once you've written the
query that is better than the article will probably be (that's
the one that gets the work and no, I'm not kidding), then you
have to turn around and write the article better than the query
was, while adhering to what you both agreed to. You've got the
assignment; research and write it well. Edit and proof it three
times yourself. Go over it with the writer guidelines you
promised to adhere to. Compare it to the best articles in the
magazine itself. Finish up to a week in advance or more when
possible and submit ahead of schedule.
3) Quick Responses to Requests for Rewrites and Fact Checking-
When an editor asks you to rewrite, know what they need and get
it done immediately, likewise with fact checking. You be sure so
they can be sure. Them counting on you is the sell here. Know
how soon they want it back and deliver it before then if humanly
possible.
4) Praising and Promoting Them and Their Publications-If you get
the opportunity to write about media, include your editors and
their publications in the story where possible. Offer to link to
their sites from yours. Thank them for the work they give you.
Let them know they are appreciated.
These four things save the editor time, take up their time only
with things that are a service to them, and associate your name
with adjectives like "helpful", "useful", "available",
"reliable" and "handy".
What else can you do?
5) Find out when they're on deadline themselves so you can
consider waiting until they get a break before you send your
next query.
6) Earn a great reputation with each editor individually so you
can do so with all editors as a group.
7) Realize that editors are busy people. Some editors may hope
that you will (quite logically) come to the conclusion that
their lack of response to one query means they aren't interested
and perhaps it's time to send the next one. You'll be remembered
fondly as the one writer among many who didn't require a
response except when the answer was yes.
8) Become a name writer. Add value to their publication by being
an expert, an authority, or just someone who is published a lot
or who does great work - or all of the above!
Now how do you manage #8? Do everything #'s 1-7. In so doing,
you'll not only save your editors a lot of time but yourself as
well. Great queries that are rejected by one publication can
easily be tweaked for another. Bad queries just plain won't be
good anywhere. You have saved yourself time by doing the work
right the first time.
Great work ahead of schedule means you can move more quickly to
the next several assignments or queries, getting more work
published in the same amount of time. Being fast, and good, and
prolific, which is what all this will make you, will certainly
lead to becoming somewhat of a name writer as well, as will the
other steps as well.