Comments on: Free Advice Friday: Working with Magazines

By: Lori Widmer

Lori Widmer — Tue, 01 Apr 2014 12:28:03 +0000

LOL! Cathy, welcome to the club. 🙂

By: Cathy Miller

Cathy Miller — Mon, 31 Mar 2014 16:18:58 +0000

And promptly went in Comments and created my own typo. 😉

By: Lori Widmer

Lori Widmer — Fri, 28 Mar 2014 18:20:34 +0000

Cathy, isn't that always the way? It's why I shouldn't do grammar posts. :)

Great point on payment terms, Paula. If they're a new magazine to you, it's pretty important to know that!

LOL! Jake, it happens to the best of us. Cathy caught several errors in my post, which I was able to correct before anyone else saw them. :)

Yep, agreed. Mistakes happen, the world still turns. Amazing, isn't it?

By: Jake Poinier

Jake Poinier — Fri, 28 Mar 2014 17:23:10 +0000

As if to underscore the point, now laughing at my typo in second sentence. Duh.

By: Jake Poinier

Jake Poinier — Fri, 28 Mar 2014 17:21:28 +0000

Oh, boy, "handle disagreements professionally" gave me a flashback. One of my clients had written an trade mag article, which I edited for her. The magazine introduced a fairly serious error...and my client fired off an angry letter to the editor because she was so upset (and before asking me what she should do).

It ended up being OK, since the editor took it in stride, apologized, and created a clean pdf for my client to put in her portfolio. But I counseled my client to *not* do that in the future. I'm confident the editor hasn't hired her since.

People who haven't been published too often can get kind of freaked out. For me, it's part of the game--you just can't worry about it.

TGIF!

By: Paula

Paula — Fri, 28 Mar 2014 15:39:33 +0000

Solid advice as usual, Lori!

For many magazines an assignment letter serves as the contract. A few will have one general contract that applies to everything you write for them for a year or however long the contract states.

It's also important to ask what their payment terms are. Here are a few I've encountered:

• immediately upon invoice
• within 30 (or 45 or 60) days of invoice
• on one specific date per month
• upon publication
• within 30 days of publication (try to avoid)

I've had some sleazy clients stretch terms even further. One stated they paid within 30 days of invoice, but left out the part that they considered "upon invoice" to be the date they put the invoice into their "system," not the date you sent it.

A couple weeks ago I had to contact an editor who cut just a tiny sentence or two from one of my articles - including the name of someone who was quoted. Worse yet, that quote was sandwiched between paragraphs where a different person was named or quoted, so any reader would assume the colorful anecdote was from the wrong person. It was Sunday, but I immediately e-mailed the editor, tactfully explaining how the speaker's name had been left out and asked if she could correct that in the online version. She did.

By: Cathy Miller

Cathy Miller — Fri, 28 Mar 2014 15:08:51 +0000

And I love my Comment gad - er - had a typo. Seems appropriate for the topic. LOL!! ;-)

By: Lori Widmer

Lori Widmer — Fri, 28 Mar 2014 13:44:15 +0000

Thanks, Cathy and Jenn. :)

Cathy, deadly is the right word for it. I balked at one instance where the editor was suggesting changing someone's job title.

By: Jennifer Mattern

Jennifer Mattern — Fri, 28 Mar 2014 13:42:41 +0000

Great intro to writing for print Lori!

And Devon, congrats on the new gig. :)

By: Cathy Miller

Cathy Miller — Fri, 28 Mar 2014 13:07:44 +0000

Because I ghostwrite, the editors don't know I exist. However, that doesn't mean I don't feel the effects of a good or bad editor.

One bimonthly ghostwriting gig I have gad for going on 5 years has seen thee editors. The last (and current) one edits with an eraser that changes not only the impact (as you described, Lori), but also the meaning. That can be deadly in a technical article (as you well know, Lori).

This is a great how-to, Lori, on writing for magazines. Thanks for sharing!