Posts tagged: newspaper article

How to find the precise book subject that others want to buy

I particularly liked a posting by Rob Carver who suggested that writers simply talk to the ultimate buyers in their market to see what they want to read and buy. (This was part of a very interesting discussion in the Linkedin Group called Ebooks, Ebook Readers, Digital Books and Digital Content Publishing.) Getting new book [...]

Don’t pick a “must-use” title before writing your book

Never start writing a book with some title in mind that you aren’t willing to improve, change, or totally replace. When I taught college journalism, an early assignment was to have the students write a 500-word newspaper feature piece. I’d tell them to write it, then see what they had to put in print, then [...]

How to Interview a Famous (or Infamous) Person Abroad

Some years back I was headed to northern South America to write five or six travel articles. I got tickets to/from Manaus, Brazil, on the Amazon River, and planned to divert to Quito, Ecuador, and Bogota, Colombia, if I had time when I returned. A lot to squeeze into three weeks. I followed the process [...]

Interviewing famous men at the urinal

Sorry, ladies, but this is one place where male reporters have a leg up, so to speak… Don’t despair. I only interviewed one famous man, or any man, that way once, and that was by chance. But it worked, and since that was all I needed at that moment it let me dance (better said, [...]

Four ways to get magazine or newspaper interviews

Over the past 30-years, in my “Writing Travel Articles That Sell” seminar, I’d talk for about 20 minutes about interviewing. The entire process has almost completely changed during that time. First, though, why bother to interview at all? Who really cares? The editors who will hopefully buy your article (even book) care a lot. It’s [...]

What do you do first to deduct your travel-writing trips?

Two premises: (1) you want to write and sell something about a coming trip, and (2) you want to be able to keep all of the money you earn, or at least increase your IRS tax deduction as much as you can. Good thinking—and totally legal. You are supposed to take every deduction allowed. More [...]

Resell your article again and again? Here’s the needed tool.

If you’ve had a good article in print, why not sell it again and again? To do that you need a cover letter to send to the second editor. These are full-page letters sent to editors who buy reprints (same as second rights)—usually editors who pay on publication. If you sold first rights to the [...]

How do you set up a magazine (or newspaper) interview?

Most of the articles you write should include at least one and often three interviews, plus of course facts, perhaps some anecdotal material, and probably some artwork (usually photos). In fact, the most persuasive items selling the article are the interviews or quotes you promise the editor in your query letter. Like a piece about [...]

You should be quoted (almost) everywhere (almost) all the time

The first question is, “How often are you being quoted?” The second question is, “Who cares?” If you’re not seeing your best words in print often enough, the person who may care most is you! And that’s a very important person indeed. Why is it important? It can directly affect your posterity, perceived expertise, and [...]

A lifetime formula for selling 75% of the nonfiction you write

If you want to sell almost everything nonfiction that you submit, including 75% of what you send to editors, here’s the not-so-secret formula: • Before submitting any copy, first send a super query letter to the editor asking if she/he would be interested in your preparing and sending an article about ____. (If you’re unfamiliar [...]