Day 6: How do I get my stuff published?
Issues
- What are editors and publishers looking for in contributors?
- What about getting paid for my contributions?
- What about online publishing?
- How do I get a following?
Background
Source
Issue
Text
Lynne Varner in The Art of Opinion Writing
Who’s going to make it as a regular in opinion journalism?
Every media outlet is looking to grow its audience. You have to be a really sharp, astute thinker with a built-in audience. We’re so hungry to capture new markets and hold on to old ones, and we are looking for people to help us. Outlets are always looking for new brands because that new brand will bring in a new audience.
The Art of Opinion Writing, chapter on Derrick Jackson
You and the editor
“If you are going to be successful, have the courage to let an editor speak honestly with you about your work.”
The Art of Opinion Writing, chapter on Kathleen Parker
Keeping your sanity
“Writing is a great way to avoid the loony bin. It’s like a pressure value. Release those thoughts into the atmosphere and you’re relieved of the burden. But I would not recommend that anyone do this for a living.
Column writing is like going to school every day forever.”
George Dillard, An age of less and less reliable information
On Medium.com
Where is the news business headed in its next attempt to supply reliable information?
A lot of local media sources are dead or have become a pale shadow of their old selves. It’s hard to imagine them coming back.
Everybody wants the news to cost nothing — only 17% of people in rich countries pay for online news, and we’ve become conditioned to expect that this will remain the case.
Many of us have become used to information bubbles in which the news we read or watch affirms our ideological priors. We have learned to reject news that makes us uncomfortable.
Cynical actors have perfected the art of emotionally manipulating people with misinformation — hell, they still have 30% of the country convinced that the election was stolen in the face of all available evidence.
John Wilson, Anyone can claim to be a journalist or a news organization, and publish lies with almost total impunity
Excerpt from The Conversation
Journalistic standards
News businesses or profit machines can hire anybody who falls off a turnip truck and label them journalists because the job has no standardized requirements.
Fox essentially admits to publishing false information about Dominion, but argues it is nonetheless protected from liability. It is a defense grounded in the First Amendment, which protects press freedom so robustly that it also protects the irresponsible use of that freedom.
What to write about
Hot topics on Medium
- Writing and making money by writing (surprised?)
- Dating, relationship, and love (who could have guessed?)
- Mental health, life lessons, psychology, self-improvement
- Politics, history
- Science, technology
Guidelines for Ellemeno on Medium
The Kind Of Stories We’re Looking For
Frankly, we don’t actually want to read anything about your writing, we want to hear about your life as a writer, if that makes any sense. This is a place for writers to write about their lives when they aren’t writing. The flotsam and jetsam of life that leads to good writing.
Consider categories such as home, travel, food+drink, language, reading, nostalgia, dreams, family, and friends. The good stuff.
This is a NOT a place for articles on the business of writing. We are not interested in “Six Things You’re Doing Wrong To Make Money Writing” or “How I Got Rich Writing.”
But we’re also open to quality essays on politics, culture, travel and life.
Discussion Questions
- How sensitive are you to criticism?
- How many drafts are you willing to write?
- How much of a perfectionist are you?
Application
On the issue we agreed on in our last session to explore today, abortion, let’s test our instincts about how to put a piece together that will please an editor.