These are techniques that have served me well along with useful advice I’ve received over the years. I hope it helps and good luck!
Submitting feature ideas to newspapers and magazines.
- Have at least two, preferably three, ideas ready in case there’s an immediate no. Don’t let a ‘no’ throw you and pitch the strongest idea first.
- Find out the right person’s name – editors come and go surprisingly fast.
- Call first, introduce yourself quickly and say you have a few ideas and ask if you can quickly go through them.
- Only ever make these calls when you’re feeling confident, good about yourself and couldn’t care less if they said no. I found standing up helped to make myself feel more assertive and I smiled. It doesn’t matter that they can’t see you. You can hear a smile through the voice.
- Have these ideas printed out in front of you so you don’t lose the plot!
- If the editor is busy ask if you can email them and get his/her email address.
- Have a synopsis already written for each idea (no more than a third of a page long) so can send it by email later that day.
- Your synopsis should identify main subject at top of your para, include the treatment, why it’s interesting/important, if there’s a peg or news angle and if you have personal examples for people piece.
- Wait a week and call back but do find out which day the magazine goes to press, especially if it’s a weekly, as the two days beforehand would be a terrible time to call as everyone will be so busy.
On spec request
- If you’re new to the magazine and unknown to the editor you will probably be asked to write the piece ‘on spec’ first. No expenses will be met and you’ll only be paid if it’s accepted and published. This happens a lot so don’t be disheartened as you’ve got your chance.
- Ask questions – number of words, deadline.
- Don’t miss the deadline.
- If your on spec piece is accepted ask the editor how much you should invoice them for. If it’s for a national newspaper between 800-1000 words you shouldn’t accept less than £250. The Time and The Mail will pay at least £350. If you are offered a low amount, act surprised and say it’s a lot lower than you expected as you normally charge a minimum of £250. Nine times out of ten you’ll be offered more. If not, oh well, they’ll respect you for asking and you’ll get a byline and that’s important.
Commission
- Ask questions – number of words, deadline, pay etc and ensure you are both aiming for the same emphasis, tone and content.
- Include personal examples where relevant, you need quotes wherever possible and colour.
- Don’t miss the deadline.
- When you email the copy ask how much you should invoice for if you forgot to ask during the ‘you’ve got a commission’ call!
- Send that invoice.
- Prepare for a wait sometimes between accepted commissioned copy and publication. Some editors manage their freelances better than others while others have a pile of pieces waiting to go.
- If you get called by sub editors querying your copy and wanting to clarify certain sentences work with them and keep cool – sometimes, due to the nature of their job – they can be offhand and blunt.
- Congratulations!
A Professional Approach
- Buy all the magazines and newspapers you want to target and all the ones you’ve never heard of, at least once, to examine the available market.
- Go through these publications and make notes on the style and feature articles/story subjects etc
- Make a note of the appropriate editors but do be aware that they change quickly.
- Check out if the publication has a website which details submission guidelines.
What I learnt on my writing fellowship…
- Write everything and anything in any style and any format – be it radio drama, short film scripts, full length screenplays or for the stage.
- If you can, go on short courses to learn about writing in other mediums to the one you normally do. It all helps and you might find a new career.
- Get professional feedback if possible or someone who’s opinion you respect who, more importantly, is prepared to be constructively critical.
- Be a competition fiend and enter everything and anything that takes your fancy – and even those that don’t
- Find your forte and prepare for it not being what you thought it was – that’s a good thing!
- Write from the gut.
- Be bold.
- You learn more from your failures than your successes. I speak from the heart here.
- Don’t give up.
Useful websites
www.literaturetraining.com for opportunities, UK-wide competitions, jobs, training and events. You can subscribe to a regular bulletin for free.
www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom - good for the larger competitions and packed with useful advice about writing.
www.shootingpeople.org – the US and UK independent film community. Costs about £30 a year. Subscribe to the film makers and screenwriter’s bulletins in particular as you often get film students and makers requiring short film scripts to film – anything from 2 pages to 15.
Courses
These are organisations whose courses I can directly recommend having been on them.
The Arvon Foundation – www.arvonfoundation.org
These are mostly week long residential courses where the cost covers tuition – during the day and evenings - accommodation and all food (usually excellent as you each take turn to help prepare it from set menus with all the ingredients bought for you). I did a comedy one and thoroughly enjoyed it and learnt a lot from a stage play one – not least that I wasn’t very good at it! Still had a good time though
The Lighthouse, Brighton – www.lighthouse.org.uk
I did a short 4 day screenwriting course here, spread out over 4 Saturdays, and, apart from being fantastic fun, it resulted in me writing the short film Roses are Red which was recently filmed and can be seen on the www.scifilm.co.uk website if you have a great broadband connection.
Free software
There is free software to download for various writing formats – stage, radio, television, film - on BBC’s writersroom website. It took me a few attempts so do it with someone who’s au fait with computers.
Feedback
- Find a mentor if possible.
- Take criticism on the chin.
- Read winning entries of any writing competitions, compare with your own and learn from them. Understand why they won and what they did that was especially good.
- Learn, learn, learn and keep going!!!
All the best and hope this helps – Sue
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