Writing an article Re: Authoring an article for publishing

PS I hope I don't sound insufferably snotty, John, but after you
authored several articles for publishing, isn't it time to move on to
writing an article? No real writer calls himself an author, no real
writer would be seen dead turning a noun into a verb, no real writer
even then would use it in the passive mode. (One might say that the
passive mode and the appeal to authority gives away your engineering
faculty education.) If a writer writes an article, it is presumed to be
for publication, so that the phrase "for publication" is a tautology
which gives away that your article was not commissioned (i.e. paid for
up front, before you wrote it, as all mine are). And that's just the
title... Welcome to the wonderful world of writers, John, where every
word is freighted with a truckload of meaning. -- Andre Jute

Andre Jute wrote:
> John Stewart wrote:
> > I found authoring these several articles over the past few years to
> > be quite different than writing an engineering report or a sales
> > proposal. It seems that when people buy a magazine they want to be
> > entertained. One needs to write in such a way that the readers
> > attention is held.
> >
> > And there is a need to be careful as well not to offend those who
> > are buying advertising space.
> >
> > Finally, how does one write so that the information will be
> > understandable to most?
> >
> > All in all, it has been a learning experience for me!! There is a
> > bit of money in it but by no means a living. Just satisfaction.
> >
> >
> > Others may not agree. But these are my thoughts,
> > anyway! Cheers, John Stewart
>
> I don't imagine there is much of a living to be made writing about
> electronics, unless you write college textbooks. Certainly, Joe Roberts
> of Sound Practices wanted me to write free of charge, which of course I
> wouldn't do.
>
> John makes an often overlooked point about even the little techie
> magazines seeking entertaining writers. One electronics hobby magazine
> group was so desperate to have just one good writer that it paid me
> about seven times what it paid everyone else, which still wasn't
> caviare country. The owner also offered me an editorship for a salary
> that would probably see him jailed in a decent country for breaking the
> slave-wage laws.
>
> If you want to make a modest sort of a buck out of writing about hi-fi,
> the glossy review magazines are keen on entertaining stylists who know
> a little elecronics. Note where the emphasis falls.
>
> If you despise the hi-fi glossies (I don't, they have their place), a
> more respectable income can be more respectably earned in reviewing
> music of whatever genre you like. When I switched from vinyl to CD, I
> reviewed classical music on record for a few years until I had a
> collection of 6000 discs; syndicating those columns made me the
> best-read music critic in the world and added up to respectable money.
> Still, as an hourly rate it probably wouldn't light up a lawyer's eyes,
> but I enjoyed it.
>
> No journalism really pays. If you want to be a writer, what pays is
> textbooks and thrillers, and pop song lyrics. If you can write
> exceedingly well and want the routine of going daily to a smart office,
> advertising copywriting is very highly paid. (I once hired a dyslexic
> as a copywriter for the present equivalent of a half a million bucks, a
> house with two pools, cars for him and his wife of course, private
> schooling for his kid, etc, because I was told he was a super
> copywriter. When I caught up on guy who sold me this crippled pup, I
> screwed him permanently into the gutter. I also manipulated my chief
> competitor into stealing the crippled pup from us...) Also highly
> lucrative but more difficult to get your foot in the door: creating
> characters and situations for TV serials (writing the actual episodes
> is hard and very frustrating work). I've worked in the theatre but most
> of the good guys (writers, producers and directors) in staged drama
> drift rather quickly into television and films. In both of those I
> found it more lucrative and interesting to be elsewhere (1): television
> skills pay better in advertising and music videos, and being in
> management in films is much more exciting (if also more wearing) than
> being a screenwriter or script editor. One well-paid and very
> satisfying sort of work for politically committed or very mercenary
> writers is to be advisors and speechwriters to pols, and of course
> ghostwriting books for pols is very lucrative work.
>
> The problem with writing for hobbyist magazines is that so many people
> think they have a right to tell you what to say and how to say it. The
> newspapers and magazines I generally write for can afford to ignore
> readers who want to pick nits but niche market and hobby magazines
> can't afford to ignore one subscriber or one mickey mouse advertiser.
> The more you're paid for journalism, the more immune you are to such
> pressures; that has nothing to do with the intrinsic value of what you
> write but with the size and wealth of the media you write for.
>
> Still and all, the key thing about being able to write well is that it
> takes you to interesting places and carries you into interesting
> situations and introduces you to interesting people, and when all of
> that palls, you can write novels in some agreeable place...
>
> Andre Jute
> Literate, very
>
> (1) Also more pleasing to be elsewhere; in particular, not to be in the
> same place as the exceedingly tiresome inferiority complexes and petty
> dramas of the actors.

.

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