A couple of years ago I wrote up some notes from interviews I conducted with the editors of the UK's leading diving magazines. What I can't believe is how I only got round to publishing one of the interviews on this site - instead they've been lying dormant on my hard drive.
No good to anyone there, so here's the second one, to be followed in a couple of days by the third.
They all asked for their details to be kept anonymous, but as there are only three leading magazines devoted to diving in the UK I'll leave it to you to try and work out which interview belongs to the editor of DIVER, Sport Diver or DIVE. Any guesses?
If you are going to target the UK market these interviews are (in my opinion) golden nuggets as none of the magazines publish contributor guidelines. What you have here are the thoughts and opinions of the editors, what goes through their minds as they put together each edition of their magazine.
Here are the key messages from the second interview:
"I don’t do commissioning in advance for writers I don’t know, what I will do is a commitment to look.
I’m looking for quality, original and strong narrative, 1800 words max.
Features - they’re everything but writing about my holiday. There’s a great deal of research required.
I don’t put Contributor Guidelines out - “How to do better features!” It’s like giving free lessons to the opposition. And what you think might be good this year, may not be next year
You’re unlikely to get published first time with a regular feature - the “It happened to me” column is a good way to test out a writer.
There are tiers of people who write - the internet forums, some online magazines, sites like the BSAC Travel Club. They can all be influential - a way of demonstrating your writing ability.
It can be a bit depressing for people when they submit a good piece of writing, I might have to say, “not today” for several reasons: it might just not fit in, may have something similar, or it might have just been done well by the opposition.
Influence - aiming for a broad sheet style of journalism, to match the Times and Telegraph.
We pay professional rates to experienced writers who have world class photographs. Writers with a bit of flair who can manouvre around cliches."
Karli has recently discovered how by taking 'baby steps' you can get published in Lonely Planet magazine. Well, the same applies to this magazine (you should be able to work out the title from the clues in the interview) - this editor even goes as far as telling you where to start, how to impress him with your ability.
Keep Writing...
Brendan
Recent Comments