Angling Journalism

[Steve Burke]

Many readers, including me, found Budgie's articles very useful. One of the reasons is that they were different.

 

Many instructional articles, as was pointed out earlier, are very similar in content to hundreds of earlier ones. It's therefore a good idea to include at least some advice that's new, or at least, different. This is more likely to get your article both noticed and appreciated.

 

Another piece of advice I'd give is to try and give the beginning and end of your article some impact. Editors in a hurry may just take a look at the first and, possibly, the last paragraphs. In particular, if the first few sentences don't hold the reader's attention you could well lose a sale.

 

I eventually took over as editor of Chevin and inherited a number of articles. One in particular rambled on and on before it got to the point, and as a result successive editors had done nothing with it for several years. I had no choice as I had very little material. However, by cutting out the entire first half and starting with a paragragh with some impact the article became much more interesting and was in fact well received. I had the time to spend on this piece, but as submitted it would have been instantly rejected by a magazine without being read in full.

 

An editor's job is not an easy one, as I found out during my years of editing Chevin, the Perchfisher magazine, and finally The Book of the Perch. Anything you do to make the editor's job easier will earn goodwill and will definitely increase your chances of having your work published.

 

Oh, and don't forget to make a copy. Otherwise you may never see all your hard work again!

[Peter Sharpe]

I think I should clarify something Steve wrote about always leaving a blank line between each line of text. This only applies if you are sending in a printed document. The idea is that it leaves space for a proof reader's squiggles.

 

If I receive a Word file spaced in that way, the first thing I is remove the spacing! A 10-point font is also preferable, and not in something like Comic. Always leave a space after punctuation marks (before and after in the case of dashes) It doesn't really matter how you choose to format your paragraph breaks, although if you are planning to send in regular features it will help you to stick as closely as possible to the publication's set format.

 

I would be interested to hear Wordbender's views on the line spacing, as I believe it is a hangover from typed scripts, and some people only submit digital files in this way because they once heard that it was required. Perhaps this is because I tend to proof read submissions to my own magazine on the screen. When I proof read for other magazines though, I am always given a page proof, so the double spacing is really pointless.

 

"Yor 1 ov them Littry-Fashists, yu r!"

Shouldn't that be u r

[Elton]

BUDGIE:

For many years my angling mates had tried to encourage me to write articles.

Budgie,

 

If your articles are a tenth of the quality that your fish-ins are alleged to be, then they'll always be well received.

 

People here still wax lyrical about the Budgie Pike-In

 

Tight lines,

 

Elton

 

PS That old advert of yours is still somewhere here....

 

[ 23. July 2003, 11:41 PM: Message edited by: Elton ]

[Guest sslatter]

chesters1:

quote:

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Three Men in a Boat

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not forgetting montmorency (sp?) i hope

on the topic any thoughts on book writing? <SNIP> more pages more money and colour is more expensive than b&W etc but if the book is a complete history then it WILL be huge ,would there be a market for it ,or should i do what i loath to ,make it smaller , how could i get a publisher interested?.As you can tell i`m an angler NOT an authour but its my ambition to get this book done (although not for some time) but what ARE the pitfalls

Hi chesters1..

 

Two books you will find invaluable:

 

"How to publish yourself" by Peter Finch; Allison and Busby; ISBN 0-74900-301-4

 

..which, although it is a self-publishers' manual, gives all the info you should know about the publishing process and how the industry works, contact names and numbers, all the stages of the whole thing from beginning to write, through the preparation of print-ready copy and the software used by the industry, copyright, publishing practice, to submission, acceptance, and marketing. From my own experience, writing, printing, and publishing a book is not difficult. Selling it is. It's all in this little gem of a book.

 

Also:

 

"The Writers' and Artists' Yearbook 2003"; A. and C. Black; ISBN 0-7136-5982-3

 

..which is the industry bible for Publishers' and Agents' addresses, the criteria for contacting them, and the genres in which they deal, as well as useful articles on submission, copyright, and writers' resources etc. Have fun!

 

[ 24. July 2003, 01:42 AM: Message edited by: Graham X ]

[Guest sslatter]

Barnese.. two points:

 

1) You write that you are "only 16" and wonder if this matters. Well..

 

This may work in your favour. As a teenager, anything you got published would be of immediate interest to other teenagers, and I would bet that you are far more in touch with the trials and tribulations of younger anglers than old gits like me. ;-) An Editor might like that. So it's not a bad "angle" to have. (Pun intended).

 

2) IF you want someone to look over and (possibly) edit a prospective article, then I offer my services free gratis. Just let me know, send it in Word, and I'll look over it for you, no worries.

[Peter Waller]

Strewth fellas, some of you have given poor Gilbertron a pretty rough ride. He made some very relevant comments. He has a point, some angling writers are less than able. I look at some of my printed work, recent and not so recent, and cringe. But the editors obviously liked the content.

 

I well remember a picture editor who commented that it was better to have a crap photograph of a good subject rather than a good photograph of a crap subject. The ideal being a good photograph of a good subject, that being what a professional should aim for, but crap might be better than nothing.

[Wordbender]

Peter Sharpe:

 

I would be interested to hear Wordbender's views on the line spacing, as I believe it is a hangover from typed scripts, and some people only submit digital files in this way because they once heard that it was required

I think you're right, Peter. I can't remember the last time I subbed a piece on paper, and my on-screen edits are always done with single line spacing, mainly because I find it easier to read at a pace which allows the article to 'flow'.

 

Apart from the occasional page-proof after initial makeup, I rarely see paper at all these days. Even the final proof before printing is done via the 'net, on screen.

 

Gosh, how techno' we meeja types are.

 

Terry

[Wordbender]

Peter Waller:

Strewth fellas, some of you have given poor Gilbertron a pretty rough ride.

Perhaps, but you'll notice that the roughest riders were either editors or writers in some capacity or other.

 

For me it was Gilbertron's 'punctuation and grammar are nothing' statement, plus his (claimed) deliberate non-punctuation that sparked the nark. It's bad enough when our language is muddied with text-speak, over-speak and plain cobblers-speak, without a 'professional' editor doing it during his advice to a would-be writer.

 

Alternatively, Peter S, Chevin and I could simply be a bunch of spiteful old word-queens who refuse to bow to 'progress'.

 

Come to think of it, I'm sure I've seen a photo of Chevin in pink shorts, and he does love Judy Garland.

 

Terry

[Peter Sharpe]

Phew, I'm glad about that. I was worried in case I was doing something that would have me black-balled as an anarchist.

I remember reading how the late John Sidley's writing was usually submitted hand-written on scruffy scraps of paper, and was barely legible. The difference was that he had been asked to write his features. There lies the big difference: if an editor wants your work so much that they commission it directly, you can obviously submit it to the best of your (possibly limited) ability. If anyone else tried it they would be wasting their time.

[Peter Waller]

Gilbertron is, I believe, a 'broadcast' editor, if that makes a difference.

 

Yes, I agree, we should work towards quality, we should work towards protecting our standards of written English. The general standard of spoken English is changing, some would say deteriorating fast. Business 'write' appears to frown on any form of punctuation other than full-stops. Some of you old word-queens(!) may object but that is, alegedly and regretfully, progress.

 

I have good friends in the second-hand book trade. The demand for well written, older angling books is far exceeding supply. There must be a moral to that story!!