John Kessler explains how he gets repeat assignments.
Freelance writers like John Kessler are rare — the kind of writer editors can count on, who can tackle just about any story and come through at the last minute.
John is the full-time dining columnist at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. On the side, he freelances for Garden & Gun, Food Arts (recently deceased), GQ, and has written for Cooking Light and Every Day with Rachael Ray.
What does it take to be the writer editors call upon? Kessler has ideas:
Q. Do you pitch new publications or do editors come to you?
A. My best work always comes from magazines where I’ve developed a relationship with the editor. Getting to know the editors, knowing what they want and working well with them is key. Once they know me they’re more receptive to pitches.
Q. What kind of stories do you write?
A. My specialty is restaurant writing, but I’ve done food travel writing too. At Garden & Gun, the features editor wanted a story about a restaurant designer and how they created a look for an unusual restaurant. Then he asked if I wanted to do an Atlanta story about a master gardener who has wonderful boxwoods. And I said, “What’s a boxwood?” but I like to throw myself into something new.
Q. By then they trusted you, that you could branch (ahem) out.
A. They trusted me, they knew I could make a deadline, and that I could write stylishly enough and pull off a nice turn of phrase. What’s more important is to craft a story that has a narrative and a tone that supports the narrative. Some stories may need to be a little folksier or a little sharper, a little snarkier. But they all need a shape that will work well.
Q. A lot of restaurant writing seems to be about lists and round-ups, or does that just come with the territory?
A. Roundups can be boring if you’re just rehashing stuff you already know. I look at freelancing as icing, vacation money or tuition money for my kids. But I like to learn, so I look for a piece where I can do some research that’s fun.
Writing a 100-word blurb is a craft you have to polish. It has to have some energy, a new phrase you can sneak in, or a complicated sentence structure. There has to be some delight in your own writing.
Q. How often do you get second assignments?
A. A lot of the assignments are one-off, like a Delta Sky magazine series on Atlanta restaurants. I don’t expect them to come back to me.
But other ones like monthly magazines, most have at least come back for seconds, and sometimes we’ve developed nice relationships.
Q. How do you write the story the publication wants?
A. The most important thing is to read the publication and to understand right away that there are holes that need to be filled, that they have lists of stories that go in certain spots. They will need 10 to 12 pieces in the front of the book, and when one falls through, they’re going to be rummaging through a file of pitches to find something they think will fit.
So if you’re good at knocking out front-of-the-book pieces, that’s your way in — proving yourself with 500-700 words.
Also, figure out what’s good where you live. It pays to know who the interesting people are and what things are happening that you could get a leg up on. Then you feel that “aha” moment where it seems that there’s a good story for a certain magazine.
Q. What would you tell freelancers who want better assignments?
A. So much of a good freelanced piece is not in the turn of phrase or voice, but how well you can pull a reader through a block of copy. If you can do this without being reworked a lot, you can succeed. You have to convince an editor that you’re easy to work with with, and some editors are disorganized and you’re going to keep them in mind.
Some magazines are obsessive about fact checking. For a story on natural American river pearls, there was a lot of history about them, and I kept returning to online academic texts to check facts. I’m a little obsessive about it too.
Be a nice person. Be grateful when an editor comes to you with a freelance story. Be curious, thorough, and a non-problematic writer.
Q. What about editors who change your work?
A. Some editors barely edit and some change stuff and they don’t tell you, and it doesn’t sound like you at all. A friend of mine interviewed a famous chef for some lad mag, and they had inserted an anal sex joke into the copy. When it came out she was mortified and called the chef immediately.
I’ve seen a few things that are cringeworthy, like describing something as precious, but you know what? It’s their magazine, their audience and I’ve gotta go with it. Some editors will show me the pdfs to make sure that I’m okay with changes, but it’s mostly factual stuff.
I like an editor who makes the piece better. Even an okay editor can make your story better, and a great editor is a gift.
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You might also like:
- “Find the Story Only You Can Write,” says Carolynn Carreno
- Lucky Peach Editor Wants Stories Other Magazines Won’t Run
- 5 Tips for Dealing with Editors Who Change Your Work
How do you get the writing gigs to begin with? This has always been hard for me… Pitching to an editor.
Good question, Dina. You meet an editor and start talking about things you’re interested and suddenly you get an assignment. Or you write a killer pitch letter they can’t resist. I’ve got a whole chapter on freelancing in my book Will Write for Food.
This is perfect timing as I’ve just made a list of people to pitch to. Thanks Dianne for continually coming up with such useful and thought provoking posts.
Oh good. Best of luck! Thanks for being a loyal reader over many years, from Dubai to Oakland through the power of the Internet.
These really are spot on. Gracious, flexible, and positive will do more to further your chances for repeat assignments than anything else in my experience. There are too many good writers out there hoping to land assignments, and responding quickly to edits and requests from editors will help ensure that they will want to work with you again.
Another topic that wasn’t brought up was images, and it might not apply as much to magazines, but with newspapers, I am finding that especially with round ups, I am having to source photos. I spend more time doing this than actually writing, so it’s good to develop solid relationships with pr firms who can obtain quotes and images quickly.
Yes. I think I learned this lesson later in life.
This “request for images” issue is a relatively new development, Sophia, right? I always had my staff find images to go with the photos. This is where it comes in handy to be a food blogger.
I can only speak from my experience working with a daily, but yes, dispatching a photographer is costly and if the subject I am working on already has art, be it a store, book, product, the first query I get from my editors is, do they have art? Another phenomenon I’ve noticed since the proliferation of online merchants and sites is that when the media comes knocking for images, they only have low-res, which won’t cut it in print. I’ve had to pass on more than one vendor because they didn’t have high-res images. In today’s image-driven media world, I would recommend anyone seeking exposure invest in the services of a photographer or software and learn. Heck, even freelancers looking to pitch, like you suggest, that have photography skills, have an advantage.
Good point. Bloggers who are gorgeous photographers have a huge advantage here. But then, they don’t necessarily know how to write the way a newspaper wants: lede, nut graph, etc.
One of the most important things to note when considering what to pitch is the timeline of the magazine. I edit for a magazine and people rarely pay attention to when our issues come out, what our lead time is, etc., so the pitches are often just plain untimely. Also, review recent issues and subscribe to the magazine yourself – you don’t want to pitch ideas that are the same or similar to ones that were recently covered – it gives the impression that you don’t know the publication at all. Also, be specific. So many people are afraid of getting their ideas ripped off, but I know from my perspective that we have so many ideas swimming around, there really isn’t a need to steal from anyone, and I couldn’t imagine doing so. But sending something like “I would love to do a Christmas cookies article” or “I can cover gluten-free labeling” – both are too general and too obvious. Get creative!
Excellent tips, Alisa! Thank you.
It’s true that people don’t understand that magazines work several months ahead. Re subscribing, I often found that the best writers were those who actually subscribed to the magazine and loved it as readers. They knew exactly what we wanted.
I love this piece, and would love to see the inverse: How to be the editor writers want to work with! Turnabout is fair play, as they say.
Hah! That one has taken me years and I’m still working on it.
You can take classes on being a better editor, if that is your direction, Carrie. I also Googled “how to be a good editor” and found all kinds of stuff.
I like this post too. Particularly his tip on gettingto know the publications and the 10-12 front of the book pieces so if one falls through you ready and waiting and know just what they are looking for. Brilliant. That and knowing your area. Great advice!
Glad you enjoyed it Susan. Thanks for saying so.