Freelancing

8 Best Tips on Writing and Pitching a Listicle

February 23, 2016 by diannejacob 10 Comments

A guest post by Sara Bir

Last year, I assigned, edited, and posted 230 listicles for my former job as food editor for the pop culture website Paste Magazine.

A listsicle, if you’re wondering, comprises a short list of 100-200 words that tells a larger story. You’ve read many of them online because they’re fast reads and often, you can’t help yourself.

I once resented listsicles for their seemingly dashed-off nature. I thought they were just articles with numbers in them. But I had to make peace with [Read more…] about 8 Best Tips on Writing and Pitching a Listicle

For a Cookbook Review, is Testing Recipes Essential?

January 12, 2016 by diannejacob 52 Comments

I had my 15 minutes of fame in December, when The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune and NPR included the cookbook I co-wrote with chef Craig Priebe, The United States of Pizza, in their 2015 holiday round-ups of best books or cookbooks of the year.

It was a giddy time because, as you know, a cookbook review in The New York Times is the Holy Grail. Emails flew as my agent and publisher discussed [Read more…] about For a Cookbook Review, is Testing Recipes Essential?

Submit Your Writing Now to Lucky Peach

May 26, 2015 by diannejacob 22 Comments

Looking for a paid outlet for your food writing?

Recently Lucky Peach launched a new website featuring “daily essays, recipes, restaurant recommendations, comics, and other miscellany,” says editor Chris Ying.

That means they need lots of content, which is the best news ever for freelance food writers. Here are some guidelines for submission:

1. Write for a monthly theme, tied to the [Read more…] about Submit Your Writing Now to Lucky Peach

Where to Write for Clips, Not Money

December 23, 2014 by diannejacob 9 Comments

I’m always telling people to write for pay, and to ask to be paid well. But some food writers write for self expression, or to get clips, and money is not the most important thing.

If so, these publications might be right for you. They pay anywhere from nothing to not much, but offer the satisfaction of publication:

The Bitter Southerner. This gorgeous start-up online magazine only recently came up with money to pay its writers, and maybe not all of them. Here are submissions guidelines.
Graze magazine, based in Chicago, is a semi-annual literary magazine. Here are submission guidelines. As told to the Review Review: “We’re interested in [Read more…] about Where to Write for Clips, Not Money

My Year of Submissions to Literary Magazines

October 7, 2014 by diannejacob 24 Comments

A guest post by Paula Panich

Fueled by frustration and a manuscript of unpublished culinary essays with recipes, I spent two years writing letters to agents.

Silence.

Only one wrote back with regrets: She hadn’t heard of M.F.K. Fisher.

Fit to be tied, I swore I’d never write again. Then I thought: The literary magazines! Why not make a game of getting published?

Hundreds of small magazines buzz under our radar. These publications—some print, some online, are known as literary magazines and journals. They’ve been quietly present since [Read more…] about My Year of Submissions to Literary Magazines

How to be the Writer Magazine Editors Want

September 30, 2014 by diannejacob 14 Comments

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 [Read more…] about How to be the Writer Magazine Editors Want