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So this week I ran another Twitter game. (You may remember that last week I did #killaqueryin5words.) This one was #sourcefromhellin5words, and the idea was that we writers would give five-word phrases that would make us want to never interview a source. Like:

• How much will you pay?
• Who else are you interviewing?
• Can I see the article?
• Is the article out yet?
• Sorry, I forgot the interview.
• I’m the foremost expert!
• We’re creating a new paradigm!
• You should mention my book.
• I could talk all day!

What was really cool was that ProfNet and HelpAReporter, the two biggest source-finding services for journalists, got in on the action, so we had a ton of submissions…and also, expert sources who use those services got a lesson in what NOT to do when working with a writer. Not only that, but ProfNet did a post about the contest where they featured their favorite contributions!

As with last week’s game, some tweets were just so AWESOME that I decided to offer prizes to my favorites. And they are:

@anngol: “Oh you’re not from Redbook?” #sourcefromhellin5words [This was hands-down my favorite! The snobby source…ugh.]

@write4income: (In response to everything you ask): “That question is too personal.” #sourcefromhellin5words @LFormichelli [Persnickety sources don’t get called back!]

@lilbusgirl: How’s 10pm your time sound? #sourcefromhellin5words [Yeah, because we writers don’t have a life!]

@CaroleeNoury: Answers are in my book. #sourcefromhellin5words @LFormichelli [Hint: We journalists need to get quotes straight from the source; we can’t just pull quotes from books.]

@RobinDarling: “I read it on Wikipedia” #sourcefromhellin5words @LFormichelli [And you call yourself an expert?]

@danielcasciato: “Get a quote from PR” @LFormichelli #sourcefromhellin5words [Yes, we writers LOVE sanitized PR-speak!]

@RAHolloway: “I will need final approval. @LFormichelli #sourcefromhellin5words [Now THAT’S good journalism!]

?@rebekah_olsen: It all started in 1965…(when you only need one quick quote about their work) @LFormichelli #sourcefromhellin5words [I hope you took a bathroom break before this interview!]

Winning tweeters, I’d love to offer you a free book, course, or checklist from the Renegade Writer Store. Please choose your favorite and email me at [email protected] with your selection! (FYI, I’m out of town because my grandma passed away. So please be patient and I’ll send you your book next week for sure. Thanks!)

Thanks so much to everyone who played #sourcefromhellin5words. It was a blast!

On Monday morning I’ll be launching a new Twitter game called #editororgasmin5words. I think you can tell what we’re looking for here! Some examples I’ll have on my Twitter feed include:

• Yes, I’ll write for free! (Yes, we can get snarky in this game!
• I created an extra sidebar.
• I fact-checked all stats.
• Pynchon agreed to an interview.
• Can I file this early?

The game will start Monday at around 8 am ET (New York time) and run all day. (Please wait until then to start posting, and I’ll retweet your contributions!) Just add the hashtag #editororgasmin5words to your post, and feel free to tag me at @lformichelli!

If you want to get announcements when I hold a new Twitter games like these, please join the Renegade Writer email list! You’ll also get a free e-book and checklist for writers, plus my Monday Motivations for Writers emails!

A couple weeks ago I created a Query Writing Checklist, and it flew off the virtual shelves!

Then, while on a road trip (I do my best thinking while driving), I was like—Duh, Linda! Now writers will need a checklist to use when they’re working on a writing assignment! (You know, the assignment they got using the query checklist.)

Whether you’re writing for a magazine, a website, or a paying blog—there’s so much to think about and remember when you’re working on an assignment:

• Did I get a contract…and did I sign it and send it back?
• What are the payment terms?
• What was it the client wanted from me, again? Did she want a sidebar?
• Who am I interviewing?
• Oh man, what was that source’s email address?
• Did I include a source list with my assignment?
• When did I follow up with the interviewee?
• Did I remember to proof the article?
• Is each fact in the article backed up by an outside source?
• Did I write a compelling lede? A great kicker?
• Did I remember to thank the client?

So I did it…I created a fillable PDF Writing Assignment Checklist that covers:

Stage 1: Assignment Details
Stage 2: Sources & Research
Stage 3: Proofing the Article
Stage 4: Turning in the Assignment & Onward

Wherever possible, I also included links to websites and blog posts that will deepen your understanding of that particular element—from finding expert sources to creating a source list to writing an amazing kicker.

The Writing Assignment Checklist is a fillable checklist, meaning you can fill in the blanks and check off action items right on your computer.

Download the checklist and create a duplicate copy for each query idea…you can use the Writing Assignment Checklist over and over!

And even better—you can get this helpful checklist for just $1.49. I know…super cheap, right?

If you’d like a copy of a checklist that will help you track assignments and turn out great articles (and blog posts, and case studies…)–here’s where you can get it.

(And if you missed the Query Tracker Worksheet, that’s here!)

Enjoy!

Linda

P.S. If you get the checklist, please download it to your hard drive and make duplicates before you start filling it out. That way you’ll have enough checklists for all your pitches, and will be able to save and print them. (Do not open and fill out the PDF in your browser or you will not be able to save and print!)

P.P.S. Did you know Carol Tice’s and my new e-course Escape the Content Mills is on sale this week? Sale ends Sunday…check it out here!

By Linda Formichelli

A potential expert for your article asks to see a copy before it goes to print. A second one requests copies of the magazine once the article is published. And another one — gasp — asks to be paid for the interview.

We have over 30 posts about finding and interviewing sources, but when it comes to actually dealing with those sources before, during, and after the writing process, many writers feel lost and confused.

Here, answers to your most pressing questions about sources.

Should I send the draft of my article to the source? What if he asks to see it?

Journalism ethics says that you should not show an article to the source before it’s published. If you do, this opens up a door for your source to try to revise what he said based on what other sources in the article say, for example to argue with a point stated by another source he doesn’t agree with.

But some magazines do allow you — or even require you, in the case of a few trade magazines and custom publications — to show the source your article. So I always say to the source, “Generally you’re not supposed to do that, but I’ll check with my editor on their policies and get back to you.” Then I do it.

If you can’t or don’t want to let the source read your article, you can offer call him before turning in your article and fact check the piece with him. During the call, you would say, for example, “I have you saying that 2006 was the best year your business ever had. Is that correct?”

Your editor may also let you send the source just his quotes with the surrounding context.

Do I need to send a copy of the article to my source when it’s out?

I’m not a clipping service! Often I don’t even get a copy of the magazine my article is in, so I’m certainly not buying and sending one to each source.

However, I do let my sources know when an article they’re quoted in has been published. If the article appears online, I include a link. If the magazine is available on newsstands, I mention that, and let the source buy his own copy. If it’s a trade magazine and therefore not available on the newsstand and it’s also not online, I ask my editor to send copies, and she typically does.

(By the way, that’s why I ask my sources for their mailing addresses, and include those in the source list at the end of the article.)

Should I tell my source if I’m selling a reprint of the article she was quoted in?

I don’t think you need to ask permission as long as you’re selling to another magazine that’s not far from the scope of the original one; but it is always nice to give the source a heads-up so she can say, “I’ve been quoted in American Noodle Fortnightly Magazine.”

What if I tell the source I’m pitching Family Circle, but I actually end up selling the idea to Woman’s Day? Do I need to ask his permission?

In most cases I’ve pre-interviewed the source for my pitch and will need to do a more in-depth interview for the actual article, so of course I’d let her know who I’m writing for when I request this second interview.

But what if you don’t need to interview the source again? I think it’s only fair that you let the source know you sold the article to a different magazine. If it’s the difference between Family Circle and Woman’s Day, it typically won’t be a problem.

But sometimes, you may end up selling the idea to a magazine whose viewpoint the source opposes for whatever reason, and if she had known you were to sell there, she wouldn’t have done the interview in the first place. In that case, she may want to withdraw from the article.

I’m not sure what your ethical duties are here, but I would never want to be the writer who says she’s pitching a family magazine and then ends up selling the story to a racy magazine or a publication with a political slant — and doesn’t alert the source.

What if a source asks if I can write for her company? Am I allowed to write for the magazine and the source I quoted?

Generally you’re not supposed to do this for ethical reasons — but I find that if you’re in doubt, asking your editor can clear things up quickly. I did this a while back and the editor had no problem with my writing for one of my sources, and I ended up making a couple thousand from this source over the next few months.

How should I respond if a potential source asks who else I’m interviewing?

Many times the source is just displaying harmless professional curiosity, and in that case I often spill the beans if I don’t see any harm coming from it. I mostly write service pieces; if I were writing an investigative article, that would be different. (More on that below.)

Other times, the source wants to gauge how big-time your article will be so he can decide whether to take part. If you’re interviewing big shots, he’ll want to play. If you’re interviewing small potatoes, he may get the idea that your article is small potatoes too, and he’ll take a pass. So if you get the feeling this is what’s happening, let the source know you can’t reveal who the other sources are.

If you’re writing an investigative piece or an article on a controversial topic, the source may want to know who else you’re interviewing so he can be sure to cut down any opponents’ positions. Bad! Again, in this case let the source know you can’t reveal your other sources.

What should I do if a source asks to be paid for the interview?

Run the other way! Let the source know it’s against journalism ethics to pay a source. If you offer a source money for an interview, she can’t be considered an unbiased source. After all, who’s to say she’s not simply giving you the answers you want to hear because you’re paying her?

If the source still insists on payment, dump her and find someone else. There are plenty of people out there who interview without expecting payment. In fact, though I’ve heard stories from other writers about sources wanting to be paid, it hasn’t happened to me even once in the 16 years I’ve been freelancing.

My source has asked me to include his website address in the article. What should I say?

I always let the source know that I’ll include the website address with his attribution, but I can’t control whether the editor will leave it in or not. That way I do my best to accommodate the source, but don’t make promises I can’t keep.

Usually the editor does take out the web address and that’s fine, but occasionally she leaves it in.

Do you have any questions about working with sources, or any tips you’d like to share? Post them in the Comments below!

I get a lot of questions from writers on how to use Help a Reporter Out, a.k.a. HARO — the free service that helps journalists find sources for their assignments. So I interviewed HARO founder Peter Shankman to answer all your need-to-knows. Enjoy!

How many people subscribe to HARO e-mails?

Somewhere between 200,000 and 250,000 sources, including pass-alongs — and hundreds of thousands of journalists have used the service at one point or another.

Have you ever done a breakdown of what kind of experts or other people are subscribed to HARO?

No, but we’ve found that it’s almost 75 percent small businesses now.

A lot of writers are e-mailing me because they’re confused about the requirement that your website needs to have an Alexa ranking of under one million for you to be able to send a request for sources. They think that their personal writer site needs to have this ranking. Can you explain that a little bit?

The way it works is, if you’re writing for a traditional or understood media outlet, like cosmopolitan.com or Washington Post online, our goal is not to exclude anyone. Unfortunately, what happens occasionally is that people join HARO and say, “I have to do a story for my blog that has two readers.” Journalists writing for Forbes, or any outlet that has a good quality base and quality readership, we have no problem. Use HARO and we love you. We just don’t want to waste sources’ time if it’s for Joan’s House of Blog, you know?

Another question I often get is whether a writer can use HARO if she’s working on a pitch but doesn’t have an assignment in hand and, if so, how to do that.

It’s a tough question. If you’ve used HARO before and we see that and we recognize your e-mail address as having written for traditional or recognizable outlets in the past, you are more than welcome to use HARO for a pitch.

There are no other requirements for posting a request on there except that your media outlet has to be lower than one million in Alexa, right?

Correct.

Can you offer us some tips on how to write a HARO query that gets results?

The best thing you can do is be as specific as humanly possible. If you want sources in West Philadelphia, make damn sure you put “West Philadelphia.” If you only want sources who know about bridge building and have one arm, make that clear.

Any other tips?

The biggest thing I can recommend is make sure you put your deadline at least a week before your actual deadline. We base HARO on when your deadline is. So if your deadline is Thursday and you put Thursday down as your deadline, HARO is going to most likely run your inquiry Wednesday night.

What else can writers do to make sure they get the best sources?

Keep it short. Keep it simple. That usually works well.

Do you change the titles of the requests or do they go up just as the writer writes them?

No, it’s actually as you write them. We don’t change them at all.

Any tips on writing a title that gets attention?

“Need experts in blank.”

A blessing and a curse of HARO is that writers will put out a request and get 100 responses. What can writers do about that besides make sure they’re specific in their requests?

Start reading the answers. If you get everything you need in the first five replies, just click a filter that sends all the rest of them to a folder so you don’t h

In Lessons 4 and 5 of my Write for Magazines e-course, I have students find sources and set and conduct interviews.

I know this can be scary for newer writers — and I know it because a few of them always end up setting e-mail interviews so they don’t have to face the source by phone.

Some writers will argue that e-mail interviews are fine. You ask questions, the source answers them. Done! E-mail interviews also have the advantage of giving the source a chance to really think about her answers, these writers say. And what if your source is overseas?

But unless you really, really can’t get a key source to agree to an interview any other way, I advise against doing e-mail interviews. (And the operative word here is “key” — if the source isn’t absolutely essential to your article, you can find someone who is willing to talk on the phone.) Here’s why.

1. You get canned answers. The benefit of phone (or in-person) interviews is that you see the source as he really is and get unfiltered answers to your questions. Sometimes, the answers to questions you didn’t ask make the best quotes. But with an e-mail interview, you’re basically giving the source permission to spin his own answers — and you often end up with canned, sanitized corporate-speak, which makes for terrible quotes. Not good.

2. You waste time. Writers often think they’ll save time by shooting off their questions and just sitting back and waiting for the answers. But the benefit of phone interviews is that if questions that aren’t on your list come up as you do the interview — which they will — you can just ask them right then. With an e-mail interview, you have to e-mail the source each time a new question comes up, and wait for the source to reply to each one — resulting in a time-consuming back-and-forth that’s less likely to get all your questions answered.

3. E-mail interviews are easy to put off. I used to do e-mail interviews occasionally before I wised up, and one major drawback is that sources don’t treat them as seriously as phone interviews. With a phone interview, you set a date and time and (usually) the source is there when you call. With an e-mail interview, you send your questions and even if you give a deadline for responses, chances are you’ll get the answers back only after days of nudging the source — which means you risk rushing at the last minute or even missing your deadline.

4. Many editors don’t like them. If you actually ask your editor whether she’ll accept an e-mail interview, she’ll probably agree to one only if it’s a key source and he refuses to speak on the phone. And don’t think you can just adopt a “don’t ask don’t tell” policy: Technically, when you quote from an e-mail interview you’re supposed to append the quote with “said Jones in an e-mail interview.” You got it — if you do it right, you’ll be outed as someone too lazy to do proper reporting.

5. There are no excuses. “What if my source is overseas?” you may ask. To that I say, there are many ways around this. For example, Skype is often an option; I interviewed someone in Taiwan via Skype just last week. If the source doesn’t have Skype, you can ask the editor if the publication will cover phone expenses, so you don’t have to shell out for an international call. And if all else fails: Consider it a cost of doing business and deduct the expen

Lots of writers take on both copywriting assignments and magazine articles. And a pressing question they have is whether it’s okay for them to do copywriting for an article source. In other words, if you interview Jane Smith for an article and she asks you to write some web copy for her…can you do it without breaking some ethical code or getting in trouble with your editor?

Using a client as a source is considered a conflict of interest. However, my advice is, if you ever have a question, is to simply ask your editor.

So here’s how I handled this recently.

I e-mailed my trade magazine editor:

Hi, Matt,

I had a great interview with Jeff Jones of MoneyManagers today!

Jeff had taken a look at my website and let me know he’d be interested in having me write some client success stories for him. I told him that I would need to talk to you because there’s a potential conflict of interest if I write about him for Magazine and then have him as a client as well.

How do you and Big Editor Boss feel about that? I’d love to write for MoneyManagers, but I definitely don’t want to jeopardize my relationship with Magazine, which is one of my favorite magazines to write for! So let me know, and I totally understand if you’d rather not have one of your writers writing for a source.

Thanks so much,

Linda

Here’s the response I got:

Hi Linda,

Thanks for getting in touch about this. No issue whatsoever with you freelancing for Magazine and MoneyManagers. The one caveat is that we want the content you provide us to be exclusive—in other words, we don’t want to see the same content in Magazine also on the MoneyManagers website or on a brochure. If the content is separate and different, I’m fine with it.

Matt

Success! I asked politely and was open to — and prepared for — my editor to say no. And I was pleasantly surprised when he gave me the okay.

So: Don’t be afraid to ask your editor if you’re approached by a source who wants you to write for them.

How about you? Have you ever done copywriting for a source? Did you ask your editor for her okay? How did it work out?

Note: My next Write for Magazines 8-week e-course starts on April 9, and the Basic version is Pay What You Want (minimum $30) — a huge discount from my original $120 price tag! One of my most recent students just landed an assignment from Grit. Check out the e-course page for more testimonials and success stories. [lf]

A couple of students in my current Write for Magazines class (next one starts Jan. 9!) have told me that they’re dreading the interview portion of the class, where they find and interview experts to add credibility to their queries.

Here’s where I reveal my dirty little secret: I don’t like interviews, either. By my very rough estimate I’ve done more than 2,000 interviews since 1997, and I still get a little bit of stage fright before each one.

I don’t share this to discourage you, but to let you know that even if you’re afraid of doing interviews, you can get through them and make a great living as a freelance writer. And believe me — the fear becomes much less intense over time.

Here are some of my tips for beating the fear:

1. Come clean.

If I’m interviewing someone on a topic that I don’t feel confident about, I usually just come right out and admit it to break the ice. I say something like, “I’m a newbie to this topic, and most of my readers will be too, so I apologize if some of my questions seem elementary.” I did that just today when interviewing an economist about the Profit Per Employee metric (don’t ask). Zap — tension broken!

2. Be prepared.

Even though I’ve done thousands of these, I never go into an interview without a list of questions. The trick is to write questions that will garner the info you need to bolster your idea and fill in any gape you have in your research. And don’t worry about writing down every single question you can possibly think of asking; write down the main ones and leave room in the conversation to ask questions on the fly. That way, it will be more of a normal conversation than an interrogation.

3. Don’t have an all-or-nothing attitude.

Many writers are afraid that they’ll mess up the interview, not get the info they need, and be stuck. Take heart: If you miss something, you can always go back for more. I like to ask at the end of every interview, “Is it okay if I get back in touch if questions come up as I’m writing this article?” Every single source has said yes — no exceptions. And I often do go back to them with a couple more questions.

4. Remember, sources are people too.

In 14 years I have never, ever (and I mean ever) had an interviewee make fun of me, hang up on me, or otherwise be a jerk. Now, I have had difficult sources like Run-On Ralphs and Product Pluggers, but there are ways to handle them.

5. Read these posts.

Diana and I have posted other tips in the past for helping writers beat their interview fear and get the quotes they need. Do check them out!

Bust My Excuse: I’m Afraid of Interviewing!

Are You a Phone-Phobic Freelancer?

Bust My Excuse: I Don’t Know How to Find Experts — Or Make Them Talk!

How to Deal with Difficult Interviewees

Are you afraid of interviewing? How does it affect your writing career? What have you done about it? Post your expe

I’m in the process of moving from New Hampshire to North Carolina, and things will be crazy around here until we get settled in. I’ll be running some oldie-but-goodie posts on the blog until I’m back to work. Enjoy!

In January, I wrote a post called I Just Got an Assignment. Holy Crap! Now What?, where I walk writers through what to do once you land an assignment, from negotiating deadlines to asking for the assignment specs from the editor.

So you got the assignment, you followed all the tips in my previous blog post, you wrote the article — and now you’re wondering what to do to wrap up the assignment. Here’s my advice:

Compile the Source List

Almost every editor will expect a source list so that the fact checker can contact your sources to check their quotes — or at the very least, to send them copies of the magazine if it’s not on the newsstands. You’ll need to include for each of your sources:

Name
Mailing address
E-mail address
Phone number

In addition, you’ll need to include sourcing information for every study you mention. For example, if you quoted from a study you found on PubMed.gov, you’ll need to include the URL.

Some writers send the source list as a separate document attached to the e-mail, but I prefer to just paste mine in after the end of the article. I title the section “SOURCES,” and if the magazine is not on the newsstands, after this heading I write, “Can you please send them copies of the magazine when it’s out? Thanks!” Editors have usually been happy to do this. (If the magazine is on the newsstands, sources can buy their own copy.)

Create an Annotated File

Your editor will let you know ahead of time if she expects an annotated article. I’ve had only one or two magazine clients that wanted this. If yours does, you’ll need to either use the footnoting feature in Microsoft Word or make up your own similar system to give backup for each fact you include in the article.

I like to create my source list, including expert source contact information and URLs of studies I cite, and give each source or study a number. Then, I go through the article and tag each fact with the number that corresponds to the source or study I got it from. For example, it might look something like this:

Vitamin C has been proven to whiten teeth [1], freshen breath [2], cure athlete’s foot [1], and promote healthy sleep [3].

SOURCES (this comes at the end of the article)

[1] Study “Vitamin C’s Effects on Athlete’s Foot and Tooth Whitening,” Journal of Medical Quackery, www.pubmed.gov/78932ny3891.

[2] Dr. Ima Dentist
[contact info]

[3] Study “Vitamin C and Sleep,” Sleep Disorders Research Journal, www.sleepdisordersresearch.org/vitaminC.

Spell Check It

Don’t rely on the spell check feature in your word processing program, which doesn’t know that you accidentally typed “you’re” instead of “your.” Go over it with your own eyes. Print it out if you have to; some people tend to miss mistakes if they read their articles on-screen.

Send It In

Once you’re sure your article is perfect (well, as perfect as it can get — we all make mistakes) and you have your source list done, you can send your article to the editor. I like to both attach the arti

I answer your burning freelancing questions on the blog. If you have a question, e-mail it to me at [email protected]. Have a lot of questions? Consider signing up for a phone mentoring session.

Kelly asks: I have always been a bit leery about mentioning names of experts in a query and am not sure of the best way to go about actually approaching one. Specifically, do you mention in a query that you will have an expert before you actually get the expert to agree to an interview? Or, do you get the expert to agree to an interview first before submitting your query. This has never been made clear to me so I hope you can help clarify the process for me.

I always get the experts to agree first, and I usually do an interview or two so I have quotes for the query as well. You especially need to get buy-in first if it’s a key source who may be hard to nail down for an interview. Nothing stinks more than to pitch an article trumpeting that you’ll interview some celebrity doctor (or whatever) and then when you get the assignment, the source is not interested and you have to tell your editor.

If your sources are somewhat interchangeable, though, and you don’t want to hunt down or interview experts for the query stage, you could always say, “I’ll interview experts like X, Y, and Z to tell your readers…” That’s not the way I do it, but I know other writers who do. [lf]

This is an excerpt from my new e-book Get Unstuck! For Freelancers: A 6-Week Course to Boost Your Motivation, Organization, and Productivity—So You Can Do More Work in Less Time, Make More Money, and Enjoy the Freelance Lifestyle. If you think the name sounds familiar, that’s because it’s the name of my popular 6-week e-course. I decided to turn that $200 e-course into a $9.95 e-book so that you can get my best tips for becoming a productive writer at a fraction of the cost.

If you’d like to buy a copy of this 64-page e-book, please order it from the e-book page. When I get your payment, I’ll send you the e-book via e-mail. I’m not using an automated shopping cart right now, as I want to make sure I’ll be selling enough copies to make it worth the expense! So please bear with my old-fashioned delivery system for now.

Working Your Work

When you’re working on several projects at once, as most of us writers do, the result can be a typhoon of information. On any given day, you may create interview sound files, receive contracts, gather research for your novel, receive rejections (or acceptances!) on queries you sent six months ago, follow up on queries and proposals, send e-mails to editors and agents…okay, I’ll stop there because I’m going a little crazy just thinking about it.

Luckily, if you have systems in place that work for you, you can streamline how you handle and store these bits of information. Let’s get started!

An Overview

Curious about how setting up systems can help a project flow from acceptance to payment? Let’s say I get a new article assignment. Here’s how I organize it. (And keep in mind that this is what works for me. You may find that software like Evernote or some other system works better for you.) I:

1. Enter the assignment due date into my iCal calendar and mark it blue (to separate it from interviews, which are red).

2. Enter the name of the assignment, the magazine name, the amount due, and the due date for payment into my Excel income spreadsheet. This spreadsheet tells me how much I have coming in, how much I’ve already been paid, and what’s overdue.

3. Create a folder on my hard drive called NameofMagazine-NameofArticle, and move it to my “Articles in Progress” folder.

4. Create a Word file called NameofMagazine-NameOfArticle-NOTES and store it in the project folder I just created on my hard drive. This is where I’ll put the assignment specs (word count, instructions from the editor), enter in contact info of potential sources, and dump any bits of research I come across online.

5. Create a Label with the name of the magazine an article in Gmail so I have a place to store e-mails related to the article.

6. Start finding sources and trying to set interviews right away. This is the one part of the process you can’t control, so it pays to start early in case you have trouble nailing people down for interviews. Whenever I call or e-mail a potential source, I enter the information into the NOTES file I created. I go over the file every day so I know who I need to follow up with.

7. Enter interviews into my iCal calendar. I include the name of the interviewee, the name of the magazine, and the source’s phone number so I don’t have to look it up come interview time.

8. When I do an interview, name the sound file NameofSource-

For various articles I’ve had to find all kinds of “real people” or “people on the street” — an African American Chevy Suburban owner, a mom whose child had transient tics, an Asian blended family. Chances are, sometime in your writing career you’ll need an anecdote from a real person (as opposed to an expert) for a query or article. Many writers get stuck because they don’t know how to locate individuals who meet their (often very) specific requirements. Here are my top tips for where — and how — to get the best real people sources.

1. Use ProfNet and Help a Reporter Out (HARO).

These are both source-finding services that are free to journalists. They’re meant to help writers find experts, but the funny thing about experts is that they’re real people, too. And HARO, which is also free for sources to join (ProfNet charges expert sources), attracts thousands of people who would like to be in the media, whether they’re experts or not. Be as detailed as you can in what you’re looking for — I’d say you can’t be too clear. In my experience, potential sources often skim the listing, so the clearer you are, the less likely you are to get lots of off-topic responses.

2. Use social media.

Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter are godsends for writers looking for real-people sources. They’re full of real people! And if you have a large network – and you encourage that network to pass your request on to their networks through sharing or retweeting – you can probably find any type of person you need. When you post, ask your friends/followers/connections to share your request; I recently read that posts that actually include a share request are forwarded along more than other posts.

3. Post in forums.

Chances are, there’s a forum or discussion group that caters to the exact people you’re looking for. For example, I found moms of kids with Tourette’s and transient tics through a forum for people with movement disorders. Do a Google search for your keywords plus “forum,” and search on Google Groups and Yahoo groups as well for an appropriate forum/list. When you find one, do a little lurking to figure out if this is a good place to post your request. (You’ll probably run into a lot of dead forums.) It’s always a good practice to e-mail the moderator asking if it’s okay to post as a journalist looking for sources; that way, when you post you can mention that you have the permission of the forum administrator. This can help allay any suspicions that forum members may have. Also be sure to use your full name and include a link to your website if you have one, so forum members can see you’re a real person and not some kind of a weirdo. Give a deadline for responses so you don’t have people responding months later.

4. Create an e-mail list.

I know a couple of writers who keep extensive e-mail lists that they blast an e-mail to when they’re looking for real-people sources. Start with your friends, family members, and fellow writers. And use the list sparingly — you don’t want to piss people off with constant e-mails looking for Hispanic candy shop owners on the East Coast! Be sure to ask recipients to pass along your request to anyone they know who may fit the bill.

5. Look for variety.

When you’re on the hunt for real-people sources, look for people who are ethnically and geographically diverse. Editors don’t want to see that all your sources are from the same area of the country or are all white. Mos

I offer to answer readers’ burning freelancing questions on the blog. If you have a question, please send it to me at [email protected]. If you have a LOT of questions, please consider signing up for my phone mentoring for writers.

Steve asks: I had a meeting with a chef today who is looking for PR. He knows I write food for various publications, but he’s looking for representation to, yes, get him into publications, but also on television and radio. I, Linda, and not a PR person, but if I do query about him for a magazine (say Bon Appétit), should I charge him for the query? Should I charge him if editorial bites and the story gets published?

There are two ways you can work: You can charge a client to pitch him to a market such as a magazine or a newspaper. In this case, you would be more of a PR professional than a freelance writer, and you would charge the chef but wouldn’t take money from the media outlets. Or you can pitch an article about the source, not accept money from him, but take payment from the market you end up writing for. This is what a freelance writer does. If you both charge the chef and take payment from the market — in other words, if both the chef and the magazine are your clients — that’s double dipping and it’s a big no-no because the editor can’t trust that you’re unbiased about the source.

It sounds like you’re a freelance writer and not a PR person, so don’t think of this chef as a client — think of him as any other source. If you found a really cool winery and you wanted to write about it, you wouldn’t approach the owner and ask for payment — you would pitch the idea and hope to make a sale. The only difference between the winery owner and your chef is that the chef approached you. But he’s essentially asking you to use him as a source. If you do decide to pitch articles about the chef, do it because you really love what he’s doing. If you’re not inspired by the chef — don’t pitch him!

I hope that helps! [lf]

Jennifer asks: My question has to do with an expert who I spoke to on the phone. She basically said, “Read my book and it will tell you everything you need to know.” Do you know if a magazine like “Parenting” would be okay with me using quotes from the book and citing the book (instead of interviewing the expert)? Does this get too promotional? I think I can make the quotes sound conversational and follow-up with expert if I need to tweak the quotes a bit. I wonder what you think.

Aargh, I hate when I get that response from a source! They don’t understand that you’re going to them only partly for information — but just as important, you need to get good quotes from them to make your query or article livelier and more readable. When people say that to me, I explain it to them like this: “While I’m happy to get background information from your book, I’d love to talk with you for just a few minutes to get some good quotes that will make my article more interesting to read. I need to provide some expert quotes, and I can’t quote from a book.”

Of course, you can quote from a book, but I would use this as a last resort — meaning you really need this source (no one else will do) and she refuses to speak to you. And even then, you need to tell readers you’re quoting from a book, not an interview: “‘Parents need to set boundaries,’ says Ima Kidd, PhD, in her book How to Have Kids and Stay Sane (Ten Speed Press, 2008).” Be careful not to overdo this — once in an article is probably fine, but you want the bulk of your quotes to come from actual interviews. I’ve written hundreds of articles, and I can count on one hand the times I’ve quoted from a book.

Have a question for the Renegade Writers? Send it to [email protected] and we may answer it on the blog.

Think your peach defuzzer is the greatest product in the known universe, or rep a doctor who’s on the road to curing a formerly incurable disease? Then you’re probably signed up as an expert source on services like Help a Reporter (HARO) and ProfNet.

I use these services as just one of many tools in my arsenal to find expert and “real life” sources, but often I end up frustrated — and without usable sources. To be fair, sometimes my requests are kind of crazy — like I’m looking for a Hispanic woman in her 40s who lives in the Midwest and drives a Suburban. But many times, it’s the people who respond to queries that make a writer want to drive flaming daggers into her eyes.

Don’t get me wrong — I love and appreciate these services. They’re free to journalists, and I often find good sources through them, like the beautiful bridal entrepreneur-slash-cage fighter I ended up profiling for Fortune Small Business and later for Inc. But the successes are tempered by avalanches of off-point e-mails from PR reps and expert sources.

If you use these services as a PR rep or a source, here are some tips for boosting your chances of a reply when you respond to a writer’s query. (Yes, writers, these requests confusingly are called queries.) I’ll use some examples from recent queries I sent in.

1. Read the Freakin’ Query!

Lat week I sent out the following query:

Are We Detoxing Too Much?
I’m looking for experts such as MDs who can discuss whether the detoxing trend is going too far, in terms of detoxing our homes, our bodies, and our food. Magazines and books are telling us to purge everything from house dust to bleach to non-organic foods, and more and more people are going on fasts and detox diets. How do you know if you’re going too far? And how much do we REALLY need to detox? I do not need to hear from vendors about detoxing products.

You get it, right? I’m looking for information on the negative side of detoxing — how much is too much and how to know if you’ve gone too far. And yet, almost 100% of the responses I received were from medical professionals who offered to talk about why we need to go on detox diets and how to do it. It’s like they scanned the query, saw the word “detox,” and blasted off an e-mail about the wonders of detoxing. If you can’t (or won’t) read, how can we trust you as an expert?

So please…READ the query!

2. Sell Yourself

Every once in a while I get a response that says something like, “I can help you with your article. Call me.” Yeah, I’ll get right on that. Please, tell me who you are and what makes you an expert in the topic I queried.

3. Remember That Our Job Is Not to Sell Your Product

Of course, people who respond to writer queries have something to sell, whether it’s a product, a viewpoint, or something else. But you need to use some smarts to determine when it’s right to make a blatant product pitch. For example, here’s a query I sent out yesterday:

For a national health magazine, I’m looking for beauty news that’s NOT product-specific and that is backed by studies. For example, I don’t care that Jane’s Sun Kissed Skin Lotion was proven to prevent wrinkles, but I do care that a recent study published in the Journal of Dermatology concluded that the antioxidants in pistachios were proven to whiten teeth. Please, no product pitches.

I’m guessing you noticed that I did not want product-specific pitches. I mean, I made it pretty clear, right? So why do I get replies from people telling me, for example, that the FatBlaster Brand Laser Machine has been proven to reduce the look of cellulite? I guess the reps think, “Well, it can’t hurt to sen

I offer to bust readers’ excuses for not pitching magazines — or, if they’re pitching, for approaching only low/no-pay pubs. (By the way, if you have an excuse you’d like me to bust, you can send it to [email protected].)

Jessica wrote to me about her excuse: Contacting interviewees before I’ve gotten the assignment to get quotes for the query letter fills me with dread, and I have a hard time overcoming this. I’m also a bit overwhelmed by exactly how and where to find my expert sources – I’ll find someone and think “Yeah, they seem to fit the bill.” But then I start looking and thinking “There are TONS of people who fit the bill. How am I supposed to be discerning about this when I’m so not the expert?”

This is a common fear, but it may make you feel better to know that my e-course students each have to contact three to four experts for pre-query interviews, and I can’t think of one time the students were treated with anything but respect. And I’ve probably done hundreds of interviews before getting the assignment, and most sources say yes.

Here’s my trick: When I write or call the source, I say something like this: “Hello! My name is Linda Formichelli, and I’m a freelance writer based in New Hampshire. I’m working on a proposal for Health magazine for an article on common period problems and how to solve them. Would you be available for just five minutes so I can interview you to get a few quotes for my proposal? Then, if I get the assignment, we can set a more in-depth interview.”

Notice that I name the magazine I’m pitching; I think this sounds better than telling the source that you’re working on a pitch you’ll send who-knows-where. Also, I make sure to say “proposal” and not “query,” because I don’t think most people outside of the freelancing world know what a query is. Finally, I ask for just five minutes of the source’s time. That’s hard to say no to — and often the source will end up chatting with me for longer than that. (However, when I say five minutes, I mean it — if the source needs to hang up after five minutes, that’s fine.)

As for how to vet your sources, that’s a more difficult question. Some people become experts because they call themselves experts. And some sources have something to sell, whether it’s a product or a viewpoint, so no matter what question you ask it will come around again to that product or viewpoint.

I tend to look for expert sources in the following places:

* Professional schools: For example, a well-known business school or medical school. Contact their PR department to ask for sources, or go directly to the school’s website and read through the bios of the faculty members.

* Associations: Organizations like the American Dietetic Association and the American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons (yes, I used them recently) can often put you in contact with knowledgeable sources. Just look up the topic you’re writing about and “association” in Google.

* Amazon.com: I usually assume that anyone who has authored a book on a topic can be considered an expert. However, I always check the publishing house to make sure the book is not self-published. I have nothing against self-published books, but anyone can write one and there are no barriers to entry, while with traditional publishers you have at least some reassurance that the author has been accepted by a board of editors, a

I’ve been getting a lot of questions about sources lately, so I thought I’d post this article I wrote for Writer’s Digest a few years ago. One resource I don’t talk about in the article is Help a Reporter Out (HARO) because it didn’t exist when I wrote this piece. HARO is another good resource.

You landed an article assignment from a women’s magazine, and you need to interview moms in their thirties who have anecdotes about dealing with their children’s gymnastics coaches — oh, and the moms have to be ethnically and geographically diverse. Or you’re working on an article for a pet magazine and need to find a vet in Montana who specializes in holistic medicine for parakeets. Sheesh…the editor may as well as you to interview an interplanetary being (female, in her 20s, with at least two kids and living within twenty light-years of Sirius).

It’s a real conundrum (that’s Latin for “annoying writing problem”): Good quotes can make an article, but it can be difficult — especially for beginning writers — to find sources to interview.

Don’t toss that keyboard out the window just yet. Here’s an inside look at the places where the best sources hide out.

* Associations

Y’know that Yellow Pages ad that goes, “If it’s not in here, it probably doesn’t exist”? Well, if there’s not an association dedicated to it, it probably doesn’t exist, either. From the Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor to the Thumb Wrestling Association, if more than three people have done it, they’ve most likely formed an association for it.

It’s the job of associations to promote its industry and members, and many keep lists of media-friendly members who can serve as experts. As someone who writes often about nutrition and fitness, I’ve gotten plenty of sources from the American Dietetic Association and the American Council on Exercise. When I wrote an article about sleep snafus, I found my expert through the National Sleep Foundation. When I was working on a piece that included information about salt, I contacted the Salt Institute.

To find these groups, do a Google search on “association” or “organization” plus the topic you’re working on, such as “automobile.” You can also search the directory on the American Society of Association Executives Web site: www.asaenet.org. When you find an appropriate association, call and ask for the media relations or public relations department; be aware, though, that some smaller associations may not have these departments. In that case, you can ask the receptionist who would be the best person to help you.

* Expert Source Sites

Yearbook.com and ProfNet are sites whose mission is to connect journalists with experts. Yearbook.com lets you search for sources by topic and is a quick, easy resource. ProfNet does the same, and it also lets you send out a call for sources (what ProfNet confusingly calls a “query”) to its thousands of members, which include hospitals, think tanks, businesses, government agencies, PR firms, and more. The only drawback is that to use ProfNet, you have to register (it’s free) — and to register, you have to be a published journalist.

Don’t forget that experts and PR people are regular joes, too, and that they can be good sources for people-on-the-street anecdotes. I once sent out a ProfNet query requesting women in their 20s through 40s who had a diet problem the

I’m fascinated by the queries I read on Peter Shankman’s Help a Reporter Out list. I subscribe because as an author, I’m always looking for ways to promote my books, but I admit, I’m also curious how other writers look for experts and sources.

So here are two to compare and contrast. I’ve changed details, but the structure of the queries remains:

Writer #1: “I’m doing a story on the dramatic number of homeless living in public parks in New York.” (Yes, that’s it.)

Versus this:

Writer #2: “I’m looking for social service employees/execs who can talk to me about how they’re handling the increasing number of homeless citizens living in NYC’s public areas. Especially interested in how budget cuts and staff reductions put stress on services. Please use HARO: Homeless in NYC in the subject heading. Thanks!”

I already feel sorry for the editor who gets to work with writer #1. [db]

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I’ve been noticing a lot of freelancers complaining, some bitterly, about Peter Shankman’s Help a Reporter Out service, also known as HARO. The common theme of complaints is the volume of off-target responses reporters get from potential story sources.

(For the record, I don’t know Shankman, I’ve never used HARO, and I rarely use Profnet, another journalist-source matching service. Not because I’m against services like these, but more because I like prefer finding experts through research and Google, and mining my own sources. I completely understand why freelancers/journalists love avenues like this and I wouldn’t think twice about using them in the future.)

Here’s what I don’t understand, though. HARO is basically a free hookup service for freelancers/journalists and potential sources. Shankman started this “thing” because he likes networking, had a huge source list, and thought why not do something a little more formal with this talent and the assets. (I’m assuming he also gets good PR and builds his brand — his name certainly has burst onto the scene — so it’s not a completely selfless act.) We freelancers don’t pay for this service, nor do the publicity seekers; it’s there because Shankman’s decided to take this on and we agree to play by his rules when we sign up. So why do some of us feel entitled to slam HARO (or Shankman) when others aren’t playing by the book?

I’ve read through Shankman’s thrice-daily call for sources. He does a good job establishing the rules for sources, even going so far to publicly lambaste sources who &uck up bigtime, like the university press officer who forwarded a query that ended up on some professor’s web page — complete with the writer’s e-mail address. (Granted I’d be pissed about that — but not at Shankman.) I don’t think Shankman is charging sources to participate on his list, nor is he asking journalists to pay up. (Would that even be ethical? I don’t think so.) If you get some good leads, you’ve beat the system. (And I’m guessing writers *are* getting good stuff, else it wouldn’t be as popular as it is.) If you get a mailbox full of CheeseWhiz, well, you’ve gotten what you’ve paid for.

Here’s what I’d do to ensure my pitch beat the system:

• Tell potential sources exactly what I want, who I want, and when I want to hear from them. “I’m looking for a woman between the ages of 35 and 55 who is going through a divorce with her second marriage. I need to have sources lined up by September 15.”
• Tell them what I *don’t* want, too. (”I must quote MDs who work with a university-affiliated hospital. I cannot speak with healthcare consultants, PR reps, or MDs who are not affiliated with a university hospital.”
• Set up an e-mail address I only use for HARO (or Profnet). That way I can protect my real work address from getting in some idiot’s hands. Even better, I’d set up an e-mail address for each specific request for sources.
• Be specific. I’ve read through tons of reporter’s queries. Many of them are so vague it’s no wonder so many off-target PR pitches result. Example: “Know any breastfeeders?” versus “I need to speak with women who’ve had negative social experiences while breastfeeding a toddler (between ages 1 and 3) in public. I am not interested in breastfeeding products or experts — need real-life stories here. Thanks!”

So, do you think it’s fair to bitch, moan, and whine at Shankman/HARO? What does he or his service owe you beyond a chance to connect with sources you might not otherwise meet? Post your comments below. [db]

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“I dread days where I have interviews scheduled.” “I’d rather give myself a root canal than call an editor.” “I’m so much better on paper than I am on the phone.” I’ve heard this, and variations thereof, from dozens of freelancers, many of whom are extremely successful professionals with hundreds of clips to their names.

I admit, my pulse rate goes up a little before calling sources, but it’s a good thing for me: I use that energy to project enthusiasm into our interview. Within a couple minutes of talking, my heart rate slides back to normal. Only once did I really and truly dread an interview, and that was because I was cold-calling Jeffrey Steingarten at the behest of one of my editors. If you know anything about Steingarten, you know why my armpits were drenched: mercifully, the interview went well.

If you’re on the path to a long and successful career as a freelancer magazine writer, the phone isn’t something you can avoid. Most writers I know conduct the majority of the interviews with it, and when you need a quick, immediate response from an editor, it can’t be beat. If you’ve been freelancing for awhile and you can’t shake the jitters, some tips from someone who kinda enjoys conversations with interesting people:

• Your source is probably more nervous speaking to you than you are speaking to him, so focus on putting him at ease rather than focusing on your insecurity. Remember, he’s worrying about how he’s going to sound to you — after all, those are his words that will end up between quotation marks in a national magazine.
• Schedule interviews for the first thing in the morning. So many productivity experts advise writers to get their creative work done first thing, but there’s another train of thought that says it pays to get your “frogs” out of the way first. I know I feel much more energized when the tough stuff is off my plate (in fact, I always eat the least compelling food on my plate, and save the yummy stuff for last!)
• Set one day a week to do all your interviews. This can be helpful if you work yourself up into a tizzy before each interview. You get them all done in one fell swoop and relax for the rest of the week.
• Call sources on the fly. This can work if you spend the week looking in calendar in dreadful anticipation of an interview. I do this a lot, especially with people who can be hard to reach. I ask them for a few minutes of their time, and usually they give it to me. And then I’m done!
• Identify and write down what it is about phone work that gives you the heebie-jeebies. Do you stumble when you speak? Are you afraid the person on the other end of the line will treat you badly? Is it hard for you to write and conduct interviews at the same time?
• Now write down some ideas to help you get over those fears. If you feel inarticulate, write out a script for your call, right down to your introduction, and practice it out loud before you call. Write out a sign with the words, “Speak Slowly” and post it in front of you. If someone gives you attitude, you can ask them when it’s a better time to talk — or if it’s a source, you can find someone else (nicer) to talk to. Start taping your interviews, develop some shorthand, or tell sources ahead of time it helps if they speak slowly and that you’ll probably interrupt them to get a quote right.

Do you dread phone work? What tips and tricks do you use to help you get through your phone phobia? Post them below. [diana burrell]

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Recently, I spent hours calling podiatrists looking for a quote. After I finally found someone and finished my article, I remembered that I had interviewed a well-known podiatrist the year before who would have made a perfect source. I made a plan to organize my sources so when I needed quotes, I could find just the right person without having to call all over creation. (Of course, you don’t want to use the same sources over and over, but it’s fine to reuse a source for a different magazine.)

Some writers use programs like Filemaker Pro or Act! to organize their sources. I use a Rolodex divided into categories like Health, Business, Career, and Wellness. I went through all my old articles (since I include a source list in every article) and copied down the sources’ info onto Rolodex cards.

How do you organize your sources? Please share your tips in the Comments section! [lf]

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Copyright is an issue on the Internet. I believe it is respectful to do the right thing by others I have posted the basics here in regard to quoting form primary source material. From my research the following is my understanding of the rules for quoting. I hope this is helpful to you. More information can be located at: http://cil.usu.edu/tests/ET/citing.html When we want to quote from a book

For a rush assignment for a national health magazine, I’m looking for a woman between the ages of 42 and 48 (though this is flexible) who is a bit more than a social drinker–someone who drinks just enough that she wonders if she may have a drinking problem. This article will answer all the woman’s questions about what constitutes a drinking problem, how to know if she’s affected, what the health ramifications are, what she can do about it, etc. We’d need to run the woman’s name, age, and photo.

I’m looking for someone who is not a writer or a PR person, though if they are and have a second profession we can list, that should be fine too.

An intesting point: I just spoke with someone from an organization that deals with alcohol and alcoholism, and she said that if a woman has had more than four drinks on any one occasion in the past year, or more than seven drinks in one week in the past year, her chances of having an alcohol use disorder increases fourfold!

Please pass my message along to your friends, and ask interested people to e-mail me at [email protected].

Thanks so much! [lf]

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by Diana Burrell and Linda Formichelli

(Diana) Writers love to talk trash about crazy sources. Most experts I interview are smart, funny, well-spoken, and interesting. There’s always the expert source that defies reason, though. Like the renowned negotiation expert who expected me to negotiate with him — hard — for a 15-minute interview. Or the PR person who’ll call on her client’s behalf, asking when “their” story will be in print, because it has been two whole days since we talked.

Occasionally Linda and I find ourselves sitting in the expert seats. The perspective is fascinating. We worry about how we’ll sound and are ever-so-grateful when a writer or reporter lets us know what she’s looking for before the interview. And we totally understand how tempting it is to call the writer each week with, “Do you have a pub date? Huh? [slobber] Huh?”

We also get to observe how our peers do their work. Most of them do wonderful jobs, but there’ve been a few times when I’ve wondered how the hell this person summoned the energy to roll out of bed in the morning, never mind score an assignment.

For example, earlier this summer a writer contacted me through my publisher for an interview about a branded book I wrote in 2005. I was happy to do the interview, but was surprised when an e-mail showed up with a list of ten or so questions the reporter wanted me to answer — in writing, via e-mail. And these weren’t little questions with sound-bite answers, either. I wrote back to say I was happy to answer the questions over the phone, and I gave the writer days and times when I’d be available. The writer said she’d call on a certain day, and then never called. Weeks pass and yesterday, the writer e-mails with, “Sorry, I forgot about this. Could you just answer these by e-mail?” To which I rolled my eyes, hit the delete button, and silently wished the writer well for her trip westward on the stupid train.

I realize I’m sounding like a complete bitch here — and you know what? I don’t care! It’s lazy, lazy, lazy to request that your sources answer interview questions by e-mail. You can give them the option, of course, and even secretly harbor the hope that they’ll take you up on it. And hey, full disclosure — I’ve done e-mail interviews before. They’re not my first choice: they don’t leave room for the give-and-take that can nuance a story, and quotes usually sound stilted and/or canned. But I’ve done them, and I’ll probably do them throughout my career. But geez, give the source the choice!

Back to my story: I figured the hour or two it would take me to write out the answers to her questions could be better spent on querying, revising an article for one of my editors, interviewing one of my own sources, or hell, even weeding my vegetable garden — after all, a weed-free garden will give me bushels of healthy tomatoes and chili peppers to can this fall. That’s money in the bank around here. On the other hand, even if my sage advice led to 100 people to buy my book — that would be $75 toward my advance. Whoopie. Taking money out of the equation, there’s the writer. The bottom line is I have no interest in enabling the clueless when there are so many other things to tackle on my to-do list.

Ah, you sigh, shaking your head. What about the free publicity I’ll miss out on? I know — I’ve said the same thing about sources who’ve ignored or declined my requests for interviews. But I’m learning — there’s nothing free in life, including publicity. Sources *do* pay for it, and smart sources know how to evaluate that cost. I no longer get bent out of shape when someone declines an interview; I try not to take it personally when my calls aren’t returned. I’m far more grateful these days to the sources who do share their expertise. Some of them spend hours with me, leading me around their farms or taking my calls between surgeries to answer picayune factchecking questions. Their time with me costs them something, and there are a bazillion other worthwhile things they could be doing instead.

(Linda) Last week I was interviewed by a reporter for a well-known newspaper on a topic that would not result in any publicity that I need. When I asked her to send me a link to the article when it went online, she said, “Oh, just Google your name and the name of the paper and you’ll find it.” As someone who always sends sources a heads-up when an article is out — and a link if there is one, and sometimes even a print copy if they can’t find one — I was shocked that I would take time out of my workday to help a reporter and not even receive a link to the article (which would take the reporter what, like 30 seconds?).

Then there was the time, a few months ago, when a writer asked me to “write a paragraph using colorful language” about topic X. Hmm…I could have sworn that it was the writer’s job to write the article, not the expert sources’. (You don’t even know what my “colorful language” almost ended up being in that case.)

Situations like this have made it clear to me why it’s sometimes so hard to find willing sources for articles, and why so many of them are pleasantly surprised when I send them thank-you notes or let them know when the article they participated in is on the stands. I had no idea that so many writers had such sorry skills until I experienced them from the expert’s side of the desk.

(Linda and Diana) Here are some rules from the no-rule chicks on dealing with sources. (Yes, we were so shocked and appalled by what we’ve experienced that we wrote up some actual rules!)

• Remember that their time is as valuable as yours. Give sources a few possible times for a phone interview and let them pick the slot that’s most convenient for them. You can give the option of doing an e-mail interview, but don’t require it.
• If you do an e-mail interview, keep the list of questions short; we limit ours to 6 or 7 questions.
• Don’t ask questions that will require the source to regurgitate his entire study, book, or other work.
• Don’t make the source do your work by asking her to write in a certain style or to say certain things.
• Thank the source after the interview, whether by e-mail or snail mail.
• When the article is out, send the source a quick e-mail so he can see the article online or look for it on the newsstands.
• Diana likes to call sources on the fly — they tend to give livelier quotes! However, she always prefaces her questions with, “Is this a good time to talk, or shall we set up an appointment for a better time?” If it’ll just take a few minutes, most sources are happy to chat on the spot.
• Be respectful of time and keep your eye on the clock. If you’ve told someone you need only 15 minutes, and it’s minute 14, break in with, “We’re coming up to the time you alloted for me. I’m happy to keep talking, but I know your time is valuable.” Sources *love* this, as long as you’re asking good questions and the interview’s going well.
• Even experts get the jitters. Spend a minute or two settling them down. Tell them what your article is about, why you picked the topic, how you found their name, etc. You can even let them know how the magazine tends to work, so they won’t be surprised by a call from a factchecker. Then lead into your first question.

Have you ever been the on the other side of the fence as an interviewee? What are your peeves? What do you think writers could do better? Post your comments below!

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Rachel writes, “I have a problem that I’ve been sitting on for a few weeks now. I freelance for a MAJOR pub– the type people jump through hoops to try to get in to. I worked on a story for awhile, doing the interviews and such. Then, I decided, along with the editor, that there just wasn’t enough to make it the trend piece we were hoping for and we canned it. But? I can’t figure out a way to tell my sources. It’s been very obvious they are excited at the idea of getting into the pub….what do I do?”

I sympathize with you, Rachel. I hate telling sources, after they’ve spent so much of their time answering my questions, that an assignment was killed or their quotes were cut during final edits. Luckily in the eleven years I’ve been writing for magazines, no one has ever threatened to come bust my kneecaps for not getting them in print.

My advice is to be honest with them and let your sources know where the piece stands with the magazine — but I wouldn’t go into any great detail other than due to circumstances beyond your control, the piece isn’t going to run with Magazine X. If they’re new to the whole media thing,  you can explain that stuff like this happens all the time (and it does) and you hate it as much as they do. If they’re old pros, they’ll know the routine. I don’t know all the details about this project, but you could also give it a positive spin. For example, you could let them know you’re going to reslant the story for Magazine Y or that during your interview with them, they gave you an idea for another story which you’ll be pitching.

Since I hate delivering bad news, I explain to sources before I interview them that there’s a chance their story won’t appear in print or that their quotes may not appear in the final edit.  I interview a lot of real people sources for my parenting articles, and I know a lot of the moms want to run out and tell everyone to look for their story in October. My warning tempers that urge for them, and they can decide whether or not they want to speak with me, given there are no guarantees.

Have a question for the Renegades? Write to us at questions @ therenegadewriter . com and we’ll put your name in blitzkrieg lights. (I’m feeling punchy tonight.) [db]

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Rebecca OUP-US

Today is an exciting day at the OUPblog. We are gearing up to launch our newest column which will appear for the first time tomorrow. Casper Grathwohl, Reference Publisher for OUP-USA and the Academic Division in Oxford, has graciously agreed to be the “opening-act” and introduce the impetuous behind our newest column. Check out what Casper has to say below. Be sure to come back tomorrow and read From A To Zimmer!

Earlier this year Oxford introduced a new look to its dictionaries—a “refresh” of our classic design. One of the new elements you’ll notice is a little logo on the cover of every dictionary with the words “Powered by the Oxford Corpus” next to it. Intriguing. Most people have probably never heard of a corpus. So why are we making such a big deal of it? Well, the story of the Oxford English Corpus sits at the heart of our ability to track language and reflect real language usage—by real speakers—in our dictionaries. (more…)

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