Getting Ink

Is it Monday already?

I've got two good friends who have had babies in the last couple of weeks, and both little ones are now in special care - Leo is less than a week old; has a congenital heart defect and is now recovering from surgery. Ella has a serious oesophageal problem and is in hospital preparing for surgery.

At the risk of sounding hokey, it does you good sometimes to count your blessings, so  this week Flea (my three year old) and I took the weekend off and spent some time together. It's the first weekend in a long time I haven't opened the laptop until after 7pm and I can't get over how happy Flea was to have me to herself. There was quite a lot of lying on the floor making small toys talk, and for some reason my child has decided she is called "thomas" and spent the entire weekend saying things like: "Excuse me, Thomas' Mummy, please can I have a sandwich?" All good for the soul.

Of course, this does mean I didn't finish the major book project I was planning on doing, and that quick newsletter thing? I'll have to get up early tomorrow to finish that. Oh, and that case study for the American client. I'll have to do that in the morning after the school run, I guess. And I've got a supplement thing for a broadsheet to work on. I'm gonna spend the next month really paying for that weekend off, aren't I? Still worth it, though.

Blogger to trade press: you're an embarrassment

There's an interesting post here from a blogger at SMSText news who recently attended the Nokia Christmas in July event.

It's a long rant and definitely worth reading in full, but the gist of the post is that this guy was shocked to find that the trade press ("total arses") headed straight for the food table, didn't seem to want to talk to the PR and - even worse - admitted to using a pay-as-you-go mobile phone. Quelle Horreur!

Ewan (the blogger) went on to say the trade press should be more appreciative of the efforts of Nokia, and should actually, you know, know a bit about phones as part of their jobs.

I'm not convinced about the appreciation bit, and Lord knows, I'm as fond of a goodie bag as the next woman, but I can sort of see his point.

The trade press these days often doesn't have the money to invest in keeping more than a couple of experienced specialists on staff, and what's more, most of the trade press no longer has much interest in hardcore tech coverage. When I left Computing, I remember the then news editor admitting that he knew nothing about computers but that shouldn't stop him doing the job well (and to be fair, it probably didn't).

The tech journalism landscape - at least at Computing, Computer Weekly et al, which I still write for - seems to have become increasingly focused on business issues and personalities. That's great news for non-geeks like me. But it's hardly surprising that many of the hardcore IT hacks I started working with 10 years ago (the likes of Stuart Lauchlan, Neil Fawcett, Sarah Aryanpur, Chris Middleton and some bloke called Gary Flood) now spend a lot of their time doing marketing and consulting, rather than trade editorial.

I suspect tech journalism in the "techie" sense is now online. Maxwell at Techworld and Chris at IT Pro could definitely give the likes of Ewan a run for his money, I'm sure.

Reasons Being Freelance Sucks (and one reason it doesn't)

I'll start this post by pointing out that, mostly, I really like what I do for a living. I get to write about lots of things I'm interested in, I talk to plenty of people every week, and most of my clients are a pleasure to work with. Being a journalist is better than a proper job, basically.

But really, there are weeks when being a freelance journalist/trainer/pretend PR person really sucks. Here's why:

1. Because freelancers are at home in the day. And this means relatives think we're just baking muffins and filing our nails. It also means, of course, I have to answer the door to a never-ending stream of market researchers, window cleaners, meter readers, neighbours and Mormons. I'd sabotage the doorbell myself but then how would I hear the pizza guy?
2. Because freelancers have to be nice to people we hate so we can work for them. One of my favourite editors just got laid off, to be replaced by an ex. So now I have to be nice to someone I would rather bury in a big hole - or I have to find another client to replace them.
   
3. Because people insist on calling my work line at 8pm. Sure, it's not my home line but it's a phone line in my home, and the ringing sound is interrupting the Gilmore Girls.
4. Because freelancers have to pretend they know about everything. Can you write me a feature about four-legged lesbians? Absolutely, I know several I can call right away, when do you need it by? How about digital photography techniques? Why, that's one of my hobbies, when do you need it by? And then we get to spend late nights trying to understand the difference between digital and optical zoom. Ugh. (This might just apply to me, to be fair) 
   
5. Because freelancers don't get paid unless we demonstrate that we REALLY want the money by phoning accounts payable repeatedly and sending at least 10 emails to chase the invoice. Otherwise, some publishing companies (and the biggest papers are the worst offenders by far) simply assume you'll manage without it because writing is just a hobby you use to earn pin money in between cashing cheques from the trust fund.
   

Roll up, roll up

I've been doing quite a bit of writing training this month, working with PR execs to polish up their bylined articles and features. It's always interesting, particularly because I usually start the session with this grammar quiz.

The point for me is that understanding the language (and its rules) should be the foundation of all communication. If you don't know how to structure a good sentence, or what the difference is between a noun and an adjective (seriously) then how can you produce good copy for your clients?

So, who reckons they can get these all right?

Which of these sentences follow the Subject/Verb/Object structure?
a)    The highlights made Clair’s hair particularly shiny
b)    Clair’s hair was made particularly shiny by the new highlights
c)    Clair’s hair was shiny because of the new highlights

Which of these sentences includes a dangling modifier?
a)    After the successful grammar session, I decided to pursue a career in teaching
b)    After completing the grammar course, Cat wrote only direct sentences
c)    Relieved to finish the grammar course, it was time for coffee

Which of these sentences are active?
a)    The white paper made no sense
b)    The white paper didn’t achieve anything
c)    Nothing was achieved by the white paper

Correct these sentences so the verb, subject and tenses agree.
a)    Each of the magazines are leaders in its own market
b)    My car, which is my second in two years, have a wonky steering wheel 
c)    No-one except his friends agrees with him

Correct these sentences by adding, or removing, commas.
a)    Gracefully daintily and lightly Greg moved across the office
b)    In fact the client’s product turned out not to be leading after all
c)    It won’t be ready in two weeks time but it might be ready in three he said

Correct these sentences by adding, or removing, apostrophes. 
a)    In one months time, we will have to start our annual clearout, wont we?
b)    My password has 2 R's and 3 number 4s
c)    For goodness’ sake, its not going to be as simple as it was when we were reading Dickens books

Correct the following sentences so that all spelling, punctuation and grammar is accurate.
a)    I would advice you to seek legal advise for you’re situation before excepting another promotion
b)    Everyone was at the meeting except Flora. The affect on her career was totally devastating
c)    The stationary cupboard was empty after a daring nighttime raid by Gemma

Read into this what you will...

I've had a bit of a tiresome weekend.

Top of the list: the letter from my mortgage company saying they've accidentally been under-charging me for the entire period of my loan thus far. Oops. Then, the central heating died. And to top it off, I got to spend yesterday with a relative who, to all intents and purposes, is indistinguishable from Satan in a dress. But I spent this afternoon reading a really good book, and forgetting all about the real world.

So I was interested to see Wordsmith's post here on the Big Read meme. She hasn't tagged me (clearly, my tag got lost in the post)  but I'm going to join in anyway.

Here's what you do:

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) [Bracket] the books you LOVE. (can't be faffed, so they're in red. I also added blue for those I read so you don't have to waste hours of your own life discovering they're a bit crap.)
4) Reprint this list on your own blog.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie-the-Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 MISSING
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby-Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - A. S. Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

My score: 91/100. This suggests I read a lot. I'm not sure what else it says. I don't care much for sci-fi.

But since I love a good row about whether or not Jane Eyre is a complete whinging waste of space (clearly, she is), I'll tag Kim, Linda and Sherrie.

It's the pictures, stupid.

I wrote up a technology case study for a magazine recently - about how a company had used a particular sort of technology to improve a specific part of the business. Bread and butter stuff in the IT press. What made this a bit more interesting than usual was that the customer  named in the case study was an very glamorous, well-known organisation, known for manufacturing some pretty high-end, attractive products.

I interviewed the customer, wrote up my copy and asked the PR guy if he could supply some photos. He obliged with a picture of two executives from the company, sitting at a desk, in front of a plain, white wall.

Hmm. What's wrong with this picture?

There could have been photos of the guys standing in front of some product, standing in front of the (very recognisable) corporate logo, standing outside one of their retail outlets, perhaps using the product in some way. Anything, please, just not a bloke in a grey suit on a white background.

I sometimes get the feeling photography is something that gets tagged on to the end of a project - and taking a photo of someone at their desk is easy and quick, right? Except a smart PR knows a good picture can sell a story. In fact, a really amazing picture can be sold to a national's picture desk without ever involving a reporter.

Back when I was working on the trade title InformationWeek, I had two customer stories to write up one week. Both involved big companies using software to, you know, do stuff faster. One came with a picture of a man in a suit. The other came with a photo of thousands of fluffy yellow chicks on a conveyor belt (the customer was a farming company). Guess which story got dropped when space was tight?

Maybe I'm getting old...

Actually, there's no maybe about it.

I'm careering towards my mid 30s, and I'm starting to have those fantasies about ditching the job and the mortgage, in favour of roaming the world with a backpack and an iPod, before I get completely past it.

That said, I’m still surprised by the number of senior journalists who seem to be leaving the profession for greener pastures in PR, corporate comms and analysis – including the likes of Ben Tudor, Kieren McCarthy and Will Sturgeon.

I was reading a debate on Fleet St Forum this week, about whether it’s possible to earn a living as a hack, with many participants saying they wanted out of journalism. PJ says it’s not reasonable to expect more than 30k a year from journalism, which doesn’t seem worth the effort.

For me, journalism is absolutely worth the effort. I get to choose my own hours and my own clients. I get to work part-time and spend my days meeting and talking to loads of different people. There are times when you have to work silly hours to meet a deadline, there are clients who  never pay on time, and good rates are hard to find - but I think I'm lucky to do this job. I make a good living, and I think if you're business-minded, it's possible to make a great living at journalism.  You just have to balance the "dull but profitable" work with the "interesting but pays buttons" commissions.

More importantly though, how many companies are there that will still offer hacks a 60 grand salary and a nice desk? Most of the hacks I know are barely house-trained, much less able to hold down a respectable job involving concepts such as ‘customer service’ and ‘billable hours’.

Getting Email Interviews Right

In the past, I've been a vocal opponent of using comment sent by email, which I call "canned comment".

However, in recent months, I've conducted a few email interviews, where I've sent specific questions to specific people when one of us didn't have time for a phone interview (and that's usually me these days).

It's useful from my perspective as I get comment from someone who otherwise wouldn't be included in my feature. And I imagine PR execs also think email interviews are A Good Thing - you're 100 percent guaranteed to keep your spokesperson on message, and there's no risk of being misquoted.

However, email interviews have a high failure rate, in that they often don't turn up anything of use. Why? Because marketing execs get involved in the process, and insist on sending me a marketing message rather than a direct response to the question.

Take this recent example: I was writing about the legal issues involved in accidentally losing a load of customer details, say by losing a laptop or inadvertently showing credit card numbers on a website. I conducted email interviews with two lawyers (since I always have a backup plan) and asked them the same questions. One question was: "How do I protect my business if it's not us who make the mistake, but someone who's working for us?"

Lawyer A: A business has responsibility for personal data it collects, whether this is collected by themselves or a third party. Failure to comply could lead to censure, fines or legal action.

Lawyer B: If you hire someone who will have access to data, you must do due diligence. Write a contract spelling out what security measures you expect them to take, and be seen to check they're doing it. That way, if something goes wrong, you won't be liable for their failure to keep their word."

Guess which interview I used?

In an email interview, it's all too easy to send ruthlessly on-message responses, or something cobbled together from documents you already have to hand. If that's your approach, I think you're missing a trick. Given an option, journalists will always choose email quotes that:

• provide a real-world context to the comment ("If you hire someone...")
• don't tip their editor off to the fact it's an email interview by using too-formal language
• include practical advice that will help readers
• express an opinion ("it would be smart to", "I think that" etc)

10 Ways to Get Coverage in Features (and only one is Response Source)

I saw on Daryl's blog today that 15,000 requests were sent through the Response Source system last year.

It's not clear whether 15,000 features were posted on the service, or whether 15,000 mails were sent out to PRs (features can be listed in numerous categories, so it's possible one feature might generate several requests) but whichever way you look at it, that's a lot of journalists using Response Source to get comment - and a lot of PRs using requests to get coverage.

While I'm not the world's number one fan of web PR services as a journo, they're doing a great job for plenty of people. But what happens when you're a smaller player and you struggle to stand out amongst the many PRs who respond to those 15,000 enquiries (especially those relating to national newspapers or consumer magazines, where it's possible to get 200+ responses in a couple of days)?

The good news is there are other ways to track what hacks are up to, and get coverage if a web PR service isn't enough on its own (and it really shouldn't be). Here are our top 10:

1. Sign up to the features lists published by magazines and newspapers themselves. This is particularly helpful in alerting you to changes in editorial planning that may not be picked up immediately by the web PR services.
2. Many freelancers now have websites with details of current commissions, and the really smart ones are publishing those commissions as an RSS feed, so you can easily see when they’re working on a new article.
3. Web PR services are undoubtedly a great way to have opportunities come to you – but don’t only sign up for one service. Ask Charity is a great web PR service for non-profits and charities. There are also services like Gorkana PR, Food4Media, Property4Media, Travmedia etc.
4. Sign up to Facebook groups like this one, where journalists post requests for case studies. There are Facebook groups around industry events, academic disciplines, industry sectors – sign up and keep your eye on new postings and requests from members.
5. Track the requests on sites like StarNow, for entertainment value, if nothing else.
6. Depending on your client, consider signing up for relevant forums. Mumsnet regularly posts requests from journalists looking for people with particular stories to tell, while journalists regularly post requests on industry forums such as Journobiz,  UK Press, Fleet St Forum and Journalism.co.uk. The massive advantage of these sites is that they will also allow you to build relationships with hacks beyond the simple transaction of the web pr services.
7. If you’re working within a vertical sector such as health or financial services, make sure you’re in touch with the relevant hack associations. The Guild of Health Writers or the Guild of British Travel writers regularly hold events where you can meet key industry players, as well as distributing news on behalf of PR types.
8. Given that this is a blog, I should also mention that social media can be a great research tool for PR professionals. Social networking sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook are increasingly being used to source expert comment for features – and logging into Facebook this morning, three of my journo colleagues were using their “status” message to broadcast requests for help from friends. 
9. Don’t just wait for hacks to come to you. Consider whether your client should be listed in places where hacks will find them. For example, if your client is a leading hotel group, why not list them on Expertsources as a potential talking head for travel features? If staffers aren't returning your calls, why not find a freelancer who specialises in this sector through an online directory?
10. Finally, let’s state the obvious. If you’ve got a great client with a great story, don’t wait for opportunity to land in your lap. Start pitching anyway. Not sure how to stand out? Come to one of our courses and learn to craft killer pitches!

Late Payments - a handy guide

So, there's been all kinds of kerfuffle and moaning this year on the issue of late payments for freelancers.

For the uninitiated, the issue is something like this: as a freelance, I write an article for a magazine, and send in an invoice, usually requesting payment within 30 days. The magazine editor passes on my invoice to the accounts department who stick it on the wall and throw darts at it for 29 days, then decide they can't pay it unless there's a 'z' in the month and all five company directors are in the building to sign the cheque. Or at least, that's how it seems sometimes.

Last month, I had a really good month professionally. In fact, I billed around three times more than I would in a usual month. So I was feeling pretty pleased with myself. But I'd forgotten about those little monkeys in accounts payable, and as a result, spent most of last week chasing overdue payments from December and November. And one from October.

The thing about chasing money is it can be sort of depressing. But I'm trying to be less stressed in 2008 so I've decided to make a sport of invoice chasing - which company can come up with the most inspired excuse as to why it can't get it's sorry butt into gear and pay its bills. So for anyone who's in the same boat, here's my 100% genuine, heard 'em all before,  top 10 excuses for late payment:

1. Sorry, we can't pay you until we receive a letter from the accountant confirming you're self-employed 
2. Sorry, the accountant only works one day a month, and it was yesterday. Maybe next month.
3. We pay on publication, and your story is due to run in July.
4. You're not on the system. Can you resend the invoice?
5. We pay 30 days after publication, your story is due to run in July.
6. The cheque's in the post. You didn't get it?
7. I know we're a £10m company, but we can't actually make electronic payments.
8. Ah, we paid another Sally Whittle. Oops.
9. The FD has to sign all our cheques and he's broken his wrist.

and my so far all-time favourite?

1. The cheque printing machine is broken.

Anyone heard any more that are even more creative?