Common Magazine Terms Defined

As I jumped into a discussion of magazines in my freelance writing class earlier today, I discovered I was talking in what many students in my class thought was a foreign tongue.

As so many people do when they're speaking the language of their profession, I rattled off magazine-specific terms and phrases in my discussion as if everyone sitting around the table with me knew what I meant.

As it turns out, once I stopped to ask them, most did not.

So I slowed down and spent some time explaining a few of the most important terms to my students, because the truth of the matter is, if you're going to be a successful magazine freelancer or editor or even designer, you need to speak the language.

Here are a few of the most common terms we discussed or will be discussing soon:

Departments/Front of Book (FOB)/Back of Book (BOB)—Departments are the sections generally found at the front of the magazine (or front of book—FOB) and the back of the magazine (or back of book—BOB). Departments usually feature smaller articles focused on a specific topic, which are grouped together in the same section of the magazine. (Side note: At many publications, departments are a great place for freelancers to "break in" to the publication.)

Features/Feature Well—Features are the key content of the magazine. Most publications include a variety of types of features each month—say, a profile or two, an investigative piece, maybe a service article of some type. The length may vary, but generally these articles are longer and more in-depth than what you'll find in the departments. Feature articles are usually grouped together in the feature "well," located at the center of the magazine.

Coverlines—The short titles or article descriptions that appear on the cover of the magazine and are used to "sell" the content in that issue (sometimes called "sell lines").

Masthead—A partial- or full-page list at the front of the magazine (usually near the table of contents and/or editor's letter) that credits the magazine staff including editors, designers, proofreaders, photographers, and executives associated with the publisher. (Sometimes lucky freelancers even get listed in the masthead as contributors.)

Table of Contents (TOC)—The listing of all departments and feature articles included in that particular issue of the magazine—often with brief descriptions of each—found near the beginning of the book.

Hed—Magazine slang for "headline," or the title of each article.

Dek—Magazine slang for "subtitle," or the words located near the title that provide additional clues as to what the article is about. (Not all department pieces include a dek; most feature articles do.)

Subhead—Short phrases or words used within longer articles to break up different sections of the story and provide organization.

Byline—The name of the author listed with the article to give him/her credit.

Cutline—The words that appear near a photo to describe the image or its context (also called a "caption").

Folio—The line that usually appears near the outside bottom of most magazine pages, which generally lists some combination of the page number, name of the magazine, and/or date of the issue.

Initial cap—The first letter of a word designed in a different typeface and/or larger type size to stand out (sometimes also called a "niche cap"); it's often used to introduce the first letter of the first word in a feature article.

Dingbat—Also called an endmark, it's the small image or icon some magazines use to signify the end of an article.

Pull quote—Words pulled from an article that are designed to serve as a textual element on a photo or a visual break on a text-heavy page.

What common magazine terms did I forget? Let me know!

Your Assignment: Drop Everything and Read

I'm teaching a college freelance writing roundtable course this semester, and one ongoing assignment I'm giving my students is to read magazines. Lots of magazines. A variety of magazines.

When we next meet in class, I'm going to tell them that they should spend time each week perusing not only the publications they already know and love, but also any other magazines they can get their hands on.

I'm going to encourage them to go over to friends' houses and raid their coffee tables, to dive with gusto into whatever random titles they come across in the dentist's office or while they're waiting at the vet. (Yes, I know those public copies in waiting rooms are germ central. But come on. So is about every place on a college campus.) 

I'm going to suggest that they head to the nearest bookstore, grab a latte, and spend a few hours perusing the racks upon racks of magazines for sale there. They don't have to buy any, but they should at least loiter for a few hours and see what they can find.

I'm going to encourage them to step outside their comfort zones, to flip through AARP or Modern Dog or whatever other title they come across that might be new to them.

And then I'm going to take my own advice. And I suggest that you take it, too.

Because the thing I realized today is that I don't look at magazines enough anymore. I used to have a voracious appetite for them in college. I'd explore any issue I could get my hands on. It was a passion, perhaps even an addiction. Plus it was basically a requirement for a magazine journalism major.

Now I read a few of my favorite titles when I get a chance, but when it comes to work, I rarely pick up a magazine unless I'm eying it as a potential market.

And you know what? By doing that I'm missing out on markets I might not have realized are out there, on story ideas that might spring to mind as I read an article in a certain publication. I'm missing out on a potential creative spark.

Yeah, I know sitting with a stack of magazines is not anything I can bill time for. It's not something that will immediately yield a paycheck. But for a freelance writer who's always seeking new article ideas and new markets, it's a key step in the creative process.

What magazines do you rely on for inspiration?

Photo: theseanster93 via flickr

Using the B Word

No, I'm not talking about that B Word. I'm talking about another B Word that many freelancers don't like to use: Business.

Are you open for business?

If you're like many freelancers, you start out dabbling, taking on writing projects here and there while you continue with your full-time work as a doctor, a lawyer, a grocery store clerk, or whatever it may be (really, I know examples of all three who freelance on the side).

That's what I did. Right out of college, I was fortunate to land a full-time gig in publishing. But I still freelance wrote and copy edited on the side because I loved the work, I thrive on being busy, and I liked having a little extra fun money. Any projects I did were tackled in evenings, on weekends, or occasionally on my lunch hour.

I'd track my time if I was being paid hourly but otherwise didn't pay attention to how long a project took. I wasn't worried about the rates I was paid; I was just excited to get some extra cash. I had three solid clients I was incredibly happy working for and could care less if I landed any others, although I did jump at an occasional one-time opportunity for some work if it happened to land at my feet.

That all changed when I became a full-time freelancer. Suddenly the projects I landed weren't paying for plane and concert tickets, they were paying for car and health insurance bills. Securing a random project here and there wasn't enough.

That's when I realized that full-time freelancing isn't like having a hobby. It's business.

Running a business means getting serious about the things I hadn't worried about before, like tracking how long different types of projects take so I know how much I'm making and how much I should charge.

It means staying on top of invoices and tracking income and setting goals for how much I need to make weekly, monthly, yearly to pay the bills. (Not to mention making sure those paychecks arrive.)

It's actively seeking new work—often—rather than sitting and waiting for projects to come to me.

It means diversifying the types of services I'm offering rather than relying solely on my bread-and-butter projects.

It means building relationships with clients—from those who have been around for a while to new ones I'm just starting to work for, with the hope they, too, will be around for a while.

It means marketing myself, my work, my business—yes, I said it again—anytime, all the time, as much as possible.

It's true: In the midst of running the business aspect of freelancing, it can be hard to find the time to actually write and edit and complete the projects that necessitate all this other stuff.

But finding a way to stay on top of the business is the name of the game if you're going to be successful.

What part of the freelance "business" do you like the least?

Photo: Studeo Grinta via Flickr

New Year, New Resolve

I'm starting off 2013 on a mission to rededicate myself to my freelance writing and editing career—and, along with it, this blog.

 I stepped out of the full-time freelancing world a few years ago when I took on a job working as the sustainability manager for a community college. Although I still dabbled in a few writing and copy editing projects here and there, most of that work took a backburner to my full-time job.

(Although, thankfully, my job did give me plenty of opportunities to write, edit, and communicate in new ways—now I've added grant writing and communications consulting to my freelance skill set!)

But now I'm back to juggling a combination of college teaching and freelancing, and I couldn't be more excited.

Of course, diving back in comes with plenty of legwork. I started by reconnecting with editors and publishers I've worked with closely in the past to let them know I'm back in the game. (It's a great time to do so, as many are planning for 2013 and making assignments right now.)

I'm also trolling the usual sites, as so many freelancers do, looking for gigs worth applying for. I'm brainstorming story ideas I want to pitch to a variety of consumer pubs. And, of course, I'm updating my resume, my LOI, and profiles on freelance sites, all while trying to whip my freelance website into shape because it has gotten woefully outdated.

So much to do, and so little time. But it's only Jan. 4, and I'm well on my way.

As a freelancer, what do you do to kickstart a new year?

Photo: VancityAllie via Flickr

Fancy Words

Recently, the New York Times After Deadline blog posted about the 50 words that most stump Times readers.

There are some words on there I know and enjoy—I love inchoate, sanguine, and feckless. There are some I would most definitely mispronounce if asked to say them aloud—those foreign terms don't always glide off the tongue. There are a few I'm surprised made the list—hubris, overhaul, laconic. And there are more than a few I've had to look up time and again.

Many of the words are the sort that may be difficult to define when taken out of context. But when they're positioned in a sentence in an article with a specific focus and even tone, I find the information around those tricky words give enough clues for me to muddle through the meaning or at least understand the point the writer is trying to make.

The beauty of reading the Times on the Internet, however, is that I don't have to muddle through. All I have to do is double-click on the word in question and voila! I have a definition from the American Heritage Dictionary.

In the blog post, the question is raised as to whether such words should be used if readers don't understand them or know what they mean.

As Philip B. Corbett writes in the blog post:

But even the most studious readers are likely to stumble over at least some of these words. I don’t suggest banning any of them — in some cases they may be the perfect choice, and we refuse to talk down to readers or dumb down our prose.

Still, we should remember that this is journalism, not philology. Our readers, smart as they are, are often in a hurry. They may be standing on the subway or skimming a story over breakfast. Let’s not make them work any harder than necessary.

It's a good point to remember whether you're writing a news brief or a magazine feature. Beautiful language can enhance any article. But used thoughtlessly or excessively, it does little more than hinder readers and mask the information your article seeks to provide.

Not sure about using a certain word or phrase? If all else fails, remember Strunk & White's timeless advice:

"Avoid the elaborate, the pretentious, the coy, and the cute. Do not be tempted by a twenty-dollar word when there is a ten-center handy, ready and able."

Tough 2009? You're Not Alone.

About 40 percent of freelancers had trouble getting paid in 2009, according to a survey released last month by the Freelancers Union in New York.

According to the organization, more than 3 out of 4 freelancers said they've had trouble getting paid over the course of their careers.

And if an article on the topic published today in the Wall Street Journal is any indication, freelancers' struggles with getting payment are far from over.

Are you having difficulty getting paid for work you've done? What are your strategies for getting payment when payment is due?

Project Management for Freelance Writers

Working with overlapping deadlines, juggling research and interviews for multiple assignments, and trying to stay on top of querying are all key in the world of freelancing.

The problem: the more projects you have on your plate, the easier it is for something to get lost in the shuffle. And nobody wants to drop the ball on a project. That's why staying on top of all of your freelance work is so important.

Here's the two-part method I use to stay organized. It certainly isn't a one-size-fits-all strategy, but perhaps it will provide a starting point for creating a method that works for you.

Part One: A Calendar/To-Do List
Go ahead, roll your eyes, all you tech-savvy freelancers.

I use a plain old Moleskine calendar to keep track of my life. I take it with me wherever I go, and when I'm working I open it on my desk to the current week. On the left page, I have the day's to-do list laid out, with key details such as appointments and deadlines highlighted so they're easy to spot.

The moment I get an assignment, I write down the big due date. Then I work backward, breaking down the tasks required to complete the job and assigning them to certain days on the calendar. As I'm doing this, I keep an eye on what else I have going on. So if I have a copy editing project scheduled for Wednesday, I'm not going to add "interview three major sources for story X" that day as well. I'll spread out those interviews throughout the week, or I'll try to tackle them all on Tuesday instead, so my Wednesday isn't overloaded.

On the right page, I have a spot for taking notes on anything and everything that strikes my fancy, from blog post and story ideas to a quick record of phone numbers I need for the week.

And in the front of the notebook, there's a quick-glance yearly calendar where I can keep track of important events. So if someone proposes a deadline, I can flip to that page, see I'll be out of town the week before, and work on negotiating a different due date.

Others choose to use online calendars, such as Google Calendar, which allow them to set up reminders for appointments and deadlines. PDAs, iPhones, and such all offer great organization tools.

Regardless of your method, the key is to stick with it so all the vital information you need is in one place.

Part Two: A Master Project Tracking Document
Once I started freelancing full-time, I began using a master freelance project-tracking document. It's a basic Excel file that allows me to track where I'm at with projects for the entire year. There is a column for each month.

The top half of the spreadsheet is for keeping tracking of any queries or LOIs I send out. I write a brief description of the query, who it went to, and when it was sent. That way, I can open the document on any given day and see which queries I should be following up on and which I should consider sending out to a different publication.

Then, the bottom half of the spreadsheet is where I keep track of booked opportunities. So anytime I agree to take a project, the details (project name, publication or client name, major deadlines) are listed in this portion of the spreadsheet for the month. There's also a column where I input the rate for each project, so I have a running total of my income for each month going at the bottom of the screen.

With these two methods, plus my time-tracking software, I feel like I have a good handle on what I'm doing now and what's on the horizon at any given moment.

What about you? What methods do you use to manage your workload? I'd love to hear your ideas!

Learn More:
Project Management and Editorial Calendars for Freelance Writers (PoeWar.com)
A Guide to Simple Project Management (Freelance Switch)

Photo: seanmcgrath via flickr