FEATURE AND MAGAZINE WRITING A John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Publication This third edition first published 2013 © 2013 David E. Sumner and Holly G. Miller Edition history: Blackwell Publishing Ltd (1e, 2005; 2e, 2009) Wiley-Blackwell is an imprint of John Wiley & Sons, formed by the merger of Wiley’s global Scientific, Technical and Medical business with Blackwell Publishing. Registered Office John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK Editorial Offices 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148-5020, USA 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK For details of our global editorial offices, for customer services, and for information about how to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see our website at www.wiley.com/wiley-blackwell. The right of David E. Sumner and Holly G. Miller to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher. Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book are trade names, service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publisher is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold on the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Sumner, David E., 1946– author. Feature and magazine writing : action, angle, and anecdotes / David E. Sumner and Holly G. Miller. – Third Edition. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-118-30513-3 (pbk.) 1. Feature writing. 2. Journalism–Authorship. I. Miller, Holly G., author. II. Sumner, David E., 1946– Feature & magazine writing. III. Title. PN4784.F37S86 2013 808.06'607–dc23 2012037005 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Cover image: Glowing mobile phone standing on digital pads © CLIPAREA / Custom media; Sprinter getting ready to start the race © Peter Bernik; Public safety patrol on the street © SVLuma; Man holding object © Adchariyaphoto; Business collage made of 225 business pictures © Maksim Shmeljov Cover design by RBDA Set in 10.5/13 pt Minion by Toppan Best-set Premedia Limited 1 2013 CONTENTS Preface vii About the Authors x PART I: Reading, Writing and Relevance 1 1 What Makes a Story Interesting? 3 2 How to Find an Original Idea 14 3 Strong Angles and Focused Ideas 26 4 Digging Deep for Original Stories 39 5 Talking Pointers: How to Conduct Great Interviews 55 PART II: Taking Your Articles to the Freelance Market 73 6 To Market, To Market: Shopping Your Words Around 75 7 Pitch-Perfect Query Letters 91 PART III: Adding Action and Anecdotes 107 8 Where to Begin: The First 100 Words 109 9 Action, Brevity and Style 123 10 Anecdotes: Mining for Gold 138 PART IV: Different Formats, Different Results 151 11 Briefs: Shortcuts to Publication 153 12 Profiles: Slices of Life 167 13 Writing Nonfiction Narratives 186 14 Eliminating the Ho-Hum From the How-To 211 15 Making a Timely Calendar Connection 225 16 Writing About Trends and Issues 237 vi Contents PART V: Exploring Digital Opportunities 253 17 Building a Story Blog 255 18 Long-Form Digital Storytelling 265 PART VI: Preparing the Final Draft 277 19 Advancing Beyond the Slush Pile 279 20 Before You Hit the “Send” Button: A Checklist 293 21 Careers in Magazine Publishing 299 Appendix: Shoptalk: A Glossary of Magazine Lingo 314 Index 325 PREFACE FEATURE WRITING IN A DIGITAL ERA The success of the second edition of Feature and Magazine Writing: Action, Angle and Anecdotes led the publisher to ask us to write a new and updated edition. The second edition’s adoption by dozens of universities in the United States and its substantial sales in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia have made us recognize we write for readers worldwide. Yet, in the past five years, the breathtaking changes in delivery technology have erased geographical boundaries. Distinctions in “feature writing” for news- papers, magazines and online media have blurred and even disappeared as the mass media have developed applications to enable instant access to their content anytime, anywhere. While we continue to offer a focus on writing for magazines, we have expanded the definition of content to include feature writing for all media forms. The power of magazines has always been the personal identity that they convey as well as their color, design and editorial tone. Magazines are the most intimate form of media because they establish a relationship with their readers unequalled by newspapers, television or radio. A magazine becomes a friend—a reflection of and integral part of the reader’s personal and professional life. While print magazine circulation has declined by 5 to 10 percent in the past 10 years, it has not declined as substantially as that of newspapers. Many top consumer magazines have reported healthy gains in digital-only subscribers. Cosmopolitan, for example, which has the highest newsstand circulation of any American magazine, was the first to reach a milestone: 100,000 paid digital subscriptions in 2012. Condé Nast Publishing hit the 500,000 digital subscription mark among eight of its publications a few months earlier. viii Preface “A couple of years ago, the big question was what’s going to happen to magazines like Cosmo in the future?” Kate White, the magazine’s editor-in- chief, told Ad Age. “There was a little bit of anxiety. What this has done is say that our content will rule and will thrive. Women want our content, and they’ll get it on a variety of platforms.” Content remains king in any medium. Because we’re convinced that every good product can be better, we’ve updated this third edition with fresh facts and examples, and we’ve inte- grated ideas and suggestions gleaned from teachers, students, professional writers and editors. Most chapters have been strengthened with new facts and fresh examples, and we’ve added two new chapters. “Building a Story Blog” (Chapter 17) explores how writers can create a digital presence around a story or collection of stories that extend the writing beyond the article. It examines excellent magazine writer blogs, analyzes the kinds of blogs a writer may want to build, discusses how to manage the digital community and explains how to balance long-form writing with short-form blogging and community management. “Long-Form Digital Storytelling” (Chapter 18) explains what’s required to tell long-form stories within a tablet environment. It covers the magazine environment on the iPad and long-form writing with tablets and other digital readers. It explains the skills required to conceptualize and create this kind of story. We invited our tech-savvy colleague Brad King to share his expertise in these two chapters. Storytelling has created universal bonds between people in all cul- tures and all ages. Editors will always seek original stories that inform, inspire and entertain, whether in print or online. This book is based on that long-time formula for successful feature writing: provide stories and information that readers can’t get anywhere else. Between the covers of this textbook we explain the entire process—from identifying a good idea to creating an original angle, and from finding primary sources to construct- ing a final draft. We focus on a basic principle: telling stories about people and putting people into every story. Our joint experiences outside the classroom include overseeing the life- style section of a daily newspaper, serving as editors of an online magazine and print magazines, supervising Ball Bearings, an award-winning campus magazine, fulfilling hundreds of freelance feature assignments, and writing books. The chapters in this book are based on our professional experience as well as our experience teaching feature and magazine writing classes for more than 25 years. Yet writing is an indomitable challenge. The goal