Freelance editors: how to get what you pay for

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Feb 1, 1991 by Frank Finn

Frank Finn is president of Creekside Communications, an editorial and publishing consulting firm based in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. He bas held both editorial and publishing positions, including vice president and editor of Whittle Communications, editor of Country Journal and group publisher at Cowles Magazines.

To reduce the odds of getting caught with an unpublishable article, follow these steps

Even the best working relationships can run into trouble, and those between magazine editors and freelance writers are no exception to the rule. Sometimes, the relationship is so flawed that outright hostilities break out.

Recently, New York freelance writer Charles Kaiser took Esquire to small claims court over an assignment that had gone awry. Esquire had given Kaiser the green light on a profile of Robert Gottlieb, editor of The New Yorker. But when Kaiser submitted the piece, Esquire's editors decided against publishing it and sent Kaiser a kill fee of $1,000. Kaiser objected, arguing that his contract guaranteed him a chance to rewrite the article, assigned at $5,000, before it was killed. In the end, an arbitrator awarded the writer $2,000 plus $45 interest.

Here's what the combatants had to say to a Washington Post reporter about the dispute:

Kaiser: I still don't have a serious idea about what their objections were, except a letter from their lawyer saying that it was `entirely the wrong flavor.'"

Esquire articles editor David Hirshey: "I thought I was doing Charlie a favor-rather than go through the empty motions of having him revise a piece that the editors felt was unsalvageable. in hindsight I should have put him through a grueling rewrite process and then killed the piece."

Sound familiar? Is there an editor alive who hasn't assigned an ideal subject to the perfect writer-only to have the entire project turn sour? And is there an editor who, after reviewing a hopelessly flawed manuscript, hasn't wondered where to begin when the writer asks, "What, exactly, is wrong with my article?"

My own painful experiences with writers have made me a member of the "overkill" school of freelancer communications. The school motto is, "When in doubt, spell it out." Effective use of freelance writers depends on detailed communication of what you want at every step of the process-from the guidelines you issue to assignment letters and even to kill-decisions.

You could simply instruct writers to "get the flavor" of your magazine by reading back issues and write their articles accordingly-and many editors do just that. But, in my experience, that approach leads to a low ratio of published articles to stories assigned. Few magazines can afford the time and the money it takes to go through those motions.

The overkill method of assigning consumes more time on the front end, and it doesn't guarantee that every writer will deliver. But it reduces the hours spent on extensive rewrite instructions, staff rewriting when time runs out, and acrimonious disputes over kills. By communicating in detail to writers what you want, you not only improve your odds of receiving every editor's dream-copy that can go into production after scant minutes of light editing-but you also build a solid case for killing a story if the writer fails to follow your explicit instructions.

I recommend the following step-by-step method for ensuring good communication.

1. Explain the magazine's mission:

The starting point for making successful assignments is a clear, concise statement of your magazine's mission. The mission statement gives you and your editorial staff a yardstick by which you can judge articles at every step-from query to manuscript. At the same time, the mission statement provides a reference point for writers, answering their questions about your magazine's purpose, its audience, and its attitude toward its subject.

When I took over as editor of Country Journal several years ago, I found that the staff was vague on two crucial points: the goals of the magazine and the target reader. Their confusion was understandable; I was the third chief editor in less than a year. But they were conveying their haziness to the freelancers, and the editorial was suffering.

To correct the problem, we sat down as a staff and drafted a mission statement that began, "Country Journal is a guide to the practical challenges and the intangible rewards of living in the country." Once we had that on paper, the confusion began to disappear. Everyone evaluating story proposals and manuscripts could judge whether or not they fulfilled the magazine's mission. And everyone communicating with freelancers could explain the criteria we used to make decisions about story ideas.

2. Define the `architecture':

The mission statement spells out "what" your magazine does for the reader, the issue architecture defines "how." Your list of regular departments is just the beginning of the structural plan. Go beyond that to organize your feature well, stating the kinds of features that should appear in every issue and those that you will publish less regularly.