A Few Questions About Interviews

[tlbodine]

I've been content-milling full-time for awhile and have been contemplating dipping my toes into magazine markets, but I've always been too nervous to give it a shot. As I was rolling around my Facebook wall, I realized how profoundly stupid I was because I have a possible DEEP well of articles waiting for me.

I happen to be fortunate enough to be on at least friendly terms with several established and up-and-coming midlist authors. Most of them have books out right now and more upcoming within a year. And it only just now occurred to me that I could interview them, and that people might actually pay me for those interviews.

So, um, a couple questions because I am a complete n00b at this:

1.) Do magazines even buy interviews from freelancers? Is that a reasonable type of article/market to break into, or should I put that on hold until I have more clips?

2.) Do I do the interview first and then query, or query first and make sure I have the assignment before I do the interview? I was thinking I'd basically send a message saying, "hey, I want to pitch an article about you to xyz magazine, if they accept would you like to do an interview?" but not sure if that's the right way to go about it.

3.) How...um..."important"...do interviewees have to be? Like obviously nobody probably wants to hear from an unpublished writer or a self-pubber with no sales. But if you're midlist, are you "interesting" enough to warrant a magazine article (in an editor's eyes), especially if I can write a decent hook/angle?

What I'm thinking I'll do is find some magazines that are maybe not necessarily writing-related and pitch them instead of/in addition to writing magazines. Like, for example, I have one acquaintance who writes LGBT YA fiction. I was thinking I could try pitching articles to LGBT mags, teen mags, and LGBT-teen mags (which I'm sure exist although I don't know any off-hand).

My theory behind that is two-fold: 1.) The market might be less saturated for that type of article, so it might be easier to sell? 2.) It might be better for the person I'm interviewing because it would get them out into a fresh circle of prospective readers and out of the sort of circle-jerk writer community that we all tend to live in.

But I'm not sure if that would actually work. Thoughts?

[Debbie V]

You are on the right track when you talk about gearing your interviews to specific topics and themes. The more specific your query, the more likely they'll accept. Before querying, you might want to check on the willingness and availability of your subjects.

It is also a good idea to find the magazines, read their guidelines, review their websites and or issues, and seek other info on the editors and mags. Duotrope may be a good source here. Use this material to establish what to pitch and write your query. Answers to your three questions will depend on the zines, but you'll need to make sure they don't already have something printed on the topic you've chosen.

[WildScribe]

Pre-interview your friends - just five or ten minutes to get a couple of good quotes for the query, then query the magazines with an angle and include a couple of your best quotes in the body of the query. Also establish with your friends which magazines you are pitching. It's rare, but some editors will save themselves the "trouble" of hiring you and go behind your back to contact your interviewee themselves. You'd ideally have your friends tell them "Sorry, I talk to tlbodine, or no one." (This is almost unheard of with general magazine IDEAS, but with the entire idea being an interview with a specific, easily-reachable person, it is more in the realm of possibility, and while shady isn't illegal.)

As for your idea of where to pitch, YES! Go for it - very smart.

[WeaselFire]

Originally Posted by tlbodine

1.) Do magazines even buy interviews from freelancers? Is that a reasonable type of article/market to break into, or should I put that on hold until I have more clips?

Magazines buy anything they want. They key is having what they want, when they want it.

Originally Posted by tlbodine

2.) Do I do the interview first and then query, or query first and make sure I have the assignment before I do the interview? I was thinking I'd basically send a message saying, "hey, I want to pitch an article about you to xyz magazine, if they accept would you like to do an interview?" but not sure if that's the right way to go about it.

You would want an assignment to do the interview, even if it's on spec. Any decent interview will take you several hours to interview plus have some travel/communication costs. You'd hate to put the effort in without at least some interest.

Originally Posted by tlbodine

3.) How...um..."important"...do interviewees have to be? Like obviously nobody probably wants to hear from an unpublished writer or a self-pubber with no sales. But if you're midlist, are you "interesting" enough to warrant a magazine article (in an editor's eyes), especially if I can write a decent hook/angle?

Important is relative. Is there an interest in the readers for the person you're interviewing or the topic of the interview? Remember you can interview more than one person for a single article, a series of questions proposed to existing writers for example.

JK Rowling might be important. Bob who wrote a poem on the ladies room wall may not. But if Bob got a publishing deal because the agent saw the poem and contacted him, he could be really important.

(Note to Self: Be sure to leave contact info with your graffiti...)

Originally Posted by tlbodine

But I'm not sure if that would actually work. Thoughts?

Nothing works if you don't try.

Jeff

[tlbodine]

Awesome Thanks for the feedback guys