|
How
to Become a Food Writer
The
first step to getting hired involves devising a self-marketing
strategy. At the minimum, you will need an employment
packet consisting of a well-thought-out resume,
clever cover letter and writing samples.
The
resume and cover letter are covered in the complete
guide.
Your
Writing Samples
The
samples you show to your prospective employer will ideally
match the medium and content of what is
required in the job you are seeking. For a radio spot,
experience writing radio news would be a good example.
National magazines will expect to see published clips
from regional or small circulation magazines.
Go
over everything you’ve had published so far. If nothing
relates to food, don’t despair. Offer your potential
employer three solid writing samples, whether
they are humor, investigative reporting or an editorial
for the college newspaper. Do you have professional
writing experience? Previously published writing clips
will show your abilities; food-writing samples can push
you to the front of the crowd.
If
you don’t have any writing samples yet, keep reading.
This guide covers a number of ways to amass a collection
of clips such as posting your work online, starting
your own newspaper or newsletter, offering to review
restaurants for free, self-syndicating, freelancing
food-related articles as well as tons of advice about
how to come up with ideas for a story. All this and
more is still to come in this guide. ...
Major
Markets
Newspapers
Each
major city has a daily paper; most communities have
weeklies. Really big cities have competing dailies,
alternative papers and papers in the suburbs. The variety
and sheer number of papers make them a good place
to start a job hunt or begin a career in food writing.
For
example, I live near a mid-sized city. There are two
daily papers, one large chain of community weeklies,
a number of independent weeklies, a paper devoted to
food and restaurants, a weekly paper on music and arts
in the area, senior citizen newspapers, community newsletters
and free shopper newspapers in every grocery store and
gas station, as well as a business journal. While not
all publishers are interested in my story ideas on food
and dining, there is still a lot of fertile ground to
sell my writing.
Freelance
First
Look
around your region. Do the dailies have an established
restaurant reviewer? See this as a challenge,
not an obstacle. Your best bet for breaking in is to
establish a relationship with the paper first,
so contact the feature editor and pitch a food-related
story. This doesn’t get you a food writing job immediately,
but you’ll make a contact in the newspaper business
that may lead to other contacts, and if he likes the
story, you will end up with at least one published food
article to add to your writing clips discussed earlier.
Begin
with a list of publications that might be interested
in your story idea. If the papers don’t overlap in readership,
you might even be able to sell the story idea to more
than one publication. You should try to contact the
editor to pitch your idea—sending unsolicited ideas
is not as successful because the editor does not have
the time to read them all.
How
do you make the initial contact? My experience has shown
that e-mailing an editor has about a 50-50 chance of
success: half will read it and answer; half will never
read it because they don’t really use their e-mail or
they’re too busy with other things. The quickest way
to determine if you stand a chance selling a story to
a newspaper is to pick up the phone and speak
to the editor in person.
This
can be a simple question, “Do you use freelance writers?”
or “I would like to write an article for you on the
buffalo farm in Carlisle County. May I send you an outline
of my story idea?” The decision might be made right
over the phone if the editor is interested. Be ready
to run with it if you hear, “I like the idea; I need
it by next Wednesday.”
TIP:
Some publications rarely use freelance writers; many
more have regulars they use. Calling will save you time
trying to figure out if it was your story idea or your
writing experience that the editor didn’t like, when
in reality it was the simple fact that they don’t use
freelancers.
How
do you hook an editor with your story idea? Just like
you hook a fish using its preferred bait, hook an editor
using something he or she can use. Study the publication
you are planning to contact. Have they published a similar
story in the recent past? Who are this particular magazine
or newspaper’s readers and why should they read
your article? Answer these questions first for each publication
you approach and you’ll spend less time sending out unanswered
article queries.
Here
is a sample story idea:
It’s
summer in the city… do you believe in magic? Zal Yanovsky,
former guitarist of the Lovin’ Spoonful, certainly must.
His restaurant, Chez Piggy and bakery, Pan Chancho are
the hit of the Kingston, Ontario downtown scene. It
might be his flamboyant style that keeps residents coming
back and tourists seeking out his businesses. Whatever
it is, he is a success as a restaurateur and I want
to tell your readers how he made the transition from
wild-living musician playing with the likes of Cass
Elliott, Denny Doherty and John Sebastian to admired,
respected businessman… who just happens to be a member
of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The
article will be based on a one-on-one interview with
Mr. Yanovsky, as well as a day spent in his restaurant
and bakery. I will include a mini-review of dinner
at Chez Piggy as a side story.
I
will have the completed manuscript in your hands within
three weeks.
If
you intend to use your creative writing as a food writer,
it’s none too soon to begin thinking creatively. Brainstorm
for stories you can suggest to the editor:
- Do
you have the inside track on a food industry issue,
a new food trend or celebrity chef?
- Search
out organic farms in the area or introduce yourself
to the exotic mushroom farmer in the next county.
- Suggest
you cover a local food event.
- Write
an informational article on a winemaker’s dinner that
a local restaurant is hosting.
- Is
there a winery in your expanded area? Write about
your day at the winery—touring, dining and tasting.
- Report
on the farmer’s market at the beginning of the season,
or on the judges at the state fair’s canning contests.
- List
your favorite bread baking books and include three
excellent recipes.
- Write
on a particular cuisine—e.g. macrobiotics as medicine—and
offer links to websites and mail-order resources,
as well as the nearest restaurants that offer this
type of food.
Another
idea is to choose a food topic that stands alone — bread,
for example. Jeffrey Steingarten in his book The
Man Who Ate Everything devotes an entire chapter
to finding the right water, the right temperature and
the right flour to create a sponge that will cause a yeast-free
bread to rise. He travels around the country seeking advice
and watching the experts—as food writer for Vogue
magazine, this is all part of his job.
Once
you hook an editor with your story idea and deliver
an exceptionally well-written article, you’ve made inroads
into the job of your dreams. Even if no other opportunity
comes from that article you’ve got a wonderful clip
to use on your way up. Alternative weeklies pay around
$50, while an article at a daily newspaper should bring
in $75 to $150.
This article is
an excerpt from the fabjob.com How to Become a Food
Writer. Visit www.fabjob.com
for information.
|
