Rolling man
Posted on May 8, 2008
Filed Under Column, Main, Non-Fiction, Query, Sabbatical, Writing Opps | Leave a Comment
As you’ve noticed, I’ve been using Jeff Cutler dot com to keep my fans and investors updated on the progress of the ‘08-’09 writing sabbatical. Frequent updates help readers understand the progress I’m making in various writing arenas and alert them to challenges I face.
Well, this week was probably the best and craziest one I’ve had since the sabbatical began.
Yes, I’ve already landed some column gigs and other writing projects. I’ve interviewed luminaries in sport and entertainment and have submitted those pieces to a variety of publications. And I’ve developed a number of larger, long-term projects.
Sit down now. This week I was able to…
-clarify the copyright situation with my first book and ensure that I have full rights to redo the book with any publisher
-attract a couple national publications to my writing (and possibly sell one of my most recent profiles - update to come on that)
-develop another full-length book idea and start to form the outline for it
-contact a superstar columnist at the New York Times and exchange info (and I might even appear in one of his columns)
-and brainstorm a number of other projects including a story about the 2007 AA pitcher of the year, a feature on scooters, and a number of tech columns for an Apple news site
So, even though it’s only Thursday, my week has been rolling along quite well. Stay tuned for more details on these and other new projects.
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Posted on May 5, 2008
Filed Under Column, Feature, Non-Fiction, Sabbatical, Writing Opps | Leave a Comment
No, not the sabbatical but my latest handful of assignments.
As any of you who have followed my writing career closely would be aware, I have written columns and pieces for a multitude of biking magazines. On of these is SingleTracks, the magazine of the New England Mountain Bike Association.
Well, I have just submitted a longer feature article to them as well as an event recap with photos. This might signal a change in my involvement with the magazine because each of these pieces is more reporting and interviewing that it is column writing.
Further, I retain the rights to everything I submit to the magazine so I can provide these articles and sell either second rights or reprint rights to various publications.
This is exciting for me because it opens up my possible venues to those magazines (like Reader’s Digest and Utne Reader) that are primarily reprint driven.
I’ll keep you informed on where these recent pieces might show up next.
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Share ThisMainstream vs. Citizen ‘journalists’
Posted on May 2, 2008
Filed Under Main, New Media Friday, Sabbatical, Uncategorized | 2 Comments
Don’t get me started on my rant about how any idiot with a cellphone camera or a pencil thinks they can be a journalist. That’s precisely why the word has quotes around it in the title.
But if you were to get me started on this topic, I would point you to an outstanding overview of the influence that social media is now playing in our society.
The only trouble with the piece and Chris Brogan’s perspective is that he’s coming from it as a proponent of the good that social media can do for companies, brands and messages.
As a professional journalist, I am loathe to share my space with people who think a blog is the same as a newspaper or media outlet. The lines are blurring, but that only means that consumers (anyone who reads news or wants to devour information about the world around them) should be ever more vigilant about where they get their information.
We’ve all seen and received the emails about Bill Gates giving people money for sending emails. We’ve all gotten the notes from people on missing children who don’t exist. We’ve all seen Robin Williams’ supposed diatribe on Iraq and oil.
For the most part, those items are perpetuated because the majority of people don’t have the training to check facts and verify information. My fear—substantiated by the tsunami of misinformation that’s present on the Web—is that media outlets will start to look only at the beans and decide that Joe and Josephine Six-Pack are as good at typing out the news or sharing opinions as those of us with years of training.
Then we all lose because the citizen ‘journalist’ who replaces a trained reporter is dragging down the standard by which we all take for granted. And when that standard vanishes, then our best source of news is going to be what we can see and hear for ourselves.
That might be easier with cameras and audio coming in from everywhere, but it’s also akin to the Old West when prospectors were oblivious to events that happened outside of there immediate vicinity.
Are we headed there? I don’t know. People are still paying me to write while bloggers are still scraping adsense and other avenues to make a dime.
I just think that the thought leaders (is that still being used as a term?) should take a breath before trumpeting the benefits of the untrained troops—I should call them troupes because it’s mostly performance art—and give some credit to the established and trained journalists.
Seriously. This needs to happen before everything we learn is categorized as ‘news’.
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Share ThisSocial-media connections
Posted on May 1, 2008
Filed Under Assignment, Column, Sabbatical | 2 Comments
In an interesting success story that proves that social media and its related networking IS NOT all smoke and mirrors, I’ve landed a writing gig just by making a few connections in the new-media realm.
It took only a few hours to come to an agreement with the owners of SavvyAuntie.com and their related publications. So, keep your browsers pointed to SA over the next few months if you want to see more of my writing.
In other news, I’ve got a few deadlines staring at me early next week. I’m going to use the next 22 hours to see if I can’t wrap those projects up so I can enjoy my weekend.
Until next week, keep reading!
Share ThisIt’s not mundane, it’s writing
Posted on April 29, 2008
Filed Under Main, Poem, Sabbatical | Leave a Comment
The steady push forward of writing projects (like the feature on Jonathan Coulton or the article on Kate Walton or the column for the newest women’s magazine - Privvy) is essential to finding more success.
The trouble most writers run into is either motivation or inspiration. Mine is certainly not inspiration. In fact, this morning I looked at my cup of tea and was inspired to bang out a poem for Tea A Magazine.
That will go out this morning and the other materials will continue to be refined as we head through this week.
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Share ThisPopular Science Showcase
Posted on April 25, 2008
Filed Under Column, New Media Friday, Sabbatical | Leave a Comment
The following column is also going to appear as a Bowl of Cheese podcast later today. Enjoy.
The coffee table in your house probably has on it a magazine or two. The publications are there either to impress visitors, to give you something to flip through while your partner is watching Top Chef or American Idol, or a mix of both.
The magazines in my house run the gamut from UTNE Reader to Scoot Magazine, but that’s to be expected from a writer. Some of the most dog-eared periodicals are Mac|Life and Popular Science because I frequently refer to back issues for tips and tricks on all things electronic and Mac.
I even have a subscription to Boston Magazine and Yankee just so I can keep up to date with local events and the pulse of the region.
From the regular columnists to the special features, each of these mags offers a wealth of knowledge to its readers. And even the advertising sections serve both a financial and societal purpose.
Take Pop-Sci for instance (and yes, Pop-Sci is an acceptable abbreviation for Popular Science…it’s not as cool at NatGeo, but it’s a start), they have a Popular Science Showcase in the back of each issue.
There you can find work tables, 500,000 BTU torches, geodesic dome homes, extra-wide shoes and even human pheromones. That’s right, sex stuff in the back of Popular Science - who woulda thunk it?
Well, I take a special interest in the pheromone ads because the woman who pitches this stuff to geeks like me is Dr. Winnifred Cutler. That’s right, probably a relative who is both a doctor and a renowned creator of the 10X™ Formula to boost your sex appeal. Outstanding.
What’s even better is that Dr. Cutler’s 10X ads have been in the Popular Science Showcase for decades! It’s said (in the ad, so get your grains of salt ready) that Dr. Cutler co-discovered human pheromones in 1986 and received her Ph.D. from UPenn.
Best of all, the research and the product must be valid because in my opinion, Winnifred Cutler is as ugly as a horse.
Add it all up. The ad runs for years. The pitchman is a woman who could pass for a man. The design of the ad could have been done by a fourth-grader. And the testimonials are from a guy in Oklahoma and another in upstate New York, with the best quote being, “The stuff is like catnip. Too many women come after me.”
It must work. The final proof is that Dr. Cutler has updated her look after years of appearing in the ad with a 1964 hairdo. She’s now updated it to a ravishing 1983 look that probably makes all the delivery men growl.
So, if you’re looking for love and need some increased attention from the opposite sex, grab a Popular Science Magazine from the local bookstore. The 10X ad is right in the back.
Or if you’re just looking to impress your guests, get a few issues and leave them on your coffee table open to the Showcase pages. There might be one or two friends who are enamored of the spiral staircase kits or the Super Z Hustler Turf Equipment mower, or even the 4-minute ROM exerciser.
But I’m sure Dr. Winnifred Cutler will do her part to entice some eyeballs toward the magic of 10X and the power of pheromones. Now that’s some popular science.
Also enjoy these before and after photos of Dr. Cutler. What a makeover!
That’s the OLD photo. Here’s the new one.
Interestingly, the ‘alternate text’ box where Wordpress allows me to upload photos offers as alternate text for any photo - “Mona Lisa”. That’s ironic.
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