Question for ILX's Media Whores.

Why not use your blog as a portfolio? Worked for me!

what kind of writing do you want to do, and what kind of portfolio do you have?

nb i have no actual advice, other than in a negative sense.

(*NB not true)

Anyway, what Anna said.

Also, you could ring editors/desk editors of mags the day after publication (i.e. slack days) and say, "hi, I wondered if we could have a chat about some feature ideas you might be interested in - fancy a coffee in the next few days?" If you give the impression you have these conversations every day, they'll probably say yes, or if they say no they'll tell you about their usual commissioning process. Avoid saying, "hi, I'm near the end of a journalism course and I wondered if you could please give me some work" of course.

And don't stress. I did a crappy postgrad journalism diploma course too. Although it had its drawbacks, the certificate did help to prove I was serious about getting into journalism and now I'm doing good. So the course might be worth £3,500 to you in the long term.

as for CV, at the moment the strongest part of mine is probably being involved in a successful club and DJing, I imagine it must look good for writing work. other than that, yeah nothing!

http://www.nerve.com/regulars/pollack/badsex/012/

was this at TO? if so... spoooooooooky...

Now I think it would be quite good working on a local paper. I went for an interview at one not so long ago and it looked quite good. All the journalists were a right bunch of fat bastards, so it must be pretty easy. The hardest working people were those taking advertisements by phone.

It certainly seems like a more effective way of learning to be a journalist than doing a blog. You have to train yourself to be interesting to a wide range of people for a start. And you have to go out and talk to a wide range of people, overcoming any prejudices that might be holding you back. Which will always stand you in good stead if you want to make a living.

And people want demonstrable experience, and evidence of your reliability.

And if she wants you to use 'Music Television', use 'Music Television'. She's the boss. She's the one who can make your £3,500 look like a relatively good investment.

PS: I have no idea what I'm talking about, but this is what I think.

However, as a sufferer from Asperger's syndrome who finds it nearly impossible to interact with other people In Real Life, I have had to find alternative strategies. Partly what scuppered my music writing "career" was my extreme reluctance to do features as this would always involve having to interview people (which I found difficult enough to do as a sidebar to record reviews).

Thus did this subsidiary career dwindle to a lamentable, if predictable, end.

One of the reasons I have never done this is because I'm not keen on meeting people. I usually enjoy it when I do it (meet people, that is), but I usually dread it for some reason. Not as much now as I used to.

if you want, e-mail me - best address to use is weesimon AT mac DOT com - with a phone number and i'll call you for a chat. even though 18 months ago you slagged off a feature in my magazine (heheheh, that'll have got you wondering), i'd really like to help you out if i can.

As for Dom’s qus, I’m fairly amateur at the moment but I’ve been asking similar qus to my journalist friends and pitching to magazines for a few months now. Just send a concise well-written email to the editor of the relevant section stating what you’d like to do and give a couple of links to your best pieces (I’d recommend setting up a website with all your writing on there). It helps massively if you know anyone on the magazine/paper as I’ve got most of my biggest pieces off people who I’ve met in clubs, at parties, etc.

I’ve got a similar qu to this, about post-grad diplomas, but I’ll start a new thread rather than hijack this one.

i *think* i'm right in saying the cost of living has risen, in real terms, since the early 80s. also the nme doesn't have the 'glamour' it had (for me) even ten years ago.

I agree with those who say that the local paper may be worth your while. If you want to make a career of it, I think the more interesting music writing is increasingly likely to be found in researching and reporting stories (of the kind you'd get in a newspaper), rather than reviewing and interviewing.

Accurate, if Freudian, description.

But it's not exactly easy. I think I can pretty much do everything I want as an average music writer by DJing, and so I do that more now, and what's more have practically walked up the ladder of success in that field whereas writing I have regressed really.

I think there is very little appeal in music writing for most, and then worse again I think alot of people are stuck between being not quite good enough to keep themselves going on the blogosphere, ie writing what they want for enjoyment, and seeing where that takes them, and being too independent to apply their style to a strict template. (though they would thrive with a moderately relaxed editor/magazine style)

My crummy provincial listings mag pays 10p a word, I'm shocked that Uncut is/was the same.

crappy days ... :)

but this shouldn't become a moan thread, we all have our crosses to carry etc etc!

positive thoughts....

after all, some c*** like me is just gonna rewrite it all anyway.

I've started my thread here: Question for ILX's Media Whores. Pt.II if anyone can help.

twelve of your earth months shd suffice. try to make sure you're not tied to the group: ie that you can sell pieces to other publications/do casual subbing work/etc to get yrself known.

Like anything else, what you're paid for writing totally depends on who you're writing for. I do a lot of ads, press kits, press releases etc. for those big French luxury brands, and they have phenomenal promotion budgets.

I don't think they have Spanish luxury brands :-(

And the only Paul Oakenfold is DJ Sammy :-(

I can see why advertising copy would pay a lot.

But anyway, I don't do that any more. In fact I turned down a job this morning, which was nice. I did feel a pang of regret though.