Wade plays hardball with Jim Geluso, pressing him with tough questions about the life of a journalist. In Part Two of the interview, Jim talks about the excitement of local news reporting, the challenges facing the newspaper industry, and how Yahoo! News and the Associated Press are killing journalism.
Show notes at www.writingforpay.org
Add comment March 22nd, 2008
I’m in Austin, Texas right this very second for the South by Southwest Interactive festival. If you’re coming too, keep an eye out for this clown:
Here’s a photo I took in downtown Austin with my new BlackJack mobile phone:
I believe this is where the Ghostbusters will have their final showdown with Zuul.
Add comment March 6th, 2008
The New York Times plans to cut 100 newsroom jobs. Yikes.
If you are interested in a journalism career, you’ll definitely want to listen to Part Two of my interview with Jim, and hear his thoughts on why and why not to go into that field right now.
In fact, this is such a huge issue that he and I are thinking of recording another show over the phone. Or Skype. Or Talkshoe. Some sort of newfangled long-distance talky-machine.
Add comment February 15th, 2008
Jim Geluso covers the city beat at the Bakersfield Californian.
Jim’s City Beat blog at the Californian: http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/citybeat
Music by Morgansorange
Add comment February 13th, 2008
Wade interviews Jim Geluso, two-fisted news reporter for the Bakersfield Californian. In Part One, Jim discusses the difference between writing hard news and features, how the public’s reading habits are shaped by editorial decisions, his first paid writing job, and the day to day challenges that a reporter faces.
Show notes at www.writingforpay.org
Add comment February 13th, 2008
Author John Scalzi offers some profoundly useful guidance to writers about money, correctly diagnosing most of us having as much financial sense “as chimps on crack.”
It’s a long essay, and I recommend you absorb every word of it. Here are his top points:
1. You’re a writer. Prepared to be broke.
2. Don’t quit your day job.
3. Marry (or otherwise shack up with) someone sensible with money, who has a real job.
4. Your income is half of what you think it is.
5. Pay off your credit cards NOW and then use them like cash later.
6. Don’t have the cash for it? You can’t have it.
7. When you do buy something, buy the best you can afford — and then run it into the ground.
8. Unless you have a truly compelling reason to be there, get the hell out of New York/LA/San Francisco.
9. Know the entire writing market and place value on your own work.
10. Writing is a business. Act like it.
Hilariously, in my marriage I’m the one with the real job. My wife is a full time self-employed artist. I’m a writer, but a salaried one.
Add comment February 13th, 2008
If you listened to the show where I interviewed game editor Eric Franklin and were intrigued by his description of Asmodee’s HellDorado, you’ll be happy to know that the official English rules are now available. Check it out!
Man, it looks like Unit A is in a peck of trouble. Run, Unit A! Run!
Add comment January 21st, 2008
Joyce Gorsuch is an accomplished media professional who has produced radio programs for the award-winning daily news show “State of Nevada” at Nevada Public Radio. As a freelance writer and editor she has created content on topics ranging from rice research to silent films to commercial real estate development.
Joyce’s home page: http://www.mediabistro.com/joycegorsuch
Add comment December 22nd, 2007
Wade continues his poolside conversation with freelance writer Joyce Gorsuch in Las Vegas. Joyce discusses returning to America, breaking into the local magazine market, how she finds work, and her advice to young writers. Also: Wade copies his wife’s Art History class notes from 1989 for a writing assignment. Don’t tell the professor or he’ll be totally busted!
Add comment December 22nd, 2007
Awesome WFP listener Charles Tan hepped me to the fact that the MP3 download link for the new episode was broken. That’s weird, I thought, I tested it as soon as the show was posted and it worked fine.
Well, right after testing the link I’d enabled PodTrac on this site to collect stats on how many times the shows are downloaded. To accomplish this, PodTrac somehow redirects the download through its service - and THAT was what broke. I’ve disabled PodTrac for the nonce, and all is well again. Sorry about the inconvenience!
Add comment November 20th, 2007
