Now CLASS, pay attention!

It is a very, very bad idea to write an article and then try to find somebody (anybody) to publish it. This is not the way the system works.

The real first step is to identify the publication you want to pitch. This means you must put on your Sherlock Holmes hat and do some serious research. Read at least six back issues (you can find in the library or online), so you can be sure your idea is appropriate for the magazine you have in mind and a similar subject has not been recently covered.

In other words, don’t propose an article on Hearty Winter Stews for Dessert Professional magazine or the best way to grill steaks for a vegetarian magazine or Tea Houses of Tokyo for Edible Hudson Valley. Don’t suggest an article on Summer Fruit Soups if that topic was covered three months ago.

Examine every advertisement in your target publication so you have a clear picture of its readership profile: if the magazine ads lean towards costly jewels, wildly expensive perfume and luxury cars, an article on the joys of living on $5 a week won’t be a good fit.

Each magazine has its own distinctive style. Cook’s Illustrated is all about cooking techniques, Food & Wine is devoted to food and wine. It won’t be even mildly interested in homemade organic dog food or baby food.

You must decide what the magazine does and doesn’t do. Bon Ap doesn’t do food politics. Every May is devoted to foreign food. July is barbecue. Thanksgiving is, O.K. (November), you guessed correctly.

Once you have identified your desired partner, you must dance to its music and speak in its voice; formal or chatty, first person singular or the royal “we.”

Each page in each issue conforms to an established design. Don’t suggest a 3,500 word treatise on childhood obesity to a magazine that doesn’t customarily devote space to this or a similar advocacy topic. The publication won’t add another eight pages to accommodate your writing no matter how brilliant it is. It covers only predetermined departments.

So with all this information firmly in hand, make a copy for your files. Do not expect anyone to return your hard work.

Crafting the Query Letter

Remind yourself that the purpose of your query letter is to interest the food or features editor in your idea. Ready?

• Keep your query letter short.
• Introduce yourself: e.g., I am the executive chef at the White House.
• Explain your idea in one sentence: I will describe the food served at the President’s daughter’s wedding.
• Explain briefly the history of previous events you have covered: brunches for the bereaved, inaugural parties, cabinet meeting lunches.
• Offer six sample recipes and two writing samples

Mail your proposal to the appropriate editor. You will find her or his name on the masthead. It’s essential to spell the name correctly (I received a letter addressed to Ilona Chompers. I did not respond.)

Here’s a sample letter so you can see what I mean.

April 15th, 2012

Marta Stallforth
Food Editor
The Daily Blast
100 Paradise Lane
Utopia, KS 11111

Dear Ms. Stallforth:

I have been reading your magazine for several years, and I’ve noticed you are interested in celebrity functions. Last January, I was appointed to the position of White House executive chef.  Would you be in interested in an article about the food that will be served for 5,000 guests at the wedding of the President’s daughter?  I have obtained permission from the State Department to publish this information.

I have been a freelance writer for several years. My work has been published in XXX, XXX and XXX magazines. I am enclosing six recipes and two writing samples.

I will call you at 3 P.M. next Wednesday to see if you are interested in my proposal.

Yours sincerely,

Max Amillion

mmmgood@boilingpot.com.

Send it and the query letter by regular mail on beautiful stationery.

Make sure every word is spelled correctly. You may receive an almost immediate phone call saying, “YES PLEASE!”

If not, wait two weeks. Call the editor. If you are told she is not available, call again. If she is not available when you call again, don’t call again. You have already received the answer. It is “NO.”

Move on. Knock on another door. There is an editor who is looking for you.

Next Wednesday, I’ll write about that mysterious thing called Voice.

The best food writers are persistent and have a thick skin. That’s what it takes to get published. Editors and other gatekeepers are inundated with proposals, and yours must fit comfortably into the profile of a specific magazine in order to start planning the engagement or a marriage made in words.

It is important to study several issues of any publication before deciding whether your story idea is a good fit. This means you have to decide whether to propose a 750-word travel story with six recipes that would fit nicely into a specific section or an introductory headnote and four recipes for a section devoted to fast, fresh food — or indeed a different magazine entirely from the one you originally had in mind.

I’d like to share with you a short section about food writing from my FOOD JOBS book that I hope you will find helpful:

“You have already put your hand on the door. Now push it open and consider all your options. You must make up your mind whether you want to be a newspaper columnist of write for a consumer magazine like Cooks Illustrated, Fine Cooking, Saveur or a trade journal, such as Nation’s Restaurant News, Pizza Today, or Sous Vide Tomorrow.

Perhaps you’d like to compose profiles of famous food people or write press releases for restaurants or commodities boards. You might dream of becoming a world traveler who rhapsodizes about food in far away places. Do you yearn to become a restaurant reviewer or write a cookbook? These are just a few among many, many destinations to consider.

Publishing is not an easy field to get into. The competition is ferocious. You don’t have to be as good as the next person, you have to be a whole lot better. But have courage. Remember, even the greatest writers had to find a way to wriggle their toe through a seemingly closed door. And there is always something new to explore.

If you passionately want to be a food writer — and you must be passionate about this crazy idea — you will find an outlet that will provide a home for your work. But this will happen only if you suggest a topic that will interest the specific demographic profile of its readers. For example, a vegetarian magazine will not be thrilled to receive your news that you have the best recipe in the world for beef stew and Cooking Light won’t answer your query letter if you are proposing an article about super rich sundaes.

Although you may think this is obvious, it is astonishing how many writers court the entirely wrong mate and then get annoyed when their advance is rejected. So don’t propose a 3,000-word treatise about Chinese dumplings to a publication that is enraptured with the heritage of Italian grandmothers.

Begin your journey as a food writer by buying an armload of magazines — as many as you can afford. Or go to a library where you can find many of these magazines. Take your time. Study the open letter from the editor, examine every page and every quadrant of every page, and every advertisement as though you are Sherlock Holmes. Take notes.

By the end you will have a pretty good idea about the DNA in the bones of each publication and you’ ll be in position to see whether your idea will be a good fit.  This is a kind of dating game in which you decide whether or not to make the first move. If you are climbing to the top diving board, get ready to take the plunge.

Next Wednesday, I’ll have a few suggestions about how to write a query letter to that first magazine you’ve decided to go after.

Will Write for Food by Dianne Jacob

I’ve met many students who want to write about food and I  try my utmost to be encouraging. It’s always been difficult to earn a decent living as a writer but I can’t remember a time when it has been more challenging.

Even so, there are doors that are open a crack and with a little ingenuity and masses of determination it is possible to push them wide open.

It is important to know, what exactly, a food writer does. Scott Jones, Food Editor of Southern Living and a CIA (Culinary Institute of America) grad describes it well: “Writers research, write, edit, proofread, and check facts (including testing recipes) in jobs such as: newspaper columnist, cookbook author, and restaurant critic. As a food editor for a publisher, you’ll review cookbook proposals and take an accepted book from contract to print. Editors also work for magazines, newspapers, and television shows, setting the content and style of their food section or programming. In this field, you’ll need strong writing skills, knowledge of culinary principles, and familiarity with current consumer and industry trends.”

That all sounds good. So, let’s look at the bad news first. The prospects of landing a job as a syndicated newspaper writer are slim and getting slimmer. The possibility of finding work as a regular newspaper columnist are thin and getting thinner as circulation and advertising numbers shrink, and few funds can be found for opinion pieces. Many resort to simple seasonal recipes with text, recipes and photographs provided free by commodity boards. Cross off newspapers as a potential employer unless you decide to become a hard food news journalist where hyper-local is the current trend.  This job has to be undertaken by a local writer.

How about food magazines?  As we all know, Gourmet is gone. The bad news here is though a fortunate few manage to secure freelance writing assignments. They are a precious few and they are, (sorry to say), often big names or “known” to the food editor. So forget about FOOD & WINE, Bon Appetit or Saveur and the other giants in the field.

This brings us to all the good news. The familiar food magazines do not provide the only home for your writings. Go to any of the major booksellers, and scan the incredible number of magazines that offer opportunities you may not have previously explored. Look at local publications too. Often the chamber of commerce or real estate groups publish their own (sometimes very handsome) magazines as do medical groups and other special interest organizations. And don’t forget about food blogs for food magazines.

Wegmans is just one of the many excellent supermarket publications, and then there are the huge number of trade magazines: FOOD ARTS, Chef magazine and Chef Educator Today, Nation’s Restaurant News, Restaurant Business, Restaurant Hospitality, Tea Times, Mushroom Growers, as well as catering and specialty food industry publications. Check online to find the names of the astonishing number there are.

There are other ways to dip your toe in the food writing world. There are food writing courses and coaches and writing programs to choose from, though I highly recommend New York University Steinhardt Department of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health.

But whichever direction you decide to travel, you must write regularly. The difference between a writer and a professional writer is the professional never gives up.

There are three reasons a writer becomes successful; no one knows what they are.