Getting into Trade Publications
by Joe Naiman
My 23 years as a freelance writer have included a few assignments for trade publications. I've found them to be better-paying than community newspapers, local magazines, and even some public-oriented national magazines.
It can't be said that nobody reads trade publications, since they have enough circulation to be viable, but because they are marketed to the industry rather than to the general public they're not as well-known as public-oriented periodicals. I had never heard of most of these publications until the opportunity arose to write for them. The key to writing for trade publications is finding out about their existence, after which it may not be so difficult to convince the editor that you have the expertise to write for that publication.
While trade publications differ from niche-market newspapers and magazines geared toward the public, I should probably start with my experience writing for interest-oriented national publications. Shortly after I graduated from college in 1985 and became a freelance writer, one of the coin clubs in the San Diego area had a show in El Cajon. I attended the show, took a few notes, obtained a few key statistics, and called the editor of Numismatic News to see if he was interested in a story. His response was that he wouldn't pay but he'd give me a by-line. I accepted the offer of a by-line in a national publication and eventually the article was printed.
By 1996 I was writing for the Lakeside Leader. At the time the Lakeside Rodeo was sanctioned by the International Pro Rodeo Association, whose magazine is Pro Rodeo World. I tried to make each rodeo story something other than "the rodeo came to town", and during one rodeo I interviewed the IPRA's Western Region director. He encouraged me to submit articles to Pro Rodeo World, which actually paid me for my stories.
My first experience with a trade publication wasn't a paid one. My father-in-law was a nuclear engineer, as is a friend of mine from high school. The American Nuclear Society publication Nuclear News has a humor column called Backscatter. I submitted a column about creating an environmental group called Greensfees, which promotes more green space by creating more golf courses (and like other environmental groups opposes business, since work is an impediment to golf). I had to go to the University of California, San Diego library to find that issue of Nuclear News, but I made a photocopy of that piece to add to my portfolio.
I became a full-time freelance writer in 1997 after I was laid off from the high-tech firm. I had written, on an unpaid basis, a column for the Internet baseball magazine Online Drive. My layoff wasn't effective until a couple of weeks after I was notified, so I sent out word that my e-mail address at the company would no longer be valid after the layoff date. Nobody got paid for Online Drive, and the editor's actual job is with SPIE, a professional scientific society focusing on optical science. Since I had mentioned that I would be a full-time freelance writer, Rich responded that SPIE had an opening for a news provider for SPIE's OPTICS.ORG Website. I accepted the position and held it for two years until SPIE divested OPTICS.ORG to the Institute Of Physics.
From time to time after that, I would occasionally write for an SPIE print publication. During my time with SPIE I made contact with the publicity department of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. AMPAS has two Academy Awards ceremonies: the Oscars, which are the more prominent, and the Scientific and Technical Awards, which are probably the more interesting. I ended up covering three Sci-Tech Awards banquets (interviewing Charlize Theron, who was the presenter one year, in the process).
SPIE holds its annual convention in San Diego, although for a few years it experimented with other cities. Even after I lost my OPTICS.ORG position to the Englishwoman from IOP, I was still given press credentials to the SPIE conference, which includes vendor booths in the exhibit hall. One year Materials Today, an Elsevier trade publication, had a booth. I contacted the editor and ended up with a couple of articles while Materials Today was utilizing freelancers.
When I ask for credentials to conventions I'm expected to write articles. Often the key is to find some local topic of interest - in my case this often involves agricultural or equestrian applications. My two articles from the most recent SPIE convention involved a presentation from the Remote Sensing for Fire session and one from the photovoltaic plenary session.
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One of the local publications for which I wrote was Equestrian Journal, whose existence overlapped the 2001 American Association of Equine Practitioners convention in San Diego. The AAEP convention vendor booths included one from the University of Kentucky's Gluck Equine Research Center which was staffed by Dr. Ernie Bailey. I mentioned to Dr. Bailey that I had worked by phone with Dr. Gus Cothran of the University of Kentucky on a story about the quest to find a pure Spanish mustang. Dr. Bailey mentioned that Dr. Cothran might be at the Plant and Animal Genome conference, which is held each January in San Diego. I was able to figure out how to obtain credentials to the PAG conference and covered that year's equine session. The editor of the Temecula paper invited me to write a story from the grape genome session, so I attended that session as well. I've returned to the PAG conference each year since.
I've been writing for the Fallbrook/Bonsall Village News for 11 years, and since the economy in communities near Camp Pendleton suffers whenever the Marines are deployed, 2003 was a very tough year for the Village News. I made the decision to try to move up to the trade publication level. Many of the people I frequently interviewed for Village News articles understood the situation and were supportive. Eric Larson, the executive director of the San Diego County Farm Bureau, let me know that the Southern California correspondent for the weekly agriculture newspaper Capital Press had recently relocated, and Eric sent me a couple of issues of Capital Press. I contacted the editor and was soon writing stories for Capital Press. John Snyder, the director of the County of San Diego's Department of Public Works, let me look at the trade publications in his office, which resulted in a positive response from Traffic Technology International.
Since knowing people is often the key, writing for trade publications as well as newspapers not only means better pay for those articles but also more contact opportunities. Sometimes I'm actually invited to conventions and trade shows which rotate venues (for example, the Hass Avocado Board called to request an interview at the Produce Marketing Association convention in San Diego in 2006). Attending more trade shows not only means more giveaways but also more opportunities to meet editors of trade publications.
Even when I'm not invited, I can find out about conventions and trade shows I have legitimate reason to cover. The San Diego Convention Center's Website lists upcoming meetings, some of which will be useful to my professional needs. By the time this article appears in February's Fox and Quill, I will have covered the American Sheep Industry Association convention after finding it in an "upcoming events" listing in Capital Press. My coverage of San Diego County Water Authority meetings which mention upcoming Association of California Water Agencies conventions in San Diego lead to a call to ACWA after such references. While not every convention produces exposure to trade publications, they may at least provide future contacts as well as an opportunity to display expertise.
The display of expertise and the presence of trade publications at various conventions makes breaking into trade publications easier than breaking into national public-oriented magazines. Taking advantage of existing writing assignments to gain exposure to trade publications can supplement a writer's income.
 Joe Naiman |
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Joe Naiman was born in Pasadena, CA and moved to San Diego in 1966. He is a graduate of Northwestern University, where he obtained a double major in Political Science and History. He has been a free-lance writer since 1985. He has writen two books: "Another Chance" and "The San Diego Padres Encyclopedia" co-authored with David Porter. He has been a member of the Society for American Baseball Research since 1980. Joe lives in the San Diego suburb of Lakeside. He has a son and two daughters. |
Here's how to obtain his books:
"Another Chance"
"The San Diego Padres Encyclopedia"
Thanks for the article Joe ... John Wolf
