Making and Keeping Allies
So, how do you make your editor an ally? You start by taking time to ask her what her day is like. Find out what challenges she is facing, and try to offer ways that you can work together to solve them.
Maybe there's a new section of the magazine that she's trying to figure out how to fill; well, you have writing talents she doesn't know about. Maybe her budget cutbacks mean she's looking for less-expensive ways to fill columns of type; you own photographs that you will sell to her at a reduced rate. Maybe she's having trouble with another writer who turned in a lousy story that needs to be completely rewritten; you can fix it for a fee much lower than your regular story rate.
Having editors as your allies is not only key to landing continual assignments, it's the best way of getting help when you need it and making broader contacts in the universe of magazines. Even if you don't have a pending assignment with an editor who is an ally, you should stay in touch regularly.
The more you work with your editor to solve problems such as these, the more you will become not just one of the top writers in her stable but also a trusted ally for whom she's willing to fight should the need arise.
The Importance of an Inside Advocate
Editors who are allies are more than people who fix your spelling and grammar mistakes. They are advocates who will work inside their magazine's system to help you, whether that means getting you paid on time, keeping your regular column in print, or offering your name to their bosses for potentially lucrative side projects that pop up from time to time. If you work hard to help your editor with whatever challenges she faces, then she will usually repay you by acting as this kind of an advocate on your behalf. That's a huge boon to you in terms of immediate workload, and it can also reap big dividends at other magazines in the future.
Even editors who love your work can't always win battles on your behalf. Don't expect unrealistic dividends from a strong relationship with an editor — things that no writer, no matter how good, would get — but do expect the editors who are your allies to go to bat for you whenever they possibly can.
Editors Change Jobs
One reason that having an editor as an ally or advocate is so important is that editors change jobs. More often than not, if at all possible, they look to take their favorite writers with them.
Now, most people don't leave a good job to go to a bad one. Editors are no different: They look to go from working at good magazines to working at great (and better-paying) magazines. What better way for you to break into new, more lucrative markets than by being the golden child in the editor's existing stable when he lands at his new desk?
According to various surveys, most magazine editors will work at three or more titles during the course of their career. This means that having an editor who is an ally can help you break into at least three different areas of the business over the course of your own magazine-writing career.
Even if your editor has been with the same magazine for decades, the odds are that he will change jobs within the ranks — perhaps going from being a columns editor to a features editor. Again, if he's more than just your editor, he will want you to move with him as an ally as he tries to make a good impression. That kind of advocacy can take you from 500-word assignments to 5,000-word assignments faster than any query letters you might conceive.
Editors Have Friends
Another reason it's important to turn your editors into allies and advocates is that they will talk about you with their friends at other magazines.
Where do editors talk about writers?
Everywhere. Sometimes over the telephone, sometimes at the local coffee shop, sometimes via e-mail, sometimes in online forums, and sometimes at networking events created specifically to help editors get together and compare notes. You want to be well spoken of in all cases.
Hopefully, when a friend asks one of your editors whether she “knows anybody who might be good for a job,” your editor will put your name forward. This is what an ally does, both to help you as a friend and to make clear that she has a knack for finding and keeping talented writers around her.
