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Post A Note > Writing Talk > Nonfiction > Clips!!
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David
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« on: January 22, 2010, 07:43:20 PM »
Okay,

Say I want to write a travel article, perhaps dealing with a visit to a given city like Boston.  I have clips but they don't deal with the subject at hand. The clips are for articles pertaining to hiking, adventure travel, Environmental concerns etc. Are these clips still valuable to send as part of the query? it's about showing quality writing right?


David
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MaryR
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« Reply #1 on: January 23, 2010, 01:02:23 AM »
Yeah, they're valuable, David, more or less so, depending on the size of the mag. If you tell the editor you write for the National Geographic, does that editor care that you're querying for a travel piece?  You have to be WAY good to write for Nat'l Geo.    Any clip means an editor found your prose to be professional and publishable. 

Mary Rosenblum LR Web Editor
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Nanlisa
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« Reply #2 on: July 19, 2010, 12:16:45 AM »
I was going to ask this same question. A lot of editors ask for clips when you send them a story. Do they mean clips of letters to the editor or anything else that you may have published? What kind of clips are they looking for?
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MaryR
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« Reply #3 on: July 19, 2010, 12:57:35 AM »
Anything that's pertinent to what you're writing is good, Nan.  If you're pitching to a popular magazine, then your professional article in the Journal of American Medicine isn't going to be too pertinent.  :-)  Very different type of writing.  But any other article published in a commercial magazine is good. Shows you can do what an editor wants and probably make deadlines.

Mary Rosenblum LR Web Editor
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ajcap
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« Reply #4 on: July 19, 2010, 03:48:05 PM »
Are letters to the editors actually considered as being 'published'? Nan, are you talking about letters to a newspaper editor concerning your opinion on local matters? Would they be clips?

Seems to me I read somewhere that those are not considered articles or stories, but more of a comment.
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lizbeth
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« Reply #5 on: July 19, 2010, 07:39:45 PM »
Personally,  I don't think plain letters to the editor are clips. Anyone can write a letter to the editor - meaning that many authors of letters to the editor are not writers.  Smiley
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Nanlisa
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« Reply #6 on: July 19, 2010, 08:41:50 PM »
Thanks Mary. I really appreciate it. I have saved some of my opinion letters to the newspapers. I now have a general idea of what magazines to submit to.
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MaryR
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« Reply #7 on: July 19, 2010, 11:35:57 PM »
The letter to editor clip is a gray area.   As we all know, you see some real...er...gems...on the Op Ed page.  I think the editors like to remind us that Strange People read the paper.  :-)  But editors do publish stuff they consider well written and insightful. If your letter gets published by the NYTimes or Boston Globe editor and it's not a 'great unwashed' example, it's a valid clip. Not a tremendously GOOD clip but a whole lot better than nothing.  The value diminishes as the circulation rate of the paper diminishes.  The Oregonian is not nearly as impressive as the SF Chronicle for example.  And the Wall Street Journal trumps both. 

Mary Rosenblum LR Web Editor 
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