As an editor, I get asked three questions more than any others: 1.) How did I get my job? 2.) Is it really as fun as it appears to be?
The answer to the first is that I went to college for photography and journalism, then beat the bushes until I caught a break and got on with a major title. Believe me when I say that perseverance pays off ... at least in my case. Second, the photography end of my job is really fun.
I love photographing features so much that even standing for days in some shop shooting a tech piece is a good time for me; the writing end of things, however, is definitely a job. I never liked doing homework very much as a kid, but now I have a job where that's all I seem to do. And just like before, even now I still put it off until the deadline is looming. I like to think of it as working well under pressure but my managing editor, like my teachers before her, just thinks I'm a procrastinator.
But the third question is the one I get most often: How do I get my car in the magazine? The answer may be easier than you think. Of course, everyone wants to see their car on the cover, but the cars we feature are built to a level that not many are able to achieve unless they have deep pockets or an insane amount of fabrication talent. We do, however, cover many shows, and try to run as many pics of vehicles that we can in those pieces. How do we (and most automotive magazines) choose which cars appear in these articles? They're the ones that have some information associated with them -often via a properly filled-out show badge that is prominently displayed on the car.
Yep, that's the big secret to getting your ride into the show coverage pieces! When an editor is shooting a show, he is always aware that no matter how cool a vehicle is, he will inevitably have to write a caption to go along with it. If there is no information - and by that I mean that someone hasn't even taken the time to add his or her name, vehicle model and year - then he will have nothing to write. In fact, in this very issue you will see my case in point. There appears a car upon which the owner only put his first name on the card. I wanted to run the car but didn't have the info, so I improvised. Others have complete info, but the handwriting is so bad I can't read it. Again, I'm not casting stones, as my handwriting is also awful, but take the time to print legibly and you will increase your chances of being included.
When at a show, I will shoot the car and then take a picture of the show badge. If there is an info board with items such as engine description, suspension and interior details, then I will definitely shoot that, as well. I don't always have the time to find the owner and get info on the vehicle. Even if I do, I have been known to lose my notebook on occasion, and with it went all my obtained info, which is why I simply take a pic of what there is and move along. Shows such as a Goodguys event are so big that if I stopped to talk to everyone, I'd never get from one end of the grounds to the other.
It doesn't take much to make an editor happy, either, by the way. Some owners have boards that were professionally done and look like they cost more money than the paint job on my whole car. That's all well and good, but they are not really necessary. A simple computer printout sitting on the dash (not in the middle of the dash, but to one side where we can get a good pic through the windshield) is plenty, and plenty easy to do. You don't have to write a story; just list the parts that are on the vehicle, but be sure to include model and brand names of the various parts.
So there you have it. Magazine immortality is easier than you may think, but you have to make it easy on the editors covering the shows. Like Red Green used to say, "I'm pulling for you. We're all in this together."
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