A Guest Blog by Magazine Work Experience Chick Bethilee Keamy

Girls who want to work in magazines take note: Bethilee Keamy has done work experience at a few ACP glossies (like Cosmo & Shop), interned at CoverGirl Australia and is one of two current beauty interns at ONYA. And she knows what she’s on about (and dare I say it, she writes VERY well for a newbie to the game – which means she does her wordsmith homework). So read on as she uses her ACP glossy mag experiences to divulge to you (rather nicely I might add, given the competitiveness of the market) the top ten ways to make a great impression when you step into magazine land for the first time. Of course, her advice is not just limited to glossy magazine work experience placements, but starting jobs of all kinds. Thanks for sharing Bethilee!

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The 10 Workie Commandments
So you’re about to venture into the glossy world. It’s exciting, it’s petrifying and if you let it, has the ability to be the best week of your life. Remember that 98.64% of the girls who have secured their place on the masthead started their venture as you are now: as a workie.

Use these tips, a sprinkle of ingenuity and a bucket of confidence to rock your work experience. Have fun and be sure to pack a pair of flats in your handbag!

#1 Do your homework
An unprepared workie is her (or his) own worst enemy. Before the big week you should have memorised the masthead, stalked the Twitter account and asked any and all connections for their words of wisdom. Walking into the office knowing who you’ll be working with, what you’ll be doing and what’s news around the magazine will not only give you more confidence but will also demonstrate that you have a vested interest in the title and those who work there.

#2 Smile, no matter what
At times your placement will be breathtakingly amazing, but at others mildly lackluster. It’s important to remember that amazing or not, your smile wattage should always be at maximum. If you’re asked to photocopy? Smile. File invoices? Grin. Take the rubbish out? Beam. A smile is the best way to convey that you’re enjoying your time and who doesn’t love another happy face around the office?

#3 Put in the hours
The workday may officially start at 9am, but you can bet that when you walk in at 9am the office will already be in full swing. Dedication is key in the magazine industry and the simplest way to prove yours is to show up early, stay back late and make sure you’re on time for your lunch breaks- especially if it’s deadline week.

#4 Make your intentions known
So you want to write features? Are a self-confessed beauty addict? In love with styling? Let your Editorial Coordinator know! More often than not, they’ll ask you on your first day and this is your chance to speak up and get every opportunity to work within the department you love. It’s also worth thinking about what you want to achieve from your placement. If you want to secure an internship, ask what it takes to score the gig. As the saying goes you’ve got to be in it to win it.

#5 Learn as you go
It’s important to remember that the Editorial Coordinator has a job to do –  a job that does not entail babysitting you. Once you are taught how to do something, remember it. Take notes if you need to. On day one you’ll learn how to collect and distribute the mail. This means on day two you should be able to master the mail run without instruction. Remember your routines, coffee orders, mail call, recycling runs; your autonomy and forethought will not go unnoticed.

#6 Initiative: take it
There’s a lot of down time during a placement, so rather than hover awkwardly as you await your next task why not create your own? Don’t try to tackle anything too drastic without consent but do make an attempt to complete little jobs. Empty the recycling bin. Tidy the delivery desk. Organise the back issues into chronological order. It’s the small tasks that will be appreciated the most and prove that you can work independently to benefit the team.

#7 Have ideas? Voice them
Every workie has their place, but if you get offered the opportunity to speak up then do so! Whether it’s offering to help with a quote for a feature, a vox pop or completing some extra research for a story the Beauty Editor is compiling, chirping up and chipping in is a great way to prove your value. It paints you as a thoughtful, committed workie who is willing to go the extra mile. And it’s that extra mile that could score you a permanent internship!

#8 Say thank you
As your week progresses you should be thanking various members of staff. If you loved helping the Fashion Editor on her shoot, say thank you and let her know. Not only is it basic manners but if gives you yet another opportunity to convey how much you are enjoying your placement. And when it comes time to say goodbye, a personalised hand written thank you note never goes astray.

#9 Make friends with the interns
The interns you come across in your travels can be your most valuable contacts. Firstly, they’re generally more approachable and have more time to chat with you, which means they can impart all kinds of wisdom. Secondly, interns are also usually first in line for any magazine positions that open up across they board so it’s an easy way to make friends who can keep you in the loop in the future.

#10 Follow up
So you’ve had a fabulous week, fallen in love with glossy-world and can’t wait to get back there. So what now? It’s time to make contact. There is a fine line between keeping in contact and stalking so be wary, but do keep your contacts in the loop. Send an email through to the Editorial Coordinator and anyone else you worked closely with. Keep it genuine and express your gratitude and desire to return one day.

A Guest Blog by an Anonymous Wordsmith Lane Reader.

This account of work experience was originally published anonymously for Upstart, and recently submitted for publication on Wordsmith Lane. For the sake of my own mind (I get confused far too easily) I’m going to call her Lauren, and I’m thankful to her for sharing her experiences with you. And coming from someone who did not learn a whole lot during work experience at ‘bigger’ media outlets, I think you will really benefit by what she has to say. Enjoy x

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I feel like I am in mourning. I have recently left my job as a journalist at a regional community newspaper after two years and I will miss it. But it has been a very interesting experience.

I was offered the job half-way through my degree after doing work experience at the paper. I have been working there two days a week ever since. That’s why I would suggest to any student the value of work experience, and not overlooking sometimes boring community newspapers for the more ‘glamorous’ or ‘cool’ media such as fashion magazines.

It has been an amazing experience that not only gave me experience as a working journalist but as a photographer, receptionist, database gatekeeper, website updater, broad range journalist – I have written on everything from sport, music and hard news, to feeling like a pseudo counsellor at times for interviewees. I also started as an untrained photographer so having the confidence to give things a go is important for young aspiring journalists.

I now understand almost every facet of a newspaper from what the graphic designers do to what the publisher does, the importance of advertising revenue for a free newspaper, respect for the owners of the paper, and how the printers can make costly mistakes.

In an average week , I would take up to nine photos and write up to nine articles of all sizes. You don’t have to be as fast a writer as you would in a daily newspaper, but you do have to be organised. I may have spent a day and a half getting all the interviews and photos done to then spend an afternoon writing articles and putting it all together.

Right from the start it was very much a sink or swim environment. Yes, I had other staff members to help me but like may newspapers, we were underresourced so there was not a lot of time to sit down for a chat. I just had to think hard, have an eye for detail, be thorough in my work and network with people in the region. Apart from university, there was never any further training either.

However, there were many good things about working there. I had a lot of creative freedom with the photos, and I developed a good working relationship with my editor that would allow me to put forward the stories my contacts suggested. I also got to interview many celebrities such as Arj Barker, Bertie Blackman, Little Birdy, Darryl Braitwaite, James Reyne and Ray Martin, as well as meeting and interviewing many politicians.

Yet there was also a lot of frustration with pay issues because the pay was very low. I had a very low hourly rate yet I was still required to use my own car while I conducted the work of both a journalist and a photographer.

Also, a lot of the content I produced was advertising driven. This was often a problem because when a client decided to advertise with us, the sales staff would promise them a free editorial. However, many clients didn’t understand that the editorial was separate from their advertising and often demanded to see the editorial before it was published, to ensure it was what they wanted it say.

This really sharpened my integrity and respect for the profession – it is important for journalists not to feel bullied or pushed into writing for their advertisers. Instead, you have to keep respect for your audience in the back of your mind. Although, it was difficult when some clients spoke in ‘advertising’ speak during their interviews, which was hard to incorporate into the article and make it sound genuine.

Writing about so many advertisers though, has given me a thorough knowledge of many different kinds of jobs. I also live in the town where a lot of them were based, so I now know who is good to go to for services, who is nice and it has been interesting hearing from people on all the different issues they are having in a community. I also enjoyed writing about new businesses, and helping them attract more customers with the articles I wrote.

Overall, it was a life-changing experience that I will never regret. For students who want a broad range of experience in the media, community newspaper.

A guest blogger post by Josephine Ayoub*

*My 15 year old sister (and an amazing creative writer with a flair for drama the likes of which I have never seen. And this is not my nepotism talking. Anyway, she didn’t want to do this review, because she doesn’t “do” reviews. But I thought I would let her flex her wordsmith muscles a little by giving her a task that would challenge her).

A new way to look at the world of the vampires…

A new way to look at the Cullens…

A new way to look at Bella Swan…

This novella is a way to look at them…From the eyes of a vampire.

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner (Atom, $22.99) is the latest title from the mind that brought us the Twilight phenomenon. Any fan of the Twilight Saga, will surely be sucked into the secretive and sinister vampire life of Bree Tanner, a character first seen in the third book of the series, Eclipse. Now see the side of the story that was never seen before: The side of the newborn vampire. Bree Tanner is one of many newborn vampires created by Riley. Feared and strong, Riley leads these newborns, but under the command of someone they only know as ‘she’. But when Bree finds an unexpected friendship in another vampire named Diego, she begins to realize that their creator has many secrets about the vampire world—secrets in which he can’t afford for them to find out. Is she just another pawn in Riley’s tricks and games? Bree and Diego know something is coming—something big.

With no clue of what to do or who to trust, and she finds herself in an ultimatum. She must now pick a side…Before it’s too late!

I loved visualising the story from a new point of view after reading of her in Eclipse. Knowing the secrets that Bree craved to uncover, it was alluring to hear her thoughts and it made me anxious awaiting the moments she found out about the truth.

I would have loved it more to know her story right from the beginning too. I mean, from exactly when she was turned…The story is set about three months after she was turned by Riley, so there is some missing spots. She does however describe memories, giving us a small idea of what it was like and her past… I would’ve liked more of that.

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Josephine Ayoub is the kid sister of Miss Wordsmith Lane herself, Sarah Ayoub. She’s in year 10 at the local highschool, loves reading, TV dramas, and pasta in white sauce and has a sick mistaken theory that she’s moving in with Sarah when she finally ties to the knot to James. Josie spends far too much time spinning stories, whether she’s telling them in far too lengthy conversations to her siblings, turning them into hit school plays or using them to manipulate and scare her younger cousins when they get out of hand during baby-sitting. For someone who’s concerned about the environment, Josie always forgets her bedroom light on. And, as Sarah would like to add (without Josie’s consent), this extends to the home environment also, where Josie always forgets to pack the laundry and the dishes. The easiest of all chores.

Guest Post by Liz Goralewski

Caught, by Harlan Coban ($32.99, Orion)

Wendy Tynes is a reporter on a mission: weed out sex offender scum and bring ‘em down. When she comes across supposed paedophile Dan Mercer, her job becomes a lot more complicated and involved. The evidence against him isn’t as rock-solid as she’d like, and the case built against him gets thrown out, and all charges dropped. Add in the disappearance of overachieving teen Haley McWaid, and you’ve got yourself one pickle of a crime. 

Bestselling author Harlan Coben’s latest novel is Caught, a story of revenge, mistakes and life lessons. Before I make any judgements on this, I have to admit that I’m not a big fan of crime/thriller novels (that is to say, I’ve never read this genre before), so I began reading it in a very cautious state of mind. I wasn’t really looking forward to the story at all. But, Coben’s writing style can put ant literary critique at ease. He writes with such clarity of voice and intention, only using the words that are entirely necessary. We’re given the story and the all the details we need to follow it. Apart from that, he puts the right amount of emotion into scenes, not overdoing it to the point of nausea. My favourite way of saying this: no nonsense, no crap, no Selley’s No-More-Gap.  

Readers should be very thankful for this simplified style of story writing. If it were anymore complicated and cluttered, the numerous twists of the plot may have been lost in translation. This story is action-packed, for lack of a better term. Big hooks and revelations aplenty in every chapter, on every page, and with each chapter, the twists get more twisted, and the revelations increase in numbers. In fact, the revelations come right up until the epilogue of the story, the final one coming from an almost-forgotten plot point. Once again, readers should be thankful for the sweet simplicity of the writing. If not for that, I’d probably be too confused to write this review. I’d still be trying to  figure out what happened to who. 

The characters in this story were mostly straightforward. Again, nothing too multifaceted. But, I don’t think Coben knew exactly how to write some of the characters. Being a 40-something writer, he probably has to  go by his observations and what he sees in films and other literature. The teenagers, for example, came out extremely stereotyped. ’Nuf said.

Relationships between some of the characters played a major role in the uncovering of revelations. At the same time, the relationships that weren’t directly linked to the plot had little to no focus on them. Good. Less crap, more relevant story. 

Now, while it may seem that I’ve only praised Coben, I do have one pretty big problem with this book: it almost became a life lesson. At my age, I probably don’t have quite the appreciation of these as I should, but the lesson is so simple (there’s that word again) and preaching, that it does call for some annoyed eye-rolling. Contemplation and lack of confidence in their own choices showed up a lot in the main characters, echoing the need for a life lesson within the book. Cringe. 

Overall, this book is probably perfect for it’s target audience – the middle-aged family people. The themes that are brought up are mostly relevant only to them, and so for an early-20s reader, the novel may come across as admonishing. But, with Harlan Coben’s charmingly smooth writing style, it’s easy to get pulled into the story.

Liz Goralewski is a constant reader, half-time thinker, and writer in between. Currently studying English and History at Sydney University, she hopes one day that her young adult urban fantasy will be published and adored. She loves her husband and her cats more than any number of Reese’s Cups. And that’s saying something.

Guest Post by Liz Goralewski

Angels’ Blood, By Nalini Singh (Golancz,$22.99)

When spunky Vampire Hunter Elena Deveraux is called to do a job for New York’s archangel Raphael, she knows that she’s about to get much closer to trouble than she ever has. Expecting to be told that she is to track down and return yet another vampire, she gets the shock of her career when Raphael tells her that no, a vampire is something he can take care of himself. Her job is to track down – and kill – a rogue archangel. Therein lays the problem: mortals, such as Elena, can’t physically kill an archangel. But, an archangel can. So, Elena gets to work side-by-side with one of the most powerful and formidable creatures in existence, making way for some very heated exchanges.                                                              She may be the best hunter in the country, but everyone is afraid of something, and sometimes Fear makes people do stupid things…like cause them to fall in lust. While at first Elena manages to resist Raphael’s ancient immortal charms, she finds it increasingly difficult to come up with excuses not to get too close to him, and continues to insult him, ignoring the fatal power he holds over her. Luckily for her, he seems to get a kick out of it.

New York Times bestselling author Nalini Singh has created an interesting story with Angel’s Blood, melding crime, fantasy and romance – lots of it – into one intense story. Fans of Singh’s previous romance trysts would instantly be pulled in. However, those who are yet to read anything of hers should do some research first, because this is definitely not for everyone.

This book is written like a true romance novel, oozing with hormones and painted descriptions, which tends to steal the show from the actual fantasy/crime storyline. It is because of the overload of sex and colours that the relationships between characters don’t get a good enough chance to develop, and it makes the story feel like it should’ve been written as a sequel. Too much flirtation between the heroine and pretty much every male character in the book creates a nasty erotic edge, making the book read like a cheap sexual thrill. On top of that, the characters that Singh has created are perfect to the point of boredom, with a sexy and strong heroine, as well as a physically flawless but dangerous male lover. But, I guess that’s how it’s meant to be – it is a romance novel, after all.

Having said that, there is one important point about the plot that I found absolutely magnificent: the end. In fact, it was so refreshing that it almost trumped the negative aspects of the novel.  Without straying too far from the happily-ever-after ending, Singh pulled out a massive Deus ex machine, and may as well have attached a “press for electric shock” button at the end of the novel. But in my opinion, shocks, especially in such a formulaic genre as romance, is a fantastic thing. All in all, it’s quite an easy read, and to get to such a good ending makes the whole book worthwhile.

Liz Goralewski is a constant reader, half-time thinker, and writer in between. Currently studying English and History at Sydney University, she hopes one day that her young adult urban fantasy will be published and adored. She loves her husband and her cats more than any number of Reese’s Cups. And that’s saying something.

By Joyce Kwok

Review: Making Money from Your Writing

You write for the love of words. But you have to be honest – wouldn’t it be nice to make some money from your passion?

The Centre for Adult Education (CAE) in Melbourne conducts a range of short courses in writing, from freelance journalism to travel writing. In the midst of a vague New Year’s Resolution feeling ‘to do something with my writing this year’, I flipped through the CAE course guide until my attention was captured by an enticing title – ‘Making Money from Your Writing’. ‘Yes!’ I thought, ‘I want to make some money from the hours of research, thinking, drafting and editing that I pour into my writing’. And that’s how I found myself inside a classroom for six hours on a sunny Sunday.

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