How to Get PublishedBy: Alex Cadalso
Monday January 28, 2008
There are many jobs in the paintball industry, but few people consider working in the paintball media. Working for the media has a number of advantages — good hours, total access, big-name stars and inside information — but it isn't for everyone. I'll break down the two most accessible jobs so you can see what suits you.
Photographer
Getting a job as a photographer in this industry is very difficult. You have to be dedicated, skilled and knowledgeable about the sport. There will always be a need for coverage of amateur and local events. Almost every magazine has a section in its rear for these tournaments. Three-man rookie shootouts aren’t going to make the grade, so focus on larger events or series such as the CFOA, XPSL, Spyder Cup and the like. Your chances of getting photos of these events published is much greater than with other stories because top-notch photographers tend to cover major events, not the middling ones. To earn more money and make yourself more marketable, do the tournament write-up yourself. A story with both pictures and words is more attractive to an editor. You’ll have to take lots and lots of pictures before any of them get published. Hone your skills on the practice fields first.
Don’t feel like you need to purchase the latest 12-megapixel digital SLR camera to start. Unless you’re already a skilled photographer, you’re better off spending time at the local field practicing with a cheap point-and-shoot digital camera than spending next month’s rent or your paycheck on trick gear. It’s easiest to shoot digitally for many reasons: distribution, archives, publishing, etc. While film has its merits (a better-looking, more natural image), it’ll be easier for the novice photographer to shoot digitally. If you want that film look, buy film by all means, but it’ll cost more money and it’s less convenient. Once you get a portfolio going, find fellow photographers to critique your images.
In the end, if you’re lucky (and good enough), the hard work will pay off. If you don’t have professional training or experience, you’ll need lots of practice before you shoot any masterpieces. Photography is lost on many people. Study magazines (not just paintball magazines, but you should start there) to find visual styles you identify with. Look at individual pictures and describe what you like about them: Is it the way the subject is framed in the shot? Do you like the angle? The lighting? The color? The sense of motion? Photography is an art; there’s much more to it than click-click.
Strong cautionary advice to the aspiring freelancer: Back up your work. Losing all your files is heartbreaking and entirely avoidable. I recommend using an external hard drive, then backing that up with CDs or DVDs. Always keep your backups in separate places, in case something happens to one copy. If you store all your backups in your house and it burns down, you’re outta luck. Store backups in the car, a locker, at work, a safe deposit box, anywhere — just make sure you’ve got two copies in different places.
Writer
I’m intimately familiar with paintball journalism (if you can call it that), but I don’t have much career advice to offer the aspiring writer. Paintball writing is a different beast than paintball photography. For one, you don’t have to be a paintball expert to take pictures. Sure, you need operational knowledge of the game, but the nature of writing requires the author to be something of an expert on his subject. It will take years in the game before you'll earn the expertise required for many stories. Articles fall into a few basic categories: tournament coverage, profiles (interviews), gear reviews, technical and tactics articles. Tactics articles require the most knowledge (you won’t need my help to write them by then), so I’ll cover the others.
Tournament coverage is fairly straightforward; like the photographer, you should start by covering local events. You’ll note who won, how good the reffing was, what the overall atmosphere of the event was like and so forth. A good writer doesn’t editorialize (unless you’re writing an editorial). Sentences to avoid: “The reffing was totally sucky,” “The event was stupid and poorly run,” or “Team A didn’t deserve to win.” Replace with: “Refs on field five consistently made poor calls in favor of the home team,” “There was a lack of water for players," "Games started more than an hour late,” and “In the final game team A’s snake player wiped two goggle hits but did not receive a penalty.” I believe that the reffing was bad and the tournament was poorly run, but you’ve got to show me why with facts, not opinion.
If you want to jump right into covering the major leagues, it’s unlikely that your work will be published in a magazine, since the tournament coverage beats usually go to us seasoned vets. Still, there’s a great demand for action as it happens, so you can always take a laptop and update to the Internet. As you improve, you might be given opportunities to interview players and industry figures. For interviews, consider using a tape recorder. It’ll take more time to transcribe an interview after you get home, but it will usually make your subject feel more comfortable. A tape player seems distracting and unnecessary, but it’s a lot less distracting than jotting down notes and asking someone to repeat themselves. It leads to a more natural interview. It’s important, for any media professional, to leave your fanboy-ism at home. The people you’re interviewing are just that – people. They have to pay rent and eat and do laundry like everyone else. You don’t want to start an interview off with, “So, I’m like your biggest fan.” It’s just not professional. Make your subjects comfortable. Don’t ask yes-or-no questions. You’ll develop your own interviewing and writing styles with time, but these are guidelines that work.
Editing is at least a third of writing; most people hammer things out on their computer screen, print them and never look at what they wrote again. Big mistake. For any given article I go through two, three, four, six(!) drafts. I’m writing this sentence on a draft. The red pen is your friend. In this business, your words are your moneymaker and you’d better be damn sure you mean what you say. Ever the procrastinator, I used to wait until the 11th hour before I put a single word to the page. I would think about an article for days before I ever put pen to paper, agonizing over the words in my head. It always worked for me, but I wondered if it was the best way to do things.
In closing, if you can’t make deadlines, you’re in the wrong line of work. Needing to deliver under pressure comes with the job. I learned this lesson the hard way. If you can’t do what you said you could on time, tell your editor. It’s prideful, not wanting to admit that you can’t do it, but giving your editor fair warning will allow him to make changes or reassign work. The magazine industry operates on a tight schedule, and there’s little room for error.
There’s nothing like persistence. No amount of natural talent can compensate for it. Your articles or pictures will get better over time, especially if you’re dedicated to your craft. Keep at it, and you’ll find some success.
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