Where's the Truth in Journalism?

Hurrah for Lance Armstrong, who called Outside Magazine's choice to heavily manipulate his cover shot "lame bull$#@*." While in a sporting goods store this past weekend I happened to catch a glimpse of the embattled cover and I've got to say: I'm with you, Lance. Photographs should represent the truth of the matter, not be doctored, particularly without the subject's permission, to include material that never shared the stage. Now Outside is just one more media outlet I can no longer trust. If the cover shot isn't true, how do I know the copy is?

Back in my day - yeah, way back then - journalism students were required to take media ethics. Students who couldn't be bothered to take the class were not awarded diplomas. Students who failed didn't earn that Mystical Piece of Paper until they managed to get the idea. The single-term class covered the history, theory and practice of print and broadcast media with a particular focus on ethical dilemmas.

Among the hot topics was the potential for changing the viewers' perspective of an event through photo editing. While the rhetoric of reporting is, by its nature, subjective, the photographic depictions of events were thought to be more objective. The camera told no lies, didn't color the story with it's own sordid history, didn't have opinions either way on the world it saw. The camera merely recorded that split second of time for all to see.

We spent hours discussing the ethics surrounding photography in news media. How much information should be shared? What can be cropped, what cannot? Should presenting news images ever involve dodging or burning out information? What if, for instance, there's a certain soda can in a news image; is it alright to remove the can so as not to provide free advertising, or not to offend paying advertisers? The consensus way back in those dark ages was: a photo should represent the true event. It should not be doctored to remove or add information that was not actually there when the image was taken.

Now, back in those days, photo creation and editing was not nearly as easy and accessible as it is today. It still involved a relatively tedious process. First we rolled film from giant rolls into camera-friendly canisters. Then we loaded the film canisters in the cameras, carefully extending the tail of the film across the film plate and aligned the square holes with the sprocket-like film guide teeth. When our shoot was complete, we cloaked ourselves in complete darkness to roll the film out of the canisters and onto reels (auto-load, if we were lucky), dropped them into tanks of caustic chemicals and agitated gently for a prescribed period of time. If we managed that half correctly, we were rewarded with tiny, still, negative images. Then came the printing: light-sensitive paper, clunky enlargers, more caustic chemicals, more darkness, some red light, squeegees, print dryers, stained clothes and, finally, the reward of photographic prints.

It was in the printing stage that serious doctoring could take place. But that was nothing like the changes we can make from the comfort and relatively cleanliness of our computer desks with photo editing software. The changes can be absolutely magical, but they also pose a problem on that ethics stage. When is editing too much? Is it OK to sharpen the focus? Is it alright to remove a blemish? If so, why, Outside is surely asking itself, is it not acceptable to place whatever logo the editor wants on a cover model's blank shirt? What's the big deal about printing "38" to represent his age and "B.F.D." to represent Outside's take on Lance's age in relation to the Tour de France?

The big deal is that Lance wore a plain shirt for the shoot. He didn't wear a sponsor-emblazoned shirt. He didn't go bare chested. And he didn't advertise his age and some editor's sentiment on the shirt he chose. He presented himself as he wanted to be seen, and editors created an entirely different message without seeking his approval. While the cover did note, in smaller text, that the shirt was doctored, the damage was already done - from news racks, passersby saw the large image, not the explanatory text. Really, it wasn't a lot different from BP doctoring its shots, creating UFO mythology, or removing pop stars' belly buttons and such. But Outside editors don't see it that way.

Think I'm a wacko? Well, at least I'm not alone. The message is clear: unless you saw it happen yourself, you really can't be sure what's presented is true. Take everything you read or see with a heavy dose of salt, do your own research, and think for yourselves. News, the stuff of tomorrow's history books, will never be the same.

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A brief guide to publishing

This was a quickly penned response to an aspiring author who asked for basic information about book publishing. I thought I'd share it here for anyone else with similar questions. Maybe it will help you, inspire you, depress you, or convince you that writing may not be the career for you after all.

I suspect Suzy sent you my way because in 2006 I published my first book, Best Family Adventures: San Luis Obispo County. (The web site's also my creation, so very sophomoric and currently out of date with its holiday decorations...hmmm...maybe I should get on that. But I digress.) You're right, there's a VERY steep learning curve that goes far beyond the actual writing of our stories! I just wanted to write, but then I did probably the same research you're doing now, discovered that this guide to a single county served a market MUCH to small for many publishers to consider, and learned that the publishers that DO serve markets that small would likely pay me no more than $1 per copy. I thought, sheesh, I'd put WAY too much work into it for that kind of money. I make more than that writing for newspapers, and they pay appallingly dismal salaries (and freelance wages). So, I decided to publish it myself, and continued my research and learned about:

- ISBN numbers - those magical bar codes and numbers on the back of the books. You'll HAVE to have one if you're going to sell it through ANY bookstores and many other retailers. (Your local mom n' pop shop MAY take it without, but not likely). ISBN numbers are sold in lots of 10 for something like $250. (Can't rightly recall, and it's probably changed since I picked up my set.) So, if you write one book, you might as well write 10!

- Library of Congress - for some purposes, my book needed to be filed with the Library of Congress. Free. Simple paperwork, and you send them two copies.

- Design software - I use a PC, so Mac users' info will vary here. I have a PC, and already had the software - Adobe Pagemaker (if you're thinking about going for it, I'm told InDesign
is a better value; they're both incredibly pricey) - but I had to figure out details I'd never used before, and make the software work with the printers' mega machines. Interesting challenge, but it worked out.

- Printing - I sought out bids from various printers in the U.S. I didn't want it printed out of the U.S. because I think it's RIDICULOUS to ship something from halfway around the world and still pay lower prices. There's just something patently wrong with that whole scenario. Canada is also an option, but there are border issues there as well. When I went out for bids, I had to figure out all the details: paper weight, color, size, cover paper, coated or not coated, how many images, color or no color, etc. But the good thing about going out for bid was that the serious printers sent back samples of their work that demonstrated binding (a big deal to me...I didn't want the book to fall apart in readers' hands) and finish. I paid for the printing with my savings and a small loan.

And finally, once published, there was distribution. There's a local distributor here that was interested in my book because one of their main bookstore clients was keen on the title. (I'd been talking to the store owner prior to the book's actual publication...he REALLY wanted it...and NOW!) The distributor, however, merely distributes, and only to CERTAIN stores. I cover any other stores in which the book fits - ice cream shops, bike shops, educational supply stores, etc. If the distributor carries your book, it SHOULD include your book in its catalog. But the catalog is hardly a great sales engine for the books, and that brings us to the BIG TIME CONSUMING thing about writing a book:

- Marketing. I've spent a LOT of time marketing the book. Book signings, speaking engagements, handing out fliers at festivals, showing books at festivals, basically prostituting my books.

But it's all panned out pretty well. I figured I would sell 1,500 copies, but I did some math prior to printing and figured it more wise to go with the next price break at 3,000 copies. Good thing! When you have books printed, they require that you accept (and pay for) up to 10 % overage, and that there may also be a 10% shortfall (for which you don't pay). That gives them room for some problems with printing. They didn't have any problems with printing, so I was more at the 10% overage end. SO....that gave me more than 3,300 copies to sell. We've sold 3,000 copies.

For a children's book, or any work of fiction, I think it would be better from the distribution standpoint to have a publishing company represent us. They can deal with this on a much larger scale (particularly the printing and distribution end), but I understand that they often really don't provide the publicity authors need to SELL the books. That's a publicist's job, and unless you're Janet Evanovich or Stephen King or some other author who's scratched their way to the top already, the publisher isn't going to provide that resource. You can do your own publicity or hire someone to help you with it.

Here's the depressing part: I, too, have written some children's stories, and have pitched them to publishers. It's a REAL challenge. Do you know how many stories they receive EVERY DAY!? It's appalling. And they only print a TINY fraction of them. So, we're in there with all the stars (and their ghost writers) who already have the name recognition that gives them the automatic in, and other lesser-known talented folk just like us. A great resource for finding publishers is "Writer's Market," which is updated regularly at its online version and also available in print form. The Market includes publishers for magazines, newspapers, greeting cards as well as books. The Market also includes author's agencies.

I've heard a lot lately about how it's best to have an agent. Some of the largest publishers use agencies to vet the authors. If it doesn't make it through an agency, it's not good enough for publication, so their thinking allegedly goes.

Still, I send in my stories, and someday an editor's sidekick who's stuck reading all of our submissions will be in the right mood on the right day when my story arrives in her office. She'll laugh. She'll cry. She'll tell the editor that they NEED to publish my book.

Then I'll hire a publicist.

Holiday Happenings

Please note: Photos on the blog do not translate to e-mail. If you want to see the pix, you need to click through to the blog site. :)

WHEW! It's gotten WAY too political around here, but thanks for letting me get THAT off my chest.

In real life, we're not focused on politics by any means. In fact (and as usual), we've found more than our fair share of fun stuff to do this holiday season.

We took a somewhat spur-of-the-moment holiday trek down to the Big D (with a stop at the Griffith Park Observatory on our way south). The girls were particularly thrilled. The park was wonderfully relatively vacant Thursday, but we paid for all that line-free luxury the following day when the park turned into a crazy house...people EVERYWHERE; a line at 10:30 p.m. for the carousel!



Tomorrow we're joining a group of homeschool friends for a cookie baking and holiday crafting day. The girls and I will take the makin's for Orange Cardamom Cookies and Lebkuchen and a kidcraft for loved ones. Wednesday, we may have SNOW here on the coast, so you know we won't be getting any worksheets or indoor "schoolwork" done! Instead we'll be trying to top Calvin & Hobbes for snow sculpture design.

Sweet Adelines sang out for a packed house in our new digs and E got to sing on the risers for the entire concert rather than the one song she'd initially be told would be hers to share. A holiday party with Grandpa Randy and Grandma Margaret. An evening with "A Christmas Carol" at the Melodrama. And another trip south to see Grandpa Doug sing with Masters of Harmony, and a surprise for us - his solo performance of "Do You Hear What I Hear" backed by the massive seven-time international championship chorus! (GREAT JOB!) On our way home, we toured the Queen Mary.



And there is, of course, baking: gingerbread cookies that went to friends, neighbors and my butt; sugar cookies for church; candy canes for the girls (and some to my butt); banana bread (Mr. B's butt); and tonight the Santa Lucia Bread (a couple of days late, but scrumptious with coffee nonetheless).

Winter Solstice is just around the corner. Find a spot for a bonfire with friends and family Sunday, or otherwise mark this ancient celebration.

TINY travel & GIANT turkeys

Tonight while researching further information about our much-improved 1971-72 Compact Jr. trailer I came upon this new RV. You thought OUR space was tight!? Then again, THIS Jeep-mounted space will go a lot more places than ours will. Still...I think I'll stick with our Junior, particularly for the price! WHEW!

Had a really nice Thanksgiving with a fantastic meal and great company. The grandparents all took turns playing with or reading with the girls. Grandpa Doug read the entire (abridged, but entire) version of The Secret Garden in one sitting. Clearly Grandma was exhausted after helping out in the kitchen and socializing all day. (Plus, it's tough to stay awake on a warm comfy couch when someone's reading to you, isn't it?) Grandma Margaret got into the act with dress-up. (I believe they were pioneers this time rather than the Donner party that the girls have tended to play more often in recent weeks.)



I managed to make some fantastic turkey soup stock (about 1 1/2 gallons) complete with plenty of meat that fell of the bones I was cooking. Also have leftover turkey frozen and have been snacking on turkey sandwiches and various other turkey concoctions since shortly after we finished cleaning up from Thanksgiving dinner.

Followed up with a gingerbread cookie backing session Friday afternoon. What a mess...but MMMM so tasty! This week - headed south to the Big D. (SHhh...it's a secret!)

Story #3 - Getting into the Swing Again

I'm a lot happier this week with my writing. This week's published piece seems much more detailed and it's written better than either of the previous two pieces. Perhaps I was just out of practice. Or maybe it has something to do with writing it the way I thought it should be written, without worrying about story length. My old friend Vern would certainly agree that I've NEVER had a problem filling the pages!

Research - This is the Life!

If you're receiving this note by e-mail, click on the post headline to get to the blog where you may view the latest BFA photos. In the name of research, the girls and I loaded up Junior this past week and headed for the American Riviera - Santa Barbara. We camped at Carpinteria State Beach (great if you love sand, surf and regular visits with passing trains), El Capitan (fine if you like camping atop a cliff from whence the sound of the freeway drowns out the crashing of waves). We really enjoyed our morning walks along Carpinteria Beach where we found fantastic shells and rocks. They grow 'em BIG around here! I introduced the girls to long photo exposures by showing them how to "paint with light." I'd wanted to capture some nighttime shots of Junior with the warm glow of the light shining through the curtains, but it was too dark out...until we introduced the flashlight and a 15-second exposure. That led us to painting on the beach, and these images. (removed) We visited almost every beach on the south coast to (and a bit beyond) the Ventura County line, learned why north county residents are so envious of the parks plans for south county (wow...do they have a lot of parks down there), and stumbled upon some other local treasures. We also visited the Nina...what a disappointment! The "historically accurate" boat travels the world collecting $6/adult, $3/child for the opportunity to board. Once on board, well, you can see everything you've already seen from shore. No big surprises. Heck, no surprises at all. Even E said, "That was $11 we could have used better." The next question...to publish - or not to publish.

A Writer's Life

One of my favorite books about writing is On Writing, by Stephen King. If you've read much King, or heard about it, you probably think a guide to the art of writing is unlikely for him. After all, he largely focuses on horror: Cujo, Christine,The Tommyknockers, It ... and now Duma Key: A Novel. But he's a colorful writer no matter what genre. Clearly he enjoys writing, entertaining and being entertained.

In On Writing King writes, "...if you expect to succeed as a writer, rudeness should be the second-to-least of your concerns. The least of all should be polite society and what it expects. If you intend to write as truthfully as you can, your days as a member of polite society are numbered, anyway."

Well, if I learn to write with as much honesty as I tend to speak, I'll be a bestseller someday, too.

If you're interested in writing, I urge you to pick up this book and give it a read. It won't take much time, and I guarantee it's worth it.

How NOT to write a travel story

Well, fortunately the local paper is lenient. Second story from our trip, but I don't like it much. I'm having a tough time translating our trip into newspaper style, though the section editor doesn't particularly WANT newspaper style. Conversational is ok with her, and so is the use of "we." Too many years writing for print without including "me," "we" or "I."

Must get a mag story or two published. These are where it's at for me, style-wise and income-wise.

Today we're headed out for an apple-butter-making lesson and chicken chasing with my friend, Karen White.

Life of a freelance journalist - 1 down, 100 to go

I had hoped to sell some travel stories from our trip to help cover the costs and keep my freelance career going. Today the local paper, for which I've written since the mid-'90s, ran the first of several travel stories they're planning to use from our recent trip. The assignment: write about the entire 9,611-mile journey in 250-300 words.

Do the math and you'll see it's no easy task! We saw so much along the way, and with only 300 words max, I was hard pressed to provide ANY details. It took me about an hour to write the lead, but then I was off and running.

The editor was happy with what I provided. You can find it online here.

In case they can the online storage of it, here's the text:

Orcutt family offers tips on following Lewis and Clark road trip
By Jennifer Best/Contributing Writer

At the turn of the 19th century, Meriwether Lewis, William Clark and 30 members of their Corps of Discovery embarked on an American adventure. Their quest: to map a waterway that would connect the United States of America with the Pacific Ocean while taking note of the peoples, flora and fauna of this vast, uncharted region.

They had no motorized transportation, no maps, sketchy medical knowledge and had been ordered by President Thomas Jefferson to return with new species, even large mythological beasts.

Two hundred years later, my daughters and I set out on our own quest: to keep American history alive, intriguing and tangible for budding historians by following the footsteps of these intrepid explorers. But we had a leg up — the shelter of a trailer, the power of a minivan, the knowledge of countless mapmakers held in our hands and a network of roads and highways beyond Clark’s imagination.

Our journey began where Lewis and Clark enjoyed their westernmost exposure, on what is now the Long Beach Peninsula of southwestern Washington State. In November 1805, 11 members of the Corps, led by Clark, walked this sandy shore in search of a winter haven. They found, instead, an unprotected, windblown, ocean-battered spit of land. They returned to the great Columbia River and crossed its treacherous waters in favor of the sheltered shore to the south.

Today, that once-lonely stretch of land is home to pocket communities of residents who enjoy the solitude of a 29-mile stretch which, at its widest point, reaches only 5 miles. Though isolated from the rest of the state by Willapa Bay to the east, and the first landfall for Pacific storms from the west, wildlife still flourishes there. Bears, deer and coyotes are not unusual sights in neighborhood yards. Locals continue to harvest wild salal berries, coastal strawberries, wintercress and wild mushrooms among other native flora, hunt bear, deer, elk, grouse and waterfowl, and enjoy the Pacific bounty just as humans have from time immemorial. Cranberry bogs and oyster pots bring forth their products each autumn and winter.

Winter months provide the most peaceful experience on the peninsula, with favorite local shops and restaurants remaining open throughout the cold, wet season. It’s an ideal time to live like the locals and take in small-town events from high school sports and arts to the Long Beach Christmas Tree lighting ala Dr. Seuss’s Whoville. Or hop across the historic Astoria-Megler Bridge, a 4-mile engineering marvel that stretches across the Columbia River, to visit Astoria and other coastal Oregon communities.

In summer, the peninsula comes alive as the carousel cogs are greased and set into motion, the miniature golf course is vacuumed and go-carts start their engines for the season. Visitors drive on the 26.3-miles of uninterrupted sandy beach, retrace the Corps’ “last mile” on a paved path through the dunes, build sandcastles, witness hundreds of kites in flight at the International Kite Festival, ride horseback, camp, shop and dine at venues ranging from sandy picnic blankets to cozy breakfast spots and a world-class restaurant.

Today the 3,630-mile stretch of the Lewis & Clark Trail stretching from the Pacific Oceano to St. Louis, Missouri, boasts a plethora of educational visitor attractions all boosted by the recent bicentennial of the trek. There are 81 museums, state parks and national parks along the trail dedicated to the Corps of Discovery and the tribes they encountered, and countless wayside markers.

By far the most interesting docents we found along the route were at Fort Clatsop, Ore., the 1805 winter quarters of the Corps. The seasoned guides speak conversationally as they recount that bitterly cold, wet winter and demonstrate the use of tools varying from log skinners to firearms compelling fashion.

The museum at Sgt. Floyd River Museum in Sioux City, Iowa, was the most child-friendly with hands-on activities throughout the museum designed to rope in visitors of all ages. What skills do you share that may come in useful on such a journey? Could you have been among the elite few selected for this journey? How would you have treated the variety of injuries and illnesses the adventurers encountered along the way?

Highways and byways sometimes parallel and often crisscross the route, tamed by dams, but trail and river guides offer the more rugged and wealthy traveler opportunities to walk the mountain passes and ride the river the corps explored. At Gates of the Mountains, river tours offer the general public the river view. In St. Louis, paddlewheel boats offer priceless days on the wide Mississippi River. Packers provide supplies, animals and guides over Lolo Pass, the rugged crossing through Idaho’s Bitterroot Mountains. Other companies provide barge cruises and fishing treks along the waterways mapped by the Corps.

Like Lewis and Clark, who veered from their route on their return trip in an effort to find shortcuts and further map the area, the girls and I also tended to wander off our intended route, venturing into Glacier National Park, then Canada before returning again to the historic route and continuing east. And like the Corps, we were welcomed by the hospitality of locals along the way, invitations that led to a ranch stay, riverside hot springs, a canoe float, abundant huckleberry patches and some of the best views of American waterways.

And when our 9,611-mile journey was through, I asked the girls, ages 8 and 5, if they were ready to return home. “Yes,” the 8-year-old said, “but there’s still so much I want to see.”

Jennifer Best is an Orcutt-based freelance journalist. She can be reached at JBest@BestFamilyAdventures.com.

Rejection

I'm not sure how many people know just how much rejection freelance journalists of any description face. Let me just tell you, if you can't take rejection, this is NOT the job for you!

This week I received a pair of rejection letters. The first was the most recent in a long series from publishers not interested in the childrens' stories I've been submitting in hopes of publication. The second was from a public relations agent for a trailer company.

Trailer company?

That's right. If you've been keeping up with us, you know we'd been looking into a trailer and just about dropped that idea, but I held out one last hope. I had pitched a publicity stunt of sorts with an American trailer company which has just released a super-light-weight, family-size trailer. What better way to publicize this new brand than to have it out on the road, visiting national parks and state parks and points in between throughout the course of the travel season?

The book publishers generally send copied form letters, perhaps with your name hand written after "Dear" in the opener. At least the trailer marketing guru was more personal and offered kind words. So I end the week with rejections, but with this positive comment offered, "Your credentials and work ethic are outstanding."

So...tent it is!