[nycbug-talk] getting published (fwd)

[Dru]

Oops, forgot to send to the list :-)


On Sun, 26 Sep 2004, Isaac Levy wrote:

> Dru, I gotta give it to ya'- I'm really delighted that you took time out of 
> your week (sounded hectic) to make sure you expressed the following thoughts,


Thanks, Ike. I was starting to wonder if in my zeal in responding to a week's 
worth of messages I was starting to monopolize the list...


> So how do we get hooked up with these publications?  To be honest, most of 
> what I read either is in the BSD communities, or is in places where it's 
> totally contextually inappropriate to talk tech.
> 
> I guess one place I personally could write would be somewhere in my Zope 
> community, or perhaps around the Python world.  How-to's and tutorials on 
> best practices using BSD's would be fun to write...


Yes, that's definitely a good start: looking around your own area of expertise. 
And, many of us have the gift of gab and don't have to necessarily talk 
technical. If you're the type of person who could write a glossy brochure, 
white paper, or fact sheet, BSD needs you!

Now, if you're interested in writing a techie article, the 2 easiest places to 
get into are O'Reilly's onlamp site and SysAdmin.

For O'Reilly:

Start by perusing the "Onlamp Subjects" on the left sidebar at www.onlamp.com. 
Pick the subject you're most proficient at, go to that particular devcenter and 
skim through the existing articles so you have an idea what's already been 
written about. If you see something you're good at that hasn't already been 
covered (or hasn't been covered within the last 2 years), send an article idea 
to chromatic at oreilly.com. Tell him I suggested you contribute an article. If 
you get a contract, keep in the back of your mind as you write the article that 
you're a BSD user. If there are particular reasons why you do what you're 
writing about in BSD, say so.

For SysAdmin:

Start with the call for papers at:

www.samag.com/ed/

All isn't lost if there isn't a particular call for what you're interested in 
writing about. Send your proposal to Rikki Endsley, mentioned on that page.

For both of the above, the article doesn't have to be about BSD. But sneak it 
in where it's appropriate :-) Prime example, for those who have picked up 
Richard Bejtlich's latest book, is how often BSD is mentioned and praised in a 
book that has nothing to do with BSD.

Those of you who are bloggers, you probably already mention BSD in some of your 
blogs. Use your blog as an opportunity to amass some well written pieces, some 
technical, some philosophical, some political. Along the way you'll develop a 
writing style. When you do approach a mag who asks for a writing sample, send 
them to some of your quality pieces.

As for the other mags, most have regular columnists and don't accept proposals. 
_However_, most give the emails for their columnists and some do have call for 
papers. Check out the website of the mag you're
interested in. See if they're interested in interviewing you for an upcoming 
article.

What would be a cool idea is to organize a media campaign. Even an aim of one
article per month in a major mag would be a good start. For example, if mag A 
was doing an article on migrating to open source, we'd want to see BSD 
represented. Now, this idea is an advocacy issue and would probably require 
25-35 hours a month of volunteer effort on some person's part to do the 
research and to approach the mags. It would also warrant a list of who wants to 
be interviewed and what their area of expertise is. Yes, it's work but it would 
be a great shot in the arm for BSD exposure.

Dru