P3D Re: Advice for editors and members

["Dr. George A. Themelis" <DrT-3d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

A few digests back, Tom Deering gave us his editor's perspective
and concluded:

>It's certainly NOT the editor's job to track down
>writers and stories.

Oh, yes, it is!  I have a bit of editing experience myself (nothing
compared to SW's 5000 copy circulation, more like 125) and have
interacted with editors of a few stereo magazines and I can see
that the editor's job is exactly this:  Track down writers and
stories.  And email has done this job MUCH easier!

Stereo photography is our hobby and writing articles is not going
to pay for our time or advance our careers... We all need a little
push to deliver.  The editor first gets the commitment and then
through constant reminders (or "bugging") gets the goods delivered.
That's how it works.

One example as an editor:  In our last club meeting we presented
a PSA program so for the next newsletter I wanted to get an article
on the history of the PSA Stereo division.  I knew that in our list 
of subscribers we have the PSA-SD Historian Ron Fredrickson (also in
photo-3d).  I asked Ron to write a brief history on PSA-SD.  Ron
agreed.  I gave him a deadline and then started sending the gentle
reminders.  Fortunately, Ron delivered the article as promised 
without the need of constant pressure but I was ready to supply
this pressure (free of charge) anyway!

One example as a writer:  I have managed to write one or two
articles in every issue of "Inside-3D", published by Dalia.
First Dalia and myself discuss the ideas and decide on what
article(s) to write.  Then I am waiting for the pressure to
build up.  When I have procrastinated as far as I can go, I sit
down and write the article.  IF Dalia would patiently wait for
me to deliver the article without any reminders, or pressure of
any kind, she would still be waiting for those articles.

That's life.  When I hear that publication A was terminated due
to the lack of interest from members to submit articles, I always
blame the editor, not the members.  It is the editor's job to get
the material in.  Period.

I am also convinced that the "personality" of a publication does
not depend on the readers who sumbit articles but on the editor
who decides which articles to carry or after which writes to
run to get the material to publish.

-- George Themelis


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