One of the cool things about writing for money is . . . the money. I have always gotten a special joy out of getting paid to write for a variety of reasons, including the acknowledgement of value that comes with receiving a bit of cash for my work. On the other hand, my least favorite thing about writing for publication is the word limit. So, for every article I write I usually have a really long article that I start with and have to carve down to whatever column-size limit the editor has placed on the article. For example, the BMW 1200GS article was submitted to MMM at 900 words, but the original article (what I started with) was about 3X that length. Maybe more, I didn't bother to count the words until I'd hacked it under 1200 words. I have a pretty good feel for how small an article has to be before it will fit into a magazine's format.
It's fun to see my stuff in print, but it's almost as much fun (maybe as much or more, even) to see everything I wanted to write about a bike where anyone who's interested can read it. So, as usual, thanks for reading my blog and putting up with me and my crusted opinions. I truly appreciate you all.
All Rights Reserved © "Never argue with a fool; onlookers may not be able to tell the difference."
- Mark Twain I check the comments on this blog regularly. The idea is that we're going to have a conversation about the ideas I've presented. You should be aware of the fact that when someone emails me an interesting comment, the odds are good that I'll post that in the comments anonymously and reply to that comment on the blog rather than in email.
Jan 29, 2014
4 comments:
Disagree? Bring it on. Have more to add? Feel free to set me straight. Unfortunately, Blogger doesn't do a great job of figuring out which Anonymous commenters are actually real people, not Russians or Chinese bots. Because of that, I don't accept anonymous posts. If you have something worth saying, you shouldn't be afraid of using your ID.
We appreciate you, Tom! You are a breath of fresh air in a warehouse full of stale, boring, and often kiss ass motorcycle writing. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteKeep writing. I look for your blogs everyday. You're not as crusty as you think.
ReplyDeleteI always look forward to your blogs -- it's refreshing to read honest opinions about an industry dominated by PR doublespeak and frothy exuberance. Your opinions are hardly crusty at all, though maybe I'm just getting crusty before my time...
ReplyDeleteAs always, thank you all. I'm not sure when the time to be crusty happens. I started this Geezer thing when I was barely 50 and thought I was "old." I'm 65 and know I'm old, but 50-year-olds seem like kids at the tail end of youth to me, now.
ReplyDelete