jonnyturbo

do you need to have some kind of clever clogs degree or experience in journalism to write for a car mag, or would a higher in english and a real enthusiasm for cars be enough???
any1 ever wanted to do this as a job? i think it wid be quite cool

Adam Ash

quite a few people on here write for car magazines..


im sure someone will give you some pointers

GARETH T

a few people on here write for mag, redline, performance ford, fast ford, and i write for some porn mags,,, them storys about a guy working late in an office,, and some sexy cleaning bird asks him if she can polish his knob,,.....

i wrote that

jonnyturbo

fantastic mate how about 'I'm here to fix the fridge!'
ok i stole that from the grolsch ad

GARETH T

jonnyturbo
i didnt write that one

Stavros

I can think off the top of my head of six people who are pretty regular on her who write for car mags, inc MaxPower (ello Millsy ).

I used to write for J-Tuner and now Redline.

Ive not got a degree.

Just being into cars and being ok at English isnt all it takes though, no way, though I tried thinking of how to explain it, and I cant
Its not easy though (well i dont think so), honestly the writing part is prob less than 20% of the job, lot more to do that that.

Most jobs will want some form of writing degree and/or experience in it, but I started thanks to an ad for a "Trainee" staff writer at Total Vauxhall, and after writing two sample features and a few other bits and bobs, I ended up (after a complicated series of events) working for J-Tuner, and then Redline.

Not an easy job to get into though, well you can imagine the amount of people who would want to do it, then think of the amount of mags, and bear in mind each mag will only have a few writers each really, thats not much odds is it.

In all honesty although id always loved to do the job, not once before I went for the job at T.V. did i ever think id end up doing that kind of work as its not exactly a common job.

1000s of Mags and Newspapers in the UK though, so becoming a writer/journalist in general is a good posibility if you got what they want, and i think its an interesting job no matter what.

Ive only been doing all this for what, 8 months or so, so im not exactly font of all Journalistic knowlege though, so dont just take my word for it, please

Anway bedtime for me (only up this late as i fell asleep about 7 by acident so had a good 5hours extra sleep earlier ), got an hours drive to work as ever (another sacrifice for job like this, theres not exactly a car mag in every town!)

Cam

Max Power??? Err this is matter for the Mod Squad. Ban his neon lit ass!

Jon ERST S2

Yep, really a case of either working for the publishing company (in another department) and getting small bits of freelance and building from there or applying as a trainee (if you don't have a degree in journalism) A lot of people start as Editorial Assistant and work up.

I used to work for What PC? in their testing labs, I had no formal qualifications but you get to be friends with people and they offer you small bits of freelance as a trial, if you are ok they offer you more and so on. I started doing some reviews then I got my own column. I then went on to be Technical Editor for one of the Haynes Computer Manuals.

Best bet is to write a few reviews (in the style of the magazine you want to work for) and send in some work. I have a few course notes from a few courses I did while i was there on Feature Writing and News Writing. I'll see if I can scan them in, they were quite useful. Libel training was also quite useful!

Fudgey

iTrader: (4)

same as steve really.

i have no degree, A levels etc but i can talk cars all day long, and im pretty handy with a spanner too!.

i was put onto the job at FF by steve, so i wrote a few bits, mainly about my escort and sent em in, got an interview and got the job.

and i must say i fucking love it too!

ive never done anything like this before, nor did i ever imagine i would be doing it now.

i was doing CAD before and it so mundane and increadible boring, but with this job im out the office at least once a week and its not like work really when your here

jonnyturbo

cool, maybe il look into it, cos im sooo fuckin sick of being a chef.

Jon ERST S2

it is a fun job. No-one hassles you what are you doing every minute of the day. The only down side is, all your copy HAS to be in on time and when the mag is due to go off to print but day to day no-one on your case.