I recently had the pleasure of interviewing editor and writer, Chuck Sambuchino. Chuck knows a thing or two about working hard to make his way through a competitive industry. He works for Writer’s Digest Books and edits two annual resource guides — the GUIDE TO LITERARY AGENTS as well as the CHILDREN’S WRITER’S & ILLUSTRATOR’S MARKET. His Guide to Literary Agents Blog — all about agents, submissions and platform — is one of the biggest blogs in publishing. He was recently included in a FORBES Top 10 list of “Social Media Influencers: Book Publishing.”
His first humor book, HOW TO SURVIVE A GARDEN GNOME ATTACK (gnomeattack.com), was released in Sept. 2010 and has been featured by Reader’s Digest, USA Today, the New York Times and AOL News. The film rights were recently optioned by Sony and director Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future). His second humor book, RED DOG / BLUE DOG: WHEN POOCHES GET POLITICAL (July 2012, reddog-bluedog.com), is a collection of funny dog photos merged with political humor.
In addition, Chuck has also written two other writing-related titles: the third edition of FORMATTING & SUBMITTING YOUR MANUSCRIPT (2009), and CREATE A WRITER PLATFORM (fall 2012).
Besides that, he is a freelance editor, husband, cover band guitarist, piano lover, chocolate chip cookie fiend, and owner of a flabby-yet-lovable dog named Graham. Find him on Twitter (@chucksambuchino) or online (chucksambuchino.com).
Read on to see what Chuck has to say about success and how to achieve it in freelance editing and writing.
1) You’ve worn many hats throughout your career. What is the one best descriptor, at this stage, that describes what you do for a living?
Possibly “instructor.” No matter what I’m doing for Writer’s Digest — planning webinars, editing my books, speaking at conferences, sharing through social media — it all goes toward the instruction of other writers.
When I got out of college, I decided I didn’t want to use my major of public relations. This was an alarming revelation, because I was starting from zero. I applied for an entry-level editorial position at a local newspaper, and, perhaps due to sheer enthusiasm from me during the interview, I got the job. I proved myself and became a reporter. I began to write stage plays and magazine articles on the side for fun. This helped, because when I applied to Writer’s Digest in 2005, I had some (small) writing credentials under my belt, and had an excitement for writing. I’ve worked for Writer’s Digest for seven years. Since the publishing industry is evolving, my job responsibilities are always evolving, as well, which makes it fun yet challenging.
At night, I work on my own book projects (usually humor books), which are represented by my literary agent. I think starting from scratch as a writer and now finding success has really helped me. When I’m instructing other writers, I can always explain that I’m in the trenches with them. People respect that, and know you’re practicing what you preach.
About 10 hours, between WD work and my own writing books. I work at the publishing house during the day, then go home and hang out with my wife. When she goes to bed and the (lazy) dog is asleep, it’s time to work on my personal books and platform.
We must be clear here, because being a “freelance writer” and being a “freelance editor” are completely different things. Freelance writers usually compose articles and/or other types of content for people. Freelance editors do content editing or copyediting on books.
My favorite part about freelance writing is developing relationships with editors. Once you building a trusting relationship, then the editor passes article ideas on to you, and life becomes easier.
My favorite part about freelance editing is hearing the success stories. When I critique someone’s work and they find an agent, I get a chill. That is the ultimate test whether or not your edits are working.
Almost all personal activities outside of writing had to go. I no longer have poker night or play basketball or racquetball.
New ideas come to us all the time, in the form of conversations with relatives or jokes with friends or whatever. I simply realized long ago that, as a writer, I must 1) write down these ideas immediately, and 2) spends many, many hours brainstorming them to flesh them out. You have to do a lot of research to investigate an idea, be it for a magazine article or for a book.
For freelance writers: It’s very difficult early on as you try to break into markets. But once you break in to 1 or 5 different markets, you should be able to develop long-term relationships with those editors and get a dozen or a few dozen assignments. This means you make more money with less work.
For freelance editors: Try to pass on ideas on how to improve the work. I think it’s pretty easy, as an editor, to point to a section and say “This doesn’t work.” It’s much harder — and therefore a much more valuable skill to provide — if you can say “This doesn’t work, so let me throw out an idea on how to improve it and fix the section.”
For freelance editors: Try and get a position with a publishing house. The thing is: Everyone wants to be a freelance editor because they can make their own hours and work from home. But we here at F+W tend only to work with editors who have worked here before and are familiar with our likes and style guide inside and out.
8) If you had the chance to start your career over again, what would you do differently?
I would have started blogging earlier. In my line of work (nonfiction books), building your platform and visibility in the marketplace is of the utmost importance.
I didn’t get on Twitter or Facebook early enough. I wasn’t a huge fan of social media as it started to blossom. But as I started using these tools and seeing their true power, I realized they were perhaps the best means to communicate and market with others.
In terms of learning from my mistakes, I think my strategies on social media are based more on the mistakes of others. I see what some people are doing on Twitter — always asking you to read their book — and realized that kind of aggressive marketing does not fly. I tweet and use Facebook infrequently, and try to make each message count.
Several moments stand out. But if I had to pick one, it would be when Sony optioned the film rights to my humor book, HOW TO SURVIVE A GARDEN GNOME ATTACK. My wife and I knew immediately that this was a big accomplishment that could go on my resume forever.
11) How do you define success? To what do you most attribute your success?
Within my career, I define “success” as making a decent living doing something I love. I attribute my success thus far to my competitive drive, and I also contribute it to the fact that I enjoy all aspects of the writing business — the craft end and the business end — and that allows me to throw myself into my work and be happy.
Honestly? … No idea. I could be at WD, still doing the same thing. I could be a full-time book writer. I could be a social media consultant for some kind of company. Hard to tell!
13) Tell me about what you are working on now.
As I write this, I am gearing up for the release of RED DOG / BLUE DOG, and getting the website in order. I’m contacting book reviewers and pet bloggers.
The truth is he does not care one iota about politics. If what you’re discussing doesn’t involve 1) eating or 2) sleeping, he doesn’t care. I’ve personally seen him pee on yard signs of both Democratic and Republican candidates.
15) If you were conducting this interview, what question would you ask?
“What’s the last concert you saw?”
Answer: I was scheduled to see Van Halen in August 2012, but they cancelled their show in town. I’m pretty bummed about it. That would make my last official concert Aerosmith.
