Salon.com Diary Day 280

Follow Sidik Fofana on his quest to land a freelancing job at the prestigious publication, Salon.com.

 

Been a while since I gave it the old college try, so I sent this to the associate editor to remind him of my writing goals. I guess it doesn't hurt to nudge the bigwigs every now and then to see if they're still listening. I'll keep you abreast if I get a response.

Hey Mr. Rogers,

It’s been a little while since you made my day with that email inviting me to Open Salon. Since then, I’ve dutifully blogging away, hoping to build a readership and catch the eye of a Salon editor or two.

I’m writing because I hope you will still consider me in the near future as a book reviewer of fiction by minority writers.  

I feel like I get better everyday as a writer (as a music writer because I read the Best Music Writing from cover to cover every year; as a book reviewer because I read Salon religiously) and it would be a dream come true to get the chance grow with your staff. 

My long time goal is still to contribute the book section at Salon.com and I consider blogging on Open Salon as a unofficial internship in a way. I hope you guys continue to look out for me and know that I’m really serious about someday being a Salon.com writer, however lofty that dream seems.

Thanks again for reading!

Sidik

PS. Interesting interview with “The Great Typo Hunt” guy. Personally, I think typos arre like insignificant misdemeanors when it comes to communication.

PS. That “arre” typo was on purpose. Lol.

Salon.com Diary Archive 

Salon.com Diary Day 157

Follow Sidik Fofana on his quest to land a freelancing job at the prestigious publication, Salon.com.

 

 

I was pleased to see that the editors at Open Salon chose my Born to Use Mics book review for the home page. Very pleased! Raise those champagne glasses!

You know, I read somewhere that James Baldwin published a book review a week for the leftist publication The New Leader. Though it's damn near sacrilege to try to emulate the great Baldwin, I'm definitely inspired to read and comment on as much quality literature as I can. I see Laura Miller's 1500 word book reviews on Salon and I am wowed at how she's in tune with what authors are trying to do, summarizing complex literary devices with witty catch phrases. She was on film a little while ago breaking down Denis Johnson's Tree of Smoke and I thought: reading, writing, and talking about good books as a job and people respect your opinion, how cool is that?

Anyway, slowly and steadily, I'm getting more exposure as a reviewer of literature and sharpening my critical eye. I'm looking forward to that day where I can review top notch fiction from minority writers on bigger platforms. Yum yum.

-Sidik

For more Salon.com Diary entries, click here

Salon.com Diary Day 90

Follow Sidik Fofana on his quest to land a freelancing job at the prestigious publication, Salon.com.

So my feature "The Dictionary According to Nneka" was chosen to grace opensalon.com front page a couple of days ago, which makes two posts that have been selected by the editors for the front page. I was definitely stoked and ecstatic when I saw the positive feedback for my piece. I'm hoping, with consistent blogging, I can make an honest case for writing for the real site by the summer time. We'll see. Stay tuned!

Read "The Dictionary According to Nneka" on Open Salon

Salon.com Diary Day 65

Follow Sidik Fofana on his quest to land a freelancing job at the prestigious publication, Salon.com.

 

So I forgot to tell you, I had been blogging on open.salon.com and a few days ago, the editors picked my post on the top books of African-American interest to grace open.salon's front page. Though, my goal is still to write for the actual site, making it to the front page of open salon (the editors monitor everyone's posts and pick appropriate ones for their daily page) is definitely a step in the right direction. A lot of people got to read my book picks. Many of them gave my post a thumbs up and left comments. I was ecstatic.

Why am I doing this diary you ask? I don't know. Well, for one. When I got into this business--journalism--I knew how much hard work and rejection I would have to face. So far I have had some sucesses and a lot of failures, but I have realized if I want something, I gotta pursue it until as Paulo Coelho says, "the universe conspires for you to have it." Secondly, my high school students read this blog from time to time. I want to show them that whatever they want in life takes time to get. I wouldn't be surprised or discouraged if I'm writing "Salon Diary Day 1000". I want to show them that success doesn't happen overnight.

And ah yes, part of me believes that in the romantic notion, however faint it is, that the salon.com staff is reading this and it has struck a chord in them.

Anyway, that's all I have to say on that. If you missed that Salon post, check it out and keep trucking, people, no matter what your dreams are!

http://open.salon.com/blog/sidik_fofana/2010/01/03/the_best_african-american_books_of_2009

Salon.com Diary Day 4

Follow Sidik Fofana on his quest to land a freelancing job at the prestigious publication, Salon.com.

When I last left, I had sent a lengthy email to managing editor, Jeanne Cartensen, seeking a position as a contributing writer for the Books section. I got this email back...

Jeanne Carstensen is no longer at Salon. She can be reached at
jcarst@earthlink.net.

For Salon inquiries, please contact Ruth Henrich, associate managing
editor, at ruth@salon.com.

Bummer. But then, I checked my gmail and I got this email from associate editor, Thomas Rogers...

Hi Sidik,

I'm writing because one of our Salon writers came across your tweet today -- and had many of us (including Joan Walsh) intrigued. While we can't exactly offer you a job right now, we'd love to have you join and cross-post to Open Salon, our blogging site, where we'll keep a special eye out for your work. There may also be an opportunity to get involved more involved in Salon books content in the future (we have some bigger projects in the works).

To join you just need to go to open.salon.com and sign up for an account. E-mail me when you do, and I'll make sure to check out your blog.

All the best,

Thomas Rogers

Associate Editor
Salon.com
trogers@salon.com

They actually wrote me back! Although I didn't exactly get my desired result, the future looks promising. So for now on, I'll be blogging on Corner Boy Jazz and Open Salon with hopes to build an audience as a cultural critic. Meanwhile, I'll keep writing my book reviews and nudging the Salon editors from time to time. Tune in for more diary entries!

Salon.com Day 1

Call it Gonzo. Call it reality blogging. Call it whatever you want, but I'm introducing a new topic on the blog where you get to see my real life hustle to get a writing gig. The target: salon.com. I absolutely love the writing on this site and it has been a dream of mine for the past umpteen months to contribute to their book section. So every few days/months, I'll update you on the job hunt. If this were basketball, it would be the equivalent of following a college senior through the bumps and bruises of trying to play professionally. This should be fun or depressing. Anyway, here's the first note I sent them...

Dear Mrs. Carstensen,

I’m writing because I would like to contribute to your literature section. As thorough as it is (Laura Miller’s last review of Pynchon’s Inherent Vice really left no stone unturned), I think it could be benefit from a minority writer. You guys have done a marvelous job of covering the big name contemporary authors of color, but I think there are more minority authors that your progressive audience would love to read about. For instance, I noticed that you have a very meticulous review of Junot Diaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, but no review of Edwidge Danticat’s Brother I’m Dying, which came out around the same time (and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Award). I saw a terrific review of Colson Whitehead’s Sag Harbor, (which I read with both delight and discouragement), but no review of Toni Morrison’s A Mercy. Those are the gaps I can fill.

Though my experience is nowhere as extensive as say an Andrew O’Hehir or Stephanie Zacharek, I have a few strong suits of my own. One, I am a voracious, eclectic reader. I read everything from Margaret Atwood to Zadie Smith. I’ve gone broke walking out of the Strand with a canvas bag of books (yesterday I bought the Hakawati by Rabih Alameddine among a slew of other goodies). Two, I got one of those Ivy League degrees that may or may not grant me some legitimacy. And three, I’ve written tons of book reviews for seeingblack.com. I'm such a fan of salon.com's writing that I've modeled my reviews after those Laura Miller's.

So, why not give me a shot? I recently wrote a review for Victor Lavalle’s new book Big Machine. It’s being doing well with the major press. It's a 1500 word review in the salon.com voice. I pasted the link to it. Whaddaya say? At best, you’ll have an even more thorough book section with a dedicated contributor. At the very least, you’ll have to write a short pink slip to the author of a mediocre review.

Please let me know what you think--even if it’s one or two sentences—so I know that this letter was not just fired into the response-less ether. Thanks for reading this and hope to hear from you soon!

Sidik Fofana


http://www.seeingblack.com/article_717.shtml