Phone Phobia

I run a writer's group and need help. The problem is that most of the people who say they are willing to help have become phobic about using the telephone to contact speakers for our programs. Regardless of age, they rely on email. They think it's faster and quicker. Shoot off an email and wait for a reply. And wait. And wait. And wait.

The truth is that many emails do not get to their recipients, especially if the intended recipients rely on corporate emails. The term blacklisting has not been retired since the days of Joe McCarthy. I've been working at the same newspaper for more than 10 years and my emails are sometimes lost in the company's email system. Similarly for a magazine for which I freelance regularly. In fact, the managing editor's daughter's emails get lost in the company's spam folder. Why? Some domain names are automatically classified as spam. Some services, such as Constant Contact, are classified as bulk emailers and, therefore, get automatic rejections. Sometimes emails from people and organizations I've accepted for years go into my spam folder. I don't know why it happens, but it does. What was most annoying was when I had AOL as my email provider and I would get daily emails about Viagra and penis-enlarging pills. Despite that, AOL would reject emails sent through Godaddy.com domain names in the days when some people still used dial-up only. Go figure.

When I get a chance to look at journalism boards, I see the postings of writers who ask the same questions all the time. What's the email format at Such and Such publication? At The New York TImes, it's often lastname at nytimes.com. But not always. How do you get the correct email? Pick. Up. The. Phone.

What I find so surprising is that this issue is huge among writers. What do they do when they have to interview people? Unless they're doing a face-to-face interview, they have to disclose in the article that it was a telephone or email interview. Person-to-person is preferable because the interviewer can note body language and, depending on the locale, get a better handle on his subject. Even phone is preferable to email, even with the risk of not getting a quote accurately. The interviewer can at least get a sense if the subject is trying to evade an answer or is articulate and well-prepared.

Journalists, like artists and salespeople, often expect rejection and perhaps that's a main reason for their phone phobia. The vast majority of people are insecure about what they're doing, especially in fields where every assignment is new and perhaps different. We never really know what to expect. The upsides of that are that it's hard to get bored and that we always get another chance to improve our technique.

Best Websites and Blogs

Web Site Edited by Entrant -- Category 22

1st Place -- Lauren Yarger -- Connecticut Arts Connection

2nd Place -- Analiese Paik -- Fairfield Green Food Guide

3rd Place -- Barbara Wilkov and Laurie Newkirk -- MOTHERRR.com

Blogs -- Category 35B

1st Place -- Stephanie Webster -- www.CTBITES.com Your Guide to Great Food in Fairfield County.

2nd Place -- Sherry Shameer Cohen -- Metrojournalist Blog, 365 posts.

3rd Place -- Barbara Wilkov and Laurie Newkirk -- Blogging with Barb (and sometimes Laurie)

History in the Making

Congratulations to

Cathryn J. Prince for winning 1st prize for A Professor, A President, and a Meteor: The Birth of American Science

and

Woody Klein for winning 2nd prize for The Inside Stories of Modern Political Scandals: How Investigative Reporters Changed the Course of American History

Note: all entries were judged by members of the Pennsylvania Press Club.

Winners for Young Adult Entries

75 A Young Adult -- Fiction --

Life, After by Sarah Darer Littman -- 1st prize

The Education of Bet by Lauren Baratz-Logsted -- 2nd prize

The Twins' Daughters by Lauren Baratz-Logsted -- 3rd prize

75 B Young Adult -- Nonfiction

From Survivor to Survivor: Your Journey of Conquest by Rejena L. Bennett - 1st prize

Terrific work!

More Winners!

In the 72H -- Nonfiction book category (religious/inspirational)

Daniel Fazzina, "Divine Intervention" --- 1st place

Colleen Plimpton "Mentors in the Garden of Life" -- 3rd place

In the Personality Profile 8B (more than 500 words)

From One House to Another by Chris Hodenfield of Greenwich Magazine -- 1st

Steppin Out with Tony Dovolani by Beth Cooney, Stamford Magazine -- 2nd

Brains and Baun by Chris Hoderfield of Greenwich -- 3rd

Christopher Hitchens by Diane Sembrot -- HM

In the Features 7C category

Animation Domination by Greenwich Magazine Timothy Dumas -- 1st

Jose Feliciano by Brigitte Quinn -- 2nd

Behind these Walls by Jane Kendall of Stamford Magazine -- 3rd

French Connection by Josh Garskof of At Home Magazine -- HM

Congratulations!

First Set of Winners - 2011 Contest

Books

72F - Humor
Jerry Zezima, Leave It To Boomer - 1st place

72G - Instructional
Alan Reznik, M.D. and Jane Reznik, The Knee and Shoulder Handbook For All of Us
Gracelyn Guyol, Who's Crazy Here?

73 - Fiction
Sandra Rodriguez Baron, Stay With Me - 1st place
Alysse Aallyn, Depraved Heart - 2nd place
Rosemary Harris, Deadhead - 3rd place
David Lee Tucker, Stonewall Freedom - Honorable Mention

Periodicals

Profile 8B (more than 500 words)

"From One House to Another" by Chris Hodenfield -- 1st

"Steppin Out with Tony Dovolani" by Beth Cooney -- 2nd

"Brains and Baun" by Chris Hoderfield -- 3rd

"Christopher Hitchens" by Diane Sembrot -- HM

Features 7C

"Animation Domination" by Timothy Dumas -- 1st

"Jose Feliciano" by Brigitte Quinn -- 2nd

"Behind these Walls" by Jane Kendall -- 3rd

"French Connection" by Josh Garskof -- HM

Congratulations!

Class Acts

Last night the Connecticut Press Club had its 9th annual awards banquet. The awards is my least favorite program because it involves the most work. More important to me, I've never won any awards for writing and I'm inwardly a bitter loser. Nevertheless, I was very excited about this one because for the first time we honored a playwright and we chose Donald Margulies, one of my favorites. We usually do not know in advance how much of a draw our speaker will be or if he or she will even be a good speaker. We chose well on both counts with Donald. For someone who has won so many prizes, including the Pulitzer for Dinner With Friends, he is so gracious, humble and accessible. If I'd won a quarter of the awards he won, my head would be four times wider than my caboose.

Since I've been President of the Connecticut Press Club, we changed the criteria for our Mark Twain Award winners. They had to be more than just distinctive traditional non-fiction print writers. Three years ago we chose Faith Middleton because she was at the forefront of change. She had been editor of Connecticut Magazine for 25 years and then became an author and radio hostess. Of course, she has a website now, as well. She is a much better interviewer than interviewee, but we were proud to have her. At that time, we did not announce the winners before the awards dinner, so we drew only 30 people. Last year, we honored Wally Lamb because his novels probe depths few writers are willing to go. I'd heard him speak at The Poynter Institute's National Writers Workshop several years ago and he was terrific. He did not disappoint us last year. He drew almost 60 people, including those who knew they had won prizes. And he's so nice. We expected almost 70 people to come to the dinner, including the winners and spouses and friends who were honoring them. We were pleasantly surprised that a lot more came to meet Donald. We had 95 people plus Donald, M.C. extraordinaire Randye Kaye, two actresses and the director and his wife who planned a scene from Collected Stories. The restaurant was understaffed and overwhelmed, but it was a nice problem to have. Donald is an excellent professor and he shared with us assignments and advice he gives his students which are applicable to most types of writing. I don't know what we're going to do to top this.

I have to give a lot of credit to Randye, who was the consummate professional. She kindly told us that every event is chaotic. She kept her composure and focus throughout the evening, even when one winner became nasty about everything from not being seated quickly to the food to the service, and another one's name was missed during the awards ceremony. She handled it well. I learned one important lesson for the future: always have an M.C. at such events.

Donald, Randye, Wally and Faith also proved something important: that you don't have to be a divo or diva just because you're successful. They are all class acts.

Posted by Sherry Shameer Cohen, www.metrojournalist.blogspot.com