8:45 am— Starbucks stop.9:am— Editorial meeting. Senior editors talk about the upcoming stories for the next issue. As a courtesy, they will ask your opinion. Some will nod, some will praise you but all will dismiss your idea. (This will go on for the first year you are there.)
10:00 am— Check email. Aside from fielding dozens of query letters from writers, you also have to contend with the various editors asking you for things— how’s the fact-checking coming on that counterfeit Prada bag story? Did you hear back from that source yet? Have you sent out the payment to the freelancers? Did you follow up with the executive editor on the lunch orders for tomorrow’s meeting?
12 noon— lunch time. You spend it hunched over the computer working on the first byline opportunity that the senior editor’s have tossed your way— a 100-word side bar that will sit in the corner of the massive 9,000-word feature that your boss is working on. It’s still better than taking lunch orders for a meeting that you’re not invited to.
1pm— You email your article to your boss—your fingers are crossed.
1:30 pm— Your editor sends back your article covered in red ink mark-ups. You disagree with every single edit but make the changes as anyway.
2:30 pm— The article comes back with even more red mark-ups. You make the changes and resubmit the article.
3:00 pm— Your editor sends it back with red mark-ups, though significantly less this time. You make the changes and resubmit it. Your editor says it looks fine and that it is now ready to be edited by his editor, the managing editor.
4:00 pm— The managing editor sends back your article covered in red mark-up. You make all the changes as requested. You know better than to question the managing editor although at this point, the article no longer resembles anything of your original voice. You make all the changes and resubmit it to the managing editor.
4:30 pm— It comes back to you with fewer mark-ups. After the edits are made, you are instructed to submit it to the editor-in-chief.
4:45 pm— You read, and re-read your article for typos and edits. Finally, you submit it to the editor-in-chief. You pick up on the other duties still pending.
5:52 pm— You stick around a little later to get the feedback from the editor-in-chief.
6:15 pm— You get your article back with red mark-ups. As you start working on the edits, your boss comes in and says that the editor-in-chief has just killed the story due to some discrepancy in facts. “By the way, did you remember to order the vegetarian platter for the publisher?”
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