Tag: automotive journalism

So, You Want To Get Into The Car Magazine Biz?

Published on by Scott

Dateline: 11.29.11

An inside look into the wonderful world of automotive journalism.

"VETTE Quarterly" was the original incarnation of VETTE Magazine and only came out four times a year.

I’m sure that many of you are familiar with or are members of LinkedIn. If you are not a LinkedIn member, DO IT!  You never know what kind of connections you make. Thanks to LinkedIn I connected with a man that was familiar with my art work, and happened to be the “New Acquisitions Editor” at CarTech Books. Thanks to my LinkedIn connection with Scott Parkhurst, I was able to get a publisher for my “Illustrated Corvette Series” book. That made me a LinkedIn Believer!

As a LinkedIn member, you can join all kinds of special interest groups. One group I’m part of is the “Automotive Journalists” group. A young fellow named David posted the following question to the group. “Any advice for someone who wants to pursue automotive journalism some day?” I wrote an answer based on my experience, but it turned out that my answer was WAY over the character count limit. So, I decided to just turn it into a post here at CorvetteReport.com. If you’ve ever wondered what the magazine biz is like, below is my advice to a young car dude with the itch to be in the car mags. – Scott

Fall 1974, the car mags were splashing Chevy's new '75 Monza. Bill Jenkins' Pro Stock Vega had turned Pro Stock on its head, so it wasn't a stretch to imagine that Jenkins would build a Monza Grumpy's Toy. Drag Racing USA magazine jumped on my illustration and ran it as a cover story scoop, "Grumpy's NEW Monza!" The illustration was created with Rapid-O-Graph technical illustration pens.

I drifted into automotive journalism through the art department. I was one of those kids that was always drawing cars in school and in my free time. I was always pouring over art in Hot Rod, Motor Trend, Road & Track, and other magazines, hoping that some day, if I practiced enough, my drawings would be good enough for publication. My first published illustration was a 2-page spread in a drag racing magazine in 1975 of what I speculated Bill “Grumpy” Jenkins’ Pro Stock Chevy Monza “might” look like. I think I was paid $150, which was enough to cover my rent for a month! That was IT, I was hooked! Continue reading “So, You Want To Get Into The Car Magazine Biz?” →