"So how's work?" is the number one question I get asked by friends and family back home ("When are you going to pay back that $200 you owe me?" is the #2 question). So what's it really like working at ATV Rider? ...
Well, it's not as glamorous as it sounds. For instance, today Bryan and I went riding at Texas Canyon. Now, riding in the middle of the week when there are like 5 other people there is great, especially in a packed city like Los Angeles that sees its riding areas become mega-packed on weekends. But it's not like we get to do that every single day. In fact, it was the first time we'd gone riding in 2-3 weeks. I know some of you would kill to ride that often, but when you work at an ATV magazine, 2-3 weeks without any seat time is an eternity!
Magazines don't write themselves. It requires a lot of people doing a lot of different things in order to crank out ATV Rider every month. Riding around and testing ATVs and different products occupies only a small portion of our time- the rest is spent thinking about what we're going to say in the articles and writing those articles. Then you have to proofread them, etc., etc. I tell people back in Georgia that it takes a few days (or longer) to create an article, and about 10 minutes to read it.
Once the story is written and the photos are shot, the job doesn't end there. Art Director Joe Neric comes up with an idea in his head about how he wants the story to look, so he lays it out using his graphics software and makes it really eye-catching and more interesting to read.
Then there's the cover. Did you know that magazines spend hours analyzing their covers? The cover is so crucial, because think about it- there are literally dozens of magazines to choose from at a newsstand. Most of those magazine covers are partially hidden behind other magazines, so the cover must be as cool-looking as possible. I never really gave it much thought, until I started working here.
Now, don't think I'm complaining- I really enjoy my job! It sounds kind of cheesy, but I was really proud to see myself in ATV Rider on the magazine rack at Wal-Mart the other day, right next to Oprah's magazine, Horse and Rider magazine, and Crafts and Beads or something like that. But if you're looking for a 9-to-5, Monday-through-Friday type of job...this ain't it. After all, it's not like we can just run blank pages in the magazine and say "oops, sorry, we ran out of time to put anything here." We can't stop until the story is done, so often that translates into 12 or 18 hour days, and when we were in Mexico for the Baja 1000, we even had one 30+ hour day!
I hope I've given you a glimpse of what the magazine world is like, through the eyes of a newbie. Keep checking our blogs for more of the inside scoop about the world of ATVs.