Miscellaneous

If anyone pursues the offer in the following letter, AWCom, would appreciate a report on how it turned out.

An open letter to automotive writing associations in North America

“We need to make accountability, integrity—excellence—cool again.”

I’m pretty positive you (and your members) have been getting the wrong advice when it comes to social media and the Internet in general.

It makes my blood boil when I read half-baked strategies for success online. I cringe when experts talk about personal branding. I have three questions for automotive writers in North America: Do you really know how to write for the web? And do you (or your publisher) know how to build traffic, visitor awareness, and capture the attention of advertisers? Do you, as freelancers, know how to create a portfolio of work that’s made for the Internet – and is not just a collection of re-hashed dead tree newsprint articles?

If I told you that Google (and other search engines) read every single word of your reviews to gauge relevance, would you spend some more time proofreading? What if I said a reader’s first click onto your article (or website) could be their last?

Would you tweak your headlines and introductions for precision and clarity? Would you insert links to guide your readers to relevant source material? Would you man up and do a better job?

Stories, once liberated online, can become hubs of information, instruction, and comment. They can generate not only boatloads of traffic (yay…) but earn you the respect and trust of your readers.

If you’re a freelancer, waiting for your editor to add links, subheads, and change the format of your work is like asking permission from your parents on which positions they’d suggest when you bed your significant other.

I envision a world in which automotive writers always provide the best information possible, if they wrote it or not. In which they not only give readers amazing stories but the tools necessary to make the best decisions for their needs.

Why? It’s our job.

Automakers (and writers) like to tout that vehicles are the second-largest purchase of a person’s life, after their house. And it’s a purchase many make every three to seven years. Frequency dictates that the more bad advice and bad writing your readers receive each time they read your work, the more quickly they’ll be able to tune you out. People are embracing forums, Facebook comment threads, and Twitter for a reason.

Honestly, I’d like to help. If you want me to speak at your federation or whatever, I will. I don’t have a car (or book test vehicles that often) so you’ll have to figure out a way of getting me there. I’m simply tired of the misinformation and bad advice swirling around the industry.

Special thanks to Brian, who told me not to bitch so much and actually try to help. (That’s his quote above.)

Oh, and if anyone wants to chat over email, I’m at michael [[ at ]] banovsky [[ dot ]] com.

Freelance writer Carl Goodwin makes a convincing case when pegging this book as “a notch above . . . in price, content and quality.”

Everyone should buy this book – the one titled Phil Hill…A Driving Life. It covers virtually every important racing marque. Cooper. Porsche. Ferrari. Jaguar. Lotus. Alfa. Etc. It’s written by the late champion Phil Hill. Photography is, for the most part, by John Lamm. Terrific writing and terrific photography.

It’s chronological, starting with the 1903 Benz and Hill’s cross-country 1915 Packard. These may be an acquired taste for some enthusiasts but they are where your Maserati came from. Where else will you learn that the largest displacement engine made by Packard was not a V12 but a giant inline 525 CID six.

Then we leap from MG #1 and Bugatti T51 into the era of the pre-war Grand Prix cars, Mercedes and Auto Union. Hill corrects misconceptions about these cars. It is the rear-engined “Audi” that is easy to drive and the conventional ‘Benz that is difficult. Why? It’s all explained.

Holiday Thanks

by Josh Max

No matter how serious things got this year, they still kept us rolling through rain, snow, sleet and gridlock. There isn’t a boldface name in any newspaper or magazine or website for these sweaty (or shivering) heroes of the road. Their mothers neither hang their work on fridges nor email published links to friends and relatives.  A leisurely drive in a $60,000 sports car with their significant other on a lazy Sunday spring afternoon isn’t in their job description. The gig is to deliver and pick up the goods, and you can count on these guys like the sun rising and setting.

I’m talking about those unsung, coffee-soaked, iron-assed pros—the press fleet delivery people.

“Good morning, Mr. Max. Your vehicle is downstairs.”  How sweet the sound.

Photo By: Ralph Morris

Alone after drop-off—unless a chaser car’s involved—they trudge off into the day or the night to the bus, subway or train.  Their reward is another car to be delivered to another journalist, who may or may not be in a good mood that day or may criticize a car’s maker or car color straight off instead of looking in the driver’s eye for the briefest of greetings and perhaps ask how the trip was. Read the rest of this entry »