Industry Profile: Freelance Writer Brooke Geery

Industry Profile: Freelance Writer Brooke Geery

Shay: How long have you been snowboarding?

Brooke: Oh man, no I am going to feel old. Something like 15 years.

Shay: How many days do you get to ride a year?

Brooke: Depends on the season. I am stoked if I make it to the mountain once a week and go on one bitchin’ trip.

Shay: What magazines have you been published in?

Brooke: National Geographic, the New Yorker…JUST KIDDING! Pretty much all the major snow mags– Transworld SNOWboarding, Snowboarder, Future Snowboarding, SG (and once when it was Surfing Girl), The Journal, Alliance Wakeboard, Transworld Business, a couple Euro mags and a ton of random industry mags and zines.

Shay: What is your best article you’ve written to date?

Brooke: I really think that would depend on whom you ask. Personally I have a few pieces I’m really proud of, most of them the ones that required the most effort. I did a big profile on Lyn-Z Adams Hawkins for SG right before they went under that I’m proud of. Oh and the “Ultimate Snowboarding Atlas” that was basically a story about every state’s contribution to snowboarding in Future Snowboarding. http://brookegeery.com/?page_id=51

Shay: What is your favorite magazine to write for and why?

Brooke: Not gonna lie, who ever is paying.

Shay: As a freelance writer, do you pitch ideas to magazines or do they come to you to write an article?

Brooke: It depends. At this point I am established enough that I know the major mag editors and a lot of times if they need something written that I would be appropriate for, they will just come to me. But every once in a while I come up with an idea that I know someone will bite on, and then it’s up to me to sell it. I HATE doing pitches though. Loathe it.

Shay: Is it important to edit your own writing?

Brooke: YES! This is my number one piece of advice and I’ve gotten in trouble over the years for not doing it. When you are writing for someone else, it’s easy to assume that they will catch any mistakes you make, but usually this is not the case. Chances are they’ll change the one sentence you liked the most, and leave the blatant factual error, so I always try to send stuff in ready to be published. Then hopefully the editors will only improve it.

Shay: Is freelance writing your full time job or do you have another job that pays the bills?

Brooke: Do I work a “day job?” No. Of course, good luck making ends meet off writing about snowboarding. I actually edit a website about wakeskating that is pretty much my full time gig. Go ahead hardcore snowboarders, mock me. But when I am cruising around on a boat in some fabulous lake in a warm and wonderful locale with a beer in one hand and a camera in the other, and my tan looks fantastic, well, I can think of worse ways to earn a living. Oh yeah, and wakeskating is really fun.
Shay: Yobeat.com is your brainchild, is it easier to create articles for Yobeat versus a magazine?

Brooke: Yes and no. I mean, if I say something is good enough for YoBeat, it’s good enough for YoBeat, so I never have to worry about having to do rewrites. But it’s a lot easier to motivate to write something when there’s a paycheck on the other end (sorry if people think it’s all about the love.) But when I get inspired to write something, it’s easy for me to just write it, no matter where it’s going. I think that’s the number one reason I am good at what I do…I am fast!

Shay: Who works with you at Yobeat?

Brooke: People seem to think YoBeat is this massive staff, but not so. Nick Lipton, who interned for me all summer, (and got said internship by asking me for it when I met him at the mountain) is doing a lot of the grunt work. Jared Souney, BMX photographer and awesome dude extraordinaire did the design. Rachel Cotton, who I originally started the site with, still helps out when we have technical difficulties and keeps claiming she is going to start writing again. And we have a few people who write and submit photos, but you’ll have to talk to Nick the managing editor for the full list of those!

Shay: Does snowboarding need more honesty and brutal truth?

Brooke: I never really set out to be brutally honest, but I think snowboarding, and everything in life, are much better with a sense of humor. It just happens the funniest things are usually those that are true. I think with YoBeat the goal is to say what everyone is thinking, but is afraid to say, because, why not? Everyone’s a blogger now, and no one wants to read another industry blowjob. At the same time, I try not to be overly negative, which is why we try to focus on riders, videos, and riding we are psyched on whenever possible.

Brooke: Yes.

Brooke: There will always be print magazines. Will the industry continue to support three major mags? I’m not sure. Worse case scenario, Storm Mountain will just buy them all.

Brooke: Yeah, I don’t think snowboarding is cool. Snowboarding is fun. Skateboarding is cool. I keep skateboarding cool by not trying to make any money off of it.

Shay: Prior to freelance writing, what other jobs have you had?

Brooke: Believe it or not, I’ve never had a “real job.” Not a professional office-type job anyway. I interned at Snowboarder, Bluetorch and EXPN and worked for the X Games for two years doing research, but I’ve never had a job that gave me health insurance. I’ve worked plenty of shitty jobs just to pay the bills and my fallback plan is still waiting tables.

Brooke: Go to my office (working from home is cool, but having a space is even better, especially when it’s above a bakery and you get all the coffee you can drink.) Get online, check, and try to respond to emails. Check my scrabble turns (most important part of the day.) Check Google analytics on all my sites, post whatever I have to post that day and then realize it was lunch time two hours ago. I’ve been trying to start skating during lunchtime, but haven’t gone once yet. Usually I just go eat and then back to the office. More scrabble, more Interneting, and then go home. Pretty boring really.

Brooke: Any trip I’ve been on—I got to go to 32’s Boot Camp last year in Park City, which was awesome. I’ve also been on some miserable trips, where you are in an amazing place, but with awful people. It’s the only issue with the free travel thing.

Brooke: It’s great because I am my own boss. It sucks because you don’t always know when the money is coming or where it’s coming from. I travel a lot, and it’s definitely not boring.

Shay: What experience did you have or attributes before to become a freelance writer?

Brooke: This is a hard one for me, since I’ve been a freelance writer since I was 15. Collin Whyte (former editor of Future) said I “out Almost Famous-ed him.” And honestly, when I started, I was pretty damn bad at writing; it was just a right place, right time, meeting the right people sort of thing. I like to think I’ve gotten better. Well, I hope anyway.

Shay: What’s the best park you’ve gotten from your job?

Brooke: Going to Japan. Of course the people who were paying for my trip basically went out of business days after buying my ticket, so other than airfare I had to pay for everything myself. But I had a great trip and was able to make enough money writing to pay at least for my expenses.

Shay: Any disadvantages of your job?

Brooke: As I said, never knowing when the money is coming or where it’s coming from.

Shay: What’s the busiest time of year for you?

Brooke: Since I do summer stuff with the wakeskate site, snowboard stuff, and I work predominantly online, I am pretty much always equally busy.

Shay: Education vs. Experience…which do you think is more important?

Brooke: Experience hands down. I went to college and I definitely learned some important stuff there, and it made me a technically better writer, but have I gotten any work because I have a degree? Not a chance.

Shay: What advice would you give to people wanting to become a freelance writer?

Brooke: Just do it. Seriously, you’ll never get a job if you don’t try, so just start writing, pitching, etc. Oh and make sure you have a trust fund, a sugar daddy, or a real job, too.