DC Rainmaker on the cover of Bicycling Magazine

Well, mostly. In a textual sorta way. And that’s what counts anyway, none of you really want to look at my picture…plus, we can save that instead for Men’s Health magazine.

So, what’s the deal you ask?  Well, let’s start with what arrived last week in my mailbox (and yours too!)

IMG_9290-Cover

And if you look at the upper portion of the cover you’ll see a teaser for my article:

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Now, I won’t be posting the whole thing here, otherwise that would sorta defeat the purpose of you going out and buying the magazine (plus, it would give away all the fun!).  But I will show the very upper edge of the full page article just to show my name.

IMG_9291-InsideCrop

One thing I found interesting is just how much different it was to write in a much shorter form compared to what I’m used to here.  My typical product review is approximately 18,000 words – or about 60-70 pages printed (including photos).  In the case of this article, I was limited to closer to 500 words, for half a dozen products.  Eek!

For fun, here’s what my initial draft looked like for one of the sections (the article covers multiple device types/goals):

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Then about three versions later with an editor it was down to this:

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And here’s the final magazine cut for that section:

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Huge thanks to the Bicycling Magazine staff and editors for giving me the opportunity to put together an article.  It turns out some of them are avid readers (and apparently have been for quite some time!).

So swing on out to your local Barnes and Noble (or if you’re a subscriber, just your mailbox) and pick it up!  I believe it’s also available via the iPad too.  Enjoy!

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11 Comments

  1. I personally prefer your longer initial version, I think it’s written better and it provides more info and it’s the info that we love.

    Congrats on getting published though!

  2. Congrats on the article but I prefer the details! What you’ve illustrated here is precisely what I don’t like about Bicycling magazine. In the end it comes off like an advertising blurb. I’ll stick to your blog for the real nitty-gritty!

  3. Kim

    i get that magazine and just read that article and didnt put two and two together!! awesome!

  4. This is why the print publishers are losing out to online content. Your reviews online are by far more useful than the short form necessitated by print constraints.

  5. Congrats on being published. I read the magazine yesterday. I got one of my blog post published the other week in a smaller cycling magazine.

  6. Erik

    That’s the problem with the Bicycling, too many advertisements, few interesting articles.

  7. Only 500 words for 6 gadgets??? Are they serious??? how can someone make up his mind from such a review? I wouldn’t trust such a review! Luckily we have your full reviews in the blog: helps taking a decision (albeit I took the wrong one)… Keep up the very detailed reviews, they are, well, awesome!

  8. I continue to be amazed at the amount of things you manage to cram into the same 24 hours the rest of us have! I wish I was half as productive with my time.

    How awesome to be published. I have a journalism background and get why they had to cut, but agree with everyone else – your longer blog content is where it’s at!

  9. Pretty cool Ray! I actually randomly stumbled upon that copy of Bicycling lying in the Sports/PE department office here at work and briefly thumbed through to the Fondo section. I didn’t look at it closely enough to realize you had an article, but I’ll have to go back and see if it’s still there now.

  10. Adam

    Your online review format is far superior to anything in print. Better use of 500 words in a mag would be an article about DCRainmaker.com.

  11. Congrats! Can’t argue with the mag, but agree with the others. Keep your “verbose” reviews here. They are just what I need. Love em.