In short, you can’t just start throwing 3,000-word features at readers on page 1. You need to sort of ease people into things. Warm them up before the big race, you know? The FOB is a batch of much shorter stories that do just that.

So the FOB in various mags (that’s magazines, see me using the lingo? Jk I don’t know if anyone says “mags” except me) is typically a series of super-short columns and other fun things like photos, art, or product reviews. It’s lighter in content density, and often in overall feel. It’s the pages you want to flip through when you’re in the doctor’s office waiting room.

Since it’s a series of shorter items, it’s also a lot more flexible. At least at my publication, the length of the section is never the same — it shrinks and expands depending on how many advertisements we sell. It’s also the place where we might stick in a last-minute story if current events demand it (so: all of our in-print COVID coverage). When that happens, a different FOB story might get pulled and saved for a future issue.
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From my editor’s view, my goal for the FOB is just to have a good mix of content. Since we’re a science magazine that covers lots of different topics, I’d want to see that range of topics represented within the FOB just like it is throughout the whole book. They can’t all be awesome animal biology stories (which is what most people pitch me,) no matter how much I love awesome animal stories. 

There are tons and tons of cool things in the world. Cool people doing cool work. Weird discoveries. New technologies. Funny-looking animals. Whatever your beat, there are always going to be more ideas than there are stories. What’s the difference between a great idea and a great story? Great question. ​

​I’m an editor at a science magazine, and I read a lot of pitches. I get pitches that are long, and pitches that are short. I get pitches that don’t have nearly enough info, and pitches that have way too much info. I get pitches from veteran science writers, pitches from newbie (or wannabe) science writers, and pitches from total randos. What’s the right amount of information? To figure it out, I sat down and wrote a pitch, to me, from me, based on one of my favorite stories I’ve written. Here’s what I came up with.

Before I was a card-carrying member of “the media,” I had no idea how journalists found their stories. This was perhaps especially confusing to me as a scientist, in particular when I’d see news articles that said things like “in a study published today…” and wonder how a writer could’ve written a story that fast.

Well, hello there! I see you’ve come seeking answers to a question, like the many before you who have heard the tale of the absolutely miserable graduate student who somehow weaseled her way into an assistant editor position at a national science magazine within 6 months of her defense. How did she do it?
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Well, I have bad news for you: She got really, really lucky.