{"id":11073,"date":"2019-10-01T10:13:39","date_gmt":"2019-10-01T14:13:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/?p=11073"},"modified":"2019-10-01T10:13:39","modified_gmt":"2019-10-01T14:13:39","slug":"the-feature-ive-never-sold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/?p=11073","title":{"rendered":"The feature I’ve never sold"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New York Times<\/i> has published a series of obituaries of black luminaries over the past year for whom they failed to publish an obituary when it would have been timely. A few days ago<\/a> it was Robert Johnson’s turn, the black blues artist. It’s a good piece, and concludes with this oddity:<\/p>\n

\n

The location of Johnson\u2019s grave has never been confirmed. Headstones at three different churches in the Greenwood area claim to mark his resting place<\/span> \u2014 the final riddle of a man whose brief, turbulent life became a cipher nearly as sensational as his songs.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yeah, I knew that.<\/p>\n

I happened upon that curious fact about 20-years ago, and it got me thinking about a potential magazine feature: Would a history magazine or similar be interested in a feature that collected stories of prominent people whose final resting places were unknown? Thomas Paine, the Revolutionary War’s great rabble-rouser, would be on the list, and the architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s final resting place has been disputed for years. Maybe Parade<\/i> magazine? I’d linger over a feature like that with my Sunday morning coffee.<\/p>\n

I pitched the feature to every history magazine in Writer’s Market<\/i>. I pitched it to Parade<\/i>. I pitched it to Smithsonian<\/i>. Every few years I drag it out, dust it off, and try again; I never have any luck. I know how to write a query letter, and probably hit around 85%. I also have worked as an editor, and know what makes an editor’s eyes light up.<\/p>\n

But that feature just won’t sell. It’s the damndest thing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The New York Times has published a series of obituaries of black luminaries over the past year for whom they failed to publish an obituary when it would have been timely. A few days ago it was Robert Johnson’s turn, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11073"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11073"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11073\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11077,"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11073\/revisions\/11077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}