Pre-taped vs. Live

As promised, we're doing an all-question week here at Ask Allison. I do have a backlog, but if you guys have lingering questions that I never answer or that you never sent in, now's your chance - send 'em in, and I'll add them to the queue.

I read your travel insurance piece in COOKING LIGHT's FOB. 1.Could you post the query you sent for it? 2.When you have experts such as Jeff Greenberg and Pauline Frommer of the Frommer travel books family, do you ever quote from their books or do you always call or email them for a fresh quote?

Unfortunately, I don't have the query for this because I didn't query it: the editor came to me and asked if I'd be interested. If I were to have queried it, it probably would have read something much along the lines of the actual piece:

A la: During the holiday season, travel increases by X percentage (I'd put the real percentage in, but am too busy to look it up for this blog post), so how does someone know if trip insurance is worth it? For a cheapo fare or only for lavish expenses? For airfare or for the whole she-bang? And if someone does opt for it, how does he go about finding reputable insurance? This FOB would provide the answers to the above questions, explained by top experts in the field, such as Jeff Greenberg and Peggy Frommer.

To answer the second part of your question, in my opinion, it's always better to get fresh quotes from an expert. Some experts are so busy that yes, they'll send you a book and suggest that you paraphrase from it, which, you know, in a jam, will do, but it's not, in my mind, the best journalism or reporting. When possible, try to get the expert on the phone, and if that fails, via email. I think culling quotes from a book should be your last resort. That said, I've had to do it in the past, and I suppose as long as the information is properly interpreted and your editor/audience/expert are happy, no one is really harmed too much in doing so.

But what do you guys think? Feel free to disagree. This is a nebulous area, and I'm all ears!

Finding the Perfect Expert

Before we begin, a few shots from vacation, as promised on Friday!

Question of the day: I'm new to the freelance community. I got my first article published last month! I came across your blog and enjoyed the information. One burning question I have regarding feature articles is how do writers find "Experts" to quote in their articles? If you could shed some of your ultra pragmatic light on this, I would appreciate it.

Sure! Of course. Finding the perfect expert can make or break your story, and certainly, I've been in the position of interviewing someone and feeling like, "Eh, this isn't quite right," which sucks big time because then you have to start all over.

A few places that I start:

1) Amazon. I like to head here first because more often than not, I interview book authors, and well, for obvious reasons, Amazon is a good place to find them. From there, if I find someone who might work, I head to...

2) Google. Again, not ground-breaking, but I google an author and if he or she isn't easily reachable, I often go back to point A. Or, alternatively, I also use google as a starting point - hunting down experts with very specific search terms.

3) I also use PubMed, especially when I'm looking for study authors or researchers. If I can find the exact study that fits into my story, I'm always keen to interview the person who performed the research behind it. Similarly,

4) NewsWise serves more or less the same function but with less medical terminology and a wider-span of press releases.

5) I'll also put out a query on Profnet if I can't find anything on my own. This usually yields me far more sources than I can use, and often times, they're not really what I had in mind (because they're coming from PR reps), but it doesn't really hurt, and often does land me a good source.

6) And finally (not always last, in terms of when I do things), I'll head to PR reps at various organizations that fit my needs. If, for example, I'm writing a story on something parenting-related, maybe I'll lob a call into the AAP or if I'm doing a story on nutrition, the ADA. That type of thing.

So, where do you guys find your sources? I'm sure that there are other bastions of info!