WIPPWired editor, Suzanne Connolly talked with DeAnne Musolf, to discover a little more about her, why she joined WIPP, and what she is working on and thinking about these days.
DeAnne is an author, writer, journalist and extreme athlete whose latest book, co-authored with former speed skating Olympian, Eric Heiden and Dr. Massimo Testa, Faster, Better, Stronger will be released in paperback on June 23rd.
WIPP: DeAnne, how did you first become interested in publishing and what keeps you involved?
DeAnne Musolf: Writing seized me at a very early age. I confess that I was fascinated with quotation marks; that spoken words looked as if they were moving on the page. Seriously, publishing is such a pure form of communicating with someone who may share nothing else with you besides an interest in a topic. It’s one mind to another mind. Okay, there is an editor or two in the middle there and a layout person, but it's not like film, where writer friends of mine often do not recognize their story by the time it gets to the big screen.
I've always loved publishing. The feel of the object of a magazine in my hand is unmatched. The collection of articles represents a moment in time. I also feel that publishing newspapers, books, or magazines is one of the last bastions of communication that is available to everyone. Not everyone is computer literate or has access to the Internet. But even a homeless person can pick up a magazine and be engaged with the world of thought. There are times––a lot of times––I don't want to be at the computer.
It really saddens me that magazines and books and newspapers are being lost due to the huge debts large media companies took on in an effort to buy more over the last decade or so. And that so many journalists are echoing the party line––that no one reads anymore, when statistics don't necessarily prove that out. There was a story in the New York Times that reported that there was not a newspaper in America that would not be viable if it weren't for the debt its parent company took on.
WIPP: How did you become interested and involved with Women in Periodical Publishing?
DM: I've always been a great admirer of Thea [Selby, co-founder of WIPP] and her work. When I discovered that she was involved with WIPP I plunged in.
The WIPP Women’s Leadership Conference [January 23, 2009 in San Francisco] had fabulous info and energy, great speakers. I love being among so many people who love reading and words and publishing as much as I do. It's hard to find that in the real world.
WIPP: What publishing projects are you currently working on?
DM: I’m working on my next book “Catapult: The Biology of Ambition” and also writing a lot on “the biology of” topics for magazines. With brain science roaring ahead at such a great pace, it’s really exhilarating to be writing about.
I’m also busy with the paperback release of Faster, Better, Stronger that I co-authored with former speed skating Olympian Eric Heiden and Dr. Massimo Testa which comes out June 23rd. It’s a book on the science of fitness and fitness programs. We’re thrilled because it’s just been named one of the top 10 books of the year. Out of 1,300 fitness authors on Amazon, ours is the only one written by physicians (the remainder are by trainers, coaches, athletes, etc.). Their philosophy is “Everybody’s an athlete and everyone is built for exercise.” The concept is that if people know exactly what happens to their body during exercise and finally understand it, they’re more likely to do it.
WIPP: Do people ever get the book confused with Daft Punk’s recording, Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger, that won a Grammy this year?
DM: “Faster, Better, Stronger” is also Red Bull’s motto. Ugh. The title was conceived by the HarperCollins marketing department; presumably by a 20-something slouched over a conference room table, either listening to Daft Punk on their iPod or staring down at their Red Bull when his boss called on them for an idea. But we don’t mind the title. I actually think it’s pretty good.
WIPP: How did you become a co-author with one of the greatest Olympians in history?
DM: I met Eric Heiden and “Dr. Max” through a friend who's on a cycling team who said, “These two have a book in them.” Dr. Max is one of the premiere trainers in the professional cycling world, having coached Levi Leipheimer, Miguel Indurain and Lance Armstrong. Many aren’t aware that Eric became a professional cyclist after speed skating and also went on to get his M.D. at Stanford University and then his orthopedic surgery residency at UC Davis.
With Eric, if there’s a way to incorporate fitness, he will. So while on the book tour in New York, instead of taking a taxi between meetings, he’d say “It’s faster if we walk.” Of course, one meeting was 48 blocks away, we only had 30 minutes and we are not Eric Heiden, so essentially we then had to run. However, Eric and Dr. Max are also gentlemen and blocked cars with their roller suitcases so I could hurry in my heels!
WIPP: You have ridden in double century events (200 miles of cycling in a day) -- is it really true that you did one while pregnant?
DM: Yes! My OB/GYN gave me the okay. I’ve done them while it’s snowing. Originally, I had a friend who talked me into signing up for one with him and when he started dating his new girlfriend, one of the conditions was no more riding with a female! I completely understood and so I did it alone, which ended up being much easier since I could go at my own pace. I’m so non-competitive. I’m the elephant that dances. I mean the first double century I did I didn’t even wear the right gear! I’m not fast and I don’t have the correct form. After twenty years, cyclists still pass me by and say, “It’s O.K., you can do it … you’re almost to top of the hill!"
WIPP: What has been your most satisfying job?
DM: Writing a column. Because there are not six editors in between from whom I must get approval [laughs, since she’s also been an Editor-in-Chief multiple times]. I can run with my story ideas and even make them humorous. If I had to ask for approval first, I know they would not have been seen as fit for the paper.
For example, in my travel column for Santa Barbara News-Press I once suggested a story on dude ranches, which my boss did not think would be of interest to our readership. Well, I went with it and guess what? Ronald Regan’s ranch was next door! Suddenly people actually started writing in and saying they like these pieces! One said “She teaches us how to live life.” After I stopped doing the column, a blind woman asked her husband to write to me and tell me that she missed it terribly – that it was their Sunday tradition for him to read my column to her first thing in the morning.
They often suggest that a public speaker begin a speech with a personal anecdote. I believe this holds true for the written word as well. The more personal you are, the more universal the story. Ironically, for years I resisted writing stories in the first person, but I ended up receiving a National Magazine Award for Humor after an editor finally convinced me to do it. (The story was about diving with man-eating sharks in Tahiti).
WIPP: What has helped you be a leader?
DM: Publishing is like figure skating––it looks so easy when you're watching someone really good doing it, say, at the Olympics. But once you lace up those skates and get out on the ice, you realize it's damn hard. The women leaders in publishing are so damned talented I wouldn't deign to pretend any proximity to their abilities. I've been in publishing professionally from [when I was] 15 on. My first gig, was a weekly column in the Concord Transcript. There are still vast intricacies of language and layout and working with editors and writers, I'm still discovering.
So I'm not a leader in any way. My only hope for leading, via good writing and good editing, has been learning at every opportunity, re-reading Strunk and White annually, for example, and skill acquisition (writers conferences, journalism courses from Harvard, etc.), and long, long hours with the words.
When I've been an editor-in-chief (Life Style, Rock and Ice, And Baby, Active Cities and eHow -- an online info site [where I was] churning out 10,000 stories a month, God help me), I've always been extremely respectful of the writers who work for me––perhaps my only leadership skill. My feeling is that there are a lot of things you can pay people with besides money and with that in mind I lavish my writers with respect, honesty, my time, and attention to their concerns. If a writer calls because a check is late, I feel it's my place to advocate for them. I hope I've been a leader in teaching a few controllers/publishers that if a writer/copy editor is on time with the goods, then we need to be as well.
WIPP: Who has been a leader or mentor to you?
DM: There are two women, publishers who really took their communities by storm by creating publications that were so badly needed: Michelle Darne, who published And Baby, a GLBT parenting magazine out of New York, and Gina Simmerling, who published Active Cities, a magazine out of Boulder that addressed the concerns of the amateur athlete in a serious manner.
People who don't know publishing might say Michelle and Gina failed because their magazines both eventually folded, but those of us inside publishing know putting out a publication is sort of like producing a Broadway play––you don't expect to run forever. Just getting it out is a very big deal. Both magazines survived much longer than anyone could've predicted and served a lot of readers well. I admire the courage and sacrifice that took.
On an editing level, Elise Marton, now copy chief at Discover Magazine, has been a mentor of mine in showing me the ropes via her meticulous work over the years. When I grow up I want to be as good as Elise.
WIPP: How has the current economic downturn affected your business?
DM: It's made me get serious about supporting every publication I love. I upped my subscriptions this year, to newspapers and magazines. [Contra Costa Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, New York Magazine, The Economist, National Geographic, National Geographic for Kids, Time, Oprah, Family Fun, Cooking Light, Rock and Ice.]
I get something wonderful out of every issue. And I'd much rather recycle paper than pillage the earth with all the resources it requires to read online. The footprint of the Web sites, Google; the computer that goes to a landfill in China; the electricity it requires to read! Think about it––we now need a device and electricity to read. That's insane! I made up a bumper sticker and put it on my car that says: Always have a clue about your town and the world: Read the newspaper.
WIPP: Do you have a tip for other WIPP members; one that has helped you through hard times or to find work?
DM: I’m surprised at how often I hear writers say that they are shy and/or intimidated about asking an editor/publication if they can write for them. I started writing for The Economist by simply calling up and asking who covered the literary world, and they connected me to the appropriate editor. I asked her if they were covering an international literary conference in San Francisco the following week. She said, “No, uh, but would you like to cover it?” The editor now realized they had no one covering the event. Even more significantly, they didn’t even know about it. Suddenly, I was helping them out, but it was also a win, win. It completely changed the way I do business. It seems obvious, but it took me quite a while to figure this out!
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