Help Wanted

I was thinking the other day about the general literacy and tennis intelligence of so many of the comment posters at this site and it made me realize that I ought to troll the blog for potential contributors to the Tennis Life essay that runs in TENNIS every month.

One of the few regular things I do for the magazine is edit the Tennis Life column, and it’s a job I greatly enjoy. In essence, TL is the enthusiast’s and tennis nut’s page—the place where folks who have a good tennis story to tell get top billing. Here's a a recent TL that's pretty representative of the genre. The stories, in case you haven’t read any TL features lately, are 1,200 to 1,400 words long, and they fall into the category of personal essays. I like giving real people (rather than professional hacks like myself) a voice in TL.

This month, the TL was written by a Georgetown U. professor who was—briefly—Ivan Lendl’s practice partner. Next month, a contributor tells how she met—and almost lost—her husband on a tennis court. We’ve published stories by a diehard senior about his hardy band of year-round outdoor players in New Hampshire, the story of a bitter tennis rivalry between brothers,and the confessions of a girl whose rebelliousness against her father cost her a chance to be a really good player.

So if you have a great story about how your high school tennis coach changed your life, or about how the guy you beat in your local park tournament became an axe murderer, or even if you think you can bring to life the ambience at a special place that means a great deal to you, think about taking a whack.

The terms: I rarely assign TLs or commit to publishing (read: paying for) them until I see a first draft. This is because personal essays generally do not require any costly or time-consuming research. Mostly, you just spend a couple of rainy afternoons trying to bring to life a certain experience or subject in an engaging, entertaining voice.

The other thing is, essays are kind of tricky; there must be something really insightful or unusual about them (like almost getting your leg taken off by one of Lendl’s dogs) to make them work. There's no way to tell that before seeing a draft. I always make the same promise, though. If I find that there’s a potential column in a submission, I’ll work through as many drafts as it takes to get it right.

Our pay rate is decent for something that really is (or ought to be) fun to do - $1000 USD and up, although not very much more.

If you’re interested and have an idea, shoot me an e-mail via the Contact tab above. If I like the idea, I’ll ask you to write a first draft, and if that’s sufficiently well-executed, I’ll send you a contract, committing to buy the piece.