Motorcycle Magazines

If you noticed the last post on the KLK Cycles Facebook page you'll know that I recently had an article published in a motorcycle magazine. The magazine is called Backroads. It is mainly distributed along the east coast of the United States, so it's definitely not one of the main motorcycle magazines, but it's still a point of pride for me.

 

I actually wrote the article over a year ago having another magazine in mind, but that fell through. The other magazine was Roadrunner, which is a much larger magazine than Backroads. I followed Roadrunner's writing guidelines when I created the article and hoped it was what they'd want. Also, my friend Jeff Frenette is an outstanding photographer and he took some great photos of the ride detailed in the article. I hoped that by submitting both outstanding images and following their guidelines to the best of my ability would give us the best chance to be published.

 

I submitted the article and images on a Thursday evening. On Friday, the latest issue of Roadrunner arrived in the mail (I was a subscriber). As I browsed the new features, I noticed something that made my heart sink. One of the main stories was detailing the exact ride that I wrote about! I cursed my bad luck. I waited six months for someone at the magazine to respond and they did not. Was the reason they didn't use the article the fact that they had just released a similar one? I'm not sure, but it definitely didn't help the situation.

 

After the six months, I emailed a representative of the magazine and politely asked them to remove my article for their consideration. They did and told me to consider them again for a future submission (I still might do that). I did a Google search for other motorcycle magazines that would accept article submissions and came across Backroads. With a little correspondence back and forth with the editors, I was told that they accepted the article to be published. That was last April. Since it detailed an Autumn ride, I wasn't surprised that they waited until now to publish it. I received an email last week saying it was published and I'd receive copies of the magazine along with payment.

 

A few days later a package came in the mail and I was thrilled to see the article in print. My thrill subsided when I noticed that the article said words and images by Josh Karvakko. I clearly remembered telling one of the editors that the photos were taken by my friend Jeff Frenette. I nervously browsed all of my email correspondence to find out if I had failed to give proper credit for the images. I did give credit to my friend. They messed up, not me. I called Jeff and told him the good and bad news and he was far less worried than I was. We decided not to call them out on the error. The best they could do would be to print a retraction, which barely anyone would see.

 

Like I said before, I am thrilled about the article being published. I was just disappointed that the proper credit wasn't given for the photos. Well, that and the fact that they changed the title of the article to, "Touring the Colors - NOT." Cool title...NOT.

 

Careful what you wish

You may regret it

Careful what you wish

You just might get it

 ⁃ "King Nothing", Metallica