Tuesday, January 10, 2012

"Let's Work!" - New Website, Chat with Roberta Burrows

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been working on my new website, ericawrites.com, and it’s finally done! It primarily showcases my published music articles. I have imported this blog into the website, so you will be able to get “A Purple Day in December” content in two places (I will still remodel the blog site in the near future). As I mentioned earlier, I’m hoping that my website will increase my chances of securing interviews.

I didn’t need any help getting in touch with Roberta Burrows on Sunday. Roberta was director of publicity at Warner Bros., and worked on some of Prince’s early projects. In our interview, Howard Bloom suggested that I contact her. I reached Roberta at the first phone number I called!

Unfortunately, Roberta didn’t have any direct contact with Prince, due to his reluctance to do much publicity. As a result, she wasn’t really able to speak to his spiritual journey. However, she gave me some good tips. She suggested that I try to contact Vanity Fair contributing editor Lisa Robinson, who is an extremely experienced and knowledgeable music journalist. Roberta also suggested music critic Dave Marsh. Based on my experience interviewing Rolling Stone writers about Prince, I know that music journalists can provide a lot of insight about the way Prince was perceived by the media and public over the years.

Roberta really encouraged me to get in touch with journalist Tavis Smiley, a good friend of Prince’s. That is probably the next thing that I should do!

I also need to make a plan for how/when I will go through my list of sources. I’d like to emphasize interviewing during the first six months of this year, and extensive writing during the last half of the year.

Of course all of the major players in Prince’s life are on my list, but do you have any suggestions for people who are easy to overlook?

Thanks for reading!