fitwriter’s f.a.m.e. blog

In addition to recently completing a ghostwriting book project with a Pilates expert, I have signed a contract with a publisher of health-related and fitness-related books to publish my fitness book.

Previously titled “The REAL DEAL Workout Drill: Featuring The One-Minute Workout,” it will be re-released as “The ONE-MINUTE WORKOUT: Real Deal Fitness & Nutrition.” It contains training, nutrition and lifestyle tips for those who need a “kick in the pants” on the road to fitness.
More to come…

Andrew Oye
FITWRITER…Mighty Powerful Words
http://www.myspace.com/realdealworkout
thefitwriter@gmail.com

ANDREW OYE SEEKS INSIDE TIPS ON THE PRO BODYBUILDING INDUSTRY

Are you a pro bodybuilder, retired pro bodybuilder or someone who knows a pro?

Are you a bodybuilding fan or fanatic or follower of the industry’s happenings?

Do you attend the big bodybuilding shows or fitness expos?

Do you frequently visit and post in the active online bodybuilding forums and chat boards?

If you have any inside tips on what a pro bodybuilder is up to, hit me up here or at thefitwriter@gmail.com and tell me about it. I can mention the tips and bits in my column “ANDREW OYE’S PRO-SOURCE PRO-MUSCLE REPORT” on http://www.p.r.o.s.o.u.r.c.e.net

Is any pro bodybuilder or top industry personality hosting a seminar? Training for a big contest or guest posing appearance? Rehabbing a muscle injury? Opening a business? Launching a product line? Switching sponsors? Hosting a charity event? Filming or releasing a training DVD? Starring in an entertainment project or new ad campaign?

Let me know what you know, and I can give you props as one of my inside sources.

GET THE BODYBUILDING INDUSTRY SCOOP!
“ANDREW OYE’S PRO-SOURCE PRO-MUSCLE REPORT”
WWW.P.R.O.S.O.U.R.C.E.NET

Andrew Oye
FITWRITER…Mighty Powerful Words
http://www.p.r.o.s.o.u.r.c.e.net/andrew-oye
http://www.myspace.com/muscle-ink
thefitwriter@gmail.com

CHECK OUT THE ARCHIVES FOR MY COLUMN “ANDREW OYE’S PRO-MUSCLE REPORT” BY CLICKING THE ARCHIVE LINKS IN THE “BLOG BAR” LOCATED IN THE NAVIGATION BAR ON THE TOP LEFT SIDE OF THIS PAGE!!!

(Check out my reports for the scoop on Mr. Olympias: Ronnie Coleman, Jay Cutler, Lee Haney, Franco Columbu, Dexter Jackson……IFBB Pros, former and future pros: Lee Priest, Paul Baker, Eduardo Correa, Tarek ElSetouhi, Fouad Abiad, Troy Brown, Andy Haman, Flex Wheeler, Kai Greene, Phil Heath, Chris Cormier, Silvio Samuel, Lou Ferrigno, Tricky Jackson, Kevin Levrone, Jason Arntz, Johnnie Jackson, Branch Warren, Ray Arde, Victor Martinez, Brandon Curry, Curtis Bryant, David Henry, Flex Lewis, Troy Alves, Darrem Charles, Dennis James, Derik Farnsworth, Marc Lavoie, Melvin Anthony, Toney Freeman, Luke Wood, Rusty Jeffers, Ed Nunn, Mike Liberatore, Peter Putnam, Guy Cisternino, Jocelyn Jean, Marvin Ward, Scott Foster, Ben Pakulski, Ben White, Moe El Moussawi, Charles Dixon, Leo Ingram, Evan Centopani, Daryl Gee, Shawn Ray, Grigori Atoyan, Mark Alvisi, Stan McQuay, Shawn Rhoden, Aiman Faour……Musclemania Pros: Morris Mendez)

“BUILT” TO LAST?…THE LONG ROAD TO A SHORT-LIVED MUSCLE MAG
The Slow Construction and Swift Destruction of a Bodybuilding Magazine

So, who wouldn’t give the hope of launching a fitness magazine another shot, huh?

After packing away my unpublished concept for DIESELman Magazine, I moved to Hollywood, where I was approached by the Editor-in-Chief of a new magazine in the works that was poised to shake up things in the industry.

The title: BUILT Magazine. The concept: Promote healthy bodybuilding and celebrate classic physiques, while reporting with a “tell it like it is” attitude.

Eureka! For all intents and purposes, BUILT was the second coming of DIESELman for me. Cool name, hot concept.

As the new Creative and Editorial Director, I enthusiastically hopped aboard a team of energetic guys with big vision and crazy ideas. My fervor even led me to don my amateur graphic designer’s hat and design some of the promotional artwork. With much blood, sweat and tears, Team BUILT gathered some great writing and striking photography and we produced a standout book.

Naturally, the setbacks kicked in. The usual tug-of-war between the creative side and the business side. Communication delays. Content adjustments. Business direction shifts. Printer holdups.  You name it.

But we did it. “If you build it, they will come.” We built BUILT, and they came…to The Olympia.  We debuted BUILT Magazine at The 2007 Olympia Weekend in Las Vegas to rave reviews. People loved it and wanted more. But before we could even get our bearings, the plug was pulled and we halted production. Over a year of planning. Only three months on the market as a quarterly publication. The story is too common to rehash. Investor stuff.

Efforts to secure new funding sources to keep the magazine alive were unsuccessful. While the editorial team is proud of our concept that produced the premiere issue of BUILT Magazine, for now, it will be the last and only issue.

It’s unfortunate. We had big plans to do some really cool things with BUILT; however, even the best of creative intentions are no match for the commercial realities of the publishing industry. So, another fitness and bodybuilding magazine quickly bites the protein dust…as have many others…as will many more.

Who knows? Maybe someone will come along and revive the concept. This dreamer will need loads of money and lots of luck.

Andrew Oye
FITWRITER…Mighty Powerful Words
www.myspace.com/muscle-ink
thefitwriter@gmail.com

“GOT DIESEL, MAN?”…OUT OF GAS & OUT OF PRINT
Down The Road To Magazine Publishing in a Ride That Won’t Crank Up

Hasn’t everyone dreamed of launching his or her own magazine?

Assuming the role of the high-powered Editor-in-Chief; selecting the editorial and images you want the world to consume; mass-producing your vision; delivering insight and information…ending up on the coffee tables and toilet-side stashes of millions of readers?

I once had that dream…to rattle the racks with my own rag.

Enter DIESELman, a fitness and bodybuilding magazine I conceived in 2004. The tagline: “Where fast-lane guys fuel up.” The concept: a hip health mag that feels like a music mag. It would be Rolling Stone meets Muscle & Fitness. VIBE meets Men’s Fitness.

Initially, from a marketing standpoint, I preferred the power and simplicity of the single-word title: DIESEL. Boom! In your face. The slang term that had come to define a well-built physique.

However, at that time, my research turned up a trucking magazine out of Australia already sporting that moniker. Hey, it’s only fair. Diesel referred first to big-rig tanker trunks, not dudes built like them. So, I tacked on the extra word to the title to distinguish the men from the machines.  

In hindsight, I chuckle. I took my ideas so seriously. (There would even be a spin-off for the ladies: DIESELdame or DIESELgirl. Yep, I hear you laughing, too.) I was determined to be “too cool for school,” knocking the mainstream muscle mags off their pedestals by playing their game with a tad more “flavor.”

DIESELman would be “glossy but bossy.” Not necessarily sick, still slick. Not necessarily hardcore, just edgy. Besides, all muscleheads know that, to this day, another longstanding magazine has the market cornered on sick, super-edgy, hardcore muscle mags. More power to ‘em.

Alas, I briefly pitched my concept to a few publishers (willing to listen) to no avail.  The pursuit, interest or support never really cranked up. There was no rocket fuel to launch it our of the starting gate.

The unforgiving publishing industry takes no chances. It launches very few magazines to begin with, and it quickly kills off new, independent publications as soon as they hit the shelves. The fitness-magazine segment is notorious for this phenomenon and “cranks out casualties of the cover wars” every hour on the hour.

This reality leaves many with dreams of speeding down the magazine superhighway in a runaway success made of glossy paper out of gas, out of luck, and out of print.

So, there I was, stuck on the roadside, dream in my pocket, thumb out, waiting to hitch a ride back to reality. Eventually, a ride came along. I hopped inside and landed in, of all places, Hollywood. Doesn’t get more “real” than that, right?

DIESELman is just one of many on a long list of ideas collecting dust on my shelf. Yes, there will be more. After all, the ideas never stop coming…and the dust never stops falling.

Andrew Oye
FITWRITER…Mighty Powerful Words
www.myspace.com/muscle-ink
thefitwriter@gmail.com

OH YEAH! IT"S ANDREW OYE!
Anatomy of a Fit-Writer & Ink-Slinger

Andrew Oye is a certified fitness trainer, specializing in strength & conditioning, toning and sport-specific training. In this capacity, he has developed personalized training programs to meet the various fitness goals of a range of clients at large sports clubs and small private studios.

Andrew earned a Bachelor’s of Science in Human & Organizational Development from Vanderbilt University. At Vandy, he served as an athletic trainer intern at the Vanderbilt University Sports Medicine Clinic, assisting the staff with the physical rehabilitation/treatment programs of athletes.

Andrew assisted with the launch of a weight-loss and fitness program at Emory-Adventist Hospital in Atlanta to open fitness to the community at large. An artist with an eye for aesthetics, Andrew has also trained with more advanced athletes, consulting amateur natural bodybuilders on presentation preparation for competition, and he developed a posing and physique presentation series called “The Art of War.”

A journalist and author, Andrew earned a Master’s of Art in Communications and Journalism from Stanford University and interned at VIBE Magazine in New York. Sharing his practical fitness message, he authored “THE ONE-MINUTE WORKOUT: Real Deal Fitness & Nutrition” (formerly “The REAL DEAL Workout Drill featuring The One-Minute Workout”). Andrew developed the popular physique profile series called “The Oye Body Survey,” a fun questionnaire for fitness enthusiasts inspired by “The Pivot Questionnaire” utilized on the television program “Inside the Actor’s Studio.”

Andrew developed the concept for a hip fitness magazine called DIESELman. He served as Creative & Editorial Director and helped to launch BUILT Magazine, an edgy fitness and bodybuilding publication. Andrew’s work has appeared in Planet Muscle Magazine, and he writes a bodybuilding industry insider column called “Andrew Oye’s P.r.o.S.o.u.r.c.e ProMuscle Report” for P.r.o.S.o.u.r.c.e.net

As a creative strategist, Andrew’s communications experience includes executing PR and marketing campaigns for sports/entertainment clients and providing creative-editorial consultation to sports nutrition firms, such as Gerstner & Associates and Andrich Functional Fitness & Nutrition. Andrew is a screenwriter, penning TV scripts and film screenplays in Hollywood.

Andrew Oye can be reached at:
thefitwriter@gmail.com
http://www.myspace.com/muscle-ink