All of these suggestions work very well when you’re pitching a piece of software if your a developer. Knowing your client and pitching what you’re selling works. Great tips

Great article! I agree with Adam, that most of these ideas can be used in a wide variety of professions. I program and teach the Microsoft Office Suite. Whether I am teaching or pitching my software, starting out strong by “selling” my audience on why they want to learn a topic or buy software, followed by “fleshing out specifics”, explaining the 3 Whys and mentioning my prior credentials is a formula that has consistently allowed me to deliver successful classes and/or sell my custom software.

In addition, I have asked my son, who is currently interviewing for jobs, to read this article because following these steps will definitely help him obtain the job of his choice.

This article is very well written, clear and concise. I will recommend reading this article to many of my friends, family and colleagues. Thanks!

@Adam - I think that’s right; knowing how to sell yourself comes in handy throughout life in a variety of situations (for freelancers especially).

@Sandy - Thanks for the kind words. I hope your son finds it useful; what a creative way to use these tips!

@Lori - This piece was written with you in mind, Lori. (Well, not you, per se, but magazine writers.)

Hi,

I dearly love this site, have been a long time lurker and wish my first post wasn’t going to be negative, but I’m afraid as a magazine editor myself, I feel slightly differently. I do agree with other comments though that the general principles are sounds for application elsewhere.

I have edited a newsstand consumer travel mag, it’s an extremely competitive field and I received 10-30 pitches per day. Of those, I’d venture 90% got the preformatted “no thanks” reply and went straight in the deleted folder, or didn’t get a reply at all. Of these, most had great pitches, some excellent ones and following all the steps you describe. However, nearly every one missed the thing I cared about - did they actually understand my publication. I didn’t want the writer to tell me “why here”, I wanted them to “get” what we were doing and offer me the right thing in the first place. I’d know the why immediately.

We were focussed on independant adventure travel, yet we’d get people asking to write luxury spa breaks. A few clicks on our website and even scanning the covers there of back issues shows the kind of articles we did. A magazine with “50 places to hike before you die” and “How to travel Africa on $10 a day” probably isn’t going to want “Le Man Luxury, 24hrs of decadance”.

I was also disappointed by the number of freelancers who didn’t seem to respect our time. They wanted us to click through multiple links, even register on their site to get access!, search for pictures under their name and read whole articles. Hand it to me on a plate and I’ll eat, but don’t expect me to kill the cow in the first place.

1) An editor’s time is ‘valuable’. We care about deadlines and we are ultimately running a business, much as we’d like to think otherwise. So just as you wouldn’t send one pre-formatted covering letter out with every job application, you’d tailor it to the audience and do the same here. 5 mins on Google and the mag’s website will increase your chances of success 10 or more fold - because few writers do it. I know, I’ve got the emails. Look for writers and submission guidelines, nearly every publication has them in .pdf or .doc on their website. Scan them and see if they want anything special. We preferred to use photo-journalists, as pictures of a specific Amazonian tribe can be hard to find on iStock, so know that before you are a Dickens of a writer but couldn’t take an in-focus picture if your life depended on it. If you can’t find the writers guidelines then a trick is to look for the advertising media pack. a) advertising is the easiest department to get hold of. b) media packs usually have forward feature lists to give you an idea of the competition and c) if they don’t, they always have full descriptions of the mag, maybe even the sections to work off. If I think you’ve taken 10 extra minutes on a submission, I’ll probably respond in kind with my time.

2) Be short, be concise and be thorough. As an Editor I needed to know some basic facts that were nothing to do with the story and they’re vitally important.

- Is the article already written, if it is how long is it? i.e. can I get it off you in a pinch when something falls through.
- If it’s not, why not? Does it depend on a future trip (for travel), what are the dates? What’s your turn around time. Show me you appreciate deadlines by saying ‘I can have this article on running the bulls within two weeks of it happening’ and I’ll listen, I’ll take you seriously. Offer realistic deadlines and you’ll have me hooked. Be honest, if flights are paid for or interviews already arranged say so, if they aren’t, say so.
- What’s your title? It sounds simple but a basic pitch that’s headed with a good title is a lot more likely to grab and make me read it, than the perfectly crafted pitch that’s headed “A review of guesthouses contrasting old east and west Berlin”. “A tale of two cities” sounds so much better no?
- Follow the writers guidelines completley (see above). If you see an opening jump through it with both feet. If you understand I need ‘city breaks with a difference’ then list them all, show everything you have on file or can write to deadline. I will keep it on file and might well call you when something falls through if I think you can produce. For this type of list you don’t need a big pitch each time.
- Keep it brief. 100 words ideal, 150 words maximum. If I’m not interested in something in 150 words another 2000 probably wont help. Also, avoid cliches like the plague. Paris is romantic, Apple is cool and oil is going up in price. Look to be different. No publication I know wants to be the same as everyone else. So find your story’s hook and sell it.
- Be honest, but don’t undersell yourself. On the flipside don’t oversell either. Ultimately I’m going to be harsh, I have to be to wade through the numbers, don’t give me a reason to question you. I’ll entrust work to those who I think wont BS me through flowery descriptions and listing dubious writing credits.
- Be friendly, but genuine. You don’t know me and I don’t expect you to, so please be professional. Frame your ‘pitch’ with pleasantries, but over familiarity caused me to trouble the delete key on many occasions. I want to see you are a professional writer, not a writer who’s trying to make it into a profession.

So here’s my personal ideal pitch to land in my inbox:

Section suggestion: (from writers guidelines/website, explicitly tell me what you’re pitching for)
Article title: e.g. “50 places to hike before you die”
Qualifier: (if required) e.g. “See the ultimate places to hike unsupported from 30 day African trans border to 1 day scenic walks in Utah.”
Status: “Written. 2500 words across 50 destinations and 2 supporting infomation boxes on hiking in general. 120 relevant pictures on file and available” (attach 3 or 4 as low res .jpgs, give it to me on a plate)
Pitch: 150 words e.g. throw in some examples, show you know your subject, be honest “of these 50 I’ve personally done 35 of them and my close friends the rest” is great.

If you laid it out like that you could send me a document with 100 pitches in and I’d go through it, because I could cover it in no time, stopping only when my attention was grabbed. Another trick is to put your pitch in both the body of the email and repeat it in a separate document that’s labelled properly : “ACMEmagJune08 - John Doe.doc” shows to me you are serious, that you took that extra time to even know what my magazine is, and want me to keep it on file. I can file a document, print it if I want and share it easily. It’s all positive reinforcement that I should take you seriously.

On the other side of the fence these sort of longer, more thorough pitches just didn’t work for me. Keeping things simple, straight forward and to the point got (at least my) freelancers a lot more work than the longer “story telling” style. If I’m interested, it’s 10 seconds to send you a “please tell me more” email, and I will.

I also realise not every editor will agree with me, work my way or think like I do - and many successful freelancers will work this way to great effect. But I can only try to give you my perspective “from the other side”. The tips here are great, and certainly aren’t wrong, I’d just suggest that efficiency and research are the killer attributes rather than story telling.

>>> OK, that turned out just a little longer than expected! Sorry guys.

Enjoyed the information. I have been doing a number of writing projects lately and this comes in handy. Thanks!

Yeah, sorry about that, it turned into a bit of a rant I think

I’ll be getting my blog online soon (the old cliche) and will hopefully be able to flesh out some ideas like this.

This is a great site though, so I’ll be sticking around and posting more

I think it is imperative to be a good writer, too. Knowing where punctuation fits and nailing down good grammar, too. VITAL.