Dear Accidentally Qualified: The Art of the Pitch

Dear Accidentally Qualified, 

After getting laid off, I decided to finally pursue freelance. I’ve sought coaching from everyone I know — editors, other freelancers, and online — and everyone seems to take it for granted that you should be sending 10, 15, 30 pitches every week. How does anybody do that?? I don’t have that many quality ideas in my head, much less a deep enough bench of publications to send them to. I could just fire away, but at what point am I hurting my chances by spamming my favorite pubs with mediocre pitches? Am I just not cut out for this?

-Spam and Cold Cuts

Dear Spam and Cold Cuts, 

10-30 pitches per week? WHAT?! I’m happy when I come up with one original thought per week, let alone 30. 

What I can say though, is that there are a lot of publications that run super quick hits, 300-word articles about new consumer products, reactions to celebrity gossip, or an upcoming event. Find the publications that publish articles that involve very little effort and if you’re really looking to get your writing out there, pitch them. I don’t want to call out publications by name, but I’m sure you can figure that out on your own. 

Also, think about what subjects you already know a lot about. Maybe it’s parenting, or dating, or golf, or vending machines. Maybe you’re friends with the foremost expert on the ice cream truck industry and have all kinds of insider information. Whatever it is, you probably have more easy articles in you than you realize. Don’t take your knowledge for granted—most people don’t know about the latest popsicle innovations so a story about how they’re phasing out bubble gum eyeballs in ice cream pops because kids are choking on them is actually a lot more exciting than you might think (I made this up. I don’t know what’s happening with ice cream pops, but would absolutely read a piece about them.) 

I’d personally opt for spending more time solidifying clients who don’t give you a byline (whether it’s SEO writing, internal communications stuff, bios for professionals etc.) or a steady gig writing for a hyper-niche magazine than trying to pitch 30 articles per week to different publications. Then you can prioritize pitching the articles that you feel are worth writing (and really spend time crafting them)  rather than scrambling to jump on anything and everything. 

-Sonia

Dear Accidentally Qualified, 

I suppose I am an early career writer. I’ve written a handful of stuff for some small and some slightly-larger yet still small outlets, mostly film reviews or occasionally a deep dive about video game topics. I feel like I am not getting to a place where I am a “serious” writer—as in I am pitching and writing more in-depth pieces that require more time, money, and patience to get places. So my question is, how do you transition from pitching small reviews to larger essay pieces?

-All the Small Things

Dear All the Small Things, 

A blanket piece of advice first: just keep pitching larger publications. If you’re pitching interesting stories and doing it well, someone will eventually bite. And then once you have one big byline, you’ll gain more clout which will set you up for pitching other big publications. At least from my personal experience, once I got one fancy clip, people started paying attention—they trust that if one IMPRESSIVE INSTITUTION let you write for them then you’re probably not half bad. It’s like when you pick up a book and see IMPRESSIVE PEOPLE have blurbed it. Suddenly, you’re more interesting. 

It’s an unfortunate paradigm, but a reality we’ve gotta contend with. 

The more specific advice is use your clips to establish your expertise in a subject you’ve already written a lot about. Rather than pitching a piece about a subject you’ve never written about, find stories within your niches that could appeal to a broader audience and pitch those instead. 

Maybe there’s a new video game or movie that showcases an emerging trend that’ll have a larger impact on the culture. Or maybe they’re the first to use a new kind of technology. Are there lessons within a movie or game that can be applied to society at large and could help people understand something better? Do you have a personal essay about what that piece of culture means to you? Think about what essays you wish existed. My twitter friend Davon Loeb (editor at The Rumpus) wrote a piece about watching and playing the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle TV show and game with his son for Men’s Health. Davon took a subject the outlet publishes a lot about (being a dad) and applied it to a subject he personally knows a lot about (Ninja Turtles). I searched the Men’s Health website and TMNT has only made three prior appearances, so it’s not exactly the most obvious pairing. But he made it work. 

So keep at it. Eventually, the right combination of editor and pitch will set things in motion for bigger and better things. 

-Sonia

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