IN TODAY’S ISSUE:
- Setting boundaries in your business
- 30 tips from 30 days of pitching
- Must-have checklists for your freelance biz
FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK
Hey writer friends,
Setting boundaries is crucial when it comes to running your own business.
But most of us have the wrong idea about what it involves to set—and hold—a boundary.
A boundary is not “Do not email me after 5pm.”
It is “I do not respond to emails after 5pm.”
It is not “Don’t email me with edits that are due the same day.”
It is “I offer a 48-hour turnaround on edits.”
It is not “Stop sending me projects with one-day deadlines.”
It is “I charge double for rush jobs, subject to availability.”
A boundary is not what they should or should not do.
It is what you will and will not accept.
Clarifying how you run your business—and maintaining those standards even when other people push back—is the key to setting and holding boundaries.
And, therefore, the key to business and emotional health.
Enjoy the issue!
Natasha Khullar Relph
Editor, The Wordling
30 TIPS FROM 30 DAYS OF PITCHING
When I started freelancing, I was a 19-year-old college student living in New Delhi, India. I had no clips, no contacts, and no clue. The opportunities for networking and going to conferences were extremely limited.
The only way I could get work was through pitching.
So, I mastered the art of pitching. I got so good at it, in fact, that editors would frequently tell me my pitches were the best they’d ever seen.
I started teaching a course, 30 Days, 30 Queries, designed to help freelancers send effective pitches and win top-paying assignments. My students have, over the years, landed assignments from publications including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Marie Claire, National Geographic, Afar, The Economist, CNN Travel, and many more.
What do I teach them? Here are 30 of my top tips:
- Don’t waste the subject line. “Pitch: Catchy Article Title” is the best way to do it.
- Address your pitch to “Dear [FirstName Lastname]” or “Dear [FirstName]”.
- The idea is the most important part of a pitch. A bad idea, no matter how brilliant the writing, simply won’t sell.
- The first sentence of your pitch is crucial. Take the time to make it sing.
- Humor is good when pitching. Humor makes you stand out and gets their attention immediately, especially for service pieces. Make ‘em laugh.
- To find names of editors at publications to pitch, run a search on LinkedIn.
- If you begin to lose confidence, give yourself some “easy wins,” that is, pitch to editors you know will buy from you.
- For anyone who says quality is more important than quantity, well, DUH. You think?
- To write successful pitches, read successful pitches. Here are 9 of mine.
- Find stories that are under-reported and that a publication’s own writers may not have access to.
- Don’t save or hang on to your best ideas. Send them out today.
- An editor is not your boss. Think of them as a client or colleague. Pitching is a negotiation between equals.
- Don’t email editors trying to convince them they’re wrong to reject your ideas.
- Simultaneous submissions are fine if you don’t have relationships with editors.
- Follow up on pitches after a few days or a week. If you don’t hear back after two follow-ups, send them another idea.
- Match your story ideas to current events. Timely ideas will always sell quicker than evergreen ones.
- It’s the age of emails and short attention spans. Don’t write 1,000-word letters. Get to the point.
- It’s not about getting assignments, it’s about building relationships.
- Is there an issue, a topic, a concept you’re passionate about? Talk to a friend about it. Record and transcribe the conversation. That’s the beginning of a pitch.
- The more obscure material you read, the more likely you are to come across story ideas no one else has thought of or knows about.
- They haven’t rejected you as a person. They just didn’t like the idea or execution. Find a new idea, practice your execution. Get better at finding story ideas and writing pitches, and try again.
- For every rejected pitch, do two things: (a) Send the idea somewhere else. (b) Send the rejecting editor another fantastic pitch.
- Hitting the “New Mail” button repeatedly won’t make that acceptance come any faster. Just saying.
- Why should an editor hire you over that freelancer with more experience? It’s a difficult question, but you need an answer. (Hint: It’s your access to untold stories.)
- Unless you know an editor, it’s a good idea to keep it to one idea per pitch.
- The correct response to a rejection is “Thank you. I appreciate the time you took to consider my work.” Don’t argue.
- Don’t be quick to declare a specialty. Try writing in different styles and subjects. Find what you like. Find what you’re good at.
- Show some personality in your pitch.
- Lion, not sheep. You’re a freelancer. You’re independent. You work for yourself. Stop waiting for permission and find ways to get your work out there.
- The world does not owe you anything. It is on you to write awesome things that people will love. So go, be awesome. Be bold. And back yourself.
Happy pitching!
THE SEASONED VETERAN CHEATSHEET
If you haven’t heard of my friend Mandy Ellis, you need to rectify that right now. She is, hands down, one of the best freelancing instructors on the Internet and has experience not only building a six-figure freelancing business of her own, but teaching hundreds of writers how to get there, too.
Mandy has just launched the Seasoned Veteran Cheatsheet, a free resource that will give you checklists for:
• Structuring your website and LinkedIn for more top-tier work
• Specific questions to ask on calls to unearth gem clients
• Proven LOI and pitch processes for hole-in-one marketing, and
• A superstar client onboarding strategy to knock it out of the park like the big-league writers.
Sound good? Download it here.
It’s too nice outside for the Wordlings to be working inside. Share The Wordling with a writer you know is procrastinating.