Why Sending Pitches Is Important And How Not To Give Up

An award-winning journalist shares tips for how not to give up in the face of rejections and silence.

By Natasha Khullar Relph

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Let’s talk about why pitching matters and how to not give up even when things get rough.

Why Not Giving Up Matters

1. Querying is a numbers game

The more you do it, the more you will reap the rewards of it. Every time I’ve had a row of two or three bad months, I’ve realized that they’ve followed a busy period in which I’ve neglected my marketing. And each time I’ve realized that, I’ve committed myself to 40+ hours a week of it.

Every single time I’ve done this, I break into new markets, build new relationships, and get more work than I can handle.

Do you want to know how not to give up? Be consistent.

When writers say that freelancing is a numbers game, we’re not saying send three queries and go relax. Those are not the numbers that will get you results, not any more. But send queries every single day and twice on Sunday and the results are almost guaranteed.

Your queries have to be fantastic and your letters of introduction head and shoulders above the rest of your competition, but once you’ve got those sorted, the only way to grow your freelance business is to put your work out there in front of as many people as you can. And not give up.

2. The only way to do something is to do it

Researching story ideas is not pitching. Finding out who edits what section of a magazine is not pitching. Adding two dozen people on LinkedIn and wading through their list of contacts? Not pitching.

You know what counts as pitching? Hitting send on a query.

Now, don’t get me wrong. You need to do all those things. You need to know who to query, what the magazine publishes, and how Richard Branson manages to stay so productive. But many freelancers fall into the trap of constantly researching, constantly interacting with editors on Twitter, constantly reading magazines for story ideas, but never actually sending out a pitch.

Don’t be the writer who squirrels away information for later. When you come across a market you find interesting, send them a query. Immediately.

Forcing yourself into action is one of the best ways to not give up.

3. Sending 30 pitches in 30 days gives you consistency

Remember how not to give up is a numbers game? Remember we need consistency? Sending a query a day is a fantastic way to take deliberate action to build that habit and that consistency.

Without it, you’ll learn the hard way what I have over a decade of trial and error: Every time you neglect your marketing, you’ll notice a dip in your business.

Do it every day consistently for a year and I can promise you, you’ll have shaved years off your learning curve just like that.  As a bonus, it gives you confidence. You stop fearing the process and just get down and do it.

4. It builds the foundation for the rest of your career

When you send out 30 queries in a single month and get over the fear and the problems associated with them, this sets you up for the future because now you’re operating on an entirely different level. You have a system and you have clarity. And that is how not to give up. Instead of obsessing about what to do, you come to your computer at a designated time of day or week and just get to work. You identify your weak points strategically and you figure out the ways to overcome them.

Once you’ve mastered the actual process of sending the queries, you move up to the next level, which is to optimize the results you get from them. But you can’t get there until you’ve first learned to be comfortable with the process of sending.

What To Do When You Feel Like Giving Up

1. Getting started is more important than getting it right

We’re writers, so there’s no point talking to us about abandoning perfectionism. We’ll just ignore you. I say get it perfect. Send the best damn query letter you can to whoever will read it. But you can’t do that if you don’t take the first step of writing that first word and that first sentence.

Getting started is important because if you’re going to be working with the kinds of numbers that actually get results, you can’t afford to procrastinate on every word, worry about every single step of the process. If you want to avoid giving up just make a start.

2. Know that you can restart any time

One of the most inspiring things I ever heard was from a former yo-yo dieter who had lost 20 lbs. and then managed to keep it off. His advice was simple: You are going to binge, so accept that. But also know that you must recover immediately. Don’t wait until next Monday. Start again now.

You’re not always going to hit your goals in marketing. Once the work starts to come in and you get busy, finding new clients is something that takes a backseat, as it should. But most of us don’t just chuck our marketing in the backseat, we throw the damn thing out of the car altogether.

If you have done this, try not to in the future. You’re going to lose sight of the marketing every now and again, but you’ll be okay if you can recover quickly.

3. Keep it simple

The one thing that continues to trip writers up repeatedly is that they overcomplicate things.

The questions I receive in my Inbox regularly from readers of The International Freelancer include versions of “Does an LOI count as a pitch?” “Should I address the editor by full name or first name?” “Is it Ms or Ms.?”

My answer: It doesn’t matter! And it’s not important.

If an editor falls in love with your idea, she’s going to buy it whether you addressed her by her full name or her first name. If she doesn’t like your idea, it doesn’t matter that you deliberated over how to address her, she’s not going to give you an assignment.

I do understand the need to ask these questions. Human beings, when we’re faced with big fearsome tasks, tend to focus on the tiny aspects that we feel we can control. And therefore, instead of spending time on crafting our pitches, we find it easier to worry about the correct way in which to address an editor. This, unfortunately, is one of the reasons writers end up overwhelmed and feel like giving up. If you feel like you have no answers, it’s hard to move forward. So my advice is to keep it simple.

4. Watch someone do something impossible

Inspiration is a funny thing and you never know where you’ll find it. I found myself restarting my novel after watching bikers fly their motorcycles through rings of fire. No similarity whatsoever, but there you go.

When I feel like quitting, I often read a memoir or something that gives me renewed hope. I also try to find stories of people who have done what I’m aiming to do.

In order to learn how not to give up, how about simply reading biographies of people who learnt how not to give up?

5. Focus on the action, not the results

The reason most people feel like quitting midway on anything is because they don’t see the results quickly enough. But the results are never going to be completely in your control. All you can really do is concentrate on action and do enough of it to make a difference.

When I was a new writer, I didn’t have a lot of (okay, any) work, so I sent out five query letters a day. That’s right, five a day. They didn’t have to be perfect, they didn’t have to get results, but they needed to go out. Five times a day, five days a week. By the time I got to the point in my career where I needed to feed my family or focus on the results of those queries, I was already a pro at sending them out quickly and efficiently and by the dozens. It no longer fazed me.

Because I conquered volume of queries as the first step in my career, I could focus on other things as I moved forward.  This was only possible because I had first conquered the base of the mountain and made myself comfortable with the first step. In my initial years, I felt a lot of overwhelm and general suckitude that comes with querying, as well as massive feelings of worthlessness every time I received a rejection (or even a critique of my idea from fellow writers). But I focused on getting the query letters out every single day. That’s what you should be doing. Look at the results of your efforts, of course, but as a separate issue. Don’t combine them with the action of sending out a query a day.

6. Make sure that quitting is not an option

I became the sole wage earner of my family a couple of years ago. Suddenly, it became obvious that if I wanted to keep our bills paid, I needed to bring in a certain amount of money each month.

Earlier this year, I started my very own six-figure challenge, which means that in order to meet my target at the end of the year, I need to bring in $2,000 worth of work or assignments each and every week. To do this, not only do I need to market, but I need to market efficiently and strategically in ways I’ve never thought to before. And this is because, as far as I’m concerned, quitting is simply not an option.

Whenever I feel like throwing in the towel or telling myself that all this hard work is simply not worth it, I remember instead my core motivations and realize that quitting would come with a bigger price than I’m wiling to pay and just doing the work seems so much easier in comparison.

What is your story? Do you need to quit your job and replace it with freelancing income? Do you need to earn more so that you can buy a house or save for your wedding? Do you need your freelancing career to take off simply so that you can feel pride in what you do? What is it that makes quitting not an option for you?

Remember that, and keep moving forward.

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