Thanks for reading this week’s newsletter all about middle-age body projects. I thought I’d try something new with the mid-week posts, sharing a bit about the writing life. So here’s a little about the joy of pitching.
Pitching is what freelance writers do to try and sell stories to magazines and newspapers. You write a short summary of the idea you have. You send it to an editor or someone (finding an e-mail address to send the pitch to is half the battle). You hope you get a response.
I started pitching a couple years ago, I think because I had fantasies of making a lot of money freelancing. I have a lot of fantasies about making enough money to quit my day job, even though my day job is actually pretty pleasant. Even so, some days, I’d like to spend more time writing and less time grading. It probably is possible to make a living as a freelance writer, but it’s damn stressful and requires more time and energy than I have.
The other reason to pitch magazines and newspapers is for the exposure, which in theory could help me sell books. I don’t think that particularly works, either. I have no idea how you sell books, but that’s another post.
Here’s the thing I like about pitching—it’s fast. It doesn’t take that long to write the pitch—they’re maybe 2-3 paragraphs long. You don’t have to write the whole essay without knowing if anyone’s going to publish it. This is such an amazing gift in the world of writing/publishing, to have someone say they want your writing BEFORE you actually have to write it. Because the writing is a lot.
Then it also doesn’t take long to know whether the editor wants the piece or not. If you don’t hear back within 24 hours, it’s probably a no. If you don’t hear within 48 hours, count it as a rejection. That might sound painful if you’re not a writer who basically bathes in rejection, but to know within 2 days whether someone is going to publish your work or not? It is like a gift from the gods. There are tales of writers who’ve submitted to literary magazines and still haven’t heard back from them 5 years later. When you query agents, you can expect to wait 1-3 months. If they request the full manuscript, it could take up to 6 months for them to read it and get back to you.
Bottom line—most things in publishing are slow, slow, slow, but pitching is fast, fast, fast. And that also makes it exciting. You send a pitch into the world and anything could happen. I guess it’s the same little dopamine hit you get from gambling.
This week I pitched a guest essay to The Washington Post about Bengals’ fandom. I heard back from someone wanting to read the full essay, which I then had to furiously write (the Bengals is a timely story and your pitch has a better chance of landing if you can tie it to something in the headlines). Then crickets when I sent the essay back. Is that a rejection? Probably.
On the other hand, I heard back from an editor for a pitch I sent in early December, violating the 48 hours rule, but a very nice surprise for a pitch I’d written off as a rejection.
And that, my friends, is an important lesson for all of us. Not sending stuff out is the surest way to avoid rejection. But sometimes when you do send things out into the world, unexpected things happen. Good things, even.
What have you sent out into the universe and got back something unexpected and good? What questions do you have about pitching or the writing life in general? I’m happy to answer any questions and write about anything you want to know.
Also, as long as you’re here, you might as well go to Goodreads (it’s free to sign up and you can see what I’m reading there, the good and the bad) and mark the paperback edition of She/He/They/Me as “want-to-read.” This is for another post on another day, but what happens before a book is actually published is really important and part of that is online buzz, like people saying they want to read it on Goodreads. You might also pre-order it from Village Lights, Carmichael’s, Viewpoint, your favorite local indie bookstore, or, yes, on Amazon.
Thanks as always for reading! Please share with other people who also think too much!
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Notes on the writing life: the joy of pitching
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Thanks for reading this week’s newsletter all about middle-age body projects. I thought I’d try something new with the mid-week posts, sharing a bit about the writing life. So here’s a little about the joy of pitching.
Pitching is what freelance writers do to try and sell stories to magazines and newspapers. You write a short summary of the idea you have. You send it to an editor or someone (finding an e-mail address to send the pitch to is half the battle). You hope you get a response.
I started pitching a couple years ago, I think because I had fantasies of making a lot of money freelancing. I have a lot of fantasies about making enough money to quit my day job, even though my day job is actually pretty pleasant. Even so, some days, I’d like to spend more time writing and less time grading. It probably is possible to make a living as a freelance writer, but it’s damn stressful and requires more time and energy than I have.
The other reason to pitch magazines and newspapers is for the exposure, which in theory could help me sell books. I don’t think that particularly works, either. I have no idea how you sell books, but that’s another post.
Here’s the thing I like about pitching—it’s fast. It doesn’t take that long to write the pitch—they’re maybe 2-3 paragraphs long. You don’t have to write the whole essay without knowing if anyone’s going to publish it. This is such an amazing gift in the world of writing/publishing, to have someone say they want your writing BEFORE you actually have to write it. Because the writing is a lot.
Then it also doesn’t take long to know whether the editor wants the piece or not. If you don’t hear back within 24 hours, it’s probably a no. If you don’t hear within 48 hours, count it as a rejection. That might sound painful if you’re not a writer who basically bathes in rejection, but to know within 2 days whether someone is going to publish your work or not? It is like a gift from the gods. There are tales of writers who’ve submitted to literary magazines and still haven’t heard back from them 5 years later. When you query agents, you can expect to wait 1-3 months. If they request the full manuscript, it could take up to 6 months for them to read it and get back to you.
Bottom line—most things in publishing are slow, slow, slow, but pitching is fast, fast, fast. And that also makes it exciting. You send a pitch into the world and anything could happen. I guess it’s the same little dopamine hit you get from gambling.
This week I pitched a guest essay to The Washington Post about Bengals’ fandom. I heard back from someone wanting to read the full essay, which I then had to furiously write (the Bengals is a timely story and your pitch has a better chance of landing if you can tie it to something in the headlines). Then crickets when I sent the essay back. Is that a rejection? Probably.
On the other hand, I heard back from an editor for a pitch I sent in early December, violating the 48 hours rule, but a very nice surprise for a pitch I’d written off as a rejection.
And that, my friends, is an important lesson for all of us. Not sending stuff out is the surest way to avoid rejection. But sometimes when you do send things out into the world, unexpected things happen. Good things, even.
What have you sent out into the universe and got back something unexpected and good? What questions do you have about pitching or the writing life in general? I’m happy to answer any questions and write about anything you want to know.
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Also, as long as you’re here, you might as well go to Goodreads (it’s free to sign up and you can see what I’m reading there, the good and the bad) and mark the paperback edition of She/He/They/Me as “want-to-read.” This is for another post on another day, but what happens before a book is actually published is really important and part of that is online buzz, like people saying they want to read it on Goodreads. You might also pre-order it from Village Lights, Carmichael’s, Viewpoint, your favorite local indie bookstore, or, yes, on Amazon.
Thanks as always for reading! Please share with other people who also think too much!
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