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Topic: Consistently lame HTP columns
| Author | Message |
| ISR | Posted – 4/19/2007 11:31:04 AM | show profile I find all the How to Pitch pieces lately say the same, irritating thing: make sure your pitch is specific and detailed, etc. The Cosmo one just talks to different writers about how they got in, w/info that's totally useless for pitching the magazine. It said nothing about specific columns, what length of pieces they're looking for, and what topics they're interested in. Can MB please train people to get relevant questions in? My membership is useless at this point, and everything is referred to "take a class," which I find infuriating. All of those transcripts to the classes should be published. |
| writesonwater | Posted – 4/19/2007 11:46:10 AM | show profile | email poster I would like more specific How to Pitch pieces also. The class transcripts won't be published, as that's a moneymaker for MB, which has a staff and overhead to pay. Also, the online courses are very interactive, more helpful for those taking the classes than for those reading transcripts after. I think the new MB Mastheads feature is designed to give members better bang for their buck and also ease issues over How to Pitch pieces. As long as they keep it updated, it should help both those things. I like the transcripts on seminars and interviews in Bookkeeping, etc. What other features could they add to make membership worth more? I did use a membership discount to take a course, which I did enjoy and find fairly useful, but $500 or more is a lot of money for a course, to me. I can get a lot of professional development for, say, the price of two of them. Also, I had trouble dedicating 7 or 8 weeks in a row at the same time each week for the online meeting. I would like to see MB do telephone seminars like Authors Guild does. You're listening to the speaker live for an hour, there's some time for questions, very helpful -- and no trouble keeping up with chat room patter. |
| nellie bly | Posted – 4/19/2007 12:13:47 PM | show profile re the Cosmo HTP, is this an update of a previously published HTP? that's what it seemed like. ISR, my impression was that MB couldn't get COSMO editors to talk to them about the specifics you said were lacking. So instead the writer interviewed a few freelancers about how they managed to get published by Cosmo. A Cosmo editor is "quoted anonymously." My theory is that editors of many high-paying, hard to break into magazines are going to shy away from being spotlighted in HTPs. Why? They pick up very few pieces from feelancers they don't already work with. MB's HTPS are so widely read that the editors know the result will be their inboxes are inundated. I recall one editor telling me he was away for a couple of weeks and came back to more than 1,000 emails from freelancers. His email address is posted in the HTP. So I'd say the HTP writers/updaters have their work cut out for them. ""I find all the How to Pitch pieces lately say the same, irritating thing: make sure your pitch is specific and detailed, etc. The Cosmo one just talks to different writers about how they got in, w/info that's totally useless for pitching the magazine. It said nothing about specific columns, what length of pieces they're looking for, and what topics they're interested in. Can MB please train people to get relevant questions in?" |
| writesonwater | Posted – 4/19/2007 12:18:57 PM | show profile I think MB got complaints about out-of-date info on HTPs, so they updated some of them and posted the updates. That's a guess. |
| nellie bly | Posted – 4/19/2007 12:35:18 PM | show profile w.o.w.- The Authors Guild phone seminars are very inexpensive ($10) and in some cases free for AG (Authors Guild) members because the organization is an advocacy group. It's $60 for non-members. Prior to the phone seminar, I received an email with a link to a pdf document, so there's more involved than a conference call. AvantGuild (also AG) is a membership group but it is also a for-profit business so I'm sure they would charge more than $10 for a phone seminar. Some of the videos are $1 per minute. |
| writesonwater | Posted – 4/19/2007 1:02:27 PM | show profile | email poster Nellie, agreed, there's a difference between an advocacy group and a non-profit. Surely, there's a happy medium. I'd like to see AG go for the middle ground, like any business. Keep the product affordable and many more people would go for it. Every business has to think about the value of what they provide. |
| peyton | Posted – 4/19/2007 1:53:38 PM | show profile is it worth it to be an AG member? i have been seriously tempted because i wanted access to these how to pitch articles. but they don't seem worth it from what people are saying here. |
| skleinman1 | Posted – 4/19/2007 3:14:10 PM | show profile Is it worth it? The way I calculate these sorts of professional development costs is, will I make back at least what I spent on it. I have found most of the HTPs useless -- but ONE gave me a contact that has turned into a steady gig for me, so I have more than made back my $49.00. I think MB could improve their "products" dramatically, (and I was more than a little annoyed to spend $12.00 on a video download, recently, that provided me with not one useful piece of information) but overall, I do find the membership pays for itself over the course of a year. |
| nellie bly | Posted – 4/19/2007 4:21:31 PM | show profile I agree with the above poster. Also, I'd say the HTPs are worth it for a first time subscriber. As a second time AG member, not sure I'll renew this time around though. I'll probably let it lapse until there's something I very much want to read that I can't access w/o the AG membership. Actually at this point I like some of the features more than the HTPs. Being critical of MB's choice of HTPs(a current thread in the AG board) or the quality of the HTPs does not amount to the same thing as saying don't join AG, it's not worth it. we're saying c'mon MB, you can do better. |
| Metro Writer | Posted – 4/19/2007 6:05:29 PM | show profile These are all good points. However, I don't think that $49 per year for membership is that much. The Society of Professional Journalism charges more and offers a lot less. I agree, though, that the cost of the multi-week courses are quite pricey compared to, say, a full semester college course. I'd rather put on my CV that I've taken additional classes at a known university than through a writer's group. Besides, there's no guarantee that they will help us get what we want which are good contacts and better contracts. |
| nellie bly | Posted – 4/19/2007 7:57:20 PM | show profile It drives me nuts when posters compare "membership" in MB's Avant Guild (a for-profit web-based business) with membership in an advocacy group like SPJ or Author's Guild. If you are a newbie and don't know what an advocacy group is please visit these organizations' web sites and find out what they've been doing for the profession-and that means you, in the long run. The Authors Guild (www.authorsguild.org) has sued Google and is involved with the class action suit against the NY Times, and other litigation. They also lobby the gov't to change laws that affect writers. I'm not an SPJ member but a quick look at their website tells me they have a Legal Defense Fund providing journalists with legal or direct financial assistance. www.spj.org "These are all good points. However, I don't think that $49 per year for membership is that much. The Society of Professional Journalism charges more and offers a lot less." |
| Metro Writer | Posted – 4/19/2007 9:55:04 PM | show profile Nelly Bly, cost is an issue for some people, regardless of how much they earn from their profession or how long they've been at it. Furthermore, some advocacy groups are unresponsive or elitist. Most free lance writers don't qualify for ASJA because, sorry, they write regularly for smaller publications, may even do copyediting or white papers (horrors!), and have never been published book authors. SPJ's regional conferences are not as good as others because they don't draw many speakers who are currently working as writers for known newspapers or magazines. And regardless of legal status, if you don't think there's money to be made to be made in non-profits, you might be in for a big surprise. BTW, word has it that MediaBistro, which is for profit, pays tuppence. I know for a fact that a media person for a non-profit such as Americares earns more than just a decent salary. Most writers just want to make a living by writing stories in visible publications that give them a byline. They don't want to do write for hire. They don't want to do copyediting. They don't want to teach. And they don't want to do chartered accounting to make ends meet. All people are saying in these threads is that they feel that MediaBistro overpromised and underdelivered. What's wrong with that? |
| writesonwater | Posted – 4/20/2007 1:38:12 AM | show profile I thought the BEE HTP was pretty good. Does it vary according to who writes it? |
| Rebecca_mb | Posted – 4/20/2007 11:08:39 AM | show profile | email poster From mb's How to Pitch editor: I hear you I'm sorry to learn that some of you perceive these articles as lame, but I can tell you firsthand that a lot of work goes into this series, and will continue to. Please know that I and the writers who contribute to this section work very hard to provide you with the most specific, targeted HTPs possible. In the cases of outlets like Cosmo, which is extremely selective with its freelancers (and pretty reluctant to talk to us, as some of you detected), we're of the mind that it's useful to provide whatever information we can, since it's a major outlet that seemed to be noticeably absent from our lineup. Literally all the complaints voiced in this thread are ones I consider every day when assigning, doggedly pursuing and editing HTP articles. I'm wide open to suggestions on outlets to cover, to provide the fullest possible coverage of the entire galaxy of pitchable outlets, so please write me [rebecca AT mediabistro DOT com] with your suggestions. That said, not all outlets want to play ball, but we're of the mind that we should try to cover those, at least so freelancers in our community aren't pitching in vain, and know how to tailor their approach if one of those tough outlets is a dream clip of theirs. Please know that I take your feedback very seriously, and am committed to overcoming the challenges of uncooperative outlets and more to give you the most complete information we can. Thanks for taking the time to read the stories and share your thoughts, Rebecca ------ ** Rebecca L. Fox Managing editor, service and features mediabistro.com |
| arewrites | Posted – 4/20/2007 1:06:55 PM | show profile Rebecca, Thanks for the explanation. Maybe you should include a (boilerplate) statement to similar effect at the top of HTPs for pubs like Cosmo who are reluctant to talk, but whom you feel are important to profile in an HTP? |
