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Topic: So I pitched an idea in Jan and lo and behold...
| Author | Message |
| photoop | Posted – 6/12/2007 12:50:13 AM | show profile | email poster ... my idea appears in the June issue, written by another writer (who I know and actually am currently working with)! Has this happened to anyone before? Is there anything you can do? I feel violated -- they straight up stole my idea. Grr. |
| candylilacs | Posted – 6/12/2007 12:58:44 AM | show profile Yeah, pitched a great idea to a daily and three months later saw it (except it was lamer, of course!) When I talked to the editor again, she was, "Oh, didn't I e-mail you about it? Well, that idea was already pitched by [Writer X] and she's already a known contributor so I went with hers." I had to admit, though, it's possible it did happen that way. Even though the story was lame and she covered no new ground like mine did, I could see how it could happen. ------ http://www.mswritesguide.blogspot.com |
| aj | Posted – 6/12/2007 7:22:04 AM | show profile Can you somehow ask the writer about the assignment to find out how it was given to her? |
| clever name TK | Posted – 6/12/2007 12:16:00 PM | show profile View from the other side.... Was formerly on staff at a nat'l women's mag. You have no idea how frequently editors get the same pitch from different writers. A few times I had to just go with the writer who had better clips or who I had worked with before, regardless of whose pitch was received first. A few times writers pitched stories I'd already generated and written myself. When the issue hit stands a few months later, I'd get nasty, accusing emails. My response? Never work with the writer again. My advice is to see this as a sign that your pitches are on the right track for the mag, and continue to send ideas their way. Holding it against them isn't going to do you much good--and it could cost you valuable work later on. And keep their lead time in mind. They may have had June lineups nailed down in December, and your January pitch was just too late. |
| dribbledrive1 | Posted – 6/12/2007 1:15:53 PM | show profile Most pitches are generated by things we see in the news, or trends that are in the air, so it's not surprising there's a lot of duplication. Whenever I get an assignment and do a background search, I always find a lot of similar articles to the ones I assign. --View from the other side.... Was formerly on staff at a nat'l women's mag. You have no idea how frequently editors get the same pitch from different writers. A few times I had to just go with the writer who had better clips or who I had worked with before, regardless of whose pitch was received first. A few times writers pitched stories I'd already generated and written myself. When the issue hit stands a few months later, I'd get nasty, accusing emails. My response? Never work with the writer again. My advice is to see this as a sign that your pitches are on the right track for the mag, and continue to send ideas their way. Holding it against them isn't going to do you much good--and it could cost you valuable work later on. And keep their lead time in mind. They may have had June lineups nailed down in December, and your January pitch was just too late.-- |
| seeattleme | Posted – 6/12/2007 3:13:53 PM | show profile Clever ida, etc. Gee how convenient. So if i keep sending you ideas and you keep telling me another writer pitched them to you before I did, or pitched the same idea, who benefits here? Who gets screwed? As someone who worked on the other side of the desk as well, and as a freelancer who has seen my ideas --complete with art and photo suggestions --appear in magazines about 9 mos after I pitched them --I can say, and it has been said on this board that BOTH happen. Ideas get pitched repeatedly AND ideas DO get snagged and reassigned. Assistants and editors--whoever has access to the mail, see a great idea and snag it. Who's the wiser? When it's an idea that's unspecific or egneral, hard to prove. When the story follows the structure you suggest, quotes the sources and stats you suggest, uses art work and sidebars you suggest--well, it's pretty friggin obvious what's going on here. When you've used all the ideas on the edit tests--go to queries and pitches from unknowns. And it's true--there's not too much you can do about it. Make a stink and the editor will drag your name through the mud. Ignore it and keep sending ideas and the ideas will eaither keep getting snagged or, if pitched by another "better qualified ("i.e. lunch n shopping buddy, BFF) writer, the idea will be assigned to that other person. I say mutiple pitch all ideas. Nothing was funnier than the month Mademoiselle and Cosmo BOTH ran "Six Guys To Do Before You Say I Do." I for one laughed my ass off at that massive gaff. But let's not even try to pretend this doesn't go on. Editors have posted on this board otherwise. |
| seeattleme | Posted – 6/12/2007 3:18:18 PM | show profile Incidently, I'm surprised, "Don't steal /take credit for MY idea and reassign it" didn't make the list of things freelancers would like to tell editors on the mediabistro feature. Since it's a fairly common complaint. |
| clever name TK | Posted – 6/13/2007 9:42:25 AM | show profile doglady: Touche. I admit that there are probably plenty of unethical editors out there who are perfectly willing to steal ideas. And yes, ripping you off to that extent is unforgivable. But it's not ALWAYS malicious. Scout's honor. In one instance, a new writer's idea was so close to one we had in the works that I called her to explain, and then offered her an assignment for a few issues out. Editors do have ethics. Just not all of them. For me, I guess the lesson is that just having the great ideas isn't always going to cut it if editor's got trusted friends/writers whose pitches rival yours. But if you network your ass off AND bring the goods, you're a heck of a lot likelier to get your ideas into print. |
| redheadedone | Posted – 6/13/2007 10:20:48 AM | show profile I had this happen to me with a teen mag. I pitched an idea, was told by the editor that it wouldn't work with the mag...lo and behold a few months later, there's my story in the mag. And you know there's nothing at all you can do about it. It's the same for TV- was contacted recently by a tv program about working with them on a few pieces. I go in, have a 1 1/2 hour meeting, am told they'll work with me after (a) hearing about the info and sources I have for one story and (b) listening to other pitches...fast forward to a week later..am told sorry, don't want to work with you after all, but now they have everything. And before you state that I was an idiot for giving them information, I checked with a few people in TV and was told that I did exactly what you have to do in these meetings. It's just frustrating that there are unscrupulous people in this business. |
| candylilacs | Posted – 6/13/2007 10:50:57 AM | show profile It's not always that their idea is better, but they are in their corral of writers. Believe me, the other writer's story was superficial and lame. My idea nad execution would have been better because I saw the bigger picture. Now, rightly, she doesn't know that but that's how it is. I pitched one story and the editor said they already had something similar like it coming up. The story came out and it wasn't anything like it except on a very superficial level (they both were stories about Latino actors except his was heavily stolen from another reporter.) ------ http://www.mswritesguide.blogspot.com |
| candylilacs | Posted – 6/13/2007 10:51:02 AM | show profile It's not always that their idea is better, but they are in their corral of writers. Believe me, the other writer's story was superficial and lame. My idea nad execution would have been better because I saw the bigger picture. Now, rightly, she doesn't know that but that's how it is. I pitched one story and the editor said they already had something similar like it coming up. The story came out and it wasn't anything like it except on a very superficial level (they both were stories about Latino actors except his was heavily stolen from another reporter.) ------ http://www.mswritesguide.blogspot.com |
| WordyBird | Posted – 6/13/2007 2:41:23 PM | show profile I can't tell you how many people pitch ideas that we've already planned to cover as part of a regular staff-written column. Also, I can't tell you how many people clearly do not read the magazines they pitch to. Not saying that's anyone here, but just in general. For example, take someone who picks up a copy of Arthritis Today and thinks, "Hey! I want to do a story about arthritis! But I need something fresh. TREATMENT for arthritis. Yeah...yeah...I KNOW! Exercise! In fact, WALKING! Ooh, they're going to love this..." Right. They do love it. They love it so much they developed their own 12-week plan for it and devoted part of the Fitness section of their website to it. Point is, just because you pitch it and a variant of the subject appears in the magazine some months later, that doesn't mean the published article had anything to do with your idea. (No, I don't work for Arthritis Today. I wish!) |
| seeattleme | Posted – 6/13/2007 4:25:34 PM | show profile Clever name TK, I don't care if the reason editors do it is because they're lazy, unethical, jealous of my success, have heard rumors about me, or what: It's not acceptable, it's money out of my pocket, and believe me, if you're an editor who does this: The tide is turning. With boards like this, it will get out--and back to your boss--that you steal ideas. It looks bad. It smells bad. If you can't come up with your own ideas to assign to your own writers, or if you are so lame that you can't work with a new writer and can't say no to one of the hacks that you've been working with for years --who was college buds with your boss, etc etc. then quit your damn job. Because if you can't do these things it means you can't do your job--and somewhere, eventually , people are going to find that out. |
| redheadedone | Posted – 6/13/2007 4:55:57 PM | show profile @Terrimisu- the pitch and the sidebar were exactly what I had in my pitch to the mag. Trust me on this, I did research and made damn sure my piece would fit in the mag. There's not a thing a freelancer can do. |
| seeattleme | Posted – 6/13/2007 5:00:20 PM | show profile red headed one: I suggested a atory to a national magazine with a suggestion for a photo to accompnay the story. It was about kids from troubled homes who are raised by their friend's parents. I said: 'This would be great with a photo of the kid in the center surrounded by all the people who helped him graduate from high school, who gave him a place to sleep, meals, healped with money for school, camp, proms, etc." I suggested as a title, "They Get By WIth A little Help From Their Friend's Parents." Imagine my surprise when I opened the paper one sunday to see a picture of a boy, surrounded by adults, with the headline, "He Got BY with A little Help From His Friends Parents." Unbelievable. |
| redheadedone | Posted – 6/13/2007 5:02:05 PM | show profile Yeah I know and we can't do a damned thing can we. If you go into a pitch meeting and tell them, "Hey I've got great ideas, but you can't hear them until you give me a fee," you'll get thrown out so fast, you'll orbit. |
| seeattleme | Posted – 6/13/2007 5:03:29 PM | show profile oh and this was AFTER i had written for the magazine--an essay that they made zero changes to and praised to the moon. |
| seeattleme | Posted – 6/13/2007 5:06:40 PM | show profile Until we are allowed to take legal action, no there's nothing we can do. But I do think top editors frown upon their hires who do this on a regular basis, because it's only a matter of time before someone--like the woman who is suing over the stealth of her story, now the movie "Knocked Up," or the guy who won a case over his claim that he was the original creator of The Sopranos series --won a bunch of cash -- takes an editor and her boss to court and gets a fat settlement. Money talks. |
| WordyBird | Posted – 6/13/2007 5:19:08 PM | show profile Redheadedone -- Sorry to hear that. I guess there's something to be said for leaning on an editor to get a response, and then taking the pitch off the table after X number of weeks so you can pitch it elsewhere. There's another thread with similar subject matter. Someone pitched and was waiting...and waiting...and waiting. I think the consensus was to let the editor know that if you don't hear back after a reasonable amount of time, you're going to pitch the story elsewhere. Wouldn't that have been something? If you wrote an article about the same topic, but someone else had bought it and printed it sooner? And paid you more? Something to keep in mind. |
| seeattleme | Posted – 6/13/2007 5:27:42 PM | show profile I did that once. An editor at a now-folded magazine assigned a story to me, anever sent a contract, and sat on the story which I submitted in good faith. After seven months I pitched it to the competitor, who bought it. When the story appeared in the competition, by then twelve months after I'd turned it in, without a contract, this editor calls me at work and in a tirade lectures me about being "unprofessional" and dishonest". BTW, lest you think she ever got hers, this editor now has a choice job as a contrib editor for a huge national glossy. |
| seeattleme | Posted – 6/13/2007 5:30:05 PM | show profile and thisis after I for that seven months and two months after the other mag expressed interest, kept emailing her and calling her asking for any word on the story I turned in--or any word about a contract that might be coming in the mail. To reiterate: Unbelievable. |
| candylilacs | Posted – 6/13/2007 6:02:16 PM | show profile Hey, before this gets out of hand Obviously doglady feels strongly about this. It does happen that editors steal/fish for ideas. For the most part, 90 percent of the editors I deal with don't do this, but you always remember the one or two who did. I was up for an associate editor job for a regional mag and the managing editor kept hinting through the interview that he had a candidate he wanted the publisher and exec ed. to see (meaning he didn't want me.) In my second interview he kept asking how I would go about a story about highest salaries in the area, "How would you go about finding that information? Because I'm working on that now." And he took notes. His candidate was hired and I'm sure he used my suggestions. That really s*cked. He really s*cked, but there it is. Looking back, it was a Mickey Mouse operation and I'm glad it didn't happen (I have a much better job now!) but it can happen. ------ http://www.mswritesguide.blogspot.com |
| seeattleme | Posted – 6/13/2007 7:08:14 PM | show profile I'm not out of hand. But it's my experience--two decades worth, on both sides of the desk -- that this happens a lot more than ten percent of the time. I'm not saying fifty per cent of the time. But a lot more than ten. And if you're victimized by it--if you can't pay your bills while a six-figure editor is taking that money out of your pocket --repeatedly-- and there's very little you can do about it except suck it up, be nice, and keep on tryin' ; it would piss you off too. And you'd remember it. Every time it happens. I'm not out of hand. This practice is out of hand. There have been and will be more many more voices rising in protest over it, too, in coming days. Trust me. When I first saw a post on this board about this topic, the poster was lambasted for saying this EVER happens. See how far we've come. |
| seeattleme | Posted – 6/13/2007 7:10:22 PM | show profile That regional mag wasn't by chance in the Philadelphia area, was it? Cause I've heard of that happening a lot at a mag there. A good friend of mine had a pitch stolen almost exactly the same way. This was back in the late nineties. |
| Hryupnwt | Posted – 6/13/2007 8:50:26 PM | show profile More than once - unfortunately It's happened to me more than once. I pitched 10 ideas to a woman's weekly mag. I even briefly story boarded the ideas (this was for an interview and was requested.) About 2 weeks later, in succession, I watched as 8 of the 10 ideas showed up on the cover of the mag at the grocery store checkout. Some even used the same deks I had created. I'd have a hard time thinking that these were just coincidence. It happened again to me when I was asked to submit article ideas for a very popular food web site (again while interviewing.) A couple of them were used while I was still interviewing - no shame there. Not much you can do about it, I guess. I did write the EIC that I interviewed with after being turned down for the job and let her know that I'was glad she liked my ideas enough to use on the web site. At that point, I really didn't care about "burning a bridge"...It sucks, but it happens all too often to many. |
