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Topic: Dear Mr. or Ms. Editor
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| WriteAway8 | Posted – 7/22/2007 7:33:56 AM | show profile Dear Mr. or Ms. Editor, Just a quick heads up, other professionals answer their email. Yes, I know -- unbelievable to you -- but it's true. If it's because you don't know me and don't want to read what I've written, just let me know, and I'll stop sending. Just pound out two little words, ok? "No thanks," would speak volumes. If it's because you're so busy, well, so are alot of people. I have a friend who is president of her own company. She works 12 hours per day or more. She is a widow. She has children and pets and friends and family. She answers all her emails. Writers spend hours, if not days or weeks composing what they send to you. We know you're busy and are willing to wait for your reply. Just send one. Elevate yourself. Be human. Even something generated automatically would be better than nothing at all. Thanks for your time. No need to reply. Mary Writer |
| reporterwriter | Posted – 7/22/2007 12:39:59 PM | show profile If you had ever walked in an editor's shoes, you wouldn't have written this rant. Do yourself a favor: Learn whatever you can about the other side. It will help you to take delays and silence impersonally and stop being needy. Keep in mind that your friend the president is not an accurate tapemeasure, because she's in a position to delegate her responsibilities whereas editors are not, and one of your expectations may be technologically impossible. |
| Mirage | Posted – 7/22/2007 11:10:21 PM | show profile Dear Mr./Ms. Writer: Editors often don't respond to e-mails containing unsolicited pitches -- especially when said pitches in no way relate to that editor's specialty. For example, I get 4-5 e-mails per day pitching some writer's latest novel. I am a NONFICTION book editor, and I just don't see why I should take the time to respond to a pitch by a writer who clearly hasn't done any homework. Furthermore, if I respond with your suggested "no thanks," you'd be surprised at how many writers will respond to my answer with a demand for reasons why I am not interested...and believe it or not, I have neither the time, nor the inclination, to debate something like that. Please keep in mind that sometimes a "simple" response is not as simple as you think it is. Let the bashing begin. Best regards, An Editor |
| writesonwater | Posted – 7/23/2007 12:51:14 AM | show profile | email poster Now, as a former editor and current writer, I must say that it's true -- an automatically generated reply or a simple "No, thanks" won't fit the bill. That's catnip to certain writers who feel they deserve an explanation as to why their writing doesn't, for whatever reason, make the cut. Worse, if they ask for the reason, and get it, chances are they won't agree with it, and will hotly contest it to others. "Can you IMAGINE -- she said it was wordy!!!!" If they get a note that says, "I'm sorry it doesn't fit our needs at this time" (pretty polite as rejects go) and find a "but keep sending me ideas" -- they may accuse the editor of wishing to swipe a steady stream of ideas. Or they may send a barrage of ideas, perhaps invoking a fresh barrage of polite rejections, if the stuff isn't up to that editor's snuff. The editor is damned if she does or doesn't. I am one of the writers who wishes for feedback along with rejections, but I can see the editor's plight. Here's what I'd prefer: Don't write me back unless you think my work has some imminent promise with you. Conversely, if you like my stuff, you better let me know, because I won't be wasting my breath, my ink, my effort on you. If you think I might work out but haven't quite hit the nail on the right pitch, have a little mercy and send me an assignment-- or at least tell me how to tweak my pitch. |
| dribbledrive1 | Posted – 7/23/2007 12:59:07 AM | show profile Dear Ms. Writer: I didn't ask you to try to sell me an idea. If you decide you want to, that's your business, but don't assume I owe you anything. |
| seeattleme | Posted – 7/23/2007 2:54:08 PM | show profile LOVE it Give me a fucking break. So the consensus here is that every pitch editors get that they don't BOTHER to respond to is poorly written, poorly skewed, wordy, insignificant, etc? So editors ONLY respond to emails that are promising in some way shape or form? It wouldn't have anything to do with NOT responding to pitches because they come from people they don't "LUNCH AT MICHAELS" with, huh? They don't not bother to repond because they like the pitch but are assigning it to another writer they know work with, shop with, roomed with in college, whatever, right? This NEVER happens, right? ALL editors are PROFESSIONAL, whereas most writers are unprofessional nothingness, scribbling out badly researched poorly conceived pitches? I've worked on both sides of the desk, too. I even get ideas from READERS I respond to (when I worked as a staff writer, and a reader wrote in about what we should and shouldn't do an article on). It doesn't take that long (this was for a daily newspaper, BTW, so I would get about 50 a day...) The readers are the reason we HAVE a paper--their feedback and suggestions are the most imporatnt part of our job. And writers who pitch us with ideas --especially those that come from outside our little Manhattan worlds--well, lets just say if you ignore these people and don't read their pitches and don't bother cultivating these resources, your readership will fall. As it is with magazines in general. That's why they go to the web. None of this wait around sit on it, get ignored bullshit. It just gets out there, it's read, its reacted to. BYe Bye print--for this reason. Not only that--it's your JOB as an editor. I can see getting busy and getting behind. But not responding at all is unacceptable. Sorry, it's true. It's true in a doctors office it;s true in a law firm; it's true in a goddam magazine office. How about having your assistant respond instead if your so...Busy, right? (what else are those assistants doing! Picking up dry cleaning and Starbucks?) I worked at five magazines. I've seen what editors do all day. And it's true--some pitches are worthless. So scroll out a "no thanks". No big deal. If they send another one, send a sample pitch that worked--keep it on file for this reason. Tell the writer to check out this board. You don't just NOT respond. That's unprofessional. And some pitches are very well researched but get no notice. I pitched abduction for years, with cases I was involved in the reporting in. No parenting or teen magazine would touch it, because it would make readers "afraid". I finally got a distracted driving piece through to a teen magazine after seven such pitches--the editor finally read it when a friend of mine got a job as her boss. I pitched the story about murder being the number one cause of death among pregnant women two years before Laci Peterson went missing on Christmas Eve in 2002. Ignored. Every pitch ignored. It wasn't for lack of experience (two decades, at more than a dozen national magazines and newpapers). It wasn't cause I can't write a pitch (that's how I got published in the first place, duh). It was because I finally KNEW someone at the magazine, or stopped writing to the lazy ass editor who was ignoring me and wrote instead to the EIC Incidently, EICs or Exec Eds are always much more professional about getting back to me or passing my pitch on. They rarely ignore my stuff. It's those senior and deputy nightmares who are all so "busy". I was sat in an office while an editor explained to a wrier, in person, why he couldn't lety him write a negative article about a major athletic shoe company--a huge advertiser. It was hearing advertising 101 explained to this guy. IN PERSON! Talk about a lame, poorly thought out pitch. Guess what? This writer is now RUNNING one of our nation's major news magazines. There's plenty of evidence right here on this board that editors ignore their emails, scooch pitches, don't return not only emails suggestiong stories but REQUESTS FOR PAYMENT, or even follow up on stories discussed, contracted out, and turned in! So let's not jump on Mary Writers ass. --Mary Writer and Editor With Bills To Pay |
| Mirage | Posted – 7/23/2007 3:01:55 PM | show profile Granitegirl If you pitch like you write posts, it's no wonder you don't receive responses. Oh, and by the way -- who's making sweeping generalizations? I have never once taken an idea and assigned it to a friend. I'm just someone who's trying to do her job to the best of her ability and pay her bills, same as you. |
| WinonaWriter | Posted – 7/23/2007 3:08:06 PM | show profile If someone calls a law firm asking for something law-related, and the law firm doesn't call back, it's unprofessional. But if someone calls the law firm asking what time the hot dog stand opens around the corner, is it still unprofessional if the law firm doesn't bother to call back? If somone calls the doctor's office asking for movie times, is it unprofessional if the doctor's office doesn't call back? If a writer sends in something that's way off base (e.g., a poem about a flower for a relocation/real estate magazine that doesn't run poetry, or a fantastic feature article on the Bahamas for a magazine that covers Las Vegas), then I don't think it's unprofessional in the least if the editor doesn't bother to reply. Do you reply to all your junk mail? Because quite frankly, the majority of the "pitches" I received as an editor were basically junk mail -- stuff that didn't fit what we did AT ALL. As for the legit pitches, I always tried to respond but may have missed a few if they came in on deadline, when everything was rushed and chaotic. I've NEVER had an assistant, so never had the luxury of being able to hand that task off to an assistant. |
| Mirage | Posted – 7/23/2007 3:28:34 PM | show profile Rants like Granitegirl's... ...are why editors don't respond. FWIW, I didn't say that I don't respond. What I said is, I don't respond to people who pitch me their fiction work, without ever bothering to research who I am and what I do. I also said that just a "no thanks" often doesn't suffice, because some writers fly off the deep end about how well-researched and timely their idea is, and why I should publish it anyway, even though I've already said "no." Kind of like you just did here. |
| dribbledrive1 | Posted – 7/23/2007 3:28:37 PM | show profile I disagree with you. If you've ever done sales (computer equipment, office supplies, whatever), you know that a huge percentage of the potential customers you contact won't respond. Doctors office and law firms don't return tons of calls. Businesspeople don't respond to many proposals put to them by other businesspeople. And you will drive yourself crazy as a salesperson if you take the attitude that you are entitled to a response. The issue is most writers don't want to think of themselves as salespeople. And so we often get incensed when editors treat us as salespeople rather than as colleagues. I see no reason in choosing to be incensed or developing an attitude of entitlement because it won't get me anywhere. Instead, I just pick up the phone and call. --Not only that--it's your JOB as an editor. I can see getting busy and getting behind. But not responding at all is unacceptable. Sorry, it's true. It's true in a doctors office it;s true in a law firm; it's true in a goddam magazine office. -- |
| WordyBird | Posted – 7/23/2007 3:33:01 PM | show profile If the pitch is close to target, usually I just send a short e-mail saying, "Thank you for your interest in our magazine. However, your idea does not meet our present needs. Best of luck to you. Sincerely," I keep this in an archived e-mail and cut and paste it. It takes all of 5 seconds. HOWEVER, I don't work for Vogue or another such behemoth. But most of the time I have to stop myself from sending something like this: Dear Writer: Our magazine is about cats. You sent me a pitch about dogs. Duh. Sincerely, Editor |
| reporterwriter | Posted – 7/23/2007 3:43:17 PM | show profile >>granitegirl wrote: Not only that--it's your JOB as an editor. I can see getting busy and getting behind. But not responding at all is unacceptable. Sorry, it's true. << No, it's not true. An editor's first obligation is to her editor and the needs of the publication -- in other words, the place signing her paychecks -- not to strangers e-mailing pitches to a predecessor who left three years ago for ill-thought-through stories irrelevant to your magazine, which they've never read in the first place. And that's 99.9 percent of all queries. |
| dribbledrive1 | Posted – 7/23/2007 4:12:27 PM | show profile It is funny. Can you imagine a PR person saying, "I sent a freelance writer a pitch for an article idea -- and it is his job to respond to me?" -->>granitegirl wrote: Not only that--it's your JOB as an editor. I can see getting busy and getting behind. But not responding at all is unacceptable. Sorry, it's true. << No, it's not true. An editor's first obligation is to her editor and the needs of the publication -- in other words, the place signing her paychecks -- not to strangers e-mailing pitches to a predecessor who left three years ago for ill-thought-through stories irrelevant to your magazine, which they've never read in the first place. And that's 99.9 percent of all queries. -- |
| writesonwater | Posted – 7/23/2007 5:40:10 PM | show profile I have come to accept that if an editor doesn't need my pitch, she won't reply. I don't take it as a personal slight on my pitch. Feedback would be nice, but the editor doesn't live to give writers feedback. The editor lives to get the editor's job done, and that can't include responding to many, many emails. As an EIC of a small mag group, I personally responded to emails, yes. But that was a very small pond, without lucrative prospects for writers, and every decent writer would know that just by knowing the market. Small volume of mail, personal replies. |
| dribbledrive1 | Posted – 7/23/2007 9:20:53 PM | show profile I don't know about that. An editor may not respond because they never read the pitch for a variety of reasons. I would resent the pitch or call until I got a response, if I really wanted to sell to that magazine. In general, I think writers are way too passive in marketing our work. We email or mail proposals and sit back and wait, and then mutter to other writers about how mistreated we are. I think a lot of writers would benefit from sitting down with someone who sellls for a living and tell them how they market their writing products, and see the reaction and suggestions they get. --I have come to accept that if an editor doesn't need my pitch, she won't reply. -- |
| WordyBird | Posted – 7/23/2007 10:33:05 PM | show profile dribbledrive: "An editor's first obligation is to her editor and the needs of the publication -- in other words, the place signing her paychecks -- not to strangers e-mailing pitches to a predecessor who left three years ago for ill-thought-through stories irrelevant to your magazine, which they've never read in the first place. And that's 99.9 percent of all queries." Amen! Rock on with your bad self. |
| dribbledrive1 | Posted – 7/23/2007 10:43:38 PM | show profile Actually, someone else wrote that, not me. --dribbledrive: "An editor's first obligation is to her editor and the needs of the publication -- in other words, the place signing her paychecks -- not to strangers e-mailing pitches to a predecessor who left three years ago for ill-thought-through stories irrelevant to your magazine, which they've never read in the first place. And that's 99.9 percent of all queries." Amen! Rock on with your bad self.-- |
| reporterwriter | Posted – 7/23/2007 11:22:10 PM | show profile Yeah, it was I. (Tryin' to be grammatical here.) I don't think salesmanship alone is the key, dribble, except for having a viable product and targeting it correctly. What are your thoughts? |
| dribbledrive1 | Posted – 7/24/2007 12:30:23 AM | show profile My point is, being a writer and creating the writing product is one hat. But once you've done, and you are going to peddle your wares, you need to think of yourself as a salesperson. Too often, too many writers play the martyr -- "the systems against me; there's nothing I can do; I have to wait passively until the editor is ready; and God will srtike me dead if I actually pick up the phone and call an editor." After you've been around the block enough, you learn magazine editors, book publishers, agents, film producers and whoever else are just people and there's no reason to be overly impressed or intimidated by them. And also hearing "No" doesn't hurt that much. You shrug and move on. --I don't think salesmanship alone is the key, dribble, except for having a viable product and targeting it correctly. What are your thoughts?-- |
| writesonwater | Posted – 7/24/2007 12:51:38 AM | show profile Too right, Bbelinda and Dribble both. Product and target need to be in place, and salesmanship is required. Thank goodness I am at least at a place where I have five consistent clients, because I struggled with the salesmanship part. Now, I work on product (at this point, proven with those clients) and target -- I know what they're looking for, so that's what I send them. The part where sales comes in is in expanding your marketshare, or getting a foothold in the first place if you're a newbie. Or, getting new clients because old ones are rotating out for a while, as many do with a change of editorial tide, etc. |
| WordyBird | Posted – 7/24/2007 10:27:14 AM | show profile Oops, sorry Dibble, Belinda. I wish there was a uniform way of quoting posts on this board. |
| WordyBird | Posted – 7/24/2007 10:28:14 AM | show profile I also wish my fingers would work correctly, D*R*ibble! Caffeine...need caffeine...to get to all of those inappropriate queries I'm going to ignore today... |
| pitcher | Posted – 7/24/2007 1:12:41 PM | show profile Professionalism First, let's assume that at one point or another, most of us will have experienced being either on staff or working freelance, so we know the game from both sides. Also, let's assume that Mary Writer is referring to a well-constructed, thought-out pitch that took hours, days, or even a week to put together (which is the case for professionals). Let's assume that she studied the magazine and tailored the pitch exactly to it. Let's assume she negotiated the maze of revolving-door editors who change by the hour and found the right one (or one who could certainly refer the pitch to the right one). In my experiene as an assigning editor, most of the pitches I received were perfectly legitimate. Whether they made it or not depended on a number of rather random things. But it was important to me to respond to each pitch, either with a standard "thanks, we'll get back to you if it works," or "no thanks." Very few, if any, ever persisted if they were not encouraged to. Also, yes it certainly is the assigning editor's job to respond to freelancers. It's absolutely part of the job description. And the more professional and in command of their job they are, the better they are at responding. The freelancing workforce doesn't necessarily believe that editors are too busy to respond -- just that they are overwhelmed and incapabale of keeping up. Why don't we all assume that we're all professionals, and we depend on each other: editors for inspiring ideas from professional freelancers, and freelancers who do their due diligence to pitch solid ideas and deserve a response. |
| WinonaWriter | Posted – 7/24/2007 2:02:44 PM | show profile It may be part of the job description for an ASSIGNING editor, but what about an editor who is wearing all the editorial hats at a publication, and then some, and who has NO assistant and NO assigning editor to handle the task for her? Could be that just when she finally got a chance to reply to the pitches that didn't work, her publisher comes along and asks her to edit the magazine's rate card, a sales letter for the ad dept., the company's holiday card, etc., etc. ... Could be that she's on vacation, on leave, on deadline, and she just hasn't gotten to it yet. Could be that the editor's time frame and the writer's just don't match. Mary Writer, you said you're willing to wait for the editor's reply...but for how long? Could be that by the time the editor got a chance to look at your pitch, it's been six months (really, this is possible!) and by now she figures you've moved on and she should too. Could also be that unlike Mary Writer's friend, the editor in question chooses NOT to work 12 hours per day or more. Maybe at the 10-hour mark she just wants to go home to her family rather than spend another hour answering pitches. Quite frankly, I don't see anything wrong with that. If the writer really, really wants to know the outcome of her pitch, there's no reason not to follow-up. Especially if the original was sent via e-mail, since things happen to e-mail all the time. If not lost as in "deleted," it could be lost in the pages and pages of e-mails she's gotten in the last three days (really, it is possible!), and out-of-sight, out-of-mind. Editors are human too. |
| dribbledrive1 | Posted – 7/24/2007 3:28:27 PM | show profile The problem with this, though, is you are trying to dictate what should be important to another person (an editor) because it's important to you. Some editors will respond to all queries; some won't. And that's life. No one has a legal responsibility to respond to an email someone sends to them. --Professionalism First, let's assume that at one point or another, most of us will have experienced being either on staff or working freelance, so we know the game from both sides. Also, let's assume that Mary Writer is referring to a well-constructed, thought-out pitch that took hours, days, or even a week to put together (which is the case for professionals). Let's assume that she studied the magazine and tailored the pitch exactly to it. Let's assume she negotiated the maze of revolving-door editors who change by the hour and found the right one (or one who could certainly refer the pitch to the right one). In my experiene as an assigning editor, most of the pitches I received were perfectly legitimate. Whether they made it or not depended on a number of rather random things. But it was important to me to respond to each pitch, either with a standard "thanks, we'll get back to you if it works," or "no thanks." Very few, if any, ever persisted if they were not encouraged to. Also, yes it certainly is the assigning editor's job to respond to freelancers. It's absolutely part of the job description. And the more professional and in command of their job they are, the better they are at responding. The freelancing workforce doesn't necessarily believe that editors are too busy to respond -- just that they are overwhelmed and incapabale of keeping up. Why don't we all assume that we're all professionals, and we depend on each other: editors for inspiring ideas from professional freelancers, and freelancers who do their due diligence to pitch solid ideas and deserve a response.-- |
