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Topic: Scooped?
| Author | Message |
| newhoo22 | Posted – 10/8/2007 11:22:22 PM | show profile How common is it for freelancers to pitch ideas and see them appear in the magazine/paper in the future? Is this something only second rate pubs do? Just curious, I was having a conversation about pitching and this came up... It hasn't been my experience but I'm very new to the game. |
| newhoo22 | Posted – 10/8/2007 11:23:38 PM | show profile CORRECTION How common is it for freelancers to have ideas REJECTED, only to see them appear in the queried magazine/paper in the future? Is this something only second rate pubs do? Just curious, I was having a conversation about pitching and this came up... It hasn't been my experience but I'm very new to the game. |
| eriksherman | Posted – 10/9/2007 7:59:58 AM | show profile | email poster It happens often because frequently the editors get pitches on the same idea from different people. You may have been rejected because someone had already gotten there first. ------ Free writer resources: http://www.eriksherman.com/WriterBiz |
| ISR | Posted – 10/9/2007 8:25:48 AM | show profile I just saw the NYT run a very detailed, meticulous piece that started almost exactly like my pitch, mentioning two people who were featured prominently in my pitch. It's a niche subject, and they clearly took it. |
| HisGirlFriday | Posted – 10/9/2007 12:07:35 PM | show profile Just curious ISR - what section? I don't have direct experience but I hear the City section is notorious for this. |
| nellie bly | Posted – 10/9/2007 12:27:36 PM | show profile Connecticut Magazine did it to me several years ago. Never pitched 'em again. FOB section. how come I'm so sure they didn't get the idea from anyone else? I was so much ahead of the curve the relevant PR co. didn't even know about it yet. I knew all of the players involved. No one had sent out info/had contacts there. It was a quirky subject I had been covering for the past 2 years. |
| dribbledrive1 | Posted – 10/9/2007 12:37:08 PM | show profile Or maybe the editor rejected your idea and then later it was pitched by and assigned to someone else with better credentials, a better slant, or who just caught the editor in a different mood. Or maybe the editor didn't like your pitch, rejected it, pretty much forgot about it, read something later about the subject, and came up with "your" idea, having only a hazy recollection of your pitch that he rejected. --It happens often because frequently the editors get pitches on the same idea from different people. You may have been rejected because someone had already gotten there first. -- |
| seeattleme | Posted – 10/9/2007 4:48:11 PM | show profile It happens alot, this subject has been discussed again and again on this board, BJ will come on and say it doesn't happen that often, toerhs will "Blame the victim" and say it's because editors get similar pitches all the time. As an Editorial assistant, I watched it happen. Other editors have posted on this board saying it happens, a pitch is scooched from a writer the editor's don't know, so they give it to one of their "galpal" writers instead--after rejecting it. It happens. It happens. It happens. And there's not too much you can do about it, except call them on it (send your original pitch to your editor's boss and explain what happened. Ask where the editor came up with the idea--ask for a CC of the pitch letter from the writer who wrote it--and ask to be compensated for the ideaif they did indeed scooch the pitch. Know that you will probably never write for these people if youreact this way--but will they actually ever GIVE you an assignemnt or just keep stealing your ideas (AND NO LEGALLY YOU CANNOT STEAL AN IDEA UNLESS IT IS A WRITTEN SUBMISSION AND THAT IS PLAGARISM SO BACK OFF ALL YOU LEGAL FREAKS WHO ARE ABOUT TO JUMP ON THAT) The other thing to do is always pitch twice, to one and the competition. First cvome first serve, and if anyone schooches they'll look real stupid. Again, classic example, same month issues of Cosmo and mademoiselle featured the story "SIX GUYS TO DO BEFORE YOU SAY I DO". Funny as shit. |
| seeattleme | Posted – 10/9/2007 4:51:49 PM | show profile By the way, I define "stealing an idea" as taking an idea from someone and either passing it off as your own or passing it to another writer to do after rejecting the writer who had the idea in the first place, thus giving he she credit--and a paycheck--for the idea. That's "STEALING AN IDEA" as far as I'm concerned. and I have to say, since people started posting about this on this board, I've noticed a sea change, not only in the tenor here but as far as editors are concerned. many are much less likely to do it now and more responsive to writers who accuse them of doing it. They are taking it seriously, and no editor wants to be outed as someone who took an idea and passed it off as his/her own. It stinks, ya know? |
| Jen480 | Posted – 10/9/2007 6:44:05 PM | show profile Just happened to me at Texas Monthly--they're notorious for doing it. I know a few people whose ideas have been swiped, and it's a well-regarded magazine. (Or was.) |
