The Blind Pitch
How to guarantee that your pitch isn't immediately deleted—and,
hopefully, that it's actually accepted.
BY
WHITNEY JOINER | So, you
have an idea for a freelance feature that's absolutely perfect for Glamour,
but everyone you know works at Money or Fortune. And no one they
know works at Glamour, either. Time for one of the most terrifying aspects
of freelancing: the blind pitch. Emailing an editor blindly to propose your
amazing idea can be incredibly daunting. But just because you don't have any
connections to a magazine doesn't mean you'll become a media Sisyphus, destined
to write for the same five titles forever. Here are some tips on how to get
your pitch noticed.
1. No phone calls, please.
Never, ever, cold-call an editor. She's super busy, or she's late for a meeting,
or she's thinking about that night's drinks date—whatever. She'll feel
like she's been put on the spot (well, she has) and she won't have time to actually
listen to your idea. Email your pitch instead. "If I have something in
writing, I'm going to follow up on it," says Outside dispatches
editor Jason Daley. "If you just call me and I'm doing something while
we're talking, you're probably not going to hear back from me." Email is
faster and easier, and it gives editors the chance to mull over your ideas.
"I can read email on my timetable," says Yoga Journal senior
editor Matthew Solan. "I can print it out." And email allows the editor
to forward your pitch. "If a query jumps that first hurdle of being interesting
and plausible, you're going to send it around to a couple of people on staff,"
says Reason editor in chief Nick Gillespie. "Emailing really facilitates
sharing."
2. Get in and get out.
Brevity is essential to a good blind pitch. A short concise pitch shows an editor
that you're a tight writer and you respect her time.
"Ideally, you should outline the story in a format that's
as short as the space allocated for the Table of Contents page," says
Gear senior editor Luke Dawson. "You should be able to express your
idea in three or four lines." Your emailed blind pitch should be about
three paragraphs, says Gillespie. In the first graf, introduce yourself: who
you are, where you've published, what you know about the publication, and the
idea itself. Then add a graf detailing why you're qualified to write the story
and why it would be of interest to the audience. Finish with a graf that thanks
the editor and points her to your clips. (If you have amazing clips that you
can't email, send them simultaneously via snail mail.)
3. Know the magazine.
Why do editors toss most of the blind pitches they receive? Because the writer
doesn't have a firm grasp of the magazine's content. It's the number-one editorial
complaint about blind pitches. "Believe it or not, I think 90% of the people
who email me have never even picked up Latina," says Latina
senior lifestyle editor Anamary Pellayo. "They'll pitch things and I'm
like, 'If you've ever read us, [you'd know] we've never covered that type of
topic.'" Don't pitch a piece on prostate cancer to women's health and fitness
magazine Self, for instance. "That's happened," says Elizabeth
Anne Shaw, Self's senior health editor. "Or little kids, or elder
care—issues we've never covered and never would. I ignore pitches if they
completely miss the boat and clearly have no idea what Self is about."
Obviously, you're not at the weekly editorial meetings; you don't know what
the staff has planned for upcoming issues. Editors realize this. (In fact, if
you've pitched something that's similar to a feature in the next issue, it works
in your favor—it shows that your thinking jibes with the magazine's.) But
make sure that you're extremely familiar with the most recent newsstand issue,
at least.
4. Focus, focus, focus.
"The more focused a story can be, the stronger the pitch is going to be.
If it's too big you're relying on me to whittle it down, and I don't want to
do that," says Solan. Tailor your idea for a specific section in the magazine,
and pitch that editor. He'll appreciate your effort, and if he can't use it,
he might send it to another editor.
5. Do the research.
A blind pitch is a long shot, sure, but that doesn't mean you should skimp on
the background for your pitch. Make a few calls: one or two for a small item;
a few more for a feature pitch, suggests Self's Shaw. Yeah, it's a lot
of work for something that might not pay off—but from your editor's point
of view, it's worth it. "I get a lot of pitches that say, 'I want to do
five ways to beat a cold and flu, and I'm going to talk to this expert,'"
she says. "But they haven't talked to them yet, and they haven't given
me any hint as to what the advice will be like. I can't bring that to my editors.
Save yourself the aggravation and the delay and do a little bit of research."
6. Offer alternatives.
Make sure an editor knows you're flexible: suggest a few different ways to use
your idea. It shows her that you're creative and committed to your idea, and
it increases your chances to get in the magazine. "Sometimes we may be
working on a story that a pitch falls into," says Pellayo. "You want
to make sure that if that happens you can get in there and be part of that story—even
if it's just a small sidebar."
Scoring a blind pitch isn't impossible; in fact, most editors
say they want to find new writers and new ideas. It's just more challenging
than using your connections. "Blind pitching is very hard," says Pellayo.
"But it also feels like quite a coup when you do grab an assignment and
you can say to yourself, wow, I got that without knowing anybody. It's the greatest
feeling. You think, okay, maybe I am in the right profession."
