Thank you for this, the newsletter is making me appreciate grey Tuesday mornings in Manchester :)
A quick question, when pitching for an American publication like Thrillist, do you recommend we tailor the content for "Americans" or a more general pitch would still be good? I know it can be a weird question, but last time I was back home in Italy, I heard some Americans asking the tour guide for the nearest Starbucks.... in the Valley of Temples in Agrigento.
Just wondering if I should mention more "America-friendly" things like coffee shops and such x
Delighted to hear it, Chiara! I think it's best to check out what Thrillist publish and the sort of content they've run in the past and tailor your pitch to that :-)
Thank you! Just starting out and so far only got one response (not a YES but a "more questions" one) after 6 pitches so even though it's probably a normal rate, I want to try and do my best to tailor my pitches as best as I can <3
I’m sickened by your comments about the fall-out from the diversity and inclusion posts. They’re not relevant to me as an old white woman but I still found them informative. Surely a travel writer wants to develop their understanding of the world and its people, including those close to home. Maybe our TTW tribe is better off without them.
On your first point, how strange that you've lost subscribers over the period of running the series from different writers ... I didn't read every contribution in detail because I've had a busy few weks, but really enjoyed the ones I did read.
On your main topic – I spend a lot of my life going through all the thought processes – and actual pitching processes – that you describe, but this morning had a really good conversation with the new editor of a specialist publication I've been writing for for years. As I suspected, the lack of response to my emails was simply because she's swamped, and in no way personal. She thanked me for my very good pitches – said that nobody else does this – and our very productive chat led to a reconfiguration of my work for one of her magazines – a regular series on one aspect of the topic, introduced by an opinion piece – and a one-off article for her other magazine. It's such a difficult landscape at the moment – the magazine I've written for a lot has gone from ten issues a year down to four, so even if I have an article in each one I'm still much worse off than I used to be. But at least now I have the best deal possible for the foreseeable future, thanks to patience and staying in touch with the editor.
It's not all good news as I just had a second rejection from an online magazine that published one piece from me and encouraged me to send more, and I still haven't cracked pitching to editors of newspaper sections who don't know me, but the conversations here on TTW really help in motivating me to keep going and reminding me of the essential principles of pitching. Thank you!
Thank you for this, the newsletter is making me appreciate grey Tuesday mornings in Manchester :)
A quick question, when pitching for an American publication like Thrillist, do you recommend we tailor the content for "Americans" or a more general pitch would still be good? I know it can be a weird question, but last time I was back home in Italy, I heard some Americans asking the tour guide for the nearest Starbucks.... in the Valley of Temples in Agrigento.
Just wondering if I should mention more "America-friendly" things like coffee shops and such x
Thanks so much!
Delighted to hear it, Chiara! I think it's best to check out what Thrillist publish and the sort of content they've run in the past and tailor your pitch to that :-)
Thank you! Just starting out and so far only got one response (not a YES but a "more questions" one) after 6 pitches so even though it's probably a normal rate, I want to try and do my best to tailor my pitches as best as I can <3
I’m sickened by your comments about the fall-out from the diversity and inclusion posts. They’re not relevant to me as an old white woman but I still found them informative. Surely a travel writer wants to develop their understanding of the world and its people, including those close to home. Maybe our TTW tribe is better off without them.
On your first point, how strange that you've lost subscribers over the period of running the series from different writers ... I didn't read every contribution in detail because I've had a busy few weks, but really enjoyed the ones I did read.
On your main topic – I spend a lot of my life going through all the thought processes – and actual pitching processes – that you describe, but this morning had a really good conversation with the new editor of a specialist publication I've been writing for for years. As I suspected, the lack of response to my emails was simply because she's swamped, and in no way personal. She thanked me for my very good pitches – said that nobody else does this – and our very productive chat led to a reconfiguration of my work for one of her magazines – a regular series on one aspect of the topic, introduced by an opinion piece – and a one-off article for her other magazine. It's such a difficult landscape at the moment – the magazine I've written for a lot has gone from ten issues a year down to four, so even if I have an article in each one I'm still much worse off than I used to be. But at least now I have the best deal possible for the foreseeable future, thanks to patience and staying in touch with the editor.
It's not all good news as I just had a second rejection from an online magazine that published one piece from me and encouraged me to send more, and I still haven't cracked pitching to editors of newspaper sections who don't know me, but the conversations here on TTW really help in motivating me to keep going and reminding me of the essential principles of pitching. Thank you!
Thanks for this Clare! So interesting to hear that and I'm so glad our newsletter is helpful. Good luck with all that pitching!