3 Examples on How NOT To Pitch an Editor

I’ve had some funny and weird things happen to me lately that concern freelancers. I don’t know if the moon is full or what, but I have gotten some great examples of how NOT to pitch an editor that I thought I would share with you.

A month or so ago I got an email from a university student who was looking for an internship for the summer. I get a lot of such emails from students in the spring, and, unfortunately, we don’t have the space or equipment to take on an intern at this time. But that’s not the funny part.

This young woman did not spell check her email to me and misspelled the word “opportunity” to say “pooportunity.” This struck our art director and I as so funny we are still laughing about it at this poor student’s expense.

When you are writing a pitch or looking for work, mistakes like this are deadly—mostly because they are funny and easy for the recipients to remember. I took the pooportunity to email the student back, thank her for her email, explain that we do not have an internship program, and suggested that perhaps she should run a spell check on future correspondence with other publications that she is interested in interning at.

Follow Submission Guidelines

Last week I got a voicemail that made me shake my head. A man called and left me a message saying these exact words:

“Hello. I am an author. I have written 40 books which have sold over 40,000 copies. I would like to write a story for you. Pleased give me a call at 555-1212.”

I thought it was interesting that he called and left a message, since our submission guidelines specifically ask people to send me an email with their story idea. And that’s another thing—he wants to write a story for our magazine…but he doesn’t say what he wants to write about!

I don’t know this man from Adam. And guess what? I didn’t call him back. If you want to freelance for the magazine I work for, you need to make it easy for me.

Know Who You’re Contacting

The last example I have is probably the most egregious. I sit on the board of a nonprofit organization called the Maine Women’s Fund. Earlier this week I got an email from the CEO, which included a forwarded email from a woman who was pitching a magazine story to her about fashion.

That kind of blatant mistake should have embarrassed the pants off of the young woman—and I hope it did. I hope she learned a lesson from it.

Now, the Maine Women’s Fund is a nonprofit philanthropic organization that raises money to give grants to statewide groups that support women and girls. The CEO, who is new in her job, was clearly confused and asked me if I knew the woman who emailed her.

The story pitch was long, and focused on her desire to share her “expertise and passion for style, fashion, beauty, and personal image for a featured column in Maine Women.” What the heck is Maine Women? It is certainly not something the Maine Women’s Fund publishes—style, fashion, and beauty is not our area of influence.

After a quick Google search, I realized this woman was confused. She thought she was emailing the editor of Maine Women magazine, a tabloid-style monthly that does exist. But she wasn’t. She had emailed the CEO of a philanthropic organization that supports the power of women and the dreams of girls. Very different. No wonder the CEO was confused!

That kind of blatant mistake should have embarrassed the pants off of the young woman—and I hope it did. I hope she learned a lesson from it. If you are trying to break into a publication by pitching a featured column idea, and you can’t even get the contact information right, what kind of an expert are you? What kind of professional are you?

When you are looking to pitch your story idea, do your research and find out exactly who you should be contacting. You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression. And if you don’t do your research, your story pitches will never be read or taken under consideration! Do you think the CEO of the Maine Women’s Fund forwarded this email off to the proper recipient? No way!

Don’t Waste Your Precious Time

Most publications have a place on their website where you can find submission guidelines. We do! If you want your pitch to be heard, you need to submit it to the publication in the exact way that they want to receive it. If not, you don’t stand much of a chance.

The three people in the examples above aren’t doing themselves any favors. They are wasting their precious time simply because they aren’t paying attention.

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