Five things I learned from cold-pitching arts and culture magazines for a year...

Question

Despite my writing credits and over a decade's worth of experience as a freelance writer, I’ve often struggled to get paid and/or consistent work. With that in mind, I spent the last twelve months, trying my luck, cold-pitching to new arts and culture magazines and publications the world over. I can’t say for sure how many I reached to, but I’d say for certain that it was well over fifty— probably not far off eighty, sending pitches most weeks, in the hope of being commissioned.

To be completely honest the process was mostly draining, mostly depressing (sometimes more literally than figuratively...) and mostly fruitless, but… I did get some success! I thought I’d share some things that I learned/re-learned over the past year when cold-pitching to new magazines, in the hope of helping others who might be doing the same.

1) Keep pitches succinct: I’ve seen people advise that a good pitch should be 3-5 paragraphs long, detailing what it is you’re interested in writing about, information about yourself, why you’re right for it, how long your piece will be etc etc etc… Though there is some truth in this, it isn’t set in stone. The most successful pitches that I sent this year were about eight to ten lines long. I’d almost got as far to say that as long as the vital info is there, along with examples of your work, the shorter they are, the better.

2) A reliable editor is worth their weight in gold: Let me tell you, first-hand: magazine editors are notoriously haphazard, disorganised and unreliable. Yes, some do receive in excess of 100 emails a day, but that’s literally their job and few are good at it. So, if you can find one who replies to emails promptly/thoroughly, gets you paid on time and communicates clearly, hold onto them dearly! They are literally worth their weight in gold. Even having one who takes the time to send a rejection email, is a dream!

3) Your words/ideas might be worth more outside of your country: I will give an example: I have been pitching to The Guardian for the last three months, across a range of editors, and heard absolutely nothing. This week, I pitched to The New York Times, and although was rejected, heard back instantly. In fact, many of my commissions this year were from magazines in Italy and The Netherlands. Don’t be afraid to look further afield than your own country— your style of writing and your location, or even your ideas might be worth more abroad than at home.

4) The idea that only timely pitches are valuable is a myth: When I  began my new pitching campaign, last year, I looked for the latest exhibitions, book releases and events that I thought magazines might be interested in, sending them things that were current and relevant. 90% of these pitches were rejected or ignored. I’m not saying timely things don’t get commissioned, because they do, but don’t get completely bogged down with things that have just come out or are coming out— some of the most exciting works, books and art happened 10+ years ago.

5) Just because you’ve been rejected, doesn’t mean it’s not a good idea: I mean, it *might* not be a good idea, true, but it’s more likely that it isn’t the right fit for that magazine. One of my biggest commissions this year was an idea that was rejected by It’s Nice That, but then accepted by another magazine. Sometimes it’s about timing and finding the right place for your ideas. Keep on trying new outlets and you never know who might be interested.