I love this anecdote about the proverbial keen young journo. He runs up to his editor saying, "I've got a great story idea." Editor: "So what?" Keen young journo: "Well, people have reported seeing sharks in the ocean just off the local beach." Editor: "So what?" Keen young journo: "Well, the beach was packed and everyone was looking … [Read more...]
When pitching: focussed, not scattergun is key
Hot story idea? Check. Pitch ready to go? Check. Sent to the top ten publications you'd like to see it run in? Noooooo! Stop right there. When you're pitching, you want to target, target, target. At the recent Walkley's journalism conference I was reminded of this by a number of the speakers. Editor of Daily Life, Sarah Oakes said it very … [Read more...]
5 ways to keep an editor happy (aka: the million dollar question)
Across the globe, thousands - millions? - of freelancers are sitting at their desks perplexed. "What exactly does my editor want?" I hear you. Getting inside an editor's head isn't easy, especially if you've spent more time as a writer (or teacher, or accountant, or whatever your pre-freelancing career was - or still is) than traipsing the … [Read more...]
7 secrets of successful story pitching
Pitching. Bah humbug. Every freelancer hates it. Actually, that’s not true. I used to hate it, now I actually enjoy it. Seriously? Enjoy touting for work? Um, kinda. But that’s probably because I don’t think about pitching as being a sales exercise. Instead, I think of it like a complex puzzle that's about matching the right idea to the right … [Read more...]
Want to get inside an editor’s head? Here you go.
It's the million dollar question every freelancer wants to know. What is an editor looking for? I took the easy way out and asked a few of my editors on everyone's behalf. Many thanks to the experts below for their tips. Here's what editors say about... … [Read more...]