How NOT to Pitch an Editor

One advantage of belonging to professional travel writers organizations like NATJA or SATW, or going to professional conferences like TBEX or IMM, is that you often get good advice on how to pitch an editor. And perhaps more importantly, advice on how not to pitch one.

Bad Freelance Pitches Get Deleted Immediately

Following the old fiction writing adage of “show, don’t tell,” here’s an actual query I received recently as editor of Perceptive Travel.

Dear editor, attached is a story of my visit to New Orleans Mardi Gras with my wife Barbara that you might be interested in using in your magazine.”

Firstname Lastname (withheld)

I’m starting with this one because there are an amazing number of problems in this one-sentence e-mail that’s short enough to put on Twitter. First, it breaks several general rules:

1) Didn’t bother to look up the editor’s name, which is all over the site.

2) Didn’t bother to read the guidelines, which are linked from the contact page.

3) Attached an unsolicited finished story, which is generally only common practice for newspapers.

For specifics, I don’t know any editor that appreciates queries sent in bulk at the same time, which this certainly was. I also don’t know any editor who thinks a generic travel story with no new angle to it is a good match for them. There’s no reference to past stories in our online publication, why this would work for us, or any sense that the person has actually ever read Perceptive Travel at all. He didn’t include any information about his track record in publishing articles and there’s no link to a portfolio site.

And why in the world would I care what his wife’s name is unless she’s a celebrity?

So I did what I’m sure 100% of the other people who received this did: hit delete.

Here’s another awful one that I received recently:

Dear Editor,

I recently spent 36 hours on a quick road trip through Nevada and would like to tell your readers about our experiences. A sidebar will give recommendations on where to eat and what to do, based on what we observed along the way. I only have a few good photos from the trip but some of the places have images available through stock services.

Firstname Lastname

That was it. No book authorship info, required per our guidelines, no indication that he had read the guidelines (we only publish narratives, no service info). There was no portfolio information or links indicating past publication credits. That’s an easy “Not for us,” reply and a delete.

Spray and Pray Sucks in Both Directions

If you’re a blogger or freelance writer, you’re likely deluged with press releases and poorly targeted news pitches on a daily basis. How does that make you feel? Do you have less respect for that PR person or company next time you see an e-mail from them? Do you maybe even cringe a little?

Well if you send out a query or finished story in bulk to editors—who already get 4X more e-mails than you do—you can expect them to feel the same way about you. Angry, annoyed, grumpy, incredulous even. If you want them to get back to you, or at least think you’re a professional, you’ve just killed your chances. Maybe permanently: a lot of editors have a “block” or “filter” command on their e-mail program that they use with abandon. Your three follow-ups may not even get to their inbox and you’ll have to guess why.

Most publications are laying it all out there for you, so take the time to read and pitch appropriately.

All  Queries Should be Custom Queries

I have met a few writers over the years who swear by the multiple submissions strategy, of sending out the same idea to a bunch of editors to see who bites. In general, I think this is a terrible idea. It’s the same principle behind pop-up subscription boxes, junk mail, and telemarketing: bug a lot of people in order to find a small percentage who will say yes.

But if you’re going to do that, at least take the extra five minutes per e-mail to put in their name and say a little something about why this story would be right for them.

Much better is to take 10-15 minutes and write a really good query, which is really a custom sales pitch. You need to pitch the idea in a way that answers an editor’s essential questions. These are:

Why us?

Why now?

Why you?

The unspoken question for print magazines also is, “Where would this go?” In other words, tell her which section and why. (If you’ve never written for them, you are not going to be assigned a big major feature, so don’t even go there.)

Editors Are Telling You What They Want

In order to send a customized query, you need to know who you’re pitching to. You don’t want to pitch a British publication on a listicle for “best adventure vacations in 2022” and put in resort areas on the west coast of Mexico and Costa Rica. It should be about “best adventure holidays 2022” and focus on places you can reach easily from Heathrow, Gatwick, and Manchester. With your spell check configured to accept centre, colour, and traveller.

I once got guidelines for a website I was going to start writing for that was aimed at men 20-40 and they wanted articles to be full of pop culture references, jokes, and slang. I write for others that adhere strictly to AP style and want a serious, authoritative tone. The pitches I would send to these two publications should be different in almost every way.

You are only going to know how to pitch an editor by knowing what that publication is all about. If it’s a magazine, study at least two recent issues. If it’s online, poke through every section in their navigation bar. Pay close attention to the language in the “About Us” section and read between the lines. If they have writers’ guidelines, study them closely and follow them to the letter. If they don’t show them online, e-mail or call someone and request them. Usually the “Advertise with us” part is useful too as that shows who the publication’s ideal readers are and what the publisher and editors think sets them apart.

If you’re willing to part with a little money to save time, there are services out there that can tell you who gets queries and what they want to see. See our travel writing resources section for some of them.

Who Are You, Dear Writer?

As an editor who makes assignments for multiple publications, if I’ve met you at a conference or on a press trip, great. You’ve already got an in. You’re ahead of the pack just because I know who you are and there’s a connection of some kind. As a freelancer, I’ve gotten into airline magazines, CNN, Lonely Planet, Westways, and several custom publications this way.

Amazingly though, most writers are too lazy to follow up on this. I’ve handed an opportunity to some on a silver platter and haven’t heard from them since. One just got in touch with me…five years later! (Hey, better than not at all.) The ones that did follow up, if I liked their work, have frequently become part of my team at one of the Al Centro Media sites. If you’re fortunate enough to meet an editor who is a good match for what you can write, put that follow-up at the top of your priority list.

There are whole conferences meant to enable these connections, like Travel Classics and the ASJA convention. If you’re a full-time freelancer, they might be worth your investment.

But if I don’t know you, we’re back to that sales job again. You need to convince me you’re a great writer with a real track record. That means having a good portfolio site at the very least. (If you keep putting that off, even with the ease of Wix, go right now and set up one at Contently.)

The “Why you?” question is a huge one with most editors. Some editors at well-known publications can get hundreds of queries a week and it’s easy to ignore the ones from people they’ve never met. The ones they’ve met is often already a big pool, especially if they’re in NYC or London.

I think the track record is so important that it’s what I lead with in a query: I put my credentials in the first sentence so they’ll know I’m an experienced professional. The first impression is, “Dozens of editors have already said yes to this writer and he has popular books out. I’m not taking a chance if I hire him.”

If you’re not very experienced, then stop trying to pitch stories about places you’ve never visited just because you want to go there. Pitch stories where you’re the obvious expert. That means places and subjects you know inside-out, like where you live or what you’ve already researched and written about extensively. Angles where you already have contacts to interview, places you can spend lots of time researching already. Own and embrace your niche instead of trying to be a grand generalist.

It’s not that I love writing about Mexico to the exclusion of other places, but every article I put out about that country is authoritative, factually correct, and confident. Because I live there and travel around the country every year, I can find new angles and cover the usual ones far better than someone who has only been to one state one time and is trying to act like they know what they’re talking about. It’s far easier for me to query on it, far easier for me to know I’ll do a good job when assignments land in my lap.

Be a Different Writer

Most editors don’t want retreads. They want what’s new, fresh, unique, timely, unusual. Ask 10 editors what kind of query is their ideal one and one of those words will almost certainly be in their answer. Besides those hundreds of queries they receive regularly, at big publications they’re also having regular editorial staff meetings where they’re tossing around ideas. So if you’re pitching something obvious, they’ve seen it and heard it over and over already.

Unless you’re trying to fill a spot for a regularly scheduled column (“A Weekend in ____”, “The 5 Best Restaurants in ____”), give them something they haven’t heard already and you will get a much warmer reception. The run-of-the-mill listicles like those examples are not going to get assigned to you from a query. They’re getting assigned to staffers, regular freelancers who have proven themselves, or proven experts for that region/city.

Find a unique angle, a fresh idea, or a way to tie your pitch into a current event. Look for trends, anniversaries, or events that you can ride upon to get an assignment. Send the editor something she has never seen before and show why you’re the best person to write the article.

Last, Treat Criticism as a Gift

Many editors will, unfortunately, give you a “pocket veto” and never respond to your carefully crafted query. If they do take the time to tell you why they said no to your pitch instead of sending a form letter, be thankful instead of getting huffy or defensive. This is a sales pitch after all: you offered to sell something and the potential buyer declined. Any good salesperson wants to know the objections so they can counter them with the next potential client or get better at selling overall.

For one exchange, I took the time to tell one writer that her service article pitch was not right for our narrative online magazine. I also told her that the photos she proudly attached (which our guidelines discourage) were not suitable for publication—anywhere. Any editor I know would have agreed; these shots weren’t even worthy of posting on social media. She replied with this:

“The wording of your last email was unnecessarily harsh and condescending, and I want to withdraw my article rather than go any further.”

There was nothing to withdraw of course because I hadn’t agreed to run it. And now her e-mails will go straight to the spam folder because she is blocked.

If you’re going to be a freelance writer or even a staff writer, you need to develop a thick skin or find another line of work. Take the criticism in stride and feed off of it to get better. There’s a good chance your editor might be a demanding jerk. If not a jerk, at least demanding. You might only get one shot to impress them, so don’t blow it.

This article on how not to pitch an editor was updated in 2023.