You have helped me so much as an author and would be successful entrepreneur. Thank you so much for your focused contribution to women–something that is hard to do in a backlash culture who calls us Fem-a-nazis! I also like helping women launch their voices in the public domain because we have so much experience that others could draw upon. We need to be more comfortable taking up space — something we’re constantly warned will be disastrous physically, right? Anyway, I’ve learned a great deal from your books, your interviews, educational workshops and regular writing for public essays. Keep up your inspiring work. We need you!

P.S. For those who want to AUTHORIZE themselves — bringing their words into the public domain — please know I’m on your side!

Could it be you’re over-researching or over-writing your pitches? It of course depends on the market and your relationship with the editor, but 2-3 days for every pitch does seem a bit long (to me). If you’re proposing a 1000-word article, for example, I would think you could do a couple hours of research (has the publication run it before, what are the industry trends, who are some experts you could tap?) and then craft the email/letter for a couple hours and be done with it. Of course without knowing what you’re working on, these are very general numbers. Also, if you cultivate a particular niche or specialty, you’ll constantly be tapped into the latest industry/topic trends, not to mention who some hot sources might be.

Hope that helps,
Michelle

I’ve been struggling with the question of whether to work for peanuts to get clips and at least a little money, or turning down little assignments in order to make time to drum up more ambitious work. I like the idea of targeting one morning just for pitching, but I’m too slow (or too much of a perfectionist). A pitch takes me 2 or 3 days to prepare, minimum. Anybody have any tips on streamlining my pitching process?