What would you do?
A Renegade blog reader had the following situation:
I have a positive relationship developing with an editor at magazine X. She’s assigned several of my queries, and is likely going to assign others from my last batch of pitches. Recently she rejected one of my ideas because “we’ve already got a package in the works on that topic.” Is it ethical to take that idea and pitch it to magazine Y, which happens to be X’s closest competitor?
It ended up that she valued her relationship with magazine X more than the potential of working for magazine Y. I probably would have done the same thing.
What would you do? Please post in the Comments section below! [lf]
If you liked that post, you might also like:
Oct 22, 2008 Writing
I wouldn’t have done it either. It feels a little skeevy, insider stock tradingish.
I would have done the same.
It would not have been unethical, but it could have ruined the relationship that was paying off. Good call.
I may be missing something, because I don’t see the problem with pitching an idea to another magazine. Unless you signed an exclusive or non-compete agreement with the first magazine, you should be able to pitch your ideas to any publication without dealing with some sort of consequence.
She definitely did the right thing by doing nothing. Both pubs would have been mad at her in the end. I work for local competing publications, and I pretend I hear nothing when an editor talks about future plans.
I’d think up a new spin and pitch it elsewhere – making it different enough to work. It does depend on how good your relationship with the first editor is, though, and I can see that sometimes it wouldn’t be worth taking an idea further. But there is a difference between an idea you had first, and future story ideas an editor mentions to you in confidence, isn’t there? x
I don’t see the problem. Didn’t magazine X reject it? So why would they be offended if she pitched it elsewhere? I would absolutely have pitched it. In fact, I do so all the time and have never had a broken relationship because of it.
Since she has had a long-term relationship with Magazine X, I can understand her decision to not pitch to Magazine Y.
But what I think she should have re-slanted the article and pitched to Magazine Z, which isn’t a vicious competitor of Magazine X.
A professional freelance writer is expected to be published in various sources, and editors know this. If you don’t want to write for the biggest competition, take it to a lesser magazine. That’s just good business. And good editors know this.
I agree that re-slanting would have been a good idea, though I think I would have been hesistant to go to the absolute direct competitor with it. I would be more comfortable finding a third publication.