The Art of Following Up
When you don’t hear back from an editor regarding an article pitch, do you slink away and send your query to the next magazine on your list — or do you follow up?
Following up is an important part of a writer’s business. One writer I interviewed for The Renegade Writer’s Query Letters That Rock told me that up to 90% of her assignments come through follow-ups.
Not hearing back from an editor doesn’t always equal rejection. Your e-mail may have been filtered to the editor’s spam folder, she may have lost your e-mail, or she may be so busy that your e-mail is sitting in her in-box, buried beneath hundreds of others. Or, best-case scenario, the editor passed your query along to her boss or is holding onto it for the next editorial meeting, and she hasn’t had the time to let you know.
Whenever I send a query or letter of introduction (LOI), I save it to a special folder in Gmail labeled “Follow-Up.” Every couple of weeks, I go through the box and follow up on those queries and LOIs that haven’t gotten responses. You could also be a little more tech-savvy than me and schedule follow-ups in your calendar such as iCal or Google Calendar. (For some reason, I schedule follow-ups with potential corporate clients in iCal, but don’t do that with queries and LOIs. Maybe it’s time to change that!)
The writers’ forums are clogged with posters asking, “When should I follow up?”, and there are as many answers are there are people who want to know. I say to go with your gut on this one. Personally, I follow up by e-mail in two weeks, then again in another two weeks, and then I do a final follow-up by phone two weeks after that. The only thing you need to be careful of is coming off as a stalker. (And yes, I have heard horror stories from editors about writers who followed up every day.)
Now, two weeks is just my preference. You may want to follow up sooner with editors you have a relationship with, and later with new-to-you editors. See what works for you.
When writing your follow-up message, it doesn’t hurt to be polite and assume that the e-mail was lost and that the editor isn’t just sitting on it to torture you. I use the subject line “Follow-Up: Name of Query,” then I write something like:
Hello! I’m writing to follow up on my query “Hire Me Now,” which I sent to you on May 1. Since I haven’t heard back from you, I’m afraid my query may have been lost in cyberspace or in your spam folder! When you have a few minutes, would you mind letting me know if this idea is interesting to you? I’ve pasted the query below. Thanks so much, and I look forward to your reply!
Then, I paste the query below so the editor doesn’t have to go back digging through her old e-mails to find it.
If you don’t hear back after a couple more weeks, it pays to pick up the phone. Scary, I know! but I do it all the time and I’ve never been yelled at. To contact an editor via phone, call the main magazine number, which you can often find online, and ask for the editorial department of X magazine. If that doesn’t work, try calling the ad department — their number is often listed on the masthead or on the website — and tell them you’re trying to reach the editorial department, and would they happen to have the number?
Another question writers ask is when to finally give up and move on. If I don’t hear back after two e-mail and one phone call follow-up, I generally give up. But I have been known, during times when I feel like procrastinating, to go back through that folder and follow up on queries that are six months old or older! Why the hell not?
So…do you follow up on your queries? If not, why not? Are you afraid to follow up? Do you have any stories of assignments you’ve gotten from follow-ups — or horror stories of follow-ups gone terribly awry? We’d love to hear them! [lf]
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Jun 22, 2009 Writing
Thanks for this posting. I recently got a couple of short assignments with New Hampshire Magazine just because I followed up! They didn’t take the idea I pitched but I got my foot in the door.
I always repeat the query if I don’t hear from them. And I am sure many will think I am an idiot–but I title it…
___YES ___NO ___JUMP IN A LAKE
This invariably gets a response…even if it’s not the one I want. Please don’t steal it from me…make up your own. If these people can’t take a joke, then where are we?
Thanks for the nudge! Just followed up on a couple of queries I sent last month. As the previous poster mentioned, even if it’s not the right topic, it can get your foot in the door and show that you want an assignment enough to be persistent.
I’m a bit sporadic in following up on queries. Sometimes I follow up within two weeks as you mentioned. At other times, it may be a couple of months before I realize I have yet to hear anything and then I finally send a follow-up email. It’s funny how often that second email gets a quick response—I guess that should be reason enough to be more diligent about staying on top of following up.
I haven’t worked up the nerve yet to actually call an editor to follow up, however. Perhaps that’s what is holding me back from scoring additional assignments … I’m just always nervous that I’ll be “bothering” the person I’m calling!
Star, love your idea!
Thanks. What the heck, I always say.
I have to say how right you are, Linda. On more than one occasion, I’ve followed up twice in order to get an assignment I really wanted – and it’s worked on more than one occasion!
Often editors of the biggest publications are the busiest so you can’t be sure your email has got there and been read the first time. What’s the harm in emailing again? (I’ve also called once or twice, but never got commissioned that way – I get the feeling most eds prefer an email).
I use labels in Gmail to keep track of my pitches btw – I mark ones I’ve sent “chase up” and remove that label when I’ve heard back or (finally) given up. I periodically go through everything marked with that label and chase up stuff one, two, sometimes 3 times.
Also, twice I’ve gotten assignments by re-writing a pitch and sending it 6 months to a year later. What was once ignored got me a commission.
Writer Susan Shapiro has a saying “No never means no” – it means “not now”, or “not in this format” or “not for this publication”. Words to live by!
x
I’m so glad you’re covering this topic! So funny that I just posted this question on FLX this morning! Thanks for the information!
I love this post, Susan, and your timing is perfect! With querying editors, I’ve frequently found that my first attempt was snagged by an aggressive spam filter (or busy editors like to use that line). Anyway, I usually get a response with the follow up, which I really appreciate. What I need to work on is following up on those LOIs… not so consistent there. Susan, I would love any suggestions you have on how you follow up with those – are you using the same language as with the queries?
p.s. Star, your approach is fantastically original! I promise not to steal it.
What a timely post! Over the last two months I have sent quite a few queries to agents about representing my unpublished novel. As of late there are about a half of dozen agents that i would like to re-query (is that the correct word) about representation. I am aware that calling an agency is counterproductive, but I was interested in sending a second query via e-mail. Thanks for the informative post. This should get the ball rolling.
Henri
I recently learned of a local magazine for kids–and had a great idea for a kids’ magazine. I went to their site…very professional, but crowded with material. My poor old eyes are lacking, but I scanned…did not see writers’ guidelines. So I went to Contact Us and contacted them. I asked if they were a paying venue. “To be blunt,” I wrote, “many places don’t want to pay much these days.” She responded within 60 seconds and said, “To be blunt, you didn’t do your homework–we have writers’ guidelines.” Since I am 65, not 5, I didn’t apprec being scolded, you know, woman to woman, etc. I went back to the site…sure enough, upper right, OFF MY SCREEN, I HAD TO ARROW OVER, were the guidelines. Spec, pay on pub, $500 for 3000 words. Well, I already knew this would not be a match.
Before now I have followed up and had a reply from the editor saying they thought they’d written back with a yes but must have forgotten. It’s always worth doing. I would never use a comedy subject line though. I tend to put “Just chasing up a pitch…” and it often gets a response. Sometimes it’s even a yes.
Brilliant, thanks for writing the blog while I wait for the book to be sent to me by my library. Excellent news. I’ve suffered a couple of rejection slips so far and need all the help and inspiration I can get.
Thanks for this post! I’ve just sent out 2 reminders – fingers crossed for a response this time
Chryselle
Between reading this post, sending out a follow-up and my last comment here (an hour at the most), I’m delighted to report that I got a response! This newspaper is on my dream markets list and they wrote back to commission my article! Yay!
The ed said that the original mail was in his spam folder – it does pay to ask him to check!
Thanks again for this post – I’d have never gotten around to sending the follow-up without it.
Chryselle
http://www.twitter.com/_cd
Hello!
Thanks for the post, I’ve read both your Renegrade Writer books, and have taken all advice so far, so maybe a follow up in the next week won’t be so terrible….
I’ve just pitched (Monday night) and I’m absolutely terrified of chasing it up. I’m afraid I suffer from horrendous negativity so I’m convinced that by chasing up is tempting fate. I’m doing the interview (in direct relation to the pitch) tomorrow, so I do hope it’s not a waste of time and that the interview won’t have been for nothing. Oh dear! Fingers firmly crossed!
Annie
Annie, think of it this way — what’s the worst that can happen when you follow up? An editor can turn you down. Big deal. It happens to professional writers every day.
Good luck!