Bust My Excuse: My Idea Has Already Been Done!
I offer to bust readers’ excuses for not pitching magazines — or, if they’re pitching, for approaching only low/no-pay pubs. If you have an excuse you’d like me to bust, you can send it to lindaformichelli@gmail.com.
Here’s Rebecca’s excuse: I’m just beginning my adventure as a freelancer. Recently I was all ready to send in my very first pitch to a magazine. I was excited with the idea I had, as I started to do the research. Then one tap of the scroll button, ended it all for me. I looked up at my screen, and the same topic staring at me, only written by someone else. It even had closely related comparisons. Instead of persevering, I became instantly intimidated, and shut down, leading me to completely give up.
Yikes! If there’s anyone who shouldn’t give up, it’s you. If you came up with an idea and then saw it published in a magazine, that means you had a good, publishable idea. That’s one of the hardest things for new writers to do, and you did it! Don’t throw that talent away by giving up.
Only your timing was off, and that’s often more a sign of bad luck than anything else. You wouldn’t believe how often, according to my editors, writers come up with the same ideas at the same time. And it happens to everyone — in fact, it happened to me the very day I received your excuse.
All you can do is try again with another idea, and be sure to pitch your ideas six or so months ahead of whatever season or holiday they’re appropriate for; for example, I just got an assignment for the Thanksgiving issue of a newsstand magazine.
Also, keep in mind that just because an idea has been done, that doesn’t mean it’s dead. Heck, some magazines run the same ideas every year or even every issue. Is there any way you can change it up a bit to turn it into a new idea? Can you change the presentation (for example formulating it as a chart or adding clever subheds), turn the idea around into its opposite, find better sources, or find a way to make the idea work for a different audience, such as for kids or for men instead of for women?
Let me know when you make your first sale! [lf]
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Jun 24, 2010 Advice, Bust My Excuse, Ideas, Motivation, Query letters
Rebecca and Linda:
Interesting — and true.
I queried a writer’s magazine with an article idea about writer’s groups, and the editor responded, telling me that they had just done a piece on writer’s groups (*note — I hadn’t seen one, which is why I pitched the idea), but the editor also felt that mine — the way I slanted it — might be good as well.
Therefore, just because an idea has been written about doesn’t shut the avenue down.
Steve
This is an excuse that often gets me down, too. Thanks for the practical advice for dealing with this issue!
SOOO timely–just saw a pitch I had done last year as an article in another mag. Now to rework it!
They’re really isn’t a topic that hasn’t already been written about by someone, somewhere, sometime! Our job as writers is to update it, reslant it, put a new spin on it. That’s the trick.
Thanks for your comments, everyone! Steve and June, you’re so right…what makes an idea unique is the spin YOU add to it.
What about pitching that idea to a different magazine, either a competitor or in a different area? Would Magazine2 respond that since Magazine1 had already done a story on the topic, it wouldn’t consider it?
You can definitely do that, but you would want to give it a different slant if the idea is too close to what already appeared in Magazine 1. Even better would be to pitch the idea to a non-competing magazine.
First, almost everything has been done. Once in a while something comes up that’s new…I had one (which I got from HARO, btw) on “parkeur,” recently–free running in cities. I just listened to an audiobook that featured this…that was new, to me, anyhow. But a lot of things have been done…Could any women’s mag–so-called–print an edition without diet advice? Not allowed! My sister and I call the obligatory picture of a 25-yr-old woman striding along in her toredor pants the “Toredor Woman,” as we gimp around with our arthritis. Hey, arthritis–been done, but not to death, people still want to read about it because they have it. I wrote about every aspect of the Thin Prep Pap Test–from its first approval, to acceptance by insurance cos.
LOL, we were watching parkour videos with our toddler last week! Thanks for the comment.
One thing that does bug me is when a magazine responds to a query and scolds, “We did a story on this, please read our magazine.” I try to do that. I get several. But the outside writer simply cannot always know this. If you’ve done it, you’ve done it. Just tell us. Respond.
Parkour–so new to me I can’t spell it!
Thank you Linda, and to all of you, for your comments. These tips, are just what I needed hear, they should help me a great deal.
Oops-sorry-I forgot a word. I might want to hire an editor for typos while I’m at it. Lol :O
Thank again.
OMG-Really-Naptime!
LOL. I have days like that. All of them since I lost sight in one eye. You made me laugh, Rebecca.