Bust My Excuse: I’m Afraid of Doing It Wrong
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.)
Ali sent in her excuse: My excuse is that I just don’t know how to start. I’ve made a decent living as a freelance PR manager for the past three years and know I can write, but I just don’t know how to take that first step to identify a magazine, send a query and then follow up to get an assignment. I guess really I should just get on with it, take the plunge, get it wrong and then learn from it and get it right next time. But I’m blocked on a kind of fear of going about it all wrong and therefore looking stupid and messing up my chances of getting an assignment. So I don’t even try. Rubbish, I know!
Okay this is where I get to shill my class: On July 19, the next session of my popular Write for Magazines e-course will begin, and it takes you through eight steps of generating a salable idea, researching and writing a query, identifying markets, sleuthing out editors’ contact info, and getting your query out the door. If you opt for the Premium course with e-mail support, I can also offer help with fear, demotivation, and other issues that keep you from getting started. Previous students have landed assignments from magazines like Spirituality & Health, Woman’s Day, SELF, Writer’s Digest, E: The Environmental Magazine, Black Health, and more.
Okay, sales pitch over. As for doing it wrong — let me assure you there is no wrong. Okay, if you write your query with crayon on scented paper or address the editor “Dear Boss-Man,” that is wrong. But there’s such a big variation in how things work, and you need to find what works best for you. That’s what The Renegade Writer is all about: Trying out different tactics, tossing what doesn’t work, and keeping what does.
No two editors are the same, so there’s no one way to appeal to an editor — or to piss one off. So throw out even the mere idea of being perfect. You can’t.
Also, as I’ve mentioned before on this blog, one of my first queries to Family Circle was called “Quik Dri Cheez: Why Advertisers Can’t Spell.” Not only did the editor not blackball me from the world of magazines after receiving this horrendous pitch, but I ended up writing a dozen articles for the magazine (once I learned from that pitch and improved my ideas).
In addition, in my e-course Get Unstuck! for Freelancers, one of the assignments (to help beat perfectionism) is to send out a query or letter of introduction with a typo in it. One of my students said “No way!” — and later that day gasped in horror as she pressed SEND on a query and then noticed, an instant before it zapped off the screen, that there was huge typo in the first sentence. Did the editor shoot back a scathing reply? No…he replied within the hour to say that he liked the idea but the magazine already had a similar one underway, and asked the writer to send more ideas.
Don’t worry about messing things up! If you screw up, change your tactics and try again. It’s the only way to succeed. [lf]
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Jun 30, 2010 Bust My Excuse, Writing
Sometimes we become so immobilized by fear, we don’t do anything at all! I find myself putting off approaching a new venture because I am afraid of appearing foolish. Once we try something once though, it’s definitely easier to go for it again. It’s encouraging to know that others face the same apprehensions.
Jael:
A brief FYI that I just just queried two biggies. One came back and asked me to help with more ideas, the other was very kind and has allowed me to send future ideas via email (they deal normally in regular mail). Also, my initial query to Entrepreneur was accepted.
One freelancer I know has said that, as a freelancer, if you hold back, you’ll never get anywhere.
Sermon delivered. I don’t hold back anymore.
Steve
You go, Steve!