You Ask, I Answer: Can I Send Similar Ideas to Different Magazines?
I answer your burning freelancing questions on the blog. If you have a question, e-mail it to me at lindaformichelli@gmail.com. Have a lot of questions? Consider signing up for a phone mentoring session.
James asks: There’s a topic that is very timely that I’d like to write about and that has potential for a number of angles to suit the individual focuses of different publications. Is it OK for me to send out simultaneous queries to Publications A, B, and C on this topic, each query reflecting a different angle on the topic? If I do, and if more than one query is accepted, do I have any obligation to tell the editors that I’m writing a related article for one or more other publications? Or should I submit my query to the publication I’d most like to write for (Publication A) and wait to hear back before submitting to Publication B, then wait again to hear before submitting to Publication C?
You shouldn’t pitch similar ideas to competing publications with the intention of writing up a similar topic for each of them, even with different angles. For example, I wouldn’t pitch Redbook on a cool non-profit and then offer a profile of the founder to Ladies’ Home Journal. However, I would pitch the same idea to competing pubs and write it up for the first one to accept it. And if by some lucky chance I got an acceptance from another magazine, I’d tell them I already sold the idea.
I would also pitch different slants to non-competing magazines: For example, a profile of the founder of a non-profit that helps kids with MS to a women’s magazine and then a profile of the non-profit itself — or a round-up of several such non-profits — to a magazine targeted to people with MS and their family members (yes, those publications are out there!). You can hedge your bets by making sure that the magazines differ on several points; for example, one might be a consumer pub for women and the other might be a trade for non-profits, or one could be for Atlanta-based parents and the other for a general California audience.
If you sell different slants to non-competing markets, there’s no need to let the editors know unless you get a gut feeling that you should do so. I’m big on going with your gut!
I should mention that if I have a relationship with a magazine and I plan to pitch them as well as other, competing mags, I give the editor I have a relationship with first chance to buy the idea before I send it en masse to the rest of the editors.
I hope that helps!
If you liked that post, you might also like:
- You Ask, I Answer: What If I Don’t Have Relevant Clips?
- Why I Haven’t Written a Query SInce 2010–And 5 Ways You Can Stop Querying But Still Make a Living as a Freelance Writer
- You Ask, We Answer: Should I Charge to Write a Query?
- Are Queries Dead?
- You Ask, We Answer: Is It OK to Send the Same Query to Two Mags at Same Publisher?
Oct 7, 2010 Advice, Editors, Ideas, Marketing, Query letters, You Ask, We Answer
You shouldn’t pitch similar ideas to competing publications with the intention of writing up a similar topic for each of them, even with different angles.
The key word is “competing.” Even in today’s quickie electronic environment, editors want you to wait weeks or even months for an up or down. It’s not practical if you are trying to do this for a living. I would give someone who has assigned to me and stood by me first crack, but I would say, “If possible, could you let me know so I can move on if need be?” If I get two similar pitches approved, I use different sources and certainly completely difference responses from sources.
Editors need to feel they can trust you…
I agree you should have a trusting relationship, but this goes both ways–editors can’t expect every query to be an exclusive with an open-ended time to think it over…there has to be understanding coming back the other way. That’s where the previous thread on communicating comes in–an acknowledgment of the query, a question maybe, the writer answers and maybe supplies more info, then yes or not for us, but good luck with placing it. Then it CAN go to a direct competitor, in my opinion. Oh, well–what do I know…this whole business seems to be morphing into heaven knows what.
I agree with Star: You simply cannot make a living by giving editors open-ended, exclusive access to an idea. You need to SELL your ideas to earn a living. So I’ve been sending simultaneous submissions since Day 1, though I do give editors I’ve worked with before first crack at the ideas. And maybe luck has been with me, because only once in 13 years have two competing magazines wanted the same idea. (I sold it to the first one that asked.)
Ah, you’ve misinterpreted my comment – fair enough, it wasn’t clear. I don’t mean you can’t approach competing markets, just be careful how you go about it.
Gotcha, Anne!
Iwould have tried to find a way to do it for both, Linda. I would tell them both if they were directly competing–Redbook v Goodhousekeeping, for instance ( have not had the pleasure of writing for either). I would spell out the different hook and sources for each. I wrote about the Thin Prep Pap Test a dozen times–from its first invention, to its consideration by HMO committees for reimbursement, to what docs thought and did they use it, to its becoming mainstream–business story, health story, you name it. For Redbook, maybe it could have been–The New Test That Could Save Your Life. For Goodhousekeeping, maybe it could be, The Tale of a New Health Test: Who Gives These the Seal of Approval?
I am babbling–but I need to sell to anyone who is buying. I am freelance–not just an employee with no benefits. I play fair, but editors have to see I need to live, too.
I had an idea a couple of years ago, pitched it to a few places, and a newspaper section editor commissioned it. Ages after, a woman’s glossy got back to me and asked if they were too late — I explained about the newspaper and as they felt it wasn’t a competing market, they commissioned it too (although I used different sources). Very glad I ‘fessed up, even though they didn’t mind, although if I’d had different angles and one was say, a trade pub, I probably wouldn’t have bothered.
Diane, thanks for the story! It can give you peace of mind to know that an editor isn’t going to call you out on selling the same idea to a potentially competing market.
I’m glad I read this. I sent out three queries to magazines pitching the same idea. A writing coach suggested putting the words “This is a nonexclusive submission” at the end of the query letter. I did this and haven’t had a response. Then again, it’s only been a week.