Rejection sucks, and the fear of rejection is what keeps so many of us from pitching publications with our ideas.
When you cold pitch an editor, you will be rejected 80% of the time, which means the rejection has nothing to do with you. There are many reasons an editor will say no to a pitch.
This statistic also tells you if your pitches are being accepted more than 20% of the time, you’re doing well. 50% is a failure in school, but it’s winning in pitching.
Pitching might feel daunting with those kinds of odds, but there are plenty of ways to make your writing stand out. Here are three of my favorite tips to make your writing rise to the top of the pitching pile.
1. Pitch a story instead of a topic.
Editors reject 98% of pitches because the pitch simply doesn’t work. When you send a pitch out to an editor, there’s a lot you can do to make sure your story edges out 98% of other pitches.
The top reason editors say pitches miss the mark? You pitched a topic, not a story.
What’s the difference between a story and a topic?
A topic is broad. It covers such a wide range of possibilities, so many, in fact, it loses meaning.
Plants for your garden. This is a topic. It’s too broad. Which plants? What time of year? What kind of garden? When you hear this general topic, you have no way of knowing if it pertains to you.
A story narrows the topic down and grabs your reader’s interest by solving a problem or telling a story with a beginning, middle and end.
The best vegetables to grow in your apartment in a winter garden. This is a story. It solves a problem for people living in apartments who want to grow their own vegetables in winter.
Frogs in Panama. Again, this is a broad topic. Sure, it mentions a specific place, but what about the frogs? Why would anyone care?
However, the time I went hunting poisonous frogs in Panama with my then four-year-old daughter is a story. Why would you hunt poisonous frogs with a young child? It makes you wonder what happens at the end.
2. Try to see from the editor’s point of view.
When you think of pitching from the viewpoint of an editor, you realize they want to work quickly and efficiently. You can help them by writing clear, clean pitches that get to the point and outline your ideas with unambiguous language.
Leave the artsy sentences, metaphors and descriptive paragraphs for the article itself.
Pitching might feel daunting, but there are plenty of ways to make your writing stand out. Share on X3. Be yourself.
Let your personality come through your writing. Are you funny? Do you occasionally rant to get your point across? Do you note strange cultural references? These are the kinds of things that can help your writing stand out in a sea of pitches when they make your pitch memorable and fun to read.
You want your writing to serve as an example for the kind of article you will write, but, don’t force it or overdo it. You don’t want your tone to overshadow the content of the words you’re writing.
The end of rejection? Sorry, but no.
Will these tips keep you from ever being rejected again? Sorry. No. Rejection goes hand in hand with the writer’s life. Instead of letting rejection slow you down, you can learn from it. If you are being rejected more than 80% of the time, check your pitches and find out why. Don’t take it as a quality judgment about you, though. Take it as an opportunity to grow your pitching game.
Yes, it can be uncomfortable. You’ll feel incompetent, unsure and sometimes people lose their patience for your lack of knowledge. Those things don’t matter. Not if you want to pitch, publish and be paid for your writing. Because the biggest mistake writer’s make when it comes to pitching, is they don’t pitch. Don’t do that. Focus instead on getting your pitches into the world.
Additional resources to take your pitching to the next level:
Pitching 101: How to Write A Compelling Pitch.
What’s the difference between a pitch, a submission and a query?
Take the 13-Pitch Challenge
Or download my Quick and Dirty Guide to Pitching & Getting Paid.
This workbook is just one of the many resources you’ll find in The Workshop, my online writing group. The purpose of The Workshop is to build community, develop writing skills and learn to live your ideal writing life via monthly live events, Q&As plus a resources website and a private writing community just for us.
