I’m in a featured article on MediaBistro today — that’s a journalism industry site. The piece is meant as a helpful guide for struggling freelancers (like me), as to how to get published in big, brand-name magazines.
Unfortunately, MediaBistro puts their good stuff behind a paywall ($49/year), so even I can’t get access to this article. I didn’t even know the piece was running today until a Columbia classmate emailed me a copy and asked about it.
Here’s the opening graf:
Pitches That Worked: The Economist
An emailed introduction and an innovative idea helped position this contributor as a writer his editor can count on
By Rebecca L. Fox – May 16, 2007
It’s a hazard for any freelancer: the query email that seems to land in a black hole. Writer Cyrus Farivar wanted in to The Economist, so after his introductory email got devoured by the editor’s spam filter, he didn’t settle for radio silence. A follow-up introduction made it past the virtual gatekeeper, and his pitches got his stories into this respected magazine. Our breakdown of his introductory note and a subsequent, story-landing query walks you through what about his approach worked, so you can enjoy similar success.
What the Writer Did
*Cyrus Farivar:* “If I’m trying to write for a publication I’ve never written before, and it’s somewhere like The Economist and they don’t know me, I try to figure out, who do I know who works there, or who’s written for them? I try to establish a rapport (via email) if I can, and see what they’re looking for.
The article goes on, and includes my initial exchange with my editor Tom Standage at The Economist, de-constructs it, and then includes my pitch for this specific pitch (it was for the exergaming story). Then there’s a series of paragraphs from Tom as to why he liked me and why he liked this pitch specifically, and finally it de-constructs the entire pitch, line-by-line.
Thanks, MediaBistro!
